There’s a movement underway at Highland Park High School to make sure chip bags are recycled properly. Students have setup special bins around the school for disposal and are encouraging their peers to take advantage of the new recycling program. “I really wanted to get involved,” Natalie Oxman, HPHS student, said about why she signed up for the Green School Initiative (GSI) at the beginning of the year. Shortly after, Oxman teamed up with other GSI club members Samantha Shafer and Zacko Brint to develop and promote the chip recycling program. “Once people knew that it was around, most were all for it,” Shafer said. During the week, students dump their chip bags into the bins, which are then collected by GSI students. The trash is sent to TerraCycle. The company provides free waste collection programs for hard to recycle materials. TerraCycle converts the collected waste into a variety of reusable products ranging from park benches to backpacks. For every unit of waste sent in, TerraCycle awards Highland Park High School $.02 to a charity of its choice. GSI students plan to donate the money to an environmental organization at the end of each school year. “We have seen a significant decrease in the number of chip bags thrown away,” Brint said about GSI’s effort. “When you see the quantity of chip bags that we are collecting, you say ‘Wow, why aren’t we doing this everywhere?’” So far this school year, more than 5,000 chip bags have been collected at Highland Park High School.

Three years ago, while Tina Bauer was a classroom assistant at the Oceanville kindergarten in Galloway Township, she and a co-worker decided to improve the school's recycling program. A quick web search turned up Princeton-based TerraCycle, and the simple, four-word tagline it was using at the time. "'Get cash for trash' was their little blurb on it," said Bauer, of the Absecon Highlands section of Galloway Township. "So I clicked on it and said, 'Hey, we can do this at Oceanville.'" The idea behind TerraCycle - which collects and "upcycles" less conventionally recyclable items, such as potato chip bags and juice boxes into tote bags and other items - is a simple one. Nevertheless, Bauer said, the plan was initially met with confusion by the staff. Bauer had signed up to lead a brigade, a group that collects a specific item - Capri Sun juice pouches, in this case - for TerraCycle in exchange for points, which can be redeemed for cash donations to schools or participating nonprofit organizations. After the first few shipments, that confusion gave way to enthusiasm for the project.

Let’s face it. We’re not all cloth-diapering mamas. For many of us disposable diapers are the practical choice. But just because you use disposables, doesn’t mean you don’t consider your impact on the environment and try to make greener changes in other ways. But now a partnership with Huggies and TerraCycle–a recycling powerhouse company that thrives on waste, we can do a little bit more to offset those diapers that end up being tossed into landfills. TerraCycle is known for taking things like CapriSun wrappers, Doritos bags, or circuit boards and turning them into reusable products like grocery totes, clocks and outdoor fencing. But as part of a program with Huggies, called the Huggies Brigade, they are collecting the plastic packaging from Huggies Diaper bags and recycling it into other products. This keeps it out of the landfill and re-worked into another purpose.

HAMILTON - You can help the Hamilton Public Library earn some money just by collecting your Keebler, Nabisco, Scott and Frito Lay product wrappers and bringing them to the library. Once collected, the materials are sent off to Terracycle, where they are “upcycled” into products such as tote bags, backpacks and more. In return, the library gets cash to put towards the purchase of books, periodicals, and other items for patrons. Officials urge you to help keep the township “clean and green” by bringing your wrappers to the Hamilton Library located a 1 Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. Way. Residents who want more information are asked to contact Terracycle Program Coordinator Scott Cianese at 609-581-4060 or through email at SCianese@Hamilton.com.

BENTON HARBOR - Two Twin-Cities area schools are finding a little gold in going green with help from a New Jersey-based recycling business. But perhaps more valuable are the lessons, say organizers.

REESE - Just by eating lunch, students at St. Elizabeth Area Catholic School are fundraising for their school. The students separate their Capri Sun pouches from the rest of their waste and send the popular juice containers to TerraCycle of Trenton, N.J., which in return gives the school 2 cents for every juice pouch recycled.

2. Terracycle Upcycled Boombox Bring the boombox back! Terracycle's boomboxes are made with up to 80% recycled materials, like the wrappers of your favorite snacks and candy -- Cheetos, Skittles, Starburst and Peanut M&Ms are all available. The boombox has a 3.5mm universal plug so you can jam to your iPod, iPhone or laptop, and no batteries are required. If you're in the market for speakers only, those are available for $13.99.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wR16t3e_FSE

• Share the vision. Trenton, N.J.-based TerraCycle makes new products out of discarded chip bags, drink boxes, pens or anything else that can't usually be recycled. The company doesn't use guilt to push consumers into giving. Inspiration goes further. Fun is key too, says Albe Zakes, the company's global vice president of media relations. His firm invites folks who collect goods to pick a charity that TerraCycle will pay in exchange for their efforts. "We run free collection programs that pay schools and nonprofits 2 cents for every piece of nonrecyclable packaging or used consumer good they collect," Zakes said. "We donated $2 million this year, and that number will double in 2012." TerraCycle partners with such firms as Frito-Lay, Target and Whole Foods to recycle waste and sell goods made from wrappers, bags and drink pouches.