Printed on woodfree paper in a fresh design with DYI projects for all ages,
Make Garbage Great has broad appeal—it’s smart and instructive, playful and crafty, environmentally contentious and inspiring. With craft projects ranging from a simple, folded coin purse from a CapriSun pouch to a beautiful pallet coffee table, the colloquial voices of Tom Szaky and Albe Zakes make the engaging information, little known facts, compelling graphics, and sustainable suggestions accessible for teachers, parents, DIY artists, and even young readers.
Fully titled Make Garbage Great: The TerraCycle Family Guide to a Zero-Waste Lifestyle this book is AWESOME! It's a large hardbound, 224 page, book. You will find fascinating information, little-known facts, awesome graphics, and colorful images on every page.
“One man’s trash is another man’s treasure,” as the saying goes. For TerraCycle founder Tom Szaky, it was more than a saying—it was also his business plan. Founded in 2003, TerraCycle takes your garbage—everything and anything you could throw away or recycle—and transforms it into consumer products like cutting boards, reusable grocery bags, and even yard fencing.
TerraCycle, Inc. started in 2001 when CEO and Founder Tom Szaky dropped out of Princeton University after his freshman year to sell liquefied worm poop in a reused soda bottle, for fertilizer purposes. Despite having little brand recognition and only rudimentary manufacturing operations, Szaky managed to get major big-box retailers like Walmart and The Home Depot to start testing the product in 2004. By 2006, TerraCycle's worm-poop-based plant foods were being sold nationally across the United States and Canada in Walmart, Target, The Home Depot and Whole Foods Market retail stores.
Karen Marietta, who leads the school's TerraCycle program, said since it began in 2011, faculty and students have recycled more than 204,000 items from plastic cereal bags and snack pouches to Elmer's glue sticks and plastic tape dispensers. "It's between the drink pouches and the granola energy bar wrappers," Marietta said. "Those are probably our biggest things."
TerraCycle, an international recycling program that specializes in difficult-to-recycle packaging and products, covers the cost of shipping and pays schools a penny per piece.
7. Mail bag pouch
Once a USPS mail carrier’s bag, this heavy-duty zippered pouch is just the right size to hold your life — ID, cash, kes, credit cards, change. The canvas has been distressed the honest way. Weathered graphics recall its former life (mine says “MA,” which I like), and mine also has a couple black marks, maybe from getting or over or rubbing up against the carrier’s belt... there’s no end of imagining where it’s been.
The Hain Celestial Group has announced that members of the recycling club at Pinecrest High School are among the nation’s top 10 collectors of snack bags in The Hain Celestial Group Snack Bag Brigade, a free, national recycling program created by The Hain Celestial Group, Inc. and TerraCycle. By collecting used snack bags, the Pinecrest students have helped to divert more than 20,000 used bags from landfills while earning more than $1,000 for their school or charity of choice. “Pinecrest High School continues to be one of our top collectors, collecting 20,823 snack bags in 2015 alone,” said TerraCycle publicist Colleen Duncan.
“One man’s trash is another man’s treasure,” as the saying goes. For TerraCycle founder Tom Szaky, it was more than a saying—it was also his business plan. Founded in 2003, TerraCycle takes your garbage—everything and anything you could throw away or recycle—and transforms it into consumer products like cutting boards, reusable grocery bags, and even yard fencing.
All Saints has earned more than $150 by collecting empty applesauce pouches to recycle through a partnership with TerraCycle, Inc., which collects and re-purposes hard-to-recycle, post-consumer waste ranging from used potato chip bags to cigarette butts. The waste is collected through free, national, brand-funded platforms called “brigades,” as well as various consumer and government-funded models. All Saints Catholic School is working with TerraCycle to collect empty applesauce pouches for recycling in the GoGo squeeZ Brigade.
Candy wrappers: These go in the trash, since most wrappers are made from a nonrecyclable plastic film.
Terracycle.org, however, does accept some candy wrappers as part of its various “brigades.” Schools can earn money by choosing a brigade to participate in, collecting the wrappers from students, and sending the box of wrappers to Terracycle.