In the United States, we currently recycle only about 34 percent of our waste. A lot of people don't realize that recycling is not only good for the environment, it's good for your wallet too.

We live in an increasingly health-conscious world — but what about the health of our planet?

Environmental issues can be intimidating. Topics like natural resource depletion, climate change, landfill waste and water contamination are often presented with a side of “fire and brimstone,” making concepts like sustainability seem negative and inaccessible. However, taking responsibility for your part in the global ecosystem can be much simpler through mindfulness.

TerraCycle, a Trenton garbage-recycling company, has filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission to raise $25 million in “growth capital” so its TerraCycle US LLC subsidiary can buy more recycling companies. TerraCycle plans to raise the money through a Regulation A (unaudited, minimal reporting) securities sale under regulations-loosening laws signed by President Obama in 2015 and 2012.

Recycling proficiency has earned one area Catholic school a new playground, and another the ability to help a fellow Catholic school in Texas heavily damaged by Hurricane Harvey. By winning an oral care products recycling contest sponsored by TerraCycle, Colgate-Palmolive and ShopRite, St. Katharine Drexel Regional Catholic School in Northampton won a playground made of those same recycled materials.

One of the main things we have found in our garbage bins that are the most common are blue nitrile gloves that we use for farm safety practices. Unfortunately, there is no way around using them in certain areas on the farm for food safety purposes, and they are a significant source of waste.

Recycling is great for the planet, saves resources and basically helps clean up our world. Many of us know that we can recycle things like plastic, paper, glass bottles and metals. However, there are many other items that you probably didn't know could be turned in for cash or a tax deduction. Here's a list of a few of them.

WOOD-RIDGE, NJ -- After successfully completing the PepsiCo. summer recycling contest and raising $500 for The Catherine E. Doyle School, the Wood-Ridge Public Education Foundation is kicking off the 2017-18 school year by launching another green promotion with TerraCycle, a New Jersey-based recycling company that the foundation has partnered with for several years.

October is Campus Sustainability Month (CSM), an international celebration of sustainability in higher education. One focus of this year’s CSM is the conservation of water, a natural resource that humans need to survive. As it stands, one in ten people (663 million people — twice the population of the United States) are currently living without access to safe water.

Henkel, a leading manufacturer of adhesives, sealants and functional coatings, including the Loctite® brand, and TerraCycle are building on the success of their pioneering Adhesive Recycling Program. Henkel, in partnership with TerraCycle, was the first company worldwide to offer a recycling solution for anaerobic adhesive packaging, and now they are adding light cure adhesive technologies packaging to the groundbreaking program.