No botes tus flip flop o clogs viejos a la basura! Recolectalos y envíalos para que sean re-usados y además ganes puntos para contribuir con una escuela o casa beneficiaria que tu escojas. Esta es una iniciativa de Terracycle.com. Es fácil dar a la ropa y los bienes del hogar una segunda vida cuando las puedes donar al Ejército de Salvación, Goodwill o Habitat Reuse Centers. Pero, ¿Qué pasa con las cosas que no se pueden donar y sólo  terminarían en el relleno sanitario si las desechas? Fashionistas ecológicos por todo el país pueden transformar accesorios usados y calzados en plata para un fin benéfico. Además puedes  recaudar fondos  al  vaciar tu hogar o armario.

Mega beauty brand, Garnier, in partnership with upcycling pioneer, TerraCycle, is hitting the road to educate men and women about all of their good-for-the-earth initiatives and to spread the word about their beauty packaging collection program called The Beauty Brigade. Stop by their Garnier Greener Tour to score free Garnier samples, try their newest products and drop off empty hair care, skin care or cosmetic packaging to be recycled into useable objects. Whoever brings at least one piece of beauty packaging waste to drop off in the recycling bin will have the opportunity to get a style touch-up at the on-site Garnier Styling Station. To learn more about this initiative or how to join a TerraCycle Personal Care and Beauty Brigade, visit www.garnierusa.com/green.

Terracycle and Old Navy have partnered to collect and recycle flip – flosp. The flip-flops are recycled or upcycled to make new products. See graphic below – click LINK to see larger graphic. Collect and return 50 flip flops (about 18 pounds) to Terracycle and you will get Old Navy coupons for you and those who helped you collect. Participation and signup are free. So is shipping; you can download a UPS label and drop the box off at a UPS location.

By Cap City

Juice Bags: Ordinary juice bags are a combination of aluminum and plastic polymer which can’t be recycled. But don’t toss them in the trash – gather them up and send them to your favorite charity. Here’s the deal with that: TerraCycle will donate 2 cents for every Honest Kids, Capri Sun and Kool-Aid drink bag – and and they’ll donate a penny for every other brand. Plus they provide free shipping. TerraCycle turns old juice bags and pouches into colorful purses, totes and pencil cases. See them yourself at Walgreens, Target or teracycle.net.

Melanie Ziomek has always been an avid recycler and is so adamant about it her sister jokingly calls her “super recycling nerd.” “I told her I was going to make her a recycling nerd cape,” said her sister, Tammy Kozicki. Ziomek recycles everything she can at Normal’s drop boxes, but was concerned about all the products that can’t be recycled. “I realized how many ink cartridges my church (Word of Faith) and the company I work for (Central Illinois Grain Inspection) were going through,” Ziomek said. She started collecting them in hopes of finding an outlet — and she finally did last fall. It’s called Terracycle, a Trenton, N.J., company founded in 2001 by Tom Szaky, someone equally passionate about finding uses for items that can’t be recycled.

You know I am all about natural products and how to contribute to the environment at the same time, it is amazing the simple things you can do about it..One of my favorite writers Paulo cohelo says: "When you heart desires something the entire Universe works in your favor" and that is how I came across this web site called TerraCycle they recycle pretty much everything. So now you have a choice when you want to get rid of empty or old bottles like: Shampoo,eye shadow, lipstick, conditioner, etc, any kind, any brand. TerraCycle's purpose is to eliminate the idea of waste.They do this 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 them waste.

“Go green.” “Be environmentally friendly.” “Reduce your carbon footprint.” These statements are everywhere, but how do we implement these ideas and make lifestyle changes. As World Environment Day and World Oceans Day approach on June 5 and June 8, respectively, we’ve put together a few ways to get involved that can help make a difference. This year, World Environment Day focuses on the changes we can make to reduce our energy consumption. To help with this effort, many companies are creating energy efficient gadgets, economically friendly alternatives and alternate power sources. Logitech’s newest keyboard, the Logitech Wireless Solar Keyboard K760 does just this – it’s powered by light, both low light and lamp light, indoors and out. In fact, if the world switched to solar keyboards, 828,000,000 AA batteries would be kept out of landfills annually, and if these were laid end-to-end, they would encircle the earth at its equator. You can reduce your carbon footprint by using products charged by solar power, replacing a regular light bulb for a CFL, or waiting a few extra minutes to turn on your lights in the evening. Every little change made can have an impact.

Disposable garments used in cleanrooms and laboratories prevent contamination of products and people, but not necessarily contamination of air, water and land. A pilot program by Kimberly-Clark Professional, Dallas, Texas, and partner TerraCycle Inc., Trenton, N.J., collected more than 7,000 pounds of garment and nonwoven waste, including coveralls, hoods, boot covers, hair nets and masks. The cleanrooms and labs participating in the program are enthusiastic. “The reaction shows a need for recycling in this area, as well as an industry desire to give a second life to garments and gloves,” says TerraCycle CEO Tom Szaky. The partners are actively seeking additional garment collection locations. The discards can be converted into plastic lumber, park benches or picnic tables.

The challenges of a waste-recycling business. The idea of a business incubator is to host a bunch of start-ups together in one space. The goal is to build a vibe of inspiration and to sprinkle in some shared services — legal, accounting, human resources — in the hope that efficiency and energy and creativity will blossom. Some incubators even offer financing. The first time TerraCycle tried an incubator we were very much in the start-up phase. The EcoComplex was built as an incubator for waste-technology businesses and is located on the Burlington County Resource Recovery Complex (the local landfill). Our deal was really generous — partly because we were just the second business to move in. Start-ups have more leverage when incubators are trying to create an impression of a bustling space with lots of promising businesses. For start-ups, it can be possible to keep the monthly fee for incubator rent and services close to zero. And some companies avoid paying any fee at all by giving equity. That’s not always a good idea, but most start-ups have to choose carefully how they spend their resources — and it worked for us. We negotiated free office space and free space for our prototype technology, a machine that collected worm waste for use as fertilizer. In exchange, we gave up some equity and agreed to start paying rent when we hit certain revenue milestones. The EcoComplex not only gave us access to the scientists at Rutgers University but also brought us credibility through its affiliation with NASA and other notable institutions. At the time it was a godsend that saved our business. We eventually grew out of the EcoComplex, and for a number of years we had no direct involvement with incubators. Then, in 2008, we started going global with Brazil our first foreign market. We were no longer a start-up, but as we were entered new markets — today, we operate in 22 foreign countries — incubators helped us get going in many of them. Our first interaction with an international incubator was in Brazil. This started when we sold part of our Brazilian operation to Warehouse Investimentos, which was lead by a group that wanted to bring a similar incubator concept to Brazil. They invested and we moved into funky new office space. While we did have had some challenges fitting our legal and accounting systems into theirs, it has worked well and saved us about 50 percent on our cost of administrative services. Earlier this year we partnered with an incubator in Budapest called Colabs (which sounds like “collapse” when you say it). And then the chief executive of our partner in Germany called to suggest a big idea: Why not start a waste incubator in Berlin? After discussing it further we decided to host a European competition where people could apply from anywhere in the world to submit a business concept that is focused on waste. TerraCycle would join by moving it’s German offices from Mainz to Berlin. I will tell you more about this as it develops. Three of our international offices are now in incubators, and I am encouraging all of our general managers, especially the ones with smaller offices, to consider incubators. Beyond the money-saving efficiencies of shared services, the biggest benefit the incubators have brought us is the high energy work environment — with interesting people walking through all of the time, with dynamic ideas being shared and with the informal competition. If the company across the hall from you is working late hours and making great progress, your team may choose to do the same. It’s very hard to generate that kind of motivation through management. And while it’s not right for TerraCycle, here’s another incubator program that I’ve heard about that sounds fabulous. It’s called Unreasonable at Sea, and it’s a mentor-driven program for technology ventures that will set sail Jan. 9, 2013 and travel 25,000 miles around the world. The goal is simple – to help entrepreneurs accelerate and scale their ventures. This maritime incubator will help companies take their products or services to 14 countries in 106 days. Tom Szaky is the chief executive of TerraCycle, which is based in Trenton.