Students at Woodward Elementary School are learning the meaning of the adage, "one man's trash is another man's treasure." In the students' case, the trash consists of discarded juice pouches. For one New Jersey-based company, the little unwanted pouches represent the treasure. TerraCycle, a company founded by Princeton University students Tom Szaky and Jon Beyer in 2001, has matured from a small start-up showing people how to compost with earthworms to a global leader that takes garbage and "upcycles" it into usable products. Students earn two cents for their school for every empty juice pouch donated to TerraCycle. But they say one of the best parts is having the chance to see their used pouches transformed into backpacks.

Thanks to one of the Mega Sales at Kroger, our school is now raking in the pennies. How? By doing something that's good for the environment:  recycling. It all started when I bought five packages of Capri Suns at Kroger to fulfill part of a rebate I was working on. On the back of the package was information about Terracycle <http://www.terracycle.net/> , a company that has kept over 1.2 billion pieces of trash out of landfills while fashioning super cool backpacks, pencil cases, tote bags, trash cans, even cork boards! Even more amazing to me was that they would donate $ .02 per pouch collected, to the school or charity of my choice!

New Jersey-based TerraCycle, founded by Princeton dropout Tom Szaky, sponsors donation boxes at Macy's in their state, asking for people's used jeans and sneakers so they can re-purpose them into messenger bags, laptop sleeves, and high-end items. TerraCycle already makes bags out of plastic juice and yogurt containers. Some of the recycle-made items include a backpack made out of empty Capri Sun pouches for $12.99, a messenger bag made of used Lay's Brand wrappers that retails for $14.99, and a children's lunchbox made out of Kool-Aid wrappers that sells for $7.99.

TerraCycle CEO Tom Szaky has turned garbage into a revolutionary new industry.

Next time you purchase a box of Capri Sun drinks, a tube of Colgate toothpaste, a Clif bar etc.. consider hanging on to your trash and sending it to Terracycle! TerraCycle takes a wide range of different non-recyclable waste materials and then makes affordable, eco-friendly products. Terracycle is hoping to eliminate the idea of waste by finding innovative, unique uses for materials others deem garbage. 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. Consider what happens when your kids finish drinking a Capri Sun…they toss the empty juice box in the trash which eventually ends up in a dumpster or landfill. Instead of adding the drink pouch to a pile of other pouches at the landfill, TerraCycle converts the used drink pouches into unique fashion bags, tote bags, pencil cases, and other items for kids and adults (check out the adorable Skittles bag below made from recycled Skittles wrappers)!

Last week on Facebook, I entered a contest all I did was leave my blog link (as a comment) on Terracycle's Fan Page. This morning I had a message saying that I won. Yay!!  I of course don't know what the prize is until it gets here. But I wanted to share this site with yall. I stumbled across Terracycle when I was ... yes I don't remember what I was doing. They recycle all kinds of things into new things. Some of these things will be available only next month(April) in Walmart Stores. Here is some more information about it; the information is copied in part with permission. "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. For those of you unfamiliar with the trash to treasure company, TerraCycle, here is a little background information: TerraCycle collects traditionally non-recyclable waste from people all across the country by paying a non-profit of the person collectings choice, 2 cents for each piece they collect and mail to the company, with the use of a pre-paid shipping label they can print right from the TerraCycle website (www.TerraCycle.net). A majority of TerraCycle’s active participants are schools, because the students usually bring in the items TerraCycle collects during lunch; such as juice pouches, chip bags, and cookie wrappers, plus the money can go right back to the school. TerraCycle uses the waste it receives from its Brigade members to make hundreds of products that are not only eco-friendly, but are also very affordable because its made from waste!"

TerraCycle was founded by a brainiac college student back in 2001 & started as organic fertilizer company {ever see the  worm poop in an upcycled soda bottle?} in addition ~ they run free national collection programs to collect wrappers from tons of products from companies like Frito Lay (Pepsi), Kraft Foods, Stonyfield Farm, Mars Wrigley {and many more.} from schools & non-profits & regular people like you & me!