Forget, for a moment, the concerns about all the candy most kids carted home from trick-or-treating. Push aside, if you will, the worries about tooth decay, childhood obesity and those extended sugar highs. What about all those wrappers? TerraCycle - a company that hates waste and that has made dealing with it a quirky, funky mission - will gladly take them off your kids' sticky little hands. The New Jersey company is known for its "brigades" in schools and at other nonprofits. These teams collect juice pouches, potato chip bags and more - dozens of otherwise "trash" items - and then send them to TerraCycle, which pays two cents per item.

Forget, for a moment, the concerns about all the candy most kids carted home from trick-or-treating. Push aside, if you will, the worries about tooth decay, childhood obesity and those extended sugar highs. What about all those wrappers? TerraCycle - a company that hates waste and that has made dealing with it a quirky, funky mission - will gladly take them off your kids' sticky little hands. The New Jersey company is known for its "brigades" in schools and at other nonprofits. These teams collect juice pouches, potato chip bags and more - dozens of otherwise "trash" items - and then send them to TerraCycle, which pays two cents per item.

Forget, for a moment, the concerns about all the candy most kids carted home from trick-or-treating. Push aside, if you will, the worries about tooth decay, childhood obesity and those extended sugar highs. What about all those wrappers? TerraCycle - a company that hates waste and that has made dealing with it a quirky, funky mission - will gladly take them off your kids' sticky little hands. The New Jersey company is known for its "brigades" in schools and at other nonprofits. These teams collect juice pouches, potato chip bags and more - dozens of otherwise "trash" items - and then send them to TerraCycle, which pays two cents per item.

Forget, for a moment, the concerns about all the candy most kids carted home from trick-or-treating. Push aside, if you will, the worries about tooth decay, childhood obesity and those extended sugar highs. What about all those wrappers? TerraCycle - a company that hates waste and that has made dealing with it a quirky, funky mission - will gladly take them off your kids' sticky little hands. The New Jersey company is known for its "brigades" in schools and at other nonprofits. These teams collect juice pouches, potato chip bags and more - dozens of otherwise "trash" items - and then send them to TerraCycle, which pays two cents per item.

You may be a pro at squeezing out that final glob of conditioner, the last smear of mascara and the remaining drops of perfume, but do you have an environmentally responsible solution for trashing the empty container? Now you do, thanks to TerraCycle's new Beauty Brigade. Since 2001, TerraCycle has worked to enable responsible disposal and repurposing of difficult-to-recycle products: diapers, cork, laptops, etc.

No matter what kinds of beauty and personal care products you like to use, there’s a good chance you could also use some of those same products to do something good for the environment. TerraCycle is a company that specializes in creating consumer products from post-consumer materials. Garnier, a brand owned by L’Oreal, is partnering with TerraCycle, who is collecting packaging from Garnier and Maybelline beauty products and recycling it, using it to create eco-friendly playgrounds all over the United States. If you use Colgate Wisp and Colgate Oral Care products, TerraCycle is also recycling packaging from those items and creating cool items out of them, like Colgate cosmetics cases, coin pouches, toothbrush cases, and a really nifty retro duffle bag.

1. Download and cut out the bead template. Trace onto your candy wrapper with your marker and cut. Wipe away any marker left on the wrapper. Tip: If you’re candy wrappers are too short for the template, you can always tape them together to make them longer. 2. Place the cut candy strip onto a flat surface with the printed side face down. Lay your toothpick on the widest end and roll it up. 3. Cut tiny little pieces of tape to about 0.5×0.25 inches. Use one of these pieces to secure the end of the rolled bead. 4. Repeat steps 1-3 to make as many beads as you’d like. Then use the beads to create your own jewelry. To make a simple necklace or bracelet, string the beads onto stretchy cord. Good lengths for a necklace and bracelet are 16 inches and 6 inches, respectively. You can also add little seed beads in between the wrapper beads for extra glitz or try your hand at a candy wrapper cuff style bracelet. Looking for other things to do with your candy wrappers? Sign up for TerraCycle’s candy-wrapper brigade. Collect and send in your wrappers, and earn money for your favorite nonprofit.

Wilson Recycling has partnered with Habitat for Humanity to recycle candy wrappers. Wilson is working with a national organization, TerraCycle, to recycle candy wrappers with donation and all proceeds will go Habitat locally. For more information, contact Wilson Recycling (462-4444 or www.wilsonrecyle.com) or Habitat for Mason County. Phone numbers are 426-8134 in Shelton and 205-3250 in Belfair. Or check out www.habitatmasonwa.org.

- This is WAY beyond my skill level, but here are directions on how to make an awesome purse out of candy wrappers! - Martha Stewart has an easy way to make light-switch plate covers using candy wrappers. Fun for a kitchen, kid's bedroom, or playroom! Lastly, if DIY doesn't appeal to you, learn more about TerraCycle's Candy Wrapper Brigade. You can recycle candy wrappers from Mars®, Wrigley®, and Cadbury®.

The Green Team here at Shaver's Creek is dedicated to finding ways to conserve resources and divert garbage that goes to landfills. This year, we got rid of our trash dumpster in favor of sorting ALL of our commodities so that they can be recycled or composted. The results of our efforts are obvious from this photograph of Rob Andrejewski, leader of zero waste efforts, single-handedly holding the entirety of our "trash" generated Saturday at our Fall Harvest Festival: Over 500 people visited Shaver's Creek that Saturday, and most of what slipped through our sorting threshold were juice boxes! Zero Waste Czars (AKA volunteers wearing awesome new t-shirts donated by Penn State's Office of Physical Plant Waste Management Team) helped visitors sort recycling and compost into our Zero Waste Zambonies (recycling stations on wheels) and inform folks of neat projects like TerraCycle.