Another gloomy day in Chicago—I can’t wait to go to San Diego next week for the Sustainable Packaging Coalition’s spring meeting! AND, I just booked flights to Rogers, Arkansas, for the Walmart SVN meeting and Expo. Though Dordan is not exhibiting this year, I am excited to see what other vendors are offering and get updated on Walmart’s sustainability initiatives! So I am about half way through TerraCycle CEO Tom Szacky’s book, “Revolution in a Bottle.” It is really, really good, and inspiring! I thoroughly suggest you get yourself a copy today! That which I like so much about his story is his awareness into the economic realities of the market place: one of his main arguments is that the majority of consumers will NOT pay more for a green product; while everyone wants to do well by the environment, few are willing to pay for it. His whole approach, therefore, is to be able to provide green products at a competitive price and performance as those currently on the market. And the best way to do that? Use what is considered waste as your feedstock. BRILLIANT.

One way to go green without costly changes is to take things you would ordinarily throw away and re-use them. Milk crates can become bookshelves and metallic drink pouches can be stitched together to make pencil cases for the kids. This practice is called upcycling and you can either do it yourself or contribute reusable household trash to organizations that convert it into affordable, eco-friendly products. To help, one company is offering consumers a way to reduce their household garbage while earning money for local schools or charities. Through free collection programs called Brigades, upcycling pioneer TerraCycle is collecting and paying for packaging waste from household staples- from the bathroom to the kitchen to the classroom.

Circuit board products featured in green product round up of Scholastic magazine: Parent & Child

Many of the items we use on a daily basis produce a large amount of waste.  Much of our trash comes from food and beverage containers.  You eat a bag of chips, and then that bag sits in a landfill for years.  Other common sources of trash include school and office supplies, small electronics, and shipping materials.  However, there are ways to actually make money from items that normally go straight into the trash. Here are five types of items that you can get paid to get rid of in an environmentally friendly way. 1.        Food and beverage containers Within the last few years, a new company known as TerraCycle has found a creative way to reuse candy wrappers, chip bags, beverage containers, and even wine corks.  They take in these types of trash and then turn them into useable products, such as school and office supplies.  The best part is, TerraCycle will pay you for your trash.  By registering your organization (usually a school, scout troop, or non-profit), you can begin to keep track of what you send to the company.  The price is usually $0.02 per piece of trash, but it all adds up to help produce less trash and raise money for local schools or charities. For more information, visit www.terracycle.net

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Forget recycling. Reusing materials discarded in the manufacturing process is a growing force behind a fresh new industry.      (...) That scale that Looptworks' Hamlin is aiming for is already happening on the post-consumer end of the upcycling market. If Etsy is considered the epicenter of do-it-yourself upcycling, then New Jersey-based TerraCycle takes on that same function in mass upcycling. The company turns actual garbage into hundreds of products, like Oreo wrapper backpacks and bicycle chain picture frames. With a large-scale collection infrastructure developed over the past 10 years, TerraCycle nabs about 1 billion pieces of garbage every quarter that ultimately end up on the shelves of big-box retailers like Target and The Home Depot. Tom Szaky, founder and CEO of TerraCycle, started the operation <http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/219310#>  as a humble provider of worm poop while he was a Princeton University freshman. But over the years the company's increasing fortunes have mirrored the burgeoning opportunities in the green market. In 2009, sales revenue hit $7.5 million; in 2010, it jumped to $20 million. Since January, Szaky has added operations in nine more countries, bringing the total to 20. There's also serious behind-the-scenes innovation happening. Terra-Cycle employs "polymer scientists" who are immersed in figuring out ways to manipulate paper, organics and plastics into materials like a new plastic lumber and textile made from Capri Sun drink pouches. Meanwhile, teams of designers are figuring out how to make jackets from Doritos bags and luggage from energy bar wrappers. "The market is ripe for more innovation," Szaky says. "[Valued] at $12.5 million, TerraCycle is, without any debate, the biggest upcycler in the world. But compared to other industries, that's small--and that means there's way more opportunity."

Forget recycling. Reusing materials discarded in the manufacturing process is a growing force behind a fresh new industry.      (...) That scale that Looptworks' Hamlin is aiming for is already happening on the post-consumer end of the upcycling market. If Etsy is considered the epicenter of do-it-yourself upcycling, then New Jersey-based TerraCycle takes on that same function in mass upcycling. The company turns actual garbage into hundreds of products, like Oreo wrapper backpacks and bicycle chain picture frames. With a large-scale collection infrastructure developed over the past 10 years, TerraCycle nabs about 1 billion pieces of garbage every quarter that ultimately end up on the shelves of big-box retailers like Target and The Home Depot. Tom Szaky, founder and CEO of TerraCycle, started the operation <http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/219310#>  as a humble provider of worm poop while he was a Princeton University freshman. But over the years the company's increasing fortunes have mirrored the burgeoning opportunities in the green market. In 2009, sales revenue hit $7.5 million; in 2010, it jumped to $20 million. Since January, Szaky has added operations in nine more countries, bringing the total to 20. There's also serious behind-the-scenes innovation happening. Terra-Cycle employs "polymer scientists" who are immersed in figuring out ways to manipulate paper, organics and plastics into materials like a new plastic lumber and textile made from Capri Sun drink pouches. Meanwhile, teams of designers are figuring out how to make jackets from Doritos bags and luggage from energy bar wrappers. "The market is ripe for more innovation," Szaky says. "[Valued] at $12.5 million, TerraCycle is, without any debate, the biggest upcycler in the world. But compared to other industries, that's small--and that means there's way more opportunity."

Compostable packaging. Two words that, for much of 2010, brought cringes to the faces of American packaging designers. Why? We all know what a disaster <http://www.treehugger.com/files/2011/02/big-lessons-from-the-sunchips-packaging-fiasco.php>  the first Sunchips compostable packaging launch was, at least in the U.S. It was the first high-profile mainstream effort to do so, and consumers crumpled it quickly because of the high decibel bag. Thankfully, Frito Lay didn’t just call it quits, but instead came back fighting with a newly quieter bag <http://www.packagingdigest.com/article/512905-Ta_da_Frito_Lay_presents_quieter_compostable_SunChips_bag.php> , cautiously being rolled out now. But let’s say that issue gets fixed and other mainstream brands find their courage to go the compostable or biodegradable route, too. There’s a larger problem here which, with for all the showboating about what a silver bullet for CPG these options are, needs to be addressed: It’s a pain in the ass to actually get this supposedly compostable packaging to actually compost! You and I both know this: Unless you happen to have professional level facilities or be the most skilled backyard composter in four states, you simply won’t get the results that people are expecting to happen. And these unmet expectations will lead to a deeper, less vocally expressed disaffection for green products that’s more difficult to address. So what can be done? One option as I see it is to develop curbside compostables collection by all municipalities. Make it as normal as putting your recyclables in the blue bin. Or if that’s not looking feasible under the current infrastructure where you are, have a private company do it in tandem with the current recycling/waste collection. Before you write this off as an impossibility in today’s economy, look at San Francisco’s success <http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/10/mandatory-composting-law-success-san-francisco.php%5D%20in%20implementing%20exactly%20this.%20%5Bhttp://sunsetscavenger.com/residentialCompost.htm>  in implementing exactly this <http://sunsetscavenger.com/residentialCompost.htm> . Yes, it did in part involve phasing in a law that it’s mandatory that all compostables get put in the green bin, which may or may not fly in other places. But what we’d all do well to learn from is how San Francisco has monetized the composting. They’ve made it a desirable, locally sourced material for farmers, gardeners and the increasing number of restaurants that grow their own food and can now further tout their local credentials. Finding customers for compost is much easier than the intricate web of suppliers and buyers of recyclable materials. There’s another solution: You may not know it, but TerraCycle started business making worm compost based gardening products. So yeah, we know a thing or two about composting! With our well established packaging collection Brigades <http://www.terracycle.net/brigades> , we could just as easily begin collecting your company’s compostable packaging. This does two things: It bypasses additional cost to local municipalities to start composting programs for the increasing number of compostable packaging options, and you avert consumer frustration with their home efforts lack of success. More gets successfully composted, and Brigade participants get paid per piece collected, benefitting a place of their choice: their school, community group or a favorite charity/NGO. Or do we need to think beyond composting? Given that sustainability poster child Portland, Oregon, is just now doing tentative testing of curbside compostables collection <http://www.kgw.com/news/local/Portland-Announces-Curbside-Compost-Collection-90796139.html> , it’s clear that this route is going to take a while. We’re happy to do our part, composting packaging and upcycling it, but we’re only part of the answer here. It’s time for you as packaging designers to take the reins, coming up with options that always, always keeps in mind consumers first, along with applicability to current systems, and acceptance by stores that will stock these items. Frito Lay is to be applauded for having taken the initiative, bravely stepping forward as the first mass market food product with compostable packaging. The consumer reaction was unfortunate, but it’s proved a learning experience, both for Frito Lay, and all of you out there working on new, greener packing options. So readers, let’s have it. How can packaging be improved to work better all around? How can we all help composting and the collection of it be as normal and everyday as recycling has become?

People like to have a product just work, and don't want to work to make it work. Even if it's a simple matter of running the tap, screwing in a refill cylinder <http://www.triplepundit.com/2010/07/iq-cleaning-products-the-sweet-spot-of-green-convenient-cheap/> , and off you go, that seems to be too much effort for all but the most dedicated greenies. And when it comes to food products, maybe refilling feels too hippie, and like you're not getting truly fresh, new food?   Does size matter? Could it be that people don't get the mathematics? Perhaps people are still going on the bigger is better, more is more school of consumerism, and when they see a smaller version of something they've bought for years, it's in their minds not worth paying the same price? Or even if it's cheaper, the product somehow seems insufficient and not of equal quality because it's not as big, and the small bit of DIY required makes the product less substantial, less "genuine"? Does it make people feel poor? As much logical sense as using and producing  concentrate-based products may make, maybe it's a case of people feeling like doing so is an indicator to family and friends that they're not well off. Even if they actually are needing to save money (who doesn't?) and it would make sense, is using concentrated products too much of an acknowledgment of that? That said, are concentrated products, outside laundry and juice, destined to go the way Beta videotapes <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betamax> ? Possibly. Or maybe it's time to make the case so compellingly to mainstream society, the products so attractive, coveted even, that concentrated products become just a regular part of people's purchases? Concentrated products need to go from an extra mental step to an "of course" purchase, no leap needed. But how? What needs to change? The products, the people, or the environment? I'm guessing all three. Take electric cars for example: They had to go from kit car geek toy <http://chrisescars.com/what-killed-electric-car-70s/>  in the 70s to an idea "ahead of its time" <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who_Killed_the_Electric_Car%3F>  in the 90s to what looks like exactly the right combination <http://www.revengeoftheelectriccar.com/film.html>  of industry will, consumer interest, and unstable resources for the old way of doing things today. Concentrated products likewise may hit their sweet spot when water becomes as scarce, price volatile and a focus of people's interest as gas has. Readers: What's your thoughts on this puzzle? What needs to happen to make concentrated products front and center with mainstream America? What's been your experience with concentrated products? Let us have it, no holds barred. Read more about reducing waste: Reduce Waste: Lose the Cafeteria Trays <http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/03/reduce-waste-lose-cafeteria-trays.php> Fast Food Trash: How to Reduce Your Waste (Video) <http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/03/fast-food-trash.php> No Pick-Up Means Less Trash <http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/07/no_pickup_means.php>

EcoMom has a variety of natural and organic products available, including non-toxic cleaning products like TerraCycle’s, whose cleaners are derived from organic essential oils and natural plant and mineral extract. The All Purpose Cleaner is non-toxic, bio-degradable, and packaged in a waste stream bottle. Plus, it is safe for use on all surfaces. The Bathroom Cleaner is also non-toxic, but is specially formulated to fight mold, grime and soap scum. This is a huge plus to me since many bathroom cleaners are not safe to use around children. The Window Cleaner is also non-toxic and hypo-allergenic, making it safe to use around children.