ב-2001 נסע טום סזקי, אז סטודנט טרי באוניברסיטת פרינסטון, לבקר זוג חברים במונטריאול. במרתף הבית הציגו החברים לסזקי את מערך גידול התולעים שלהם, שאותן האכילו בשאריות מהמטבח ובזבל אורגני. מערך הגידול נועד לאסוף את הפרשותיהן של התולעים ולהשתמש בהן כדי לדשן את הצמחים שהחברים גידלו.

Nomacorc, the world’s leading producer of alternative wine closures, is celebrating the second anniversary of its partnership with TerraCycle, Inc., the world’s leader in the collection and reuse of nonrecyclable waste. The companies have worked together to expand the Cork Brigade™, a free program that collects synthetic and natural wine closures and “upcycles” them into corkboards for the home or office. Since the launch of the Cork Brigade in August 2008, more than 1,000 individuals and organizations such as liquor stores, restaurants and wineries have joined the Cork Brigade collection program. Nomacorc and TerraCycle have diverted more than 2 million closures from landfills and raised thousands of dollars for charitable organizations across the United States. The first upcycled product made from Nomacorc closures, an 18x18-inch corkboard, is available at national retailers and online at www.TerraCycleShop.com.

by Tom Szaky of TerraCycle, Trenton NJ Student brigades collect hard-to-recycle trash for TerraCycle. Photo credit: TerraCycle 2010 may have been a rocky year in many ways for a lot of us out there, but something amazing happened in the last three months of the year: Public schools in New Jersey on average doubled how much waste packaging they collected and sent to TerraCycle! What was the catalyst, you say? A surplus of Halloween candy wrappers perhaps? All the packaging from holiday parties and gifts? Nice guesses, but no. It was cash.   Walmart Foundation <http://walmartstores.com/CommunityGiving/203.aspx>  sponsored a contest with us called Trash To Cash <http://www.facebook.com/TerraCycle?v=app_10442206389>  that rewarded the top 6 collecting Brigades <http://www.treehugger.com/files/2011/02/www.terracycle.net/brigades>  at New Jersey public schools with grants between $5000-$50,000 dollars, a total of $125,000. The numbers were astounding: The lowest of those winners sent us 22,921 pieces of packaging! The highest clocked in at 52,640. This, for 2 months of collections. Mind boggling, how much trash they helped divert from the landfill. On many levels, the program was a great success. Not only was a large amount of trash diverted, it nearly doubled earlier figures. Not only is there money going to benefit public schools that can surely use it, engagement has increased among the Brigades. Perhaps most significantly, there is new incentive for schools to jump onto the Brigade train, further increasing both the amount and the locations that difficult to recycle packaging is being prevented from ending in a landfill. Hopefully, the momentum created by the Trash To Cash contest continues on long afterwords. Still, toubling questions remain. What does it say about our society if it takes money to motivate the average person to such levels of behavior? Why did a noisy compostable bag motivate people to protest loudly <http://www.treehugger.com/files/2011/02/big-lessons-from-the-sunchips-packaging-fiasco.php> , forcing Sunchips to roll back to non-recyclable, non-compostable packaging, for all but one of its products? With changing climate, ecomonic shifts, and dwindling resources, there will need to be some major changes in people's lifestyles. Will they be willing or capable? Is money going to have to be the motivator? Readers, I'd like to hear from you. Is money the answer to a rapid, durable increase in eco friendly behavior? Have you seen it working elsewhere? And if not, what other paths to change have you seen out there that are working? Got a new, as yet to be done idea to share? Let's hear it!

TerraCycle is a company that converts ordinary trash into consumer goods.  They work with schools and non-profits to obtain the materials they use.  TerraCycle provides the groups with collection kits and pays them for the waste material they send in. TerraCycle upcycles things like chips bags, drink pouches, and candy wrappers into backpacks, clipboards, buckets, and cleaning solutions.  Now TerraCycle  has introduced the Frito-Lay speakers.  These speakers are portable, foldable, and work with any computer or mp3 player that has a 3.5 mm headphone jack.  The speakers are about $20

“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.

Trash to Treasure partners with the Broward College and TerraCycle  to collect nontraditional items for reuse and recycling.  TerraCycle pays for these materials and Broward College uses the revenue to fund the Michelle Lawless Scholarship which provides tuition for a student majoring in Environmental Science.

During the past two months, several Floral Street School students with the help of the eco-friendly organization the Dumpster Divers, collected over 2,000 empty juice box pouches and snack bags, which will be sent to the eco-friendly company Terracycle.  Terracycle collects various types of trash and creates new products, such as coolers and backpacks, to be sold in major stores across the country, such as Walmart, Target and Home Depot.

Do you know about TerraCycle? Frito Lay is asking large institutions to recycle their snack bags to TerraCycle. They will even pay for the shipping and donate 2 cents per bag to a school or non profit institution! For more information, please go to: www.fritolay.com

What is upcycling?  According to a very cool company, TerraCycle, upcycling is defined as using every aspect of waste as value.  Every year billions of drink pouches and candy wrappers and of in dumpsters and landfills across America.  Check out these items below and see upcycling in action.  See the volunteering section at highschoogle to learn more about how you can be part of TerraCycle’s Brigade movement, by starting a club at your school.

What is upcycling?  According to a very cool company, TerraCycle, upcycling is defined as using every aspect of waste as value.  Every year billions of drink pouches and candy wrappers and of in dumpsters and landfills across America.  Check out these items below and see upcycling in action.  See the volunteering section at highschoogle to learn more about how you can be part of TerraCycle’s Brigade movement, by starting a club at your school.