Sprout, the organic baby food brand co-founded and created by Executive Chef and father, Tyler Florence, and TerraCycle, the world’s leader in the collection of non-recyclable and difficult-to-recycle packaging, are thrilled to announce the Protecting the Planet for Baby contest! Sprout and TerraCycle are asking parents WHY they are protecting the planet for the sake of their children. Maybe Mom was really inspired by a trip to Yellowstone and wants her baby to have the same experience? Maybe Dad struggles with asthma and is wants his daughter to have cleaner air to breathe? The reasons and ways parents are going green are wide and varied, but TerraCycle and Sprout want to hear about them all!

TerraCycle is teaming up with Garnier’s Cleaner Greener tour as part of their Personal Care and Beauty Brigade program. Get free samples of Garneir's new biodegradable Pure Clean haircare line at the Walmart at 1521 North Cockrell Hill Road in Dallas, May 25-27 from 10am to 6pm. Also take the opportunity to drop off any haircare, skincare or cosmetic packaging to be recycled by TerraCycle and register for their Personal Care and Beauty Brigade program. Learn about how personal care products affect the environment and how to make a positive difference in your daily routine.

  Another PS product maker, Solo Cup Co. of Lake Forest, Ill., also launched a recycling initiative last month, teaming with TerraCycle Inc. of Trenton, N.J., which works with schools and nonprofits to recycle snack-food packaging. Solo will make a 2-cent donation to schools, nonprofit groups or Keep America Beautiful for each trademarked Solo Squared PS drinking cup that is collected and sent, at Solo’s cost, to TerraCycle, which turns the recycled material into benches, playground equipment and other outdoor products.

I was contacted by Sprout and Terracycle to let my readers know about an exciting contest they are holding.  The details are below! Sprout, the organic baby food brand co-founded and created by Executive Chef and father, Tyler Florence, and TerraCycle, the world’s leader in the collection of non-recyclable and difficult-to-recycle packaging, are thrilled to announce the Protecting the Planet for Baby contest! Sprout and TerraCycle are asking parents WHY they are protecting the planet for the sake of their children. Maybe Mom was really inspired by a trip to Yellowstone and wants her baby to have the same experience? Maybe Dad struggles with asthma and is wants his daughter to have cleaner air to breathe? The reasons and ways parents are going green are wide and varied, but TerraCycle and Sprout want to hear about them all! Email contest@teams.terracycle.net and tell us about it, in 250 words or less, for the chance to win a month’s supply of Sprout Organic Baby Food, a TerraCycle bag, and $100 for a green project. Three runner-ups will receive prize packs, too! For more info, please see HERE.

According to Heather Seeburger, Portage Central Elementary parent and program initiator, the school's largest effort toward helping the planet has been collecting items for Terracycle, a small company based in New Jersey that takes items such as Capri Sun pouches, chip bags, pens, and candy wrappers, and turns them into a usable product. With each item collected, the school receives two cents.

The playroom dollhouse fitted with model solar panels and a rain barrel gives one clue about the Circle of Life Cooperative Preschool's approach to conservation. The recycling bins and compost piles only confirm the Frederick preschool is the sort of place where a banana peel doesn't go to waste. The school's efforts were acknowledged on Friday, when it earned a title as one of America's greenest classrooms. Parents entered Circle of Life in a competition sponsored by Malt-O-Meal cereal and TerraCycle. They were surprised to learn the small school was one of the top 10 vote-getters on Facebook. Based on "green criteria," a panel of judges chose three first-place winners and a grand prize winner from the final 10 contenders.

  When you look at community playgrounds, the last thing you’d assume those playgrounds are built from is flip flops. But Old Navy and TerraCycle are partnering together in a program that makes that happen. The Flip Flop Replay program facilitates the recycling of old flip flops to build community playgrounds. It’s all part of a national recycling program. Now through May 21, Old Navy shoppers can participate in Flip Flop Replay by depositing used flip flops in collection bins at local Old Navy stores.

  The Flip Flop Replay program facilitates the recycling of old flip flops to build community playgrounds. It’s all part of a national recycling program.  Now through May 21, Old Navy shoppers can participate in Flip Flop Replay by depositing used flip flops in collection bins at local Old Navy stores.  TerraCycle, an international upcycling and recycling company that encourages consumers to rethink waste, will recycle the flip-flops and used them to construct playgrounds to be donated to communities around the United States. It’s the first time a national retailer has initiated this kind of effort to collect and recycle flip flops.

What’s going on? Consultants and and pioneers like Terracycle’s Tom Szaky and Method’s Eric Ryan have been quick to seize on the "authenticity gap." Only inauthentic ecofriendly cleaning products are failing; their "Light Green" consumers are more fickle, more price sensitive, not truly committed to the sustainability movement. By contrast, "Dark Green" consumers are more educated, more committed, more affluent and thus more inclined to stick with “pure play” brands that deliver both value and values.

Morton suggested going through the national TerraCycle recycling program, which diverts billions of pieces of garbage from landfills and incinerators by either recycling or “upcycling” them into new products. For example, juice pouches can be turned into pencil cases and potato chip bags can be made into trash cans.