School Wins National Recycling Contest and Community Can Help

The Kick-It 3v3 Soccer Tournament is coming to the Atlanta area July 27 & 28 with Entenmann's Bakery and recycling pioneer TerraCycle. Entenmann's will offer free samples of Little Bites and have recycling bins for the empty packaging which will be sent to TerraCycle for recycling. For more information, registration and details about the tournament please visit www.kickit3v3.com.

If you feel guilty when you throw away a butter tub, deodorant tube or other trash, check out some of the recycling programs from the Trenton, N.J.-based company TerraCycle.cigarette_butts The company has 40 programs for collecting and recycling everything from candy wrappers and juice pouches to Solo cups and tape dispensers. The trash is turned into new products such as park benches and backpacks, some of which can be found at Target and Walmart. One of the programs, known as The Cigarette Waste Brigade, is run by TerraCycle and the Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Co. Members of the public are asked to collect extinguished cigarettes, filters, loose tobacco pouches, outer plastic packaging, inner foil packaging, rolling paper and ash, which are turned into plastic pallets and other products. (The cardboard boxes are not accepted  since they can be recycled through municipal programs.) When it’s time to send in the waste, a free shipping label can be printed out from TerraCycle web site. The company was founded in 2001 by Tom Szaky when he was a Princeton University student. TerraCycle began producing organic fertilizer by packaging liquified “worm poop” in used soda bottles. More than 40 million people nationwide participate in the recycling programs, diverting more than 2.5 billion pieces of waste from landfills, according to a company news release.

The students and teachers at Woodlawn Elementary School were rewarded with $300 and an official TerraCycle collection bin through the Lunch Kit Regional Rally, a contest sponsored by TerraCycle and Lunchables Lunch Combinations. The school won simply by recycling traditionally non-recyclable waste through the Lunch Kit Brigade, a free recycling program that accepts lunch kit plastic trays, lunch kit plastic lids, lunch kit plastic film and outer wrapping, and lunch kit contents packing, regardless of brand. For each piece of waste collected through this free program, the students and teachers at Woodlawn Elementary School earn points that can be put toward charity gifts or converted to cash and paid right back to the school. TerraCycle recycles the collected material into various products, including trash cans, picnic tables and watering cans. “Woodlawn Elementary School is among the top collecting schools nationwide in the Lunch Kit Brigade. (Its) efforts have not only helped their school and community, but also the planet by proving small changes can made a global impact,” said Tom Szaky, TerraCycle CEO. “I’m delighted to reward the students and teachers for their recycling efforts by giving the school a well-deserved monetary donation and an official collection bin.” To encourage schools to send less to landfills, Lunchables Lunch Combinations gave a total of $1,440 to participants across the country. The winners were chosen based upon the amount of lunch kit packaging that was collected by the participants.

Fireworks can unleash a shower of toxins into soil and water, and scientists are only beginning to figure out what that means for human health. This patriotic season, consider the effects of the chemicals and propellants used in the production of the firework display exploding before your eyes. Think about the rain of chemicals, unseen, wafting through the air, to land on you, your children, the land and the water around you. Read more about fireworks and their affects on the environment here: http://www.greenerideal.com/science/8520-are-fireworks-bad-for-the-environment/ Be sure to eat local fruits and vegetables, use reusable party ware, a gas grill or solar oven, and eliminate waste. If you do have waste such as chip bags, then please send them to TerraCycle through their collection program. TerraCycle has a solution for getting rid of all the non-recyclable waste from the Fourth and other summer parties through its collection program, the TerraCycle Brigade program. Anyone can send non-recyclable packaging from summer events – such as chip bags, napkin wrapping or plastic cups – to TerraCycle free of charge to be recycled or even repurposed into new, useful and innovative products.http://www.terracycle.net/

Even the Ivy League isn't immune to dropouts. Tom Szaky -- a Canadian who didn't know that Princeton was in New Jersey until he got to campus -- left college after two years. Szaky was on fall break during freshman year in Montreal when he saw a bountiful weed (yes, that kind of weed) harvest that owed its success to worm and organic waste. The light bulb went off, and he began packaging worm waste in used soda bottles that later ended up on the shelves of Home Depot and Walmart. Over the next year, he would head home after class and work on his business, the way college basketball players head to the gym to work on their free throws. He didn't solicit help from professors and says the faculty was "hands-off" in that respect. By his sophomore year, TerraCycle was taking off -- he had a logo, a name and a diversified body of products -- and it was now or never. "I would have loved to stay in school, but TerraCycle was starting to grow and I was putting more time into it," says Szaky, 28, also a member of the AOL Small Business Board of Directors. "I took a semester off, which turned into a permanent leave." The business has evolved since 2003 -- kites made of Oreo wrappers and picture frames wrapped in bicycle chains, part of the company's "upcycling" line of products, helped catapult revenues to $7.5 million in 2009 -- but he still spends time on campus as a guest lecturer and thinks teaching could be a fun career down the road. For now, he's focused on waste, and he's able to indulge his inner dork with the science of composting. Looks like he didn't need that behavioral economics degree after all, much like other dropouts who felt the need to quit school and carpe diem. "I have nothing against school," says Szaky, author of Revolution in a Bottle. "TerraCycle was happening, and that was the decision at the moment."

Earth Day Every Day and MLK Children's Center--- Martin Luther King Children’s Center, a school district before and after school program on the campus of MLK K-8 Elementary School, collects a variety of items for recycling with TerraCycle.  The Children’s Center collected drink pouches, used toothbrushes, empty toothpaste tubes, empty beauty bottles, cheese wrappers along with dairy tub containers and sends them postage paid to TerraCycle.  MLK Children’s Center earns about $.02 per item. TerraCycle then converts the collected waste into a wide variety of products and materials. TerraCycle’s purpose is to eliminate the idea of waste. Founded in 2001 by Tom Szaky, then a 20-year-old Princeton University freshman, TerraCyle began by producing organic fertilizer, packaging liquid worm poop in used soda bottles. Since then Terracycle has grown into one of the fastest growing green companies in the world. Terracycle is creating national recycling systems for previously non-recyclable waste.  MLK Children’s Center is just one group of 20 million people collecting waste in over 20 countries. TerraCycle has diverted billions of units of waste and used them to create over 1,500 different products available at major retailers ranging from Walmart to Whole Foods Market.  The goal is to eliminate the idea of waste by creating collection and solution systems for anything that today must be sent to a landfill. So far, MLK Children’s Center has sent in 18,146 drink pouches alone. Staff, students and families collect these items from their homes along with collection tubs in the school cafeteria at lunchtime. It’s a great way we celebrate Earth Day everyday! Good for the environment, community and especially the children. Here are some accolades from the students: “Terracycle is cool because we help the environment by recycling our trash.” — Leiomi Gastinell, sixth grader “It’s so easy to save and bring in the items.” — Alyson Eystad, fourth grader “It’s a good way to help the environment and the children’s center without doing anything hard or extreme.” — Elise Ledesma, sixth grader

Candy manufacturer Mars is working to upcycle the trash their products produce. BusinessWorld says that even though “upcycling will first need to prove itself profitable to companies before it can break into mainstream use … some big-name firms are slowly jumping on the bandwagon. In the U.S., a joint effort between TerraCycle and candy manufacturer Mars—the latter aims to cut down its waste by three percent annually—has been producing repurposed packaging from used and surplus wrappers of candies like Twix and Starburst.”

The history of retailers collecting recyclables from their customers is evolving, if slowly. At first this started with small independent grocery stores collecting plastic bags or other items. But todayconsumers are clearly becoming more eco-aware, which is creating a demand for major retailers like Whole Foods Market, Best Buy, and Sur La Table to place collections in their stores. The trend of retailers collecting recyclables started in “crunchy”, more sustainable cities like Portland, Oregon and Denver, Colorado, where there were several small, independent grocers. These were community-based grocery stores where local residents could drop off their recyclables. Inspired by this other communities began collections as well. These collections, however, were not necessarily for recyclables. One collection was Box Tops for Education. Another type of community-based collection is the Paper Retriever Recycling Bin. This dumpster sized recycling bin is a free collection where students can place their paper recyclables – they are often found in school, city and retailer parking lots. Recently, this new trend has been popping up more and more. Major retailers are starting collections for a variety of recyclables and even non-recyclables. Whole Foods Market has several collections. They accept corks from wine bottles, plastics made from #5 propylene, and plastic bags from other retailers. Of course, I periodically check the bins at my local Whole Foods and they are usually fairly empty – even in a relatively affluent and aware consumer base like Princeton, NJ. They also have recycling bins and compost buckets in their cafeteria. Best Buy has an e-waste recycle collection. You can bring in your used electronics to any Best Buy location and they will recycle them for you – however sometimes this service comes at a cost for the consumers. Best Buy also offers other programs to help collect your used electronics. Best Buy will remove your old TV or appliance when you buy a new TV or appliance from them. They will also remove used TVs or appliances from your house for $100, if you are not buying a new TV or appliance from them. The latest major retailer do start a recycle collection is Sur La Table. Sur La Table has partnered with Illy Caffé to collect Illy Caffé’s iperEspresso capsules. The iperEspresso capsules are made of #5 polypropylene, which is collected by only about 5% of municipalities. Illy Caffé wanted to find a way for their customers to enjoy their coffee and still be environmentally friendly. This is why Illy Caffé introduced iperEspresso Capsule Recycle Program. This program allows the capsules to be recycled. There are three ways to recycle the capsules. The first way is for illy a casaSM members. Illy a casa^SM members receive their capsule recycle program as a complimentary service as part of your free membership. The second option is to drop off the capsules at you local Sur La Table. The final option is to buy a recycle kit. If you are not an illy a casa^SM member and there are no Sur La Table locations near you, you can purchase a kit by calling illy Customer Care. There has to be an 80 capsule minimum when sending in your capsules. The demand for more recycling collections in stores is a new concept. Although many people recycle and try to be more eco-friendly, recycling in your grocery store, your electronic store, or your favorite kitchen store is taking green a step further. The question is, are consumers ready for this change? Will they collect their waste and bring it with them to stores? Or box it up to mail it in for recycling? TerraCycle is guessing that enough will! Tom Szaky presented an exlusive i2live webinar entitled: "Turning Waste Packaging Into Massive Equity" on April 17th,2013. Get the transcript here 

HackensackUMC was awarded the 2013 “Partner for Change” Award by Practice Greenhealth, the nation’s leading health care membership community that empowers its members to increase their efficiencies and environmental stewardship while improving patient safety and care. The Award is one of the organization’s Environmental Excellence Awards given each year to honor outstanding environmental achievements in the health care sector. The Partner for Change Award recognizes health care facilities that continuously improve and expand upon their mercury elimination, waste reduction, recycling and source reduction programs. “This award proves that HackensackUMC is committed to eliminating mercury, reducing waste, recycling and preventing pollution, among other environmentally preferable practices,” said Laura Wenger, RN, Executive Director, Practice Greenhealth. “Practice Greenhealth is pleased to recognize them for these efforts.” “We take pride in developing programs to improve the health of our patients, staff and community,” said Robert C. Garrett, president and CEO of the Hackensack University Health Network. “We look forward to working with Practice Greenhealth to further our sustainability efforts and lessen our impact on the environment.” “We’ve done a tremendous job of increasing our recycling rate, implementing state-of-the-art recycling stations on campus, eliminating Styrofoam food ware and becoming the first hospital in country to partner with TerraCycle to recycle packaging and items that typically are not recycled and up cycling them into products” said Deirdre Imus, president and founder of the Deirdre Imus Environmental Health Center at HackensackUMC. The Practice Greenhealth Environmental Excellence Awards were presented in Boston, MA, at CleanMed, THE premier national environmental conference for leaders in health care sustainability.