Some of my favorite entrepreneurial companies have very strong social missions: Stoneyfield Farm,  Honest Tea, TerraCycle, Timberland, and Patagonia, to name just a few. Note that these are all extremely successful companies whose CEOS routinely talk about how having a social mission   — whether it’s promoting community-based agriculture, supporting environmental causes, or creating a culture of volunteerism - has helped drive revenue growth, increase employee retention, and provide the company with a brand differentiation strategy.

Gina Adams-Levy of Northville, recently won the national Make A Difference Mom contest sponsored by The Ziploc Brand and TerraCycle. Selected for her dedication to children and outstanding waste reduction efforts in the community, Adams-Levy is being nationally recognized for her achievements.

Representatives from Walmart and TerraCycle <http://mtlaurel.sunne.ws/tag/terracycle/>  are scheduled to visit the Countryside <http://mtlaurel.sunne.ws/tag/countryside/>  School today at 1 p.m. to present a $30,000 check for their second place finish in a statewide recycling contest. The school participated in TerraCycle and Wal-Mart’s Trash to Cash Collection Contest, which ran from October to December 2010. The goal of the program was to collect, clean, package and ship the most trash and waste items, which could eventually be turned into new items by TerraCycle. Cheerleaders <http://mtlaurel.sunne.ws/tag/cheerleaders/>  will be present to get students excited about the award. And while you’re thinking green, vote for Kate Esaia <http://mtlaurel.sunne.ws/tag/kate-esaia/> , the Countryside mom who made the second place finish possible. Esaia is back at it again. She’s one of 19 “Green Parents” vying for a $25,000 prize. The Green Awards <http://mtlaurel.sunne.ws/tag/the-green-awards/> , sponsored by Green Giant, is giving away four $25,000 prizes to one winner in each category. To vote for Esaia’s project, visit https://www.thegreenawards.com/Default.aspx?v=224. <https://www.thegreenawards.com/Default.aspx?v=224>

EAST AMWELL TWP. — Where most people see trash, the township school’s Environmental Club sees cash. That has won $50,000 for the school, the top prize in a TerraCycle-Walmart contest for New Jersey public schools. It did so by blitzing TerraCycle with 52,640 plastic wrappers and containers during the two-and-a-half-month contest. “You can’t get much greener than this!” exclaimed the club’s adviser, fifth-grade language arts and science teacher Sharon Ernst. It all started in 2008 with Ernst casting about for a way to raise money for an Environmental Club for fourth- and fifth-graders. She wanted to do something applicable to stewardship, which ruled out fundraisers such as bake sales. She considered selling seeds, then a parent mentioned TerraCycle, which pays nonprofit groups that send it hard-to-recycle items for reuse or recycling.

Recently, the two clubs have teamed up to introduce new, specially marked recycling bins  in the main cafeteria and the satellite cafeteria for students to recycle gum packages, bottle caps, juice pouches and chip bags.  The school is recycling these items through a recycling company called TerraCycle. “They [TerraCycle] use the bags to make new products such as back packs, pencil pouches, garden fences, biodegradable fiber pots, and pencil pouches,” explained Mrs. Coons.  In addition to being good for the environment, Shen is also making money from their recycling efforts.  For every item recycled with TerraCycle the school receives .02 cents.  Shen is recycling the bottle caps with Aveda, the hair care and beauty products manufacturer.

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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. Many major brands are getting on board with upcycling. Scott tissues and Huggies are sponsoring programs to collect plastic packaging waste from paper products and diapers. And since most oral hygiene products aren't recyclable, Colgate and TerraCycle have partnered to collect used toothbrushes and toothpaste cubes.

Thursday, March 17, 2011. GAINESVILLE, Fla.  — Tom Szaky, co-founder and chief executive officer of TerraCycle, will talk about sustainable innovation and entrepreneurism at 7 p.m. March 22 in the University of Florida’s <http://www.ufl.edu>  Reitz Student Union Grand Ballroom. Szaky’s company specializes in repurposing nonrecyclable post-consumer waste. Titled “Rethinking Waste: Eco-Capitalism in Challenged Economic Times,” his speech will explore opportunities that exist in today’s environment, how to see and capitalize on hidden assets, growing business in a constrained economy and the importance of a big idea. The event is free and open to the public. Szaky started TerraCycle while he was a student at Princeton University after noticing the potential for organic waste to be converted to organic fertilizer through vermicomposting, the process of using worms to compost. Since then, the concept of “sponsored waste” has attracted more than 14 million people in 11 countries. Together they have diverted billions of pieces of waste that are upcycled or recycled into more than 1,500 products. In 2009 TerraCycle, named the most eco-friendly brand in America, opened its first retail location. Since then, the company has expanded internationally. TerraCycle has received the Home Depot Environmental Stewardship Award twice, and Szaky was named the No. 1 CEO in America under 30 years old by Inc. Magazine. He was also featured in National Geographic Channel’s miniseries, “Garbage Moguls,” and is the author of the book, “Revolution in a Bottle: How TerraCycle is Redefining Green Business.” In conjunction with Szaky’s visit, UF is participating in a number of TerraCycle collection brigades on campus. Gator Dining Services now hosts collections of energy bar wrappers, candy wrappers, and lunch kits at POD Market in the Reitz Student Union, Beaty Market, Little Hall Express and the Graham Oasis. The Office of Sustainability is now collecting for the Aveeno Beauty brigade, which collects any brand beauty and personal care tubes, Cheese Packaging brigade, and the Bear Naked bags and wrappers brigade. Szaky’s speech is part of the UF Office of Sustainability’s REthink campaign, which encourages the campus community to consider waste in its many forms and the ways they can REduce, REuse, REcycle, REpurpose, REnew, REstore, and REspond in their own lives. In addition to Szaky’s keynote, the Office of Sustainability will also be hosting a screening of the documentary “Tapped” at 7 p.m. March 23 in Florida Gym Room 280. “Tapped” examines the path of turning a basic resource into a mass-produced commodity, and explores the role and impacts of the bottled water industry on public health, energy and climate change, pollution and social equity. For more information on the event, REthink or these new recycling opportunities on campus, please visit www.sustainable.ufl.edu <http://www.sustainable.ufl.edu> .

  In addition to teaching them about subjects normally covered in school, Silver and Adamczyk are teaching them the importance of helping others. The children in the program have been collecting spare change and Frito Lay potato chip bags to participate in Wish Giving, the core program of One Simple Wish. The potato chip bags are “upcycled” and turned “affordable green products” by TerraCycle in Trenton. Terracycle gives the school 2 cents for each bag. That might not seem like a lot until you see the piles of potato chip bags and realize it can add up to a nice sum of money, which in turn will help someone else. The students  put the chip bags into groups of 25, as a way of working on their counting and math skills, not as a requirement for TerraCycle.

So there I was, happily munching away on a bag of peanut butter M&Ms when I noticed a strange recycling symbol on the edge of the bag. It wasn’t the usual symbol I’m so used to seeing on recyclable items and there was no number anywhere on it. I thought to myself: “What the heck is this and how does it fit into the Reduce, Reuse, Recycle plan? A quick web search later and I’m at Terracycle.net. Here’s what they had to say about themselves. “TerraCycle’s purpose is to eliminate the idea of waste. We do this by creating national recycling systems for the previously non-recyclable. The process starts by offering collection programs (many of them free) to collect your waste and then convert the collected waste into a wide range of products and materials. With over 14 million people collecting waste in 11 countries together we have diverted billions of pieces of waste that are either upcycled or recycled into over 1,500 various products available at major retailers ranging from Walmart to Whole Foods Market. Our hope is to eliminate the idea of waste by creating collection and solution systems for anything that today ends up in our trash.”