Juice boxes and pouches – not in curbside, but check out the Terracycle Drink Pouch Brigade. Chip bags – again, not in curbside, but Terracycle has a Brigade for that too.

The premise of Genius Hour on the Imagine team was to work on something that inspires them and to share it with the world or to try to make a difference in the world and to explore and learn about new ideas. Lindley Pickard, holding the box, collected a box Clif Bar wrappers throughout SCS to teach people about littering and that TerraCycle recycles many things we throw out every day.

Don’t guess. If a prospect has a question you don’t know, it’s okay to say you have to check first. Here’s the tip from TerraCycle CEO Tom Szaky, “If you don’t know the answer, do not guess: People will ask you tough questions, and you may not always know the answer. The person asking you may be testing you, knowing the answer full well. And if you fumble, it’s very hard to rebuild credibility. Do not guess.”

Hively Avenue Preschool is trying to win a playground made from recycled oral care waste through the second annual Recycled Playground Challenge, sponsored by TerraCycle, Colgate and Meijer. The school will earn on ‘Playground Credit’ for each shipment of empty toothpaste tubes, toothbrushes, and floss containers sent to TerraCycle by the students and teachers, and one credit for every online vote cast for the school at www.meijer.com/colgate by June 18, 2016.

St. Edwards Montessori School is trying to win a playground made from recycled oral care waste through the second annual Recycled Playground Challenge, sponsored by TerraCycle, Colgate and Meijer. The school will earn on ‘Playground Credit’ for each shipment of empty toothpaste tubes, toothbrushes, and floss containers sent to TerraCycle by the students and teachers, and one credit for every online vote cast for the school at www.meijer.com/colgate by June 18, 2016.

Still, if your favorite pack of gum comes wrapped in foil-paper and you can’t bear to change brands, you may want to consider getting azero waste box from TerraCycle for your home or office. Once you’ve saved up a nice stockpile, send it back to TerraCycle, where it will be deconstructed and recycled for you.

An environmentally conscious youngster, Leighton was first introduced to Upcycling in his Third Grade classroom. Sustainable Westford’s Upcycle It! Program encourages local schools to collect items such as granola bar wrappers and chip bags, that can’t typically be recycled. These items are then sent to a company called TerraCycle (http://www.terracycle.com/) that creates useful items and pays per item donated.

In addition to its traditional recycling and composting projects, TerraCycle, founded in 2001, engages in a practice it calls “upcycling”, whereby trash isn’t entirely melted down but rather reused and remade into sellable new forms. One example: children’s backpacks that are clearly created out of used Capri Sun beverage packages.

Longfellow Elementary School is competing to win a playground made from recycled oral care waste through the second annual 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.

Aside from reuse, what viable solutions for plastic bag waste are there? You—and most consumers—might be surprised to learn there are a couple other options, as TerraCycle CEO Tom Szaky enlightens us.