Beaches, Butts and Straws

Last weekend brought beautiful weather to Massachusetts.  It was warm with just a hint of fall peeking through.   I love these days!  Best of all, I was able to spend Sunday afternoon with my daughter and her Girl Scout troop on a beautiful beach in Gloucester, MA called Wingaersheek.  I had never been here before.  It is so picturesque and the sand is as fine and soft as powder.  It even has the stereotypical New England light house in the distance!

On Saturday, Oct. 13, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., the Branchburg Woman's Club will host an indoor craft show and bake sale at Branchburg Central Middle School, 220 Baird Road, across from White Oak Park. The craft show features handmade crafts, a bake sale, a cafe and door prizes. This community fundraiser benefits club’s philanthropic fund for charitable donations and student awards. There is free admission and free parking. Refreshments will be available for purchase. Featured crafts include handmade chocolates, cookie pops, sea glass and fused-glass jewelry, floral arrangements, themed gift baskets, pottery, baby gifts, photo art, cards and pet gifts. Doll collectors will find clothes and accessories for 'American Girl'-sized dolls and wooden doll furniture. Home decor items will include carved wood wares, stained glass decorations, soy candles, holiday ornaments, handmade collectibles and more. For the fashion conscious, there will be a wide variety of handbags, totes, apparel, plus crocheted and knitted accessories. Too many shoes taking up closet space? If your family has still-usable, but no-longer-needed shoes or boots, consider donating them to the new Terracycle Paired Shoe Project, which benefits the club's philanthropic fund. There will be a collection box inside the entrance of the craft show.

Under new “brigade,” Tom’s will accept a range of personal care product packaging, regardless of brand. New initiative launches with a sweepstakes competition. Tom’s of Maine, a provider of natural oral and personal care products, has partnered with recycler/upcycler TerraCycle to give a second life to product packaging with the launch of the Tom’s of Maine Natural Care Brigade®. In keeping with the Tom’s of Maine stewardship model, this free collection program enables consumers to keep packaging from all Tom’s of Maine products and other brands out of landfills. To celebrate the launch, the company has announced the Tom’s of Maine Less in Landfills Sweepstakes,through which Brigade participants can earn $1,000 for the nonprofit or school of their choice. The Tom’s of Maine Natural Care Brigade accepts toothpaste tubes and caps, mouthwash bottles and caps, deodorant/antiperspirant containers, plastic soap wrappers, and floss containers, regardless of brand. For each piece of packaging collected and sent in, the collector earns points that can be put toward charity gifts or converted to cash and paid to any school or nonprofit organization. Any individual, family, group or school can join for free, and all shipping costs are pre-paid. Through the Less in Landfills Sweepstakes, Tom’s of Maine Natural Care Brigade leaders have up to three chances to earn even more money for their school or charity. Until Nov. 30, 2012, each shipment from a brigade location will count as an entry into the sweepstakes to win $1,000, with a maximum three entries per brigade location. Tom’s of Maine is constantly working to reduce its waste stream in Maine and in communities across the country. For example, all Tom's of Maine deodorant sticks are made of a single plastic that can be recycled from canister to cap—a first of its kind in the industry, says Tom’s—and all product boxes are made of recycled/recyclable paperboard.

Protect our Earth with these ultra hip school supplies from TerraCycle – all of which are made from upcycled materials. Each product, from backpacks to pencil cases to notebooks, is upcycled from common trash items you might find in any classroom or cafeteria such as drink pouches, chip bags and granola bar wrappers. TerraCycle pays schools and charities to collect their trash and send it to them, free of charge. And for every item they receive, TerraCycle donates money to the school or a charity of the school’s choice. Sign up at http://www.terracycle.com/en-US/ and visit http://www.dwellsmart.com/Products/School-and-Art-Supplies to purchase.

George Bernard Shaw said, “Youth is wasted on the young.” If you met Tom Szaky you might disagree. At fourteen, Tom was making a five-figure salary as a web designer. By age twenty, Tom dropped out of Princeton to start TerraCycle and has successfully built a $15 million business over the last decade. His story of “upcycling” people’s trash and turning it into viable products has been covered by CNN, The New York Times, “20/20”, the “Today” show and many more. CareerFuel had the opportunity to hear firsthand how Tom achieved this success and to get his advice for would-be startups. Tom strongly recommends business plan competitions to raise initial capital, followed by angel investment. He also has some choice words about venture capitalists. Tom encourages entrepreneurs to listen to what the naysayers and the markets say and be prepared to pivot, as flexibility is key to steering your startup to success. A couple of years before Tom stared TerraCycle, another young guy named Peter Thiel founded PayPal with several others and went on to become extremely successful. Thiel has since founded a fellowship program for kids just like Tom, paying budding entrepreneurs to skip college and pursue an idea. Recipients of the Thiel Fellowship receive $100,000, no strings attached. Tom Szaky would have been a no-brainer had this program been around a decade ago! Thank you Tom and the rest of the TerraCycle team for sharing your story as part of our “How America Works” series and for inspiring others to do great things!

We seem to have a lot of things at our house that we aren’t really using anymore.  Lots of old video games, sports equipment, just stuff.  Probably because we moved six years ago and I never unpacked some things – and now that we’ve moved again I’m just “rediscovering” all the things  I obviously haven’t missed!!!  My problem is I usually am not sure what to do with things we are finished with – most of it is in good shape – we just don’t use it anymore.   If you’re curious, there are some places that take things you may not think are a perfect fit for the Goodwill.  And remember – besides making you feel great when you donate – your donations are tax deductible as charitable contributions on your tax forms!  So you’re saving money by being generous.  Here are a few examples: Office Supplies – got a million pens laying around?  Printer Cartridges? Scotch tape containers?  TerraCycle will collect your old office supplies and turn them into like-new products such as park benches, flowerpots and plastic lumber.  You send it in free – and your goods get credit that you can donate to the charity of your choice.

Consider the following sayings: “Don’t judge a book by its cover,” “Good things come in small packages,” “Think outside the box” — what’s the common thread? Disregard the packaging! Okay, perhaps I’m being a bit too reductive, but it still stands to reason that, even though thinking outside the box is crucial in modern business, thinking about the box is also quite important. How was it made? Who made it? Where will it wind up after being used? Consumers are beginning to ask these questions with increasing urgency, and with good reason: According to the EPA, containers and packaging made up the largest portion of municipal solid waste generated in 2010, 48 percent of which was recycled. Additionally, half of the participants in a 2011 study done by Perception Research Services (PRS) said that they were willing to pay more for eco-friendly packaging. Furthermore, a March 2012 Nielsen study showed that recycling was the most important environmental aspect of a product across both genders and all age groups. With consumer awareness on the rise and traditional resource availability in decline, I believe that a sustainable business model will be the only successful business model in the not-too-distant future. Take Coca-Cola’s new PlantBottle, for example. Up to 30 percent plant-based and 100 percent recyclable, the PlantBottle boasts a reduced ecological footprint without sacrificing functionality or performance. Additionally, initiatives in sustainability have been shown to substantially improve brand equity and forge strong ties with consumers.

I think most people are at least aware of the importance of reducing, reusing, and recycling as much as possible, even if they don’t do it.  I think the problem for a lot of people is that sometimes they don’t know how to go about it. For example, we do not have recycle pick up at our new home, so we have to head into town to (like 3 minutes) to recycle our glass, plastics, and paper. I recently was introduced to a company that takes the phrase, “someone’s trash is someone else’s treasure” to a whole new level. TerraCycle is a company whose purpose is to eliminate the idea of waste. By creating national recycling systems for previously non-recyclable or hard-to-recycle waste. Anyone can sign up for these programs, called the Brigades, and start sending TerraCycle waste. TerraCycle then 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. Their goal is to eliminate the idea of waste by creating collection and solution systems for anything that today must be sent to a landfill.

Porter's is pleased to continue its partnership with TerraCycle, a company that collects and upcycles trash into new products. As a TerraCycle partner school, Porter's collects specified trash items, such as energy bar wrappers, chip bags, and juice pouches, to donate to TerraCycle, who upcycles the trash into useable items. Porter's participation in the program is spearheaded by the school's Earth Club, led by co-heads Kelsey Perkins '12 and Abbie Gantner '13 along with faculty advisors Ellie Lindenmayer and Jon Thomas. Founded in 2001, TerraCycle is one of the fastest-growing green companies in the world. TerraCycle creates national recycling systems for previously non-recyclable or hard-to-recycle waste, with the goal of eliminating the idea of waste by creating collection and solution systems for anything that currently is sent to a landfill. For more information on Porter's environmental initiatives, please visit www.porters.org/green.