East Amwell Township School of Ringoes has been named an honorable mention in the "Recycled Playground Challenge," courtesy of Colgate-Palmolive ("Colgate"), the global oral care leader; ShopRite, which has more than 250 stores in the Northeast; and recycling pioneer TerraCycle.. East Amwell Township School earned a total of 7,735 Playground Credits by recycling waste and through online voting to place in the contest. The honorable mention prize winner will receive a $150 Shoprite Gift Card, 500 Colgate kids toothbrushes, and 500 Colgate kids toothpaste tubes. The Recycled Playground Challenge launched in March 2016 among schools throughout New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Connecticut and Maryland participating in the Colgate Oral Care Recycling Program a free recycling program operated by Colgate and TerraCycle. During the contest window, participating schools earned one Playground Credit for each unit of oral care waste, such as empty toothpaste tubes and floss containers, sent to TerraCycle for recycling. Schools earned additional Playground Credits by encouraging parents and teachers to vote online. "On behalf of Colgate, I am pleased to congratulate the students, parents and faculty of East Amwell Township School on being named an honorable mention in the Recycled Playground Challenge," said Juan Pablo Zamorano, President, North America, Colgate-Palmolive. "The energy and passion they put into protecting the environment has truly made a difference." The Colgate Oral Care Recycling Program is an ongoing activity, open to any individual, family, school or community group. For each piece of waste sent in using a pre-paid shipping label, participants earn money toward donations to the school or charity of their choice. To learn more about the Colgate Oral Care Recycling Program program, please visit www.terracycle.com.

Between now and Sept. 11, residents can recycle used car seats at Targets across Minnesota. The seats collected will be recycled through TerraCycle, which will separate the different components of the car seats and process them for use in other products. When a consumer turns in a used car seat at participating Targets, they will receive a coupon for 20 percent off the purchase of a new one. Local targets are participating. The North St. Paul Targets, 1299 Highway 36 E. and 7900 32nd St. N., are both drop off locations.

Between September 1 and 11, St. Paul residents can recycle used car seats! 56 Target stores across Minnesota are hosting a car seat collection program to help residents reduce household clutter without sending waste to landfills. All car seats collected through this program will be recycled through TerraCycle so that each component will see a second life. Residents should bring their car seats to their participating Target store and look for Target’s car seat collection box in the front of the store or in the baby/kids floor pad section. When a consumer turns in a used car seat, he or she will receive a coupon for 20% off the purchase of a new one. After the recycling program ends, TerraCycle will separate the different components of the car seats (cloth elements, plastics, metals, etc.) and process them for use in other products. Cost: FREE

A summer internship gives a communications intern awesome connections and great experience for their resume, but if they play their cards right, it could also lead to a full-time job offer down the road. When a communications executive is looking to fill an open position, they’re more likely to hire a former intern who has already demonstrated their work ethic and value to the company. So if you’re an intern looking to advance in this industry, treat your internship as an opportunity to show why you would be an invaluable full-time addition. Below, eight communications executives from Forbes Communications Council share their advice for interns on making a great impression that could lead to more opportunities later on. 5. Listen And Ask Questions  Our best interns are those who are truly excited to have the internship and want to do a variety of tasks. Listen to the work assigned and ask questions if you aren’t sure of something. Asking will ensure the work is done properly. Also, slow down and make sure you are doing the best job you can do with the information you are given. Finishing a task quickly doesn’t always mean it’s the best work. - Lauren Taylor, TerraCycle, Inc.

Our friends at Inhabitat are running a very popular post titled How Sweden recycles 99 percent of its waste, which they picked up from Global Citizen. They are not the first to cover this; back in 2014 Huffpo ran 99 Per Cent Of Sweden's Garbage Is Now Recycled. It all seems to derive from an official Swedish government site which writes that “With its ongoing recycling revolution, less than one per cent of Sweden’s household waste ends up in a rubbish dump” and comes with an impressive video, which Mike covered earlier in TreeHugger.   The trouble is, by any definition of recycling, this is a stretch. In fact, they incinerate about 50 percent of their waste to make heat and energy. And even in their own website, they admit that is not the best approach, that it is not really recycling, and that it takes less energy to actually recycle and reuse than it does to burn and manufacture a replacement from scratch. Then there is the question of what impact waste to energy has on the actual recycling rate. TreeHugger contributor Tom Szaky wrote in his post, Does waste-to-energy make sense? Waste-to-energy also acts as a disincentive to develop more sustainable waste reduction strategies. It may work better in the short term with strict pollution standards and as a last-resort for waste disposal, but it does not offer us a sustainable long-term solution. Preserving material (through recycling and reuse) already in circulation is a key component of sustainable development. Burning finite resources may not be the best approach down the line.

Between Sept. 1 and 11, Northfield residents can recycle used car seats at Target, 2323 Highway 3 S. Fifty-six Target stores across Minnesota are hosting a car seat collection program to help residents reduce household clutter without sending waste to landfills. All car seats collected through this program will be recycled through TerraCycle. Residents should bring their car seats to their participating Target store and look for Target’s car seat collection box in the front of the store or in the baby and kids floor pad section. When a consumer turns in a used car seat, they will receive a coupon for 20 percent off the purchase of a new one. After the program ends, TerraCycle will separate the different components of the car seats and process them for use in other products.

Local musicians are invited to attend a free recycle and restring event at James Hood Guitar Repair this Sunday, Sept. 4. Local musicians are invited to attend a free recycle and restring event at James Hood Guitar Repair in Carlsbad on Sunday, September 4 at 3 p.m. Sponsored by D’Addario, musicians can bring any old instrument strings for recycling and get their electric or acoustic guitars restrung with D’Addario NYXL or Nickel Bronze Acoustic strings. Old strings collected during the event will be recycled through Playback, D’Addario’s free, national recycling program. Playback is the world’s first instrument string recycling program, launched through a partnership between D’Addario and international recycling company TerraCycle. The program is a part of D’Addario’s Players Circle loyalty program, and allows registered users to recycle their used strings in exchange for extra Players Circle points. Musicians attending the recycle and restring events will receive a code at the event, redeemable for extra Players Circle points. Points can be used towards merchandise or donated to the D’Addario Foundation, the company’s nonprofit organization supporting music education in underserved communities. Founded by James Hood, James Hood Guitar Repair’s mission is to be the premiere guitar and amp repair center in North County and beyond by way of exceeding each client’s expectations from initial consultation to well after the repair, service, purchase or modification through service, knowledge transfer, and recommendation. TerraCycle is a global leader in recycling typically non-recyclable waste, working with companies to implement recycling initiatives and finding solutions for materials otherwise destined for landfill. Musicians interested in recycling through Playback can visit http://www.daddario.com/playback. For more information on the recycle and restring event, please contact: 208-522-8691.

Obama administration announces new steps to attract the best and brightest Today marks an important step in attracting the world’s best and brightest entrepreneurs to start the next generation of great companies and create jobs here in the United States. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is publishing a proposed International Entrepreneur Rule, which describes new ways in which DHS will facilitate the ability of certain promising startup founders to begin growing their companies within the United States, contingent on factors such as significant financing from U.S. investors. Immigrant entrepreneurs have always made exceptional contributions to America’s economy, in communities all across the country. Immigrants have helped start as many as one of every four small businesses and high-tech startups across America, and the majority of high-tech startups in Silicon Valley. Studies suggest that more than 40 percent of Fortune 500 companies were founded by immigrants or the children of immigrants.

The Obama Administration just took steps to ease the process of starting a business in the U.S. if you're not American. Call it Christmas in August--at least for some founders. The White House today, just unveiled a new proposal aimed at encouraging high-potential immigrant entrepreneurs to start up in the U.S. The proposal, dubbed the International Entrepreneur Rule, would be administered by the Department of Homeland Security and would affect only entrepreneurs who, among other criteria, have received funding from qualified U.S. investors or institutions. Still, the program could lead to an uptick in new business creation, which in the U.S., has been falling for years. According to a statement released today: "America must remain a beacon for entrepreneurs like Tom Szaky, who left his home in Hungary following the Chernobyl disaster, and ultimately moved to the United States to study at Princeton University. In his sophomore year, he started TerraCycle in his dorm room with the mission of recycling materials previously viewed as unrecyclable. Today, the 150-person New Jersey-based company collects trash in 24 countries and two thirds of public schools in America, and recycles over one million pounds of garbage per week that would otherwise be in a landfill." To gain approval under the International Entrepreneur Rule, which could go into effect by the end of the year if approved, entrepreneurs would need to show that their startup was founded in the last three years, as well as maintain at least a 15 percent ownership stake in the company. They also need to show high-growth potential--evidenced by successfully raising at least $345,000 in funding from a qualified U.S. investor or attracting grants of at least $100,000 from federal, state, or local governments.

Between Sept. 1 and 11, 56 Target stores across Minnesota are hosting a car seat collection program to help residents reduce household clutter without sending waste to landfills. All car seats collected through this program will be recycled through TerraCycle so that each component will see a second life. People should bring their car seats to their participating Target store and look for a car seat collection box in the front of the store or in the baby/kids section. When a consumer turns in a used car seat, he or she will receive a coupon for 20 percent off the purchase of a new one. After the recycling program ends, TerraCycle will separate the different components of the car seats (cloth elements, plastics, metals, etc.) and process them for use in other products. Included area Target stores in Burnsville, Chanhassen, Chaska, Eden Prairie, Minnetonka, Savage and Shakopee.