Terracycle has come a long way in its nine years of existence. The company started out selling plant food made from worm waste products and more recently has begun to repurpose packaging from brands like Frito-Lay and Wrigley's into everything from messenger bags to cell phone cases. Last month, Terracycle began producing more utilitarian products, including trash cans, clip boards, and fences. Now that Terracycle is getting nationwide exposure, the company hopes that the concept of upcycling will become more familiar to consumers.

A recent podcast by the Pat Kenny show on RTE outlined a number of recycling and upcycling ideas including flavour of the month, Terracycle. TerraCycle 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, and Whole Foods Market, TerraCycle is one of the fastest growing eco-friendly manufacturers in the world.

Today consumers are encouraged to buy organic, to grow organic, and to shop from local producers. In defense of Lewiston townspeople, they patiently waited their turn for Harold or John Micheel to plow their garden plots for spring planting. There were scads of vegetables eaten fresh from the garden and canned for the winter ahead. It’s hard to fathom that there’s a $7.4 million company today that makes products entirely out of garbage! You can read about 28-year-old entrepreneur Tom Szaky in April’s Reader’s Digest, in an article by Donna Fenn. Along with his partner Robin Tabor, Szaky is spearheading the new industry dubbed “uncycling.” (Another one for Webster!) Waste comes from “fundraising collection brigades, operated by schools and nonprofit organizations and sponsored by packaged-goods companies like Frito-Lay” (and Kellogg’s and Kraft.) Kraft’s Jeff Chahley reported, “We’ve helped divert 50 tons of waste from going to landfill, and contributed over $250,000.”

Fashionable?  Well, maybe not to my taste.  Smart marketing?  I think so.  TerraCycle (http://www.terracycle.net/) is a company that collects food wrappers and containers and upcycles them into other products ranging from pet clean up products to school supplies. The program is somewhat similar to some of your favorite loyalty programs; Yoplait's "Save Lids to Save Lives,"  General Mills "Box Tops for Education" or Campbell's soup wrapper program.  Like those programs, groups, such as schools, can collect wrappers or containers and get ~.02-.03 per unit as a donation.  The wrappers and containers must be from specific sponsoring brands/products such as Frito Lay, Mars Candies and Kimberly Clark.  The sponsoring companies get "green"  halo from partnering with a green company, build consumer loyalty since TerraCycle only collects waste from specific products and then get major retailers like Home Depot and Walmart selling book bags, folders, Christmas bows, etc made from their packaging.

From their classrooms to store shelves, Fort Myers schools are learning how waste can be reused instead of discarded. With hundreds of students eating lunch everyday, the teachers at several area schools - St. Michael Lutheran, Orangewood Elementary and Colonial Elementary - used to see a lot of used drink pouches get thrown away.

Egads, almost three years ago now, I wrote about a New Jersey company (woo-hoo, go Jersey!) called Terracycle that uses discarded stuff of all sorts — discarded technology accessories, empty juice packs and so on — to create stuff like flower pots and tote bags (like the ones pictured below).

TerraCycle collects waste which is normally non-recyclable, such as candy wrappers, chip bags, and juice pouches, and makes hundreds of eco-friendly products with them. This year, almost 60 of the company’s products will be sold in evert Walmart store across the US for the month of April, exposing millions of customers to these unique items, and perhaps sparking some conversations about the life cycle of products and packaging.

TerraCycle has NEW products available at all US Walmart stores for the month of April (and only the month of april) in honor of the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day . While some of us may or may not like big box stores Walmart is trying to join the eco-friendly world by providing products that are better for all of us. Yippee.

WOW!! This is so exciting!! After months of collecting, sorting, packaging and mailing, we are getting a chance to see the products that all the trash is being turned into at our local WalMart. Now to see if it is a success. You can help make it a success by stopping by your local WalMart and purchasing one of these great new products. Listed below are all the details of what is available in most stores. Show your support of your schools and purchase a bag. ALSO there is a way to turn the dollars you spent buying to also support your school. Save your receipt and contact your schools TerraCycle representative to learn how.

You might remember my previous post about Terracycle’s Big News, and I thought a reminder would be in order. You only have the month of April to get your own Terracycle goodies, so you’ll have to act fast. Here are the details from the Terracycle blog: A whole bunch of brand new TerraCycle items will be available, during April for a limited time only, at every single Walmart across the country. Starting April 5th, nearly 60 TerraCycle products will be sold right next to the original items they were made from. Cheetos kites and tote bags made from Frito-Lay wrappers will be sold with bags of Frito-Lay chips, while notebooks and purses made out of skittles and M&M wrappers will be sold right next to bags of Mars Candy!