Don’t know what to do with all those candy wrappers, coffee bags, wine corks, used toothbrushes, and the rest of your unwanted but non-recyclable household items? Kristina Greene will take them. Greene sends the donated goods to TerraCycle <
http://www.terracycle.ca/> , which pays two cents for each item received. That garbage is then transformed into everything from the standard backpacks, messenger bags, coolers and pencil cases to fences made out of drink pouches or garbage cans made out of chip bags.
Remember me telling you all I'm teamed up with Terracycle to bring you some great giveaways?
I have another one I think you'll all love more than the last one.
The Capri Sun Brigade is trying to make it to $1 Million Paid and 50 Million juice pouches saved from going into a landfill.
(Brigade-Every year BILLIONS of drink pouches end up in dumpsters and landfills across America. TerraCycle™, Capri Sun® and Honest Kids® are working together to put an end to this tremendous loss of resources. As an eco-friendly innovator, TerraCycle™converts pre and post-consumer drink pouch waste material into cool new upcycled products.)
went nuts about TerraCycle after learning about them for the first time on Garbage Moguls. After a little research, I decided they were worth writing about. To initiate my series of Extraordinary Business Savvy Folks, I began with Tom Szaky and his crew.
To recap, this Princeton guy was making
worm poo. He needed something to contain all those worm poo. He collected soda bottles. Worm poo turned into insta-gold. He went into garage business with his friend selling worm poo. After that, they evolved into upcycling and recycling garbage into sellable goods. Sounds awesome, right?
Try telling that to someone with a straight face! Now, he started off so small and so simple. He wanted TerraCycle to be
the Walmart of garbage. Today, generating millions of dollars in revenue, I believe he succeeded.
Item: TerraCycle Drink Pouch Pencil Case (Large)
Price: $3.59
Why we love it: Reuse rocks.
Where to buy it: Dwell Smart
TerraCycle collects tons of used juice pouches annually and turns them into cool eco products like this generously-sized pencil case. Two cents go to charity for every pouch they collect, so this case helps do good while looking great.
There are lots of easy ways to get your green on this back-to-school season.
Reuse what's leftover from last school year first. Check out resale shops and yard sales. Do a clothing and school supply swap with friends, neighbors and relatives. Refurbish used backpacks and personalize them with patches and fabric markers for a creative, unique style. Look for and purchase recycled content school supplies. Look for and purchase upcycled school supplies (such as those supplied by Terracycle for our giveaway). Plan on and pack waste-free lunches. Avoid overpackaged products.
Reuse what's leftover from last school year first. Check out resale shops and yard sales. Do a clothing and school supply swap with friends, neighbors and relatives. Refurbish used backpacks and personalize them with patches and fabric markers for a creative, unique style. Look for and purchase recycled content school supplies. Look for and purchase upcycled school supplies (such as those supplied by Terracycle for our giveaway). Plan on and pack waste-free lunches. Avoid overpackaged products.
Reusable, recyled back to school items from Terracycle and Rebinder.
Every day, Heidi Conley is turning trash into treasures.
"I'm crazy about recycling," said the Shirley resident, as she sat on her front porch, surrounded by unique fabrics and tote bags made out of recycled trash.
"I buy most of my fabrics and other materials at yard sales, except the big buttons --those are new. I made a bunch of pocketbooks out of dungarees last year," she said. But this year, her passion is making colorful, well-constructed tote bags out of drink pouches.
Conley came into the business of recycling trash following a struggling career in home economics.
Conley grew up in Lunenburg and went to Atlantic Union College in South Lancaster to study home economics. But by the time she graduated, Proposition 2-1/2, which limits tax increases in Massachusetts' municipalities to 2.5 percent, had gone into effect, and home-economics classes were among the first educational programs to be eliminated from school budgets.
Recycling company TerraCycle is making it easy for Americans to start trash cleanup projects. Simply sign up at terracycle.net <
http://www.terracycle.net/> to have collection bags with prepaid return shipping labels mailed to your home or business. Fill them with chip bags,
cookie <http://www.naturalhealthmag.com/terracycle_trash_recycle/green_living/191#> wrappers, drink pouches, and other food-packaging waste and send them back to TerraCycle; the trash will then be “upcycled” into tote bags and pencil cases (you can buy these accessories at Target stores or target.com <http://www.target.com/> ). Thanks to partnerships with food <http://www.naturalhealthmag.com/terracycle_trash_recycle/green_living/191#> giants like Frito-Lay, Mars, and Nabisco, plus well-known natural brands such as Kashi, Clif Bar, Honest Kids, and Bear Naked, TerraCycle will donate $.02 for every wrapper you collect to the charity of your choice. At the end of last year, volunteers had raised more than $100,000 for public school organizations and groups like the Arbor Day Foundation.
