They sent us great swag, like 100% juices, Capri Sun frisbees, TerraCycle bags and pencil pouches, and more.  I’m sure you’ve seen the TerraCycle bags before but didn’t know that’s what they were called.  They’re the super cool bags and purses made out of empty Capri Sun pouches.

Aurora -- Some local schools are collecting trash with the hope of turning it into cash. Leighton School signed up for the Capri Sun Drink Pouch Brigade, a program that pays schools and nonprofit organizations to collect trash that can't be recycled, about a year ago. By participating in the program, students can help take care of the environment by preventing some trash from going to landfills.

Have you heard?  Your school or non-profit organization can earn cash for helping upcycle CAPRI SUN pouches into cool gear.  We did our part to get the message out on Halloween.  Thanks to some items sent by Kraft / Capri Sun we were able to pass out some Capri Sun logo gear along with this message.

TerraCycle has a more unusual model. It collects all kinds of hard-to-recycle stuff by mail — drink pouches, candy wrappers, plastic bags, wine corks, toothpaste containers — and then turns them into other things. “In 2011, you’ll see a playground made out of Capri Sun and Honest Kids drink pouches,” said Jo Opot, TerraCycle’s vice president of business development. Consumers who send trash get rewarded with donations to schools or charities, and they get the psychic satisfaction of knowing that something useful was made out of their garbage. You’d think that few people would bother to send their trash in the mail to New Jersey, Terracyle’s home base, but the company says 12 million people have participated, returning 1.8 billion items. The company gets paid by brands whose products it recovers, by manufacturers who buy its materials and by marketers who use its logo on finished products. There’s lots more about how this all works at the TerraCycle website.

With the help of a PTA mom, the school also is going to participate in Terra Cycle, which collects Capri Sun pouches and certain brands of potato-chip bags to be recycled into backpacks, handbags and other carriers.  “We don't have a lot of kids who bring their lunch, but they can bring the items from home and the school will receive money for how much they collect,” Maloney said.

Here are just a few quick facts about what 50 Million juice pouches is equal to: TerraCycle makes this lunch box from waste drink pouch material. Every year, billions of drink pouches end up in dumpsters and landfills across America. Working with a brigade of school volunteers, TerraCycle diverts tons of waste juice pouches annually and donates 2 cents to a charity or non-profit for each pouch collected. The color of each lunch box will vary depending on the type of drink pouch used.

For the everyday sweet-eater, Terracycle is your best bet. Founder Tom Szaky made the once-kitschy term “upcycling” into a legitimate process, and since its humble beginnings in 2001, Terracycle has become one of the No. 1 upcycling companies in the U.S. We’ve seen Szaky and his team create usable (and fashionable) materials for the home, garden, school and office from almost-impossible-to-recycle items like Capri Sun pouches, Skittles bags and Starburst wrappers, just to name a few.

TerraCycle has a more unusual model. It collects all kinds of hard-to-recycle stuff by mail — drink pouches, candy wrappers, plastic bags, wine corks, toothpaste containers — and then turns them into other things. “In 2011, you’ll see a playground made out Capri Sun and Honest Kids drink pouches,” said Jo Opot, TerraCycle’s vice president of business development. Consumers who send trash get rewarded with donations to schools or charities, and they get the psychic satisfaction of knowing that something useful was made out of their garbage. You’d think that  few people would bother to send their trash in the mail to New Jersey–Terracyle’s home base–but the company says 12 million people have participated, returning 1.8 billion items. The company gets paid by brands whose products it recovers, by manufacturers who buy its materials and by marketers who use its logo on finished products. There’s lots more about this all works at the TerraCycle website, here.

.”  After the students empty the pouches and remove the straw, Mrs. Janis slits the bottom, rinses them out with water (to discourage “critters” while the pouches await shipment) and dries them, usually on her clothesline.  “I am old-school enough to have two at my home.” Then they are sorted, counted and packaged in boxes for free shipment to TerraCycle in New Jersey. This upstart company, founded by a Princeton graduate, takes this waste and “upcyles” them into cool new products, like juice pouch pencil bags, tote bags, backpacks, and lunchboxes. More importantly, they reward nonprofits with approximately two cents for each pouch they collect.

The Evening Star 4-H Club is currently part of the Capri Sun Drink Pouch Brigade, a program that pays schools and non-profit organizations to collect otherwise-non-recyclable waste that would normally go to a landfill. Working with a recycle company called TerraCycle, the 4-H members have been collecting Capri Sun pouches, gum and candy wrappers, toothbrushes, toothpaste tubes, tape dispensers, and glue bottles, which they then send in for recycling.