Today, TerraCycle is a highly-awarded, international upcycling and recycling company that collects difficult-to-recycle packaging and products and repurposes the material into affordable, innovative products. TerraCycle is widely considered the world’s leader in the collection and reuse of non-recyclable, post-consumer waste. The Environmental Committee is creating opportunities for Park Slope Coop members to be a part of this great opportunity to RECYCLE even more products.

There are a few drawbacks to pouched foods, of course. Namely, they are difficult to recycle. Most pouches are made of laminated, fused polymers that recycling centers cannot separate. Though some programs like TerraCycle have the capacity to recycle or upcycle pouches, consumers must mail used pouches to facilities.

Students at Thayer Christian Church Preschool are among the top 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 from foods such as The Hain Celestial Group’s Garden of Eatin’ snacks, Terra chips or any other brand, the school has helped to divert more than 14,000 units of snack bag waste from landfills, while also earning money for their school or charity of choice.

TerraCycle upcycles and recycles traditionally non-recycable waste (including drink pouches, chip bags, tooth brushes and many more) into a large variety of consumer products. These products keep waste out of our landfills and contribute to a cleaner world. TerraCycle products are available at a wide range of major retailers from Wal*Mart to Target as well as online.

TerraCycle’s mail-in recycling programs in collaboration with Colgate and Tom’s of Maine are just about the only recycling options available. You can collect your empty toothpaste tubes (as well as old toothbrushes and floss containers) and ship them for free to TerraCycle to be recycled into new products. Large enough shipments can raise money for your chosen school or charity. Alternatively, you could upcycle that old tube into a useful craft.

Product Description These recycled plastic pots are made from 100% e-waste (such as crushed computers and fax machines) that would otherwise have ended up in a landfill. These ingenious little pots help you garden sustainably!

TerraCycle has an amazing story behind it. It all began with a 19 year-old Princeton student, Tom Szaky, who was looking for a business idea to enter into a contest at Princeton University. He stumbled upon one on his fall break, as he observed friends using fertilizer generated from red wiggler worms to feed their indoor plants. From plant food to now today all kinds of upcycled and recycled products, from used drink pouches to cigarette butts, TerraCycle is wildly successful and one of the fastest-growing green companies in the world.

If you are looking forward to spending some quality time crafting or gift wrapping, don't forget that our wonderful EcOWLogists, in partnership with Terracycle, are collecting empty glue sticks and bottles as well as empty tape dispensers and cores to gather points for the school and to make a difference!

The city's Public Services Department will train a Workfare recipients to remove the trash from the "buttlers." The city will store the trash at the Spring Street Garage and then will ship the butts to TerraCycle, a company that makes plastic pellets out of butts.

She had participated with her students in TerraCycle’s “Drink Pouch Brigade” recycling and fundraising program, which rewards groups who collect and send in used Honest Kids and Capri Sun juice pouches.