Founder and CEO of TerraCycle, Tom Szaky has been collecting and upcycling refuse since childhood, starting with discarded TVs and computer monitors.

SOUTHBOROUGH, MA, October 20 – The teachers at the Woodward Memorial School used to see a lot of Capri Sun drink pouches get thrown away.  Once they signed up to recycle them through a company called TerraCycle, the school began earning two cents for every one of those pouches and became part of a nationwide effort that has just reached an impressive milestone of keeping 50 million pouches out of landfills.  In addition, TerraCycle, which makes affordable, eco-friendly products from packaging waste, and Capri Sun have paid one million dollars to schools and non-profits in return for the recycled drink pouches.

Well I have read and heard some pretty awesome things about Terra Cycle so when I had the opportunity to share about them and check out one of their products I got really excited!! TerraCycle <http://www.terracycle.net/>  makes affordable, eco-friendly products from a wide  range of different non-recyclable waste materials. With over 50 products  available at major retailers like Walmart, Target, The Home Depot,  OfficeMax, Petco and Whole Foods Market, TerraCycle is one of the  fastest growing eco-friendly manufacturers in the world. Our hope is to  eliminate the idea of waste by finding innovative, unique uses for  materials others deem garbage.

We here the words 'reduce, reuse, recycle' a lot  when it comes to cleaning our our environment and cutting down on waste in our landfills but have you thought much about the word 'upcycle'? To ucpcycle an item would be to use the product again in a totally different way than it was originally used.  Terracycle  <http://www.terracycle.net/> has found a ton of ways to take our trash and recyclables and make them into something new. The great thing about this company is that YOU can get involved, too!  Here is a little bit about Terracycle from their website:

TerraCycle <http://www.terracycle.net/>  is the company that takes what others may consider trash and upcycles it into not only useable but very creative and stylish products. Tom Szaky  <http://www.terracycle.net/> is the founder and CEO of TerraCycle and was named one of the fastest growing private companies by Inc. magazine in 2009. Tom and TerraCycle have started to change the way individuals and companies see waste. Since 2007, over 60,000 locations and 7 million people are helping to collect, instead of discard their trash. Over 1 billion pieces of pre and post consumer packaging have been collected and over 250,000 dollars have been donated to schools and non profits.

As part of the "How I Made My Millions" series, CNBC.com asked the founders and CEOs of these companies to share their experience on a variety of topics. What follows is advice for starting a business even in a tough economy from TerraCycle's Tom Szaky. Recession. Depression. Just plain tough. Whatever you call the economy today, the sane among us would have you believe it’s a lousy time to start a business. Except it isn’t. I’ve been operating TerraCycle <http://www.terracycle.net/> in a recession-smart way since the start, and have four ways you can, too:

Saintly Recyclers mail in their trash. Terracycle.net will recycle (usually postage is free) and donate to charity your candy wrappers, yogurt cups, drink pouches, cookie wrappers, Flavia Freshpacks, Frito-Lay chip bags, energy and granola bar wrappers, Bear Naked wrappers, Kashi packages, cell phones, Huggies and Scott tissue wrappers, Aveno tubes, Scotch tape dispensers, corks, cereal bags, Sharpies and Papermate writing instruments, Neosporin tubes, coffee bags, lunch kits (like Lunchables), Colgate tubes and packaging, Ziploc bags and containers, Inkjet cartridges, and Sprout and Revolutions food containers. Preserveproducts.com recycles your No. 5 plastics (same company that has the receptacles at Whole Foods) and water filters into toothbrushes and razors.

The items will be recycled by Terra Cycle when goals are reached and the program is aiming at collecting more than 500 items from each category each month. Following is the list of items which can be dropped off: Mars or Wrigley brand candy bar wrappers; energy bar wrappers; drink pouches; Nabisco cookie wrappers; Kashi brand wrappers or boxes; toasted chip bags; Bear Naked brand wrappers; wine bottle corks; Aveeno product tubes; Scotch tape dispensers and cores; Frito Lay chip bags; Malt-O-Meal cereal bags or boxes; Elmer's glue; Huggie's brand diaper or pull-up bag packaging; Scott's brand packaging; Neosporin brand packaging; lunchable kits; spread (butter) containers; gum wrappers; cell phones; Colgate brand packaging; yogurt cups; writing instruments; Starbucks coffee bags; plastic bottle lids; and used gift cards

President Bill Clinton got into the topic of trash at the 2010 Clinton Global Initiative recently. It is an important topic. We create tremendous amounts of waste these days, and much of it could be used in a constructive way, rather than polluting our planet. While some companies are trying to be greener and minimize their waste, other companies have made waste the source of their business. Using “waste” as a key input to the products they create, these companies are as green as green gets. TerraCycle is one such company.

President Bill Clinton got into the topic of trash at the 2010 Clinton Global Initiative recently. It is an important topic. We create tremendous amounts of waste these days, and much of it could be used in a constructive way, rather than polluting our planet. While some companies are trying to be greener and minimize their waste, other companies have made waste the source of their business. Using “waste” as a key input to the products they create, these companies are as green as green gets. TerraCycle is one such company.