The company TerraCycle, for example, has devised ways of collecting waste like ocean plastics, cigarette butts, chewing gum and even dirty diapers, and then processing it so it can have a new life.

Bethesda Elementary School, located in Waukehsa, Wisconsin won a recycled playground made from oral care waste through this year’s “Recycled Playground Challenge,” courtesy of Colgate- Palmolive, Meijer and TerraCycle. The school earned a total of 28,959 Playground Credits, by recycling waste and via online voting, to win the challenge. The playground, which will be built using recycled oral care waste collected through the Colgate® Oral Care Recycling Program, will be unveiled at a ceremony scheduled for Friday, September 21, at 2 pm at Bethesda Elementary School, which is located at 730 South University Drive in Waukehsa, Wisconsin.

WAUKESHA, WI – Bethesda Elementary School won a recycled playground made from oral care waste through this year's "Recycled Playground Challenge," a contest hosted across the U.S. by Colgate, Meijer and TerraCycle.

The national recycling competition is run by Colgate and global recycling pioneers TerraCycle, a company which creates new products from the waste. With the garden set competition the hope is to promote gardening and healthy eating among schools, as well as showing how recycled materials can be used as a sustainable alternative to virgin plastic.

Six Grand Rapids area schooled were recognized in this year’s “Recycled Playground Challenge,” courtesy of Colgate-Palmolive (“Colgate”), Meijer and TerraCycle.

If you're overdue for a fresh toothbrush (which, if you're like most Americans, you are), you may find yourself puzzling over what to do with the brush that's been sitting on your bathroom sink for the past several months. It is recyclable, but if you recycle it with the rest of your plastics it will ultimately be sorted out and sent to a landfill. To make sure most of the materials in your toothbrush get reused, Lifehacker reports that you need to send it to a special recycling center. The Colgate Oral Care Recycling Program, a collaboration between Colgate and TerraCycle, accepts not just old toothbrushes but used toothpaste tubes and dental floss containers as well. These items are each made from multiple types of materials, which means they can't be processed by your town's regular recycling plant.

The kids at Howick Primary School are diverting the Howick community’s oral care waste from landfill for their chance to win one of two recycled community garden sets, as part a national recycling competition run by Colgate and global recycling pioneers TerraCycle.