The North Face in Peabody, a supplier of outdoor apparel, equipment and footwear, has partnered with upcycling and recycling pioneer TerraCycle to keep plastic polybags, used to protect apparel through distribution and transit, out of landfills. "The North Face Polybag Brigade" will divert 100 percent of the polybag packaging waste at the 20 The North Face retail stores in the United States where #4 plastic bags are not readily recyclable.

Welcome back to Rock Roundup, when we take a look back at Council Rock community happenings and give a sneak peek into what's coming up on the calendar. Here's the latest from Council Rock: Newtown Elementary School TerraCycle is a private business headquartered in Trenton, NJ.. which specializes in making consumer products from post-consumer materials, often reusing waste materials that are otherwise difficult to recycle. The Newtown Elementary School community collected close to 20,000 items for TerraCycle recycling during the 2010-2011 school year.

The idea of “going green” has been rolling since the 1970s, and started becoming trendy in the early 2000s when organic food, sustainable products, and eco-friendly everything started popping up. The movement was largely powered by an effort to change the products, habits and sciences we already had order to make our lives less impactful on the planet. While I took notice of this surge in popularity, I never identified myself as an environmentalist. That all changed one day when I noticed how much left over food was discarded in my university’s dining halls and how many bottles, notebooks chip bags etc were thrown away in my dorm halls. I was stunned by the amount of waste. But it wasn’t some sort of eco-guilt I was feeling, it was excitement. Waste made the perfect raw material for building new consumer products because it has little to no cost (theoretically even a negative cost), which would allow a company to make eco-friendly products without charging a premium all while doing something good for the planet. A lifelong obsession with waste began!

REDMOND, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Noetix Corp., a world-class provider of business intelligence (BI) software and services for enterprise applications, today announced it has been selected for King County’s annual list of Best Workplaces for Recycling and Waste Reduction for the third consecutive year. King County’s Solid Waste Division initiated the list five years ago to recognize businesses for strong internal recycling programs and for their commitment to making recycling a priority for their companies. In 2011, 89 businesses, including restaurants, manufacturers, city governments, and a wide variety of others, demonstrated fulfillment of the listing’s criteria and provided individual stories about how successes were achieved. “Noetix and the other businesses on our list have put exceptional recycling programs into place and shown commitment to reducing the amount of waste their company sends to the landfill,” said Karen May, project manager, Recycling and Environmental Services at King County Solid Waste Division. “Their actions help reduce the impacts of climate change and feed recycled materials back into the economy.”

Noetix Corp., a world-class provider of business intelligence (BI) software and services for enterprise applications, today announced it has been selected for King County’s annual list of Best Workplaces for Recycling and Waste Reduction for the third consecutive year. King County’s Solid Waste Division initiated the list five years ago to recognize businesses for strong internal recycling programs and for their commitment to making recycling a priority for their companies. In 2011, 89 businesses, including restaurants, manufacturers, city governments, and a wide variety of others, demonstrated fulfillment of the listing’s criteria and provided individual stories about how successes were achieved. “Noetix and the other businesses on our list have put exceptional recycling programs into place and shown commitment to reducing the amount of waste their company sends to the landfill,” said Karen May, project manager, Recycling and Environmental Services at King County Solid Waste Division. “Their actions help reduce the impacts of climate change and feed recycled materials back into the economy.” To qualify as a Best Workplace for Recycling and Waste Reduction, companies must meet at least 10 criteria from a list of more than 30 good business recycling practices that range from placing recycling bins by every desk to collecting food scraps for composting.

Kraft Singles, America’s favorite brand of American cheese, has scored another money-saving season with Minor League Baseball, offering a deal at the ballpark beginning this spring. From Apr. 12 through Sept. 6, 2011, families can enjoy more of America’s favorite pastime for less with Kraft Singles’ “Tuesday Night Tickets” promotion at most Minor League Baseball parks nationwide. As part of Kraft Singles’ ongoing commitment to providing value to consumers, families will enjoy huge savings on a classic summertime outing. To enjoy the savings and the fun, fans simply bring any Kraft Singles package wrapper to the ballpark box office on Tuesday nights, buy one ticket and get another ticket free courtesy of Kraft Singles.

Here's a unique freebie, linking hiking and recycling. A company called Terracycle has taken on the challenging problem of how to recycle the non-recyclable waste which any hiker generates. Examples: juice boxes, Neosporin tubes, and my personal favorite: energy bar wrappers. I don't know about you, but I feel a little twinge of guilt when I come back from a hiking trip and throw all of my foil lined pouches and wrappers into the garbage can. Living in Seattle, a city which takes recycling VERY seriously, it's a shame to have to throw away anything. Now there's a solution, regardless of where you live! It's called the Terracycle's Energy Bar Wrapper Brigade.

Through a program called TerraCycle, fourth grade student Julia Kourtney spearheaded an effort that earned her school hundreds of dollars. By Lauren Evans | Email the author | 12:30pm TerraCycle uses discarded packaging materials to make items such as tote bags and pencil cases. TerraCycle uses discarded packaging materials to make items such as tote bags and pencil cases. Like many of her classmates, Julia Kourtney, a fourth grader at P.S. 94, was already an avid recycler. But when she discovered there was money to made from her empty Capri Sun juice pouches, she started collecting those, too. Linda Kourtney, Julia's mother, said her daughter noticed the logo for TerraCycle, an organization that collects everything from chip bags to old cell phones, emblazoned on her lunchtime juice pouches, and became intrigued by the company's offer of two cents for every emptied pouch that gets mailed in. "She kept bringing the pouches home saying 'Mom, they're two cents!'" Kourtney said. "We asked the principal if we could do this sort of thing, and she said 'sure.'" Linda and her daughter placed cardboard boxes around the school grounds, in which students tossed their empty Capri Sun pouches. The younger Kourtney routinely empties the pouches from the boxes and sends them back to TerraCycle. Last year, Kourtney's efforts earned the school a whopping $660, much of which will be donated to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. The rest will go back to P.S. 94, to be divided between funding for the school's science department and a party for the students involved in the recycling program. Once the pouches reach the TerraCycle plant, they are either upcycled—meaning they're converted into products like tote bags or backpacks—or recycled into construction materials like composite lumber or flooring, said TerraCycle's public relations intern David Smith. According to TerraCycle's website, the organization has collected 95,095,977 pouches through the program. But to the students at P.S. 94, though, there's nothing remarkable or radical about their efforts. "The kids are just really interested," Kourtney said. "They recycle in the school anyway. It was really normal for them to just put the pouches in a separate bin.”

Recycling is a positive action that needs to become more prevalent. However, people should not forget that it is last on the list (reduce, reuse, recycle) for a reason. Since recycling is a process that converts products made from specific materials back into their raw form to be used in the production of new goods, it is only feasible in certain cases. Unfortunately, it is often cheaper (in money and energy) to create new items from scratch. Therefore, reducing the generation of waste and reusing old merchandise for different purposes are both vital tools needed for sustainable living. Upcycling is a combination of the two. Unlike recycling, upcycling leverages the basic material of an object and its physical form. For instance, melting down a bag of chips (after eating the chips, of course) and using the plastic toward the generation of a toilet seat is a form of recycling. This sort of process usually produces downcycled material, meaning it is of lesser quality. In contrast, using the bag as a waterproof wallet (snack size) or purse (family size) would be considered upcycling. Upcycling is an essential combatant against the ever-growing amount of waste in the world, and is most effective through mass organization. Enter, TerraCycle. TerraCycle, headquartered in Trenton, N.J. but active on at least three continents, has established a collection program for traditionally non-recyclable waste that can be converted into a variety of consumer products available for internet purchase or at major retailers such as Home Depot and Whole Foods. The aim of the company is to eliminate the concept of waste by facilitating a status quo of reuse. Any school, community organization or company can sign up online, start collecting specific items (see Brigades), mail them in for free and earn cash or points. For some environmentalists, the idea of partnering with Walmart and other large retailers may be hard to swallow. When asked of any such criticisms, David Smith of Terracycle echoed the company's CEO in his response. The companies we work with are creating sustainable value in ways never before considered, creating greater brand awareness while keeping their products out of landfills. Our mission is to eliminate waste. Working with large producers is the most effective way to do this. Advertisement And their partnerships have proven to be valuable. Currently, one of TerraCycle's powerfully beneficial strategies is taking place in school cafeterias. This past year lunchtime waste was reduced at Lawrence Intermediate School (LIS) in New Jersey through the collection of Capri Sun drink pouches and Frito-Lay chip bags. The LIS recycling campaign – run by a group of sixth-graders – raised over 6000 points, $60 of which was put toward sustaining the program. The remainder was used to provide needy families with clean drinking water, food and school supplies. Similar efforts are now proudly under way in the bay area, at such locations as the Clarendon School, Cornerstone Academy and Glen Park School. These programs not only provide environmental and social benefits, but also serve to educate children on the importance of their future role as stewards of the planet. You can practice upcycling without being as resourceful as MacGyver, extremely creative, or a lover of second-hand shopping. Rather (or in addition), take advantage of the fact that you, or someone you know, has kids. Collection brigades can be facilitated by a school faculty member, classrooms, or an entire grade. Spread the word about TerraCycle's partnership with schools and get involved. Your local school can join at any time, but there are a number of summer incentives for getting started immediately.

Fourth of July is synonymous for cookouts and fireworks but after all the revelry has passed, hosts are left with piles of trash to tackle. TerraCycle has a solution for getting rid of all the non-recyclable waste from the Fourth and other summer parties through its collection program, the TerraCycle Brigade program. Anyone can send non-recyclable packaging from summer events – such as chip bags, napkin wrapping or plastic cups – to TerraCycle free of charge to be recycled or even repurposed into new, useful and innovative products. In addition to repurposing the waste, individuals that send waste to TerraCycle earn two cents per item for a charity of their choice – and there are plenty of great causes right here in Ashburn and Loudoun County. The program provides a great way for people to keep garbage out of the local landfill and give it another use.