While I was reading Daniel Goleman’s book Ecological Intelligence, I was struck by the phrase cradle to cradle. I had heard cradle to grave before, meaning that most of the items we purchase end up in landfills, or essentially the “grave” to sit for endless amounts of time never really going away. The notion cradle to cradle means that everything we buy should in some way biodegrade and go back to nature or be recycled into a new product (Goleman, 2009). My guess is that many of us don’t spend a lot of time thinking about this concept or where our products go after we get rid of them. I was so struck by this notion that products could actually go from cradle to cradle that I started looking into this a little more. A few years ago the PTA at my school decided to start collecting Frito Lay bags for an organization called Terracycle (terracycle.net). Perfect timing. I hadn’t heard of Terracycle at this point, but was looking for a way to get away from the cradle to grave habit. When I looked at the website, I realized Terracycle has a handle on this cradle to cradle concept! They take common household garbage (Frito Lay bags, Mars candy wrappers, etc.) and make new products from it. Backpacks, purses, you name it! I was eager to get started with this school-wide project, so I introduced it to my 5th grade class and for an entire school year we collected Frito Lay bags. This snack seemed to be a class favorite, producing about 5-10 bags per day for snack time! While we never calculated the total amount of bags we collected, I’d have to easily guess it was over 800 bags. Imagine that from just one classroom! I don’t think too many of my colleagues shared my enthusiasm for this project, but I was still happy to do my share. If my calculations are correct, there are about 2 million classrooms in the USA! Wow, could there really be about a billion Frito Lay bags floating around schools in the US?

I recently read an article that claimed our steps to going green, as a country and as a world, have not been as scalable as we imagine. A consumer can’t see the carbon footprint they leave, and this makes it challenging for them to realize how much of a difference they are actually making in cutting back and cleaning our atmosphere. Since the affects of a consumer’s efforts are essentially invisible, it is a challenge to both engage consumers and keep them in engaged in the green movement to be more. People are less likely to be adamant for a cause, or willing to make as big a sacrifice for that they can’t see, touch, and feel the effects of directly. Tangibility makes a difference. It follows logically that to engage consumers, the green movement needs make both the threats and rewards more tangible. Many companies, including TerraCycle partners Capri Sun, Bear Naked, and Clif Bar, rely on consumers to make environmentally friendly choices after they use a product. Instead of simply encouraging consumers to recycle – throw the packaging in a bin and then forget about it forever – they’ve started encouraging upcycling, with which consumers can see their reuse and recycling efforts firsthand.

Center School's recycling program hopes to lessen their footprint and trash. Everyone remembers those delicious juice pouches from Caprisun. They were fun to drink, but did you ever stop to think what happens to them once they get thrown in the garbage? Usually they end up in a landfill, and Chelmsford is doing its part to help. Through working with TerraCycle, a company that has found a way to recycle materials that traditionally are non-recyclable, trash from the town that was previously unrecyclable no longer needs to end up wasting away in a landfill.

The North Face and Terracycle have launched an initiative to improve recycling rates of the poly bags that the outdoor gear brand’s products come shipped in. Terracycle will provide pre-paid postage for green-minded consumers to mail their polybags in. The firm says it will then “upcycle” the bags into consumer products such as park benches and trash cans.

The school works with an East Coast company whose goal is to eliminate waste by not only recycling but upcycling, the process of re-using items close to their original purpose. Students and staff of a Burr Ridge school are stepping up their efforts to be green by focusing on difficult-to-recycle products that, until now, ended up in the school's garbage cans. Trinity Lutheran School sends drink pouches, potato chip bags and cookie wrappers to TerraCycle in New Jersey, which recycles trash typically not recycled. The company has about 45 brigades worldwide of individuals and groups such as Trinity that collect and send garbage.

But a company called Terracycle is on a crusade to reduce waste from all the summer picnics, sports events and all-out parties that produce the hundreds of cups, wrappers, straws, bags, bottles, cans and plastic utensils that take a toll on the environment. They call their waste-reducing and collecting efforts brigades, and you can learn how to take part at www.terracycle.net. “One key aspect of not being wasteful is only using what you need,” said Megan Yarnall, senior publicist for the New Jersey-based organization. “Afterward, people can look at what they have and investigate how they can re-use it.”

Patricia Sturla, experta en imagen, moda y belleza, estará hoy jueves, viernes y sábado en El Paso para promover productos de belleza biodegradables e inocuos para el medio ambiente, sin dejar residuos de jabón, informó una portavoz de la gira The Cleaner Greener (El Limpiador más Verde), en un comunicado de prensa. Con este recorrido, se pretende orientar al público consumidor sobre maneras más amenas y divertidas acerca de la basura y los desperdicios, así como maneras de influir positivamente en el ambiente, agregó la portavoz, en una declaración escrita.

TerraCycle has turned juice boxes into purses and is looking to recycle diapers. But today, the Trenton company is focused on collecting trash and helping a Bucks County school make money.

Since so much emphasis is placed on recycling at this year’s camp, the church found a program called TerraCycle to help. According to its website, the purpose of TerraCycle is to “eliminate the idea of waste by creating collection and solution systems for anything that ends up in our trash today.” During the camp, children will collect old toothbrushes, Capri Sun packages, old ink pens, and chip bags and give them to Greenway Medical, which has an established program. Greenway will then give the items to TerraCycle which will then write a check back to a nonprofit organization of their choice.

Family housing residents already participate in reducing waste in landfills by recycling paper, cardboard, and plastic and glass bottles and containers. Now they have taken a step toward eliminating waste altogether by joining the Colgate Toothbrush Brigade, collecting toothbrushes and toothpaste tubes and packaging. Once thought of as non-recyclable, toothbrushes and toothpaste tubes and packaging can now be collected and converted in to a wide range of products and materials. In partnership with TerraCycle, a company that provides free waste collection programs for hard-to-recycle materials, Balfour Beatty Communities will provide a collection point and donation pick up dates for the used tooth brush items from residents and send them to TerraCycle who will either upcycle or recycle the waste into new eco-friendly products. This eliminates waste in landfills and even reduces the need for new materials to be extracted from the planet. Products that are made from upcycled or recycled materials include such things as park benches, bags and backpacks, gardening supplies, office supplies, and even toys. For every unit of waste collected and sent to TerraCycle, a donation will be made to the Families of the Wounded Fund. All residents have to do to participate is to drop off their toothbrushes, toothpaste tubes and toothbrush packaging in the appropriate bin at the Community Center, 126 Madison Ave. on Fort Eustis. Balfour Beatty and TerraCycle will take care of the rest.