TerraCycle is a company founded around ten years ago by a freshman at Princeton. Tom Szaky’s idea was to revolutionize how we think about waste…by eliminating it. TerraCycle 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. They create national recycling systems for previously non-recyclable or hard-to-recycle waste. TerraCycle converts the collected waste into a wide variety of products and materials. With more than 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. They take stuff like toothbrushes, chip bags, and drink pouches and make them into cool new eco-friendly products. For example, drink pouches can be everything from fences to purses and pencil cases. Want to get involved? You or your organization can sign up to be part of a Brigade, and start sending them waste. Not only do you help the environment, you can also earn points to get gifts or even a monetary contribution for your non-profit group.

We don’t have a beverage container deposit to encourage recycling in South Carolina, but for me, recycling has become a way of life. One motivating factor for me to recycle is the fact that I don’t want a landfill in my backyard. Every item I recycle is one less item taking up space in a landfill. Another motivating factor is conservation of natural resources. By recycling plastics, we use less petroleum which is a nonrenewable resource. Recycling also protects human and environmental health by keeping toxic substances out of the waste stream. I can’t help it; protecting our natural resources is something I am passionate about, which is why I am so excited about some things going on at Moore Intermediate School. Students, faculty and staff are participating in South Carolina Green Steps Schools, an environmental education and action initiative that recognizes schools in South Carolina that take annual sustainable steps toward becoming more environmentally responsible.One of their projects involves the collection of traditionally non-recyclable juice pouches which are sent to TerraCycle and converted into other products. By participating in program, students are learning, waste is being reduced, and the school receives 2 cents per juice pouch.

The new drinks have 100% vitamin C, only has 40 calories per pouch and still has half the sugar than the leading kids’ drinks. I love the new packaging that is so easy to travel with and has really great kid-friendly messaging which includes sustainable farming, organics and TerraCycle partnership. What is TerraCycle? A program that upcycles and recycles traditionally non-recycable waste (including drink pouches, chip bags, tooth brushes and many more) into a large variety of consumer products.  See what I mean? Honest Tea is definitely standing behind their message for social responsibility and commitment to great products for a brighter future.

Doing good TerraCycle is a worldwide company based in Trenton. They create national recycling systems for previously non-recyclable or hard-to-recycle waste. Anyone can sign up for these programs, called the Brigades. Visit www.terracycle.com for more information.

A subsidiary of the nation's second largest cigarette make Reynolds American Inc., is funding a national recycling program to reward do-gooders for cleaning up tobacco waste and turn cigarette butts into pellets used to make items such as plastic shipping pallets, railroad ties, and park benches

Trenton company at forefront in recycling of trash stream scourge

TerraCycle is a worldwide company based in Trenton. They create national recycling systems for previously non-recyclable or hard-to-recycle waste. Anyone can sign up for these programs, called the Brigades. Visit www.terracycle.com for more information.

One group of students worked with Sarah Vorreiter, a resident assistant in Lincoln Avenue Residence Hall on a floor designated as a Sustainable Living and Learning Community whose students tend to care more about environmental issues. Vorreiter had already initiated a recycling program with TerraCycle, an organization that collects trash and transforms it into sellable products, but participation had been low to nonexistent. She wanted the group from Kuo's class to help her expand the program and encourage more students to participate by recycling the specific kinds of trash that the company accepts. "We saw that there was no pre-existing advertising or other visible prompts to encourage students to participate," said Nick Musso, one of the students in the group. In order to solve the problem, the team of students decorated the large receptacles in the common trash collection room. But they found that one of the biggest obstacles to recycling was that the students were reluctant to take their trash down the hall to that special receptacle. "We were able to get boxes free from the Lincoln Avenue Residence dining hall," Musso said. "We stapled a flyer about the program to the boxes and delivered one to each room on the floor. Having a box right in their room made it more convenient for them to participate." The group also put flyers and collection bins in the women's shower areas, making it convenient for them to recycle empty shampoo and other beauty care product containers. "The students did a good job of thinking through where and how the residents use the products," Kuo said. "Putting the recycling bins in locations that are convenient made it easy for people to participate." The team also generated enthusiasm for the program with a pseudo competition. They set goals for the number of chip bags, dairy and beauty product containers, and candy wrappers the floor would collect in a three-week period of time and displayed colorful posters in the dorm to track the progress. The program resulted in 42 times more recycling of chip bags and 36 times more beauty care products than was recorded by Vorreiter from the months before.

Building awareness about environmental concerns is one thing. Getting people to actually change their behaviors and become better stewards of the environment themselves is quite another, and much more difficult to accomplish as University of Illinois students in Ming Kuo's Environmental Psychology class learned. They worked in groups to evaluate programs that promote environmental sustainability and make recommendations for how the programs could improve their effectiveness. According to Kuo, the student groups were paired with actual clients, making the project not just an assignment for a grade, but a real-world problem to solve.

Nestled in the lowly depths of Trenton, NJ TERRACYCLE has been reusing waste for over a decade, giving it back to the consumer in the form of backpacks, non biohazardous cleaning products, scrapbooks, enviornmentally friendly fertilizers, and more. Check out this IPAD case made from what TERRACYCLE terms “upcycled” materials (think potato chip bags, and cliff bar wrappers). Triple nice!