TerraCycle <http://www.terracycle.net/>  is the company that takes what others may consider trash and upcycles it into not only useable but very creative and stylish products. Tom Szaky  <http://www.terracycle.net/> is the founder and CEO of TerraCycle and was named one of the fastest growing private companies by Inc. magazine in 2009. Tom and TerraCycle have started to change the way individuals and companies see waste. Since 2007, over 60,000 locations and 7 million people are helping to collect, instead of discard their trash. Over 1 billion pieces of pre and post consumer packaging have been collected and over 250,000 dollars have been donated to schools and non profits.

There are many companies out there that do really cool things to help recycle. One of my favorites is Terracycle. You can mail in your items such as caparison pouches or candy wrappers and they will make really neat items for instance lunch bags and pencil cases!  I love that Terracycle makes recycling fun for the kids. They are here to help our environment and make the kids look "cool" while doing it!

As part of the "How I Made My Millions" series, CNBC.com asked the founders and CEOs of these companies to share their experience on a variety of topics. What follows is advice for starting a business even in a tough economy from TerraCycle's Tom Szaky. Recession. Depression. Just plain tough. Whatever you call the economy today, the sane among us would have you believe it’s a lousy time to start a business. Except it isn’t. I’ve been operating TerraCycle <http://www.terracycle.net/> in a recession-smart way since the start, and have four ways you can, too:

Have you heard of TerraCycle? They have a great mission. I received the Drink Pouch Lunch Bag and a Drink Pouch Pencil Bag.  I love the thought that when into making these products! The lunch bag is excellent! We used it recently on a field trip and I was able to get everything needed in it!

An exceptional fourth-grader from Southwestern Central School is showing her classmates and community that there can be more to recycling than simply placing one's paper, tin, glass and plastic on street curbs for collection once a week. In order to do this, Erin has received permission from her principal, Bill Caldwell, to set up boxes in her school's cafeteria to collect all the empty juice pouches that would otherwise be tossed in the trash. The plan is to mail the pouches to the Terracycle organization everytime the boxes are full, and in return

The Village of Orland Park Recreation Department is accepting no longer usable pens, markers, highlighters and mechanical pencils. For every writing instrument collected, Terra Cycle will donate two cents to Open Lands of Orland Park. Terra Cycle will upcycle or recycle the depleted writing instruments into other fun and innovative products.

Don’t know what to do with all those candy wrappers, coffee bags, wine corks, used toothbrushes, and the rest of your unwanted but non-recyclable household items? Kristina Greene will take them.  Greene sends the donated goods to TerraCycle <http://www.terracycle.ca/> , which pays two cents for each item received. That garbage is then transformed into everything from the standard backpacks, messenger bags,  coolers and  pencil cases to fences made out of drink pouches or  garbage cans made out of chip bags.

President Bill Clinton got into the topic of trash at the 2010 Clinton Global Initiative recently. It is an important topic. We create tremendous amounts of waste these days, and much of it could be used in a constructive way, rather than polluting our planet. While some companies are trying to be greener and minimize their waste, other companies have made waste the source of their business. Using “waste” as a key input to the products they create, these companies are as green as green gets. TerraCycle is one such company.

Tom Szaky’s company, TerraCycle <http://www.terracycle.net/> , collects post-consumer waste, such as Carpi Sun pouches and Oreo cookie wrappers, and turns them into entirely new products such as backpacks and pencil cases.  While Szaky’s “upcycling” business has an authentic environmental aura, it’s his partnerships with big companies like Kraft and Nabisco that make the business work.  Those large packaged goods companies sponsor the collection brigades that provide TerraCycle with used packaging. It’s an unlikely alliance, but one that gives the big companies a “green” image, while providing TerraCycle with low cost or free raw materials.

President Bill Clinton got into the topic of trash at the 2010 Clinton Global Initiative recently. It is an important topic. We create tremendous amounts of waste these days, and much of it could be used in a constructive way, rather than polluting our planet. While some companies are trying to be greener and minimize their waste, other companies have made waste the source of their business. Using “waste” as a key input to the products they create, these companies are as green as green gets. TerraCycle is one such company.