Turn Kool-Aid or Capri Sun drink pouches into money for your school. Establish a drink pouch brigade . Earn up to 2 cents per donated pouch.  Caprisun.com/terracycle

If your family recycles like mine does, then anything resembling paper, plastic or metal goes into the appropriate recycling bin. However did you know you may be depositing products that cannot be recycled through typical processes? I am guilty of this — I had been mixing in kid food pouches with my regular plastics. Oops! A solution exists thanks to TerraCycle. It offers national programs (a.k.a Brigades®) to collect previously non-recyclable or hard to recycle waste like drink pouches, chip bags, and water filters. The waste is then made into new products ranging from recycled park benches to backpacks.

Toothbrushes donated to the program through TerraCycle are being used as the building blocks for the disco ball art installation designed and constructed by Yarrow Mazzetti and Overkill (pictured above). If successful in gathering enough funding, it will be unveiled at the 2013 Burning Man festival at Black Rock Desert, Nevada.

Tom Szaky, Founder & CEO, Terracycle, spoke with us about the company's purpose to eliminate the idea of waste by making things that are non-recyclable, recyclable. Terracycle works with brands to create national collection points for each category of waste. The collected waste is either reused, upcycled or recycled. Terracycle gives items destined for the landfill a new lease of life through their circular solution.

Toothbrushes donated to the program through TerraCycle are being used as the building blocks for the disco ball art installation designed and constructed by Yarrow Mazzetti and Overkill (pictured above). If successful in gathering enough funding, it will be unveiled at the 2013 Burning Man festival at Black Rock Desert, Nevada.

Sustainable Concepts Green Team worked with Terracycle, a New Jersey company that collects hard-to-recycle trash and “upcycles” it into new products. Terracycle had found a way to turn tobacco waste into plastic pallets and ashtrays but didn’t know where to get its supply.

TerraCycle is a company that collects difficult-to-recycle packaging and products and repurposes the material into affordable, innovative products. TerraCycle upcycles and recycles traditionally non-recycable waste. Terracycle reuses several products such as drink pouches, chip bags and tooth brushes just to name a few. These products keep waste out of our landfills and contribute to a cleaner world.

More than 100 artists are set to participate in the eighth annual Graffiti Jam, which also features performances by local bands DJs and hip hop artists. The event is scheduled for 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at TerraCycle headquarters, 121 New York Ave., Trenton. Trenton’s Vicious Styles Crew and other urban artists will attempt to completely repaint Terracycle’s walls with new artwork.

The Greening of Westford’s Kristina does exactly that. She is the founder of Upcycle It, a program which diverts non-recyclable items, like chip bags and granola bar wrappers, from landfills to a company called TerraCycle where they are turned into useable items. TerraCycle pays Upcycle It two cents per item (as well as all shipping costs).