Guest Writer: Tom Szaky, Founder and CEO of TerraCycle- I am inundated with emails. I get hundreds a day, and make sure there's resolution to each and every one. With the influx of messages, I could easily spend the near-entirety of every day replying, in conversation, typing. However, I have a business to run, and being in the business of eliminating the idea of waste, I need every ounce of the time and energy I have.

International recycler TerraCycle is partnering with L'Occitane en Provence, a prestige beauty company offering products for high-quality skincare, body care, and fragrance, providing consumers with a free way to recycle all brands of beauty and skin care packaging. Through the L'Occitane Recycling Program, in partnership with TerraCycle, consumers can now drop off all brands of empty personal care and cosmetics packaging at participating L'Occitane full-price retail locations across the US to divert these items from landfills and receive a 10% discount towards one full-size product purchased that same day.

Italian food company Barilla is partnering with TerraCycle to provide a free, easy way to recycle its  Ready Pasta packaging. The Ready Pasta Recycling Program offers consumers a method of recycling the instant pasta pouches.

Wondering what to do with your empty packages once you’ve used up your skincare, body and fragrance products? Luxury brand L’Occitane en Provence is providing consumers with a free way to recycle all brands of beauty and skin care packaging—and keep it out of landfills. Through the L’Occitane Recycling Program, in partnership with international recycling company TerraCycle, consumers can now drop off all brands of empty personal care and cosmetics packaging at participating L’Occitane full-price retail locations across the U.S. to divert these items from landfills and receive a 10% discount towards one full-size product purchased that same day.

DaVita Kidney Care Center is on a mission to improve recycling in its offices. The Tacoma-based treatment center is providing its employees with TerraCycle’s Kitchen Separation Zero Waste Boxes to make recycling traditionally non-recyclable items easier.

Italian food company Barilla is partnering with TerraCycle to provide a free, easy way to recycle its  Ready Pasta packaging. The Ready Pasta Recycling Program offers consumers a method of recycling the instant pasta pouches.

Steamboat Springs' restaurant and business owners encourage their cigarette-smoking customers and employees to properly dispose of their cigarette butts by providing ash receptacles in order to mitigate waste and litter on their property. On Lincoln Ave there are 24 such receptacles in the downtown area alone.

ALLIANCE To help focus on its 21st Century Learning Initiative, Science and Literacy initiative, Regina Coeli Catholic School students will participate in recycling projects and by creating native habitats and a garden on school property.

ALLIANCE To help focus on its 21st Century Learning Initiative, Science and Literacy initiative, Regina Coeli Catholic School students will participate in in recycling projects and by creating native habitats and a garden on school property.

Tom Szaky Founder and CEO, TerraCycle “I got some great advice from one of the people who helped get TerraCycle off the ground. He said, ‘Make a friend, make a sale.’ People want to work with people they like. You can do presentations and talk until you lose your voice, but if people don’t feel a connection with you and they don’t trust you, they won’t buy from you and they won’t stay with you. This advice (and persistence) helped me land our first sales and has stayed with me to this day.”