The National Home Gardening Club is a membership organization dedicated to sharing a love for gardening. Members receive six issues of Gardening How-To Magazine and gain special privileges to enter contests, receive gardening advice, post in forums, trade seeds, test new garden products and gain special members-only discounts. The best way to know if a membership is worth your while is to visit www.gardeningclub.com and take it for a one-month free test drive, which will give you full access to the site, as well as a free issue of their informative magazine.

The National Home Gardening Club is a membership organization dedicated to sharing a love for gardening. Members receive six issues of Gardening How-To Magazine and gain special privileges to enter contests, receive gardening advice, post in forums, trade seeds, test new garden products and gain special members-only discounts. The best way to know if a membership is worth your while is to visit www.gardeningclub.com and take it for a one-month free test drive, which will give you full access to the site, as well as a free issue of their informative magazine.

GAINES TOWNSHIP — Fifth-grader Kyle Dronkers kept a straight face while talking about recycling used toothbrushes to help the planet and raise money for Dutton Christian School. “Well, I wouldn’t recommend using them,” deadpanned Kyle, 10, as he flashed a toothy grin. But the grungy brushes will become eco-friendly products after they are shipped to Terracycle, a New Jersey-based company known for tackling previously un-recycled or hard-to-recycle waste. The Dutton students were recognized as being among TerraCycle’s top toothbrush and toothpaste-tube collectors for bringing in 1,800 items for the Colgate Oral Care Brigade.

Happy TerraCycle Tuesday! Today the spotlight is on the Scotch Tape Brigade. If you're anything like my mom and I, you go through rolls and rolls (and rolls) of tape this time of year. While you're wrapping all those gifts, be sure to save the tape dispensers and cores to send in for TerraCycle.

Saving the planet and cutting down on emissions is a good thing, but who says you can’t have a little fun while doing so? “Sustainable” and “green” tech can seem boring, but the next generation of technology isn’t just good for the planet — it’s pretty darn cool to boot.

Kimberly-Clark Professional, in partnership with TerraCycle, now offers a cleanroom-garment recycling program. This is the first large-scale, business-to-business recycling program for nontraditional cleanroom waste streams, including coveralls, hoods, boot covers, hair nets, and masks. Customers who sign up will receive a recycling bundle with all materials needed to implement the program. TerraCycle will collect, convert, and resell all waste materials as either bulk plastics or eco-friendly consumer products; a bar code system will allow Kimberly-Clark Professional to track waste reduction and report that information back to the client.

Schools process lots of waste matter that’s carelessly disposed when it may very well be recycled. A wonderful recycling technique named TerraCycle has brought about a big improvement in the recycling routines of schools in the United States. This program takes the lead to gather food packaging goods that are difficult to recycle and also pays schools for their results. Based on a MichigansThumb.com report, the system awards points to schools based on the volume of recyclable goods provided to TerraCycle. The arrival of single-serve foods has elevated the degree of disposable waste and added to an increasing pile of unsafe waste products in landfills.

Nicole Patrick has a passion for recycling that she's not afraid to share with others. The Westover resident is a brigade administrator for several TerraCycle projects and recently brought Pepsi and Waste Management's Dream Machine Project to Purchase Line North Elementary School. TerraCycle, Patrick explained, is a national organization that offers programs called brigades that allow individuals or groups to send in waste to be recycled. Its goal, she said, is to eliminate the idea of waste by creating a recycling system for anything that must be sent to a landfill.

It’s not often that an educator finds inspiration on the back of a juice box, but that’s what happened to Tim Sarych. Sarych is a special education management aid at the Mille Lacs Academy School. Sarych read about the TerraCycle, a recycling program for schools, on a box of Capri Sun juice. After a bit of research, Sarych registered the MLA with the TerraCycle program. “I knew this was a fundraiser that our school could benefit from,” he said. “It helps the environment, and it engages the students in a positive community activity.” Sarych started the project last winter and slowly introduced the plan to his co-workers. In the months that followed he brought the program up to full speed. Students and staff collect candy wrappers, cheese packaging, used printer cartridges, coffee bags, empty drink pouches, old cell phones, cereal bags and a long list of other would-be trash. They box the recyclables up and send them to TerraCycle and receive between 2 cents and a dollar an item. TerraCycle also pays the shipping costs. The material collected by TerraCycle is turned into garbage cans, school supplies, playground equipment, flower pots, back packs, and a wide variety of other items. Students and staff are bringing packaging from home as well as collecting them at the school. “Two cents an item doesn’t sound like a lot,” Sarych said. “But it adds up quickly.” To date the program has brought in about $200 dollars and kept 61 boxes of waste out of the local landfills. “Throwing away a candy wrapper is like throwing away money,” Sarych said. For more information go to TerraCycle.net, or call Tim Sarych at (320) 532-6848. Photos by Rob Passons.

TerraCycle is a national and international company that stays local. Sound like a paradox? It doesn’t have to be one. Since there’s usually a big push around “buying local” at the holidays, when everyone is doing more shopping than usual and trying to get the best prices, I started wondering how staying local fits into the plans for a national and/or international company, and how those companies can help encourage consumers to stay local. I’m not talking companies like retail stores, but instead companies like TerraCycle or even those that aren’t often consumer-facing (think, a national film company or a social services company).