Last May, I wrote a post about whether a green company, like TerraCycle, should partner with companies that make tobacco, firearms or alcohol. Our business relies on taking waste that has traditionally been considered nonrecyclable and finding ways to recycle it. We do this by running national collection and solution programs for specific types of waste, and we have been partnering with the alcohol industry for a few years now. Our alcohol industry partnerships began with a national wine-cork program that has collected roughly two million corks and recycled them into products such as cork boards, shoes and flooring. This program is financed by a major synthetic cork company, Nomacorc, and will expand into Italy later this year. We also recently began a program to collect wine pouches with the Clif Family Winery. While we have not yet partnered with anyone in the firearms industry — I’m hoping we will collect shotgun shells at some point — we have been attempting to work with the tobacco industry for some time. And I am happy to say that we recently signed our first and second tobacco deals (both programs will start in a few weeks). One is with Canada’s largest tobacco company, the other with one of America’s largest tobacco companies. Both programs will allow TerraCycle to collect and recycle cigarette butts and other cigarette-related waste.

As an environmental company, TerraCycle has a unique relationship with Earth Day. Celebrating our environment and spreading awareness and activism is wonderful, but we also like to remind people that the Earth needs to be taken care of every day. For the past few years, we’ve had an array of special events around Earth Day. In 2009, we launched our mini-series on National Geographic – Garbage Moguls – and in 2010, we had a Walmart Hotspot with sixty TerraCycle products were displayed in Walmart stores, right next to the products that they used to be! Think, drink pouch backpacks next to boxes of Capri Sun. Last year, 2011, we had the Old Navy Flip-Flop Replay in which we collected used flip flops at Old Navy stores across the country during the Earth Month. That same month, in partnership with Office Depot, we collected used pens and writing instruments at their retail locations.

Yes I said it. Boxed Wine. Most people think ICK but it can actually be a great value and really good wine. Now let me just say that there is a big difference between brands of boxed wine.

A couple of weeks ago, a friend tweeted out a question about recycling Tyvek™ envelopes. I responded that she could – if she mailed them to a location that accepted them. She was a little put off: after all, the envelope was marked with a #5 plastic recycling symbol, so shouldn’t she just be able to throw it in her recycling bin?

TerraCycle’s food packaging recycling programs began with drink pouches. Those programs have expanded from Capri Sun and Honest Kids drink pouches, to Flavia Fresh Packs, Sprout baby food pouches, and Method Cleaner Refill packs. Clif Family Winery is soon launching a Brigade for their Climber Wine Pouches and other wine pouch packaging. Nowadays, pouches are in every aisle of every big-box retailer. They’re convenient, durable, lightweight, affordable, an all around “win”… that is until it is time to recycle them.