To help, one company is offering consumers a way to reduce their household garbage while earning money for local schools or charities. Through free collection programs called Brigades, upcycling pioneer TerraCycle is collecting and paying for packaging waste from household staples -- from the bathroom to the kitchen to the classroom. Many major brands are getting on board with upcycling. Scott tissues and Huggies are sponsoring programs to collect plastic packaging waste from paper products and diapers. And since most oral hygiene products aren't recyclable, Colgate and TerraCycle have partnered to collect used toothbrushes and toothpaste cubes.

One way to go green without costly changes is to take things you would ordinarily throw away and re-use them. Milk crates can become bookshelves and metallic drink pouches can be stitched together to make pencil cases for the kids. This practice is called upcycling and you can either do it yourself or contribute reusable household trash to organizations that convert it into affordable, eco-friendly products. To help, one company is offering consumers a way to reduce their household garbage while earning money for local schools or charities. Through free collection programs called Brigades, upcycling pioneer TerraCycle is collecting and paying for packaging waste from household staples- from the bathroom to the kitchen to the classroom.

To help, one company is offering consumers a way to reduce their household garbage while earning money for local schools or charities. Through free collection programs called Brigades, upcycling pioneer TerraCycle is collecting and paying for packaging waste from household staples -- from the bathroom to the kitchen to the classroom. Many major brands are getting on board with upcycling. Scott tissues and Huggies are sponsoring programs to collect plastic packaging waste from paper products and diapers. And since most oral hygiene products aren't recyclable, Colgate and TerraCycle have partnered to collect used toothbrushes and toothpaste cubes.

To help, one company is offering consumers a way to reduce their household garbage while earning money for local schools or charities. Through free collection programs called Brigades, upcycling pioneer TerraCycle is collecting and paying for packaging waste from household staples- from the bathroom to the kitchen to the classroom. Many major brands are getting on board with upcycling. Scott Tissue and Huggies are sponsoring programs to collect plastic packaging waste from paper products and diapers. And since most oral hygiene products aren't recyclable, Colgate and TerraCycle have partnered to collect used toothbrushes and toothpaste tubes.

To help, one company is offering consumers a way to reduce their household garbage while earning money for local schools or charities. Through free collection programs called Brigades, upcycling pioneer TerraCycle is collecting and paying for packaging waste from household staples- from the bathroom to the kitchen to the classroom. Many major brands are getting on board with upcycling. Scott Tissue and Huggies are sponsoring programs to collect plastic packaging waste from paper products and diapers. And since most oral hygiene products aren't recyclable, Colgate and TerraCycle have partnered to collect used toothbrushes and toothpaste tubes.

To help, one company is offering consumers a way to reduce their household garbage while earning money for local schools or charities. Through free collection programs called Brigades, upcycling pioneer TerraCycle is collecting and paying for packaging waste from household staples- from the bathroom to the kitchen to the classroom. Many major brands are getting on board with upcycling. Scott Tissue and Huggies are sponsoring programs to collect plastic packaging waste from paper products and diapers. And since most oral hygiene products aren't recyclable, Colgate and TerraCycle have partnered to collect used toothbrushes and toothpaste tubes.

“They panic if a milk carton lands in the garbage,” she says, noting that she watches as her kids regularly fish Capri Sun pouches, Lay’s potato chip bags and Nabisco cookie wrappers out of the trash to save and send to TerraCycle, a company that converts trash into bags, kites and other products.

• Terracycle.net: Get paid for your trash—TerraCycle pays for everything from Capri Sun drink pouches to Lay’s potato chip bags and Elmer’s Glue bottles, which it turns into other products.

Here’s another way you can help support Seeds of Hope and help out the environment at the same time.  Terracycle is a company promoting Upcycling. Basically, they convert waste materials into new products.  The different products they collect, including kids drink pouches, plastic wrapping of paper towels and toilet/tissue paper, even pens, markers and highlighters that no longer work can be found in the flyers below. Most of them will accept any brand and any size, but there are three that are brand-specific: Elmer’s glue, Starbucks coffee bags, and Kashi products packaging.

Lovell J. Honiss School's Honiss Environmental Club in Dumont and the Berkley Street School in New Milford are participating in the TerraCycle Brigades, a trash-to-cash collection contest, sponsored by Walmart and TerraCycle, that will reward the top-collecting New Jersey public schools with $125,000 in grants.