I'm sharing something a little different for today's TerraCycle Tuesday. Instead of highlighting a brigade, I'm spreading the word about TerraCycle's annual Eco-Product Design Contest, which will soon be accepting entries for 2012. Here's some info from TerraCycle: Elmer’s® Products, Inc. and TerraCycle® challenge students to use commonly discarded materials to create new products. Participants will design upcycled products using Elmer’s packaging and/or used classroom materials, and e-mail photos or drawings and descriptions of their design to TerraCycle. Entrants do not have to be a part of Elmer’s Glue Crew of TerraCycle’s Elmer’s Glue Crew Brigade® to participate. One Grand Prize winner will receive a TerraCycle and Elmer’s Prize Pack. He or she will also be featured on the TerraCycle website and Facebook page. Three runners up will receive TerraCycle and Elmer’s prize packs. Send your entries to contest@terracycle.com, and be sure to include a photo or drawing, with a 250 word or less description of your upcycled product in your e-mail. Also be sure to include contact information in your entry so we can contact you if you win! Entries will be judged on the creative use of commonly discarded materials, if the design itself is environmentally friendly, if the materials used in the design are environmentally friendly, and whether the design is deemed to be commercially viable. Entry Phase: March 1 - March 31, 2012 Finalists Announced: April 9, 2012 Public Voting: April 9 - April 20, 2012 Grand Prize Winner Announced: April 23, 2012 More info here! http://brsdgifted.blogspot.com/2012/02/terracycle-tuesday-eco-product-design.html

Who could imagine that a granola bag could be turned into a watering can? Or, a drink pouch into a plant caddy? TerraCycle®, Inc., the pioneering upcycling and recycling company, has three new products available for the eco-conscious gardener. The Terra Stone Plant Caddy, the Eco-Terra Watering Can and TerraCycle’s trademark worm poop All-Purpose Plant Food 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.

The College is taking steps to implement TerraCycle, a new waste management program, which will hopefully be introduced to the student body during Spring Term. MiddCORE suggested the program over Winter Term, and the group has since been working out the finer details of the project. Founded in 2001, TerraCycle is a recycling system that converts collected waste into a variety of useful products. The organization currently collects waste from over 28 million people in 20 participating countries. MiddCORE, a Winter Term course that focuses on social entrepreneurship, originally developed the idea to bring TerraCycle to Middlebury in early January “This started as a MiddCORE project where an alum and senior vice president of business development for TerraCycle, Jo Opot, challenged my students to identify waste streams at Middlebury that could be diverted from landfills and upcycled into usable products,” said Associate Professor of Economics Jessica Holmes.

“If you just leave your bag of garbage by your front door I’ll stop by and grab it on my way to work.” This probably isn’t something most people Facebook message their friends about at 10:00 at night. But, not only is this really a message sent to me from a friend a few nights ago, but I also really did run and, excitedly, pull a bag of garbage I’d been saving for her out of the closet and set it by my front door.

by Bill Poston Partnership Elementary earned first place at the county and state levels in the K-12 school recycling competition sponsored by Keep America Beautiful, Inc. and Nestlé Waters North America, The students and staff at Partnership Elementary collected 3,231 pounds of mixed office paper, cans, plastic bottles, cardboard, and polystyrene trays during a 4-week period which came to 8.7 pounds of waste recycled per capita. This provided a savings of 4.8 cubic yards of landfill space.

We have SO much going on right now in room 123! Check it out: *BRIGADES, BRIGADES, BRIGADES! I am sure you’ve heard of the 5th grade G21 project. We have been recycling 3 different types of brigades (glue sticks/bottles, empty tape rolls, as well as beauty product bottles/cases). A company named TerraCycle will give us 2 cents per brigade. We will then decide what we want to purchase for our courtyard to make it a more useful environment (an outdoor classroom environment). So far 2nd grade has won 3 weeks in a row! Who will win this week?! Don’t forget to RECYCLE! If you have any questions on what exactly you can recycle for the beauty product brigade, please feel free to email me!

Trenton, N.J.--SellYourGold.com is teaming up with international recycling company TerraCycle Inc. to add a charitable aspect for consumers who are selling their precious metal jewelry for cash. Based in Trenton, N.J., TerraCycle is a recycling and “up-cycling” company that specializes in collecting and repurposing non-recyclable waste. The company does this through its Brigade programs in which participants collect and send in used home, school and office products and packaging, such as drink pouches, chip bags and pens.

I'm sharing something a little different for today's TerraCycle Tuesday. Instead of highlighting a brigade, I'm spreading the word about TerraCycle's annual Eco-Product Design Contest, which will soon be accepting entries for 2012. Here's some info from TerraCycle: Elmer’s® Products, Inc. and TerraCycle® challenge students to use commonly discarded materials to create new products. Participants will design upcycled products using Elmer’s packaging and/or used classroom materials, and e-mail photos or drawings and descriptions of their design to TerraCycle. Entrants do not have to be a part of Elmer’s Glue Crew of TerraCycle’s Elmer’s Glue Crew Brigade® to participate.

Tom Szaky didn't even try to get his product--a worm excrement fertilizer packed in a recycled bottle--into small retailers when he started TerraCycle six years ago. Instead, he reached as high as he could: Wal-Mart. "If I want to be big and do it quickly, the best way … is to work with the world's biggest companies," he says. "They can accelerate your cycle much more quickly than any other company can."

A must-follow checklist for small businesses looking to connect with powerhouse companies like Wal-Mart. Tom Szaky didn’t even try to get his product–a worm excrement fertilizer packed in a recycled bottle–into small retailers when he started TerraCycle six years ago. Instead, he reached as high as he could: Wal-Mart. “If I want to be big and do it quickly, the best way … is to work with the world’s biggest companies,” he says. “They can accelerate your cycle much more quickly than any other company can.” The Trenton, N.J.-based company’s first big partnership with Wal-Mart in Canada was just the start of what has become a $14 million business. TerraCycle now gathers unrecyclable trash and converts it into products and packaging for such big brands as Kraft, Pepsi and Mars. Last year, corporate partners spent $45 million on TerraCycle-related marketing–far more than Szaky could have ever done alone.