The Terra Stone Plant Caddy is made from drink pouches recycled into TerraCycle plastic. The caddy can be found in Target stores.
The saying goes, one man's trash is another man's treasure. For TerraCycle, an upcycling and recycling company in Trenton, N.J., trash from schools in Knoxville and surrounding areas has become its treasure.
Items that are traditionally non-recyclable — such as Frito-Lay chip bags, Capri Sun drink pouches, MOM Brands cereal bags and Colgate oral care products — are collected to make products sold in stores such as Target.
The company recycles — or upcycles — trash into backpacks, tote bags, pencil cases, notebooks, messenger bags, and binders as well as watering cans and plant caddies.
The schools and community groups around the country who send their trash to TerraCycle don't do so without reward. The items collected accumulate points which can be converted to cash or gifts.
Travel to the past to gain perspective on the future at Red Mill Museum's Go Green Fair.
"Green" vendors will be on hand, and "up-cycled" jewelry and crafts and demonstrations and talks about what it means to be green will be featured. There will be an eco-scavenger hunt and community craft project, electric bicycles and canoe rides. Mr. Music's Amplified Heat and the Almost Original Swampgrass Jugband will play with recycled instruments.
Anyone attending the fair can bring used toothbrushes, floss containers and toothpaste caps to donate to a Colgate and TerraCycle recycling effort that uses the plastic to make new products, including bags and cutting boards.
The event is tomorrow from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m at the Red Mill Museum Village. 56 Main St., Clinton. Free. Call (908) 735-4101, ext. 102 or visit theredmill.org.
Mat McDermott/CC BY-NC-ND 3.0
Social media is applauded as a means of engaging crowds, creating change and encouraging action. To see where the perception of social media’s power originated, we need only to look at the pivotal role it played in political events such as the Arab Spring and Green Revolution in Iran. Not to mention those here at home – think: #occupy.
Social media certainly helps spread the word, but does it mean that less people are actively participating in events? While the actual news can spread like wildfire across the Internet, do as many people get off the couch or get up from their desk to follow through on the things they “like” or “share”?
I’m wondering how much “good” social media can really do for the environment. If someone clicks “Like” on TerraCycle’s Facebook page, or retweets a Treehugger.com tweet, that’s fantastic. But it doesn’t take down our carbon output or bring back a demolished forest.
I love seeing the good social media is doing – don’t get me wrong. It’s a large part of TerraCycle’s initiatives, and same goes for many other companies. Check it out:
Drink pouches are tricky to puncture with a straw, and they're a trick to keep out of the garbage. But pouches collected by local students are finding a greener life outside the landfill, and they're earning schools a little green.
Students at Behlau, Cibolo Green, Harmony Hills, Palo Alto and Potranco elementary schools have earned 2 cents apiece for more than 43,000 drink pouches, which New Jersey waste management company TerraCycle will turn into plant caddies.
"The drink pouches are made of a multilayer film that is primarily polyethylene. They also have aluminum. Having all these materials together is difficult for municipal recycling," said Megan Yarnall, spokeswoman for TerraCycle. "We shred them and melt them in order to turn them into new products."
In the landfill, the material could take a thousand years to decompose, she said.
"There's all sorts of trash made from lunches," said Angie Oliverson, librarian and TerraCycle brigade coordinator at Harmony Hills.
Single-serve hot drinks in the office have just got more sustainable, thanks to the new recyclable Freshpacks from Mars Drinks North America. The packaging innovation enabled the removal of an aluminum foil layer from two of the FLAVIA® single serve Freshpacks, as well as a move from three materials to a single, fully recyclable plastic. THE BRIGHT TEA CO.™ Earl Grey and English Breakfast teas, will be the first products in 100 percent recyclable Freshpacks, available nationwide in fall 2012. The new recyclable materials reduce the carbon footprint by 40 percent, if the Freshpack is recycled this lowers the carbon footprint even further to 44 percent overall. Recycling of the Freshpacks is supported by the wider Mars Drinks Recycling Program (www.recycleyourfreshpacks.com), partnering with TerraCycle®. TerraCycle® can collect and recycle the new Freshpacks using its innovative process, resulting in plastic that can be used to make products such as office stationery and garden furniture. For more information visit www.mars.com
Sustainability, transformational and disruptive technologies are concepts that often arise when discussing the newest trends unfolding in the global energy industry. Reducing greenhouse gas emissions and increasing energy efficiency go hand-in-hand. These inter-related goals can be addressed by designing innovative ways to deal with waste disposal, and that's just what CEO Tom Szaky is doing with his company TerraCycle.
As recently as a few years ago, campaigns and initiatives tied to Earth Day were worth a large chunk of any company's marketing budget. As more and more
companies got into the game, however, consumers came to expect everyone to do at least something for Earth Day, and now it may have officially jumped the shark as far as corporate marketing and public relations go.
Albe Zakes, global vice president of media relations for TerraCycle, which works with big corporations to run recycling programs, says he now dissuades customers from launching major initiatives on or around Earth Day.
The essence of Earth Day revolves around the philosophy of “sustainability.” There is only one Earth and somehow, someway, we must figure out how to make it last to sustain life. In the last several decades, there has emerged a realization that resources are not unlimited. Supply of critical resources, such as oil and rare earth metals, are already declining. The Earth’s human population continues to grow and emerging countries are increasing their demand for resources. Clean air, clean water and food could become critical.
Years ago, environmentalists coined the phrase “Think Globally, Act Locally.” This is still an excellent idea to guide our actions. Americans by far use more resources per capita than any other country in the world.
How can we protect the Earth?
1) Reduce, Reuse, Recycle: Reduce the amount of waste you produce by bringing reusable grocery bags to the store. Bring travel mugs and reusable coffee cups and get a discount at Starbucks. Bring your own lunch in reusable containers (you’ll eat healthier and save money). Thrift shops, yard sales, clothing swaps, and hand-me-downs are great ways to save money on clothing and furniture, especially for children. Check with your local recycling company for a list of products that can be recycled. You can also learn more through www.recyclebank.com, www.terracycle.net and www.preserve.com,
Earth Day is now a marketing frenzy, but a recent GreenBiz article questions the value of promotions at this time of year. According to Albe Zakes, the global vice president of media relations for TerraCycle, Earth Day is not the best time for major initiatives. TerraCycle which helps companies with recycling programs, actively dissuades their customers from launching major initiatives on or around Earth Day.
"With everyone and their mother doing some kind of quasi-green messaging around Earth Day, you risk a truly environmentally responsible promotion, product or service getting lumped into consumer's green fatigue and being consider green washing," Zekes says. "Moreover, green media - and mainstream media for that matter - is inundated with so many 'green' pitches that truly noteworthy stories get overlooked. Better to wait a month or two when the masses are pitching product reviews for Mother's Day and Father's Day and your new recycling drive or solar installation will get more notice."
Jarrett Nature Center celebrates its 10th birthday and Earth Day with family friendly activities and appearance by eco-entrepreneur Tom Skazy of TerraCycle, Inc. with face-painting, music, interactive displays and booths, crayon and electronic/small appliance recycling and more, Saturday, April 21, 9am-noon, 899 Horsham Road, Horsham, PA.
Moore College of Art & Design hosts MOOREcycle, a range of free festivities on The Parkway for Earth Day, coinciding with the Philadelphia Science Festival, this Saturday, April 21, 10am-3pm, including a unique display of art projects made entirely from recycled materials, offering the opportunity to make your own environmental design from materials donated by TerraCycle.
