Celebrate the Pink, Yellow, and “Green” Hues of Easter TerraCycle®Provides Easter DIY Project and Free Collection Program for Candy Wrappers Spring is in the air, and the Easter bunny is just a hop, skip and a jump away. This year, make sure to fill your Easter baskets, but not your garbage cans, with sweet treats. TerraCycle offers an environmentally-conscious alternative for all those leftover candy wrappers as well as fun DIY projects to get the whole family excited about an Eco-Easter. With the help of partners MOM Brands™and M&Ms, TerraCycle hopes to make this springtime holiday greener than the newly-grown grass.

Back in August, I featured TerraCycle on The Campsite in Your Trash Can Be Someone’s Treasure. This is a company that recycles your trash, including garbage from trail food you bring along on your outdoor excursions, into handy products, from bags to office supplies. TerraCycle sent a bag made out of LUNA Bar wrappers for me to try, and so this past winter I put it to the test. I felt pretty proud carrying around my recycled bag (in this mountain town those wrappers are pretty recognizable, too). I often got asked where I got the bag and also received comments on how smart it was. I tried to carry different types of items in it, from groceries to books I was lugging around for research. I really loved the LUNA bag until the wrappers began to lift from the nylon ‘frame’ that give the bag its shape. I had only been using it for about 2 weeks.

Despite having once famously complained that recycling is bullshit—nothing more than a sham to shift responsibility from producer to consumer—Lloyd was nevertheless impressed by Terracycle's sponsored waste upcycling programs which encourage companies to take responsibility for the waste stream created by their products. We've following Terracycle pretty closely ever since, even inviting founder Tom Szaky to guest post from time-to-time on his unique take on recycling and waste. But usually the best way to understand a new concept is simply to see it in action. And this latest video (complete with German subtitles) from Terracycle is about as accessible an introduction as I can think of, explaining how Terracycle's partnership with juice maker Capri-Sonne diverts traditionally non-recyclable foil and plastic juice cartons from landfill and turns them into valuable consumer products. From the relatively low energy footprint of creating fabrics out of existing materials, through the waste minimization, to the reconnection between producer and the waste they generate, there is plenty for your average TreeHugger to like here. But it's worth noting that the benefits go way beyond green—just think of all the schools and community organization earning much needed revenue; or the number of jobs being created in such a labor-intensive and resource efficient business model. Once again, we are reminded that the "green economy as elitism" meme is nothing but hot air coming from the old guard. This is what the new economy will look like. And I like it.

The Terra Stone Plant Caddy and the Eco-Terra Watering Can will be on store shelves this spring. These are all great additions to the host of tools used by gardeners who want to do their part for the environment. Who could imagine that a granola bag could be turned into a watering can? Or, a drink pouch into a plant caddy? TerraCycle, the pioneering upcycling and recycling company, has three new products available for the eco-conscious gardener.

Environmental Platform Her platform theme for pageants has always focused on the environment, and Bojorquez said she loves the voice winning gives her for preserving nature and similar causes. Before competing for the title of World Miss Universe, Bojorquez won a number of other titles, including Miss Teen Earth 2010. Resulting from her title as Miss Teen Earth 2010, she had the chance to travel the country and spread the purpose of Terracycle, a recycling company she supports. One of her favorite opportunities is speaking at elementary schools and sharing the simplicity of recycling. “When I’m talking to the kids, I usually get them to do something hands on so that they can go home and do it there,” she said. “I’m really into doing things with Capri Sun bags for example. So when they go home, instead of throwing away the Capri Sun bag, they say, ‘Mom, I want to make something!’”

Some people know how to turn lemons into lemonade. Telma Rangel has figured out how to convert trash into treasure. It all began when Mother’s Cookies, an Oakland-based company, went out of business in 2008 and Rangel lost her job as operations manager. Suddenly, the mother of five had time on her hands. Rangel turned her attention to Noble Elementary School in San Jose, where her two younger children – Marissa and Gary – attend third and fourth grades.

St. Joseph School recently won second place in TerraCycle’s Winter Waste Wonderland competition, a national contest. As the second-highest collector of lunch kits in TerraCycle’s Lunch Kit Brigade, St. Joseph School will receive 10,000 bonus points, which it can redeem for $100 cash. TerraCycle pioneered the concept of “upcycling,” which is taking materials that would otherwise be trash and converting them into other products by maintaining or improving the quality of the material. So for instance, Oreo cookie wrappers, have been turned into kites and juice pouches have been turned into pencil cases. Eighth grade parent Danielle Mergner has spearheaded St. Joseph’s TerraCycle program this year, recruiting the eighth graders to help direct the younger students in sorting their TerraCycle items and then in packaging them for shipment.

In a previous post I brought up the topic of how failed business transfers can have a negative impact on local economies. I was surprised to see that it ignited several comments containing the term “creative destruction” — the concept that external forces like competition, globalization or technological advances force businesses to either adapt or fall by the wayside. Kodak would be a recent example. But the point I was trying to make about the failure of some small businesses to sell, or otherwise thrive after the owner decides to leave, is not about creative destruction. It’s about something much simpler: waste.

TerraCycle, the company that got its start selling compost in recycled drink bottles, recently launched a Keyboard and Mouse Brigade <http://www.terracycle.net/en-US/brigades/keyboard-and-mouse-brigade.html>  that pays schools for things like old keyboards, mouse, and Web cams. As an additional incentive for participation, TerraCycle’s corporate partners have stepped up to offer grants and donations. Last year, Wal-Mart offered $125,000 in grants to the top-collecting schools in all of TerraCycle’s brigades, according to vice president of global communication Albe Zakes. One school used their grant funds  <http://morristowngreen.com/2011/03/18/woodland-school-celebrates-st-patricks-day-with-10k-of-green/> specifically to purchase classroom technology.