Sustainable packaging: The reduction by 0.56 ounce in one of Honest Tea’s cartons resulted in the conservation of 354,000 pounds of material, not to mention the decreased fuel consumption needed to haul all those drinks from plant to store. Those incrementally smaller cartons, which encased the Honest Tea’s drink pouches for kids, was the equivalent of the amount of trash that 300 people produce in one year. As for those pouches, Honest Tea partnered with TerraCycle to upcycle them into consumer products.

With a business plan that began by selling an organic fertilizer made from worm poop, or vermicompost, in empty carbonated soft drink bottles, Trenton, N.J.-based TerraCycle Inc. is a green company that has been linked to the beverage industry since its impetus in 2003. Albe Zakes, global vice president of media relations, explains that the company’s fertilizer was one of the first non-uniform packaged products sold at nationwide chains such as The Home Depot, Walmart and Target. In 2007, TerraCycle shifted its main business model to its Brigade model, which offers free sign-up and shipping for individuals, families or organizations that collect a variety of approved used goods and return them to TerraCycle to be upcycled, or repurposed, into new things, Zakes says. In return for the collection, TerraCycle donates around $0.02 for each unit of waste, such as a drink pouch, potato chip bag or highlighter, to a school, nonprofit organization or charity. The Brigade program began with a partnership with Bethesda, Md.-based Honest Tea to collect the flexible pouches used for its Honest Kids line of beverages. The program grew from 100 schools in the first 48 hours to 500 schools in its first four months, Zakes says. The following year, Northfield, Ill.-based Kraft Foods Inc. brand Capri Sun joined as a co-sponsor of the drink pouch program, which was integral to the re-use of the brand’s pouches and the expansion of the program, Zakes says.

NEW YORK, New York, April 27, 2012 (ENS) - In support of New York City's pledge to double recycle efforts by 2017, a national crowd-source recycling initiative, The Great Recycle, will open in Times Square on Monday, April 30. The campaign's first goal is to recycle more than 45,000 plastic, glass and aluminum beverage containers in 10 hours. A recycling bin in Times Square as tall as a three-story building will receive the containers. The initiative is the brainchild of organic bottled tea company Honest Tea, purchased by Coca-Cola last year. Honest Tea will kick off the Great Recycle by attempting to recycle the same number of bottles the company sells in New York City on a single day. "National recycling rates are nowhere near where they need to be," says Honest Tea co-founder and "TeaEO" Seth Goldman. "Honest Tea is committed to finding ways to help Americans recycle more. We've helped install recycling bins in our hometown of Bethesda, Maryland and now it's time to expand our efforts."

In a show of support for New York City’s pledge to double recycle efforts by 2017, Honest Tea and partners GrowNYC, Recyclebank, Coca-Cola Live Positively, Global Inheritance and Five-Boro Green Services will place a 30-foot tall recycling bin in Times Square and attempt to crowd-source recycle more than 45,000 plastic, glass and aluminum beverage containers in ten hours. The plastic bottles collected will be recycled into essential gardening supplies including shovels, watering cans and plastic lumber, which will be used to build and cultivate an urban garden for PS 102, an elementary school in Harlem. “National recycling rates are nowhere near where they need to be,” says Honest Tea co-founder and TeaEO Seth Goldman. “Honest Tea is committed to finding ways to help Americans recycle more. We’ve helped install recycling bins in our hometown of Bethesda, MD and now it’s time to expand our efforts.” At the event in Times Square, bottles will act as currency. People who bring bottles down to “The Great Recycle” will be awarded points for each bottle recycled, that can be redeemed at the onsite TRASHed Recycling Store run by Global Inheritance. There, points can be redeemed for rewards such as cold bottles of Honest Tea, t-shirts and reusable bags, jeans, video games, and tickets to sporting events, concerts and Broadway shows.

Most of the things in your room right now will eventually become garbage. That’s the simple idea that in 2001 drove college freshman Tom Szaky to launch Terracycle, a company that collects waste and converts it into new products. For example, Skittles wrappers are combined to become a kite, while Honest Tea containers become a laptop case. His unusual concept has turned Terracycle into a $16 million company with roughly 100 employees at its Trenton, N.J., headquarters. EL: How did it all begin? Szaky: We started by producing liquid worm poop in used soda bottles, because my friends were using worm poop on their plants as an organic fertilizer. That was the beginning of making products out of garbage.

Albe was one of my very first guests when I started Mrs. Green. We’ve come a long way baby! The tagline on their website? Eliminate The Idea of Waste. Love it! You also know I love numbers so ponder these and plan to join us: Number of people collecting trash through partnerships with Terracyle – 26,511,927. Waste units collected: 2,262,684,595. Dollars donated to charities: $3,491,776.12. Counting the days. This show sponsored by Environmental Development Group (EDG)

In 2008, one Upper Blue Elementary fourth-grader figured out how to divert juice pouches from the landfill and turn them into useful and innovative creations like bags and purses. Now, Samantha Buer's project continues, and it's not only pulling waste from the landfill, it's raising money to provide clean water for three people for one year, meals for hungry Americans, carbon credits to reduce carbon from the atmosphere, adoptions of 37 acres of wildfire land, and chicks for needy families. They also donated money to the Red Cross, Oxfam America, Save the Children, Doctors without Borders and AmeriCares. Buer's “Juice Pouch Brigade,” created through TerraCycle, creates an avenue through which Upper Blue's Kids in Action students have collected more than 7,225 juice bags from Capri Sun, Honest Kids, Kool Aid and other brands since 2008. Terracyle is an organization whose goal is to eliminate waste by creating collection and solution systems for anything that gets sent to the landfill.

TerraCycle began out of a business plan contest. Tom Szaky wanted to establish a company that would convert waste into fertilizer by feeding it to worms and then utilizing their poop. Apparently he had some success with it previously and wanted to give it a go. I think that is such a completely random idea but certainly helps keep the planet a bit more waste efficient. According to Wikipedia: Upcycling is the process of converting waste materials or useless products into new materials or products of better quality or a higher environmental value. This company makes wallets, bookbags, purses, kites, pencil pouches, picture frames, clocks, flower pots and a ton of other household objects out of materials that would have otherwise been rotting in a landfill somewhere. In the beginning, they were approached independently by Honest Tea, Stonyfeild and Clif Bar who all had problems with the disposal of their product wrappers and containers. This is what triggered their "upcycling" shift and pretty soon they became partners with a bunch of huge names like Nabisco, Capri-Sun and Frito Lay. To collect the waste, they set up programs through partnerships through schools and businesses and popular brands looking to promote more recycling of their packaging. These establishments would have collection boxes set up, specified for particular items that TerraCycle is interested in upcycling. People would put their trash in them and then the bins would be sent off and the trash would be converted into something useful. Garbage Moguls was a reality tv show on TerraCycle that aired a few years back on National Geographic. It followed the unorthodox creative processes that make their company successful. I think that this company is taking giant leaps in a direction that might make our planet last a little longer. It's important that we start working now to ensure that we can continue to live safe and healthy lives here for generations to come.

More and more, successful marketing means reaching your consumer and delivering your message through multiple channels and platforms. TerraCycle, a multiple-time Inc. 500 winner, has grown from a 2-man dorm room operation to a global phenomenon that collects and repurposes waste in 15 countries on 4 continents. In 2011, TerraCycle’s revenues will top $20 million after only 8 years in business. All this growth has occurred without buying a single paid advertisement of any kind. Instead of spending precious dollars on advertising and traditional sponsorship, TerraCycle uses a variety of low-cost marketing efforts, including massive public relations campaigns, corporate blogging, social media promotions and contests, brand ambassador programs, and grassroots marketing. TerraCycle also works with many of the world’s largest consumer packaged goods companies including Kraft Foods, Frito-Lay, Mars, Kimberly-Clark, and L’Oreal. Through these partnerships, TerraCycle is able to create a variety of unique activation programs through Web site, retail programs, and more.