Potato Chip Bags and drink pouches: TerraCycle operates around the world and turns otherwise unrecyclable goods into useable products such as fence made from drink pouches, recycling bins from recycled plastics (very clever), Starburst Insulated Coolers made from candy wrappers and more.
MOUNT LAUREL — In September, students and staff at the Countryside Elementary School were anticipating a fifth place prize of $10,000 from a contest put on in conjunction with a partnership between Walmart and TerraCycle.
Because of a phenominal effort, they did much, much better. On Feb. 3, Countryside found out it placed second in the contest, winning $30,000.
The contest, which ended on Dec. 15, entailed a big recycling effort mostly led by the Parent Teacher Organization (PTO) and participant and parent Kate Esaia.
Esaia was heavily involved in getting the kids and faculty at Countryside School on board with the initiative, which included recycling juice pouches, candy wrappers, Ziploc bags, yogurt containers and snack bags. The recycled goods eventually will be used to create insulated lunch boxes, park benches and fencing, just to name a few.
St. Gregory's has gone so far as to appoint a "Creation Keeper" to its congregation. Andrew Lane keeps track of the 30 different recyclable categories and sends the collected trash off to companies like Terracycle, which in turn cut the church a check.
The church also recycles phones, cameras, batteries and printer cartridges, which also get a cash return, Lane said.
"Even the people who aren't big on saving the environment like saving money," he said. "This is an effort that could benefit any congregation."
For more information about Georgia Interfaith Power and Light, visit www.gipl.org.
Mary Baldwin College students recently added recycling receptacles from TerraCycle, a New Jersey based company that specializes in hard-to-recycle items, such as Capri Sun pouches, yogurt containers, candy wrappers, chip bags, paper towels, cell phones, tape dispensers, wine corks, writing instruments and ink cartridges.
The Upcycling program at Bluffton-Harrison Middle School received its first check last week. About $40. Not bad for a volunteer program that sells garbage.
Last October parent volunteer Cindy Kanka approached the Bluffton-Harrison school board to request BMS be allowed to participate in the upcycling program offered by New Jersey-based TerraCycle.
TerraCycle uses waste products, juice pouches, cookie wrappers, chip bags, and turns them into new products. So far, they produce about 245 different products from the waste including clipboards, pencil cases and fencing.
Between Halloween and Valentine’s Day, Americans spend over $3.1 billion dollars on candy <
http://www.timeforkids.com/TFK/teachers/ns/article/0,27972,366420,00.html> . Besides having a horrifying effect on the waistline, this type of consumption sends tons of waste to the landfill in the form of discarded candy wrappers.
Last Halloween <
http://www.care2.com/greenliving/give-used-halloween-candy-wrappers-a-second-life.html> , I reported on a unique program created by TerraCycle to increase recycling rates of candy <
http://www.care2.com/greenliving/vegan-organic-fair-trade-corn-syrup-free-candy.html> wrappers called “The Candy Brigade.” This initiative is in full effect again now that Valentine’s Day has passed.
As a fun activity for Valentine’s Day, TerraCycle and Nestlé have designed a unique and fun DIY project <
http://www.care2.com/greenliving/thinking-outside-of-the-candy-bag-a-diy-safe-fun-and-green-halloween.html> suitable for any age. The craft project will turn chocolate wrappers into a “love bracelet” that can be given to friends or family as a gift! (Download the instructions here.) <
http://www.terracycle.ca/31?locale=en-CA> When you’re done with your bracelet it can also be returned through the Chocolate Wrapper Brigade <
http://www.terracycle.ca/brigades/8-Chocolate-Wrapper-Brigade-Sponsored-by-Nestl-Canada> !
Even if you’re not the crafty type <
http://www.care2.com/greenliving/5-fun-eco-crafts-for-kids.html> , you can still return the wrappers free of charge to TerraCycle to be upcycled into items such as tote bags, kites, backpacks and other accessories that will be readily available at major retailers and www.TerraCycleShop.com <
http://www.TerraCycleShop.com> . In addition, packaging that is not suitable for the above items can be used in industrial products such as floor tiles, plastic lumber, etc.
For each wrapper returned through the program, Mars and TerraCycle will pay two cents to a charity of the your choice.Since the program started, TerraCycle’s Brigade Programs have diverted almost two billion pieces of waste from landfills with the help from almost 60,000 locations participating.
Read more:
http://www.care2.com/greenliving/recycle-valentines-candy-wrappers-with-easy-diy-project.html#ixzz1E44pxmcd
Congrats to the East Amwell Public School in Ringoes, which just won $50,000 in a recycling contest. And Countryside Elementary in Mount Laurel, which raked in $25,000.
And all for collecting a few glue bottles, toothpaste types, drink pouches and chip bags.
Okay, it was more than a few. A whole lot more than a few. It was 1.6 million.
Walmart and Trenton-based Terracycle <
http://www.terracycle.net> , a company that seeks new uses for stuff that would otherwise be discarded, put out the call last fall, challenging schools to get involved in its "Brigade" program. Through it, schools can collect any or all of 35 different materials and ship them to Terracycle, where they're made into other products. For that, Terracycle pays the schools two cents for each item and foots the bill for the shipping.
Even the Ivy League isn't immune to dropouts. Tom Szaky -- a Canadian who didn't know that Princeton was in New Jersey until he got to campus -- left college after two years. Szaky was on fall break during freshman year in Montreal when he saw a bountiful weed (yes, that kind of weed) harvest that owed its success to worm and organic waste. The light bulb went off, and he began packaging worm waste in used soda bottles that later ended up on the shelves of
Home Depot and
Walmart. Over the next year, he would head home after class and work on his business, the way college basketball players head to the gym to work on their free throws. He didn't solicit help from professors and says the faculty was "hands-off" in that respect. By his sophomore year,
TerraCycle was taking off -- he had a logo, a name and a diversified body of products -- and it was now or never.
"I would have loved to stay in school, but TerraCycle was starting to grow and I was putting more time into it," says Szaky, 28, also a member of the AOL Small Business Board of Directors. "I took a semester off, which turned into a permanent leave."
The business has evolved since 2003 -- kites made of Oreo wrappers and picture frames wrapped in bicycle chains, part of the company's "upcycling" line of products, helped catapult revenues to $7.5 million in 2009 -- but he still spends time on campus as a guest lecturer and thinks teaching could be a fun career down the road. For now, he's focused on waste, and he's able to indulge his inner dork with the science of composting. Looks like he didn't need that behavioral economics degree after all, much like other dropouts who felt the need to quit school and
carpe diem.
"I have nothing against school," says Szaky, author of
Revolution in a Bottle. "TerraCycle was happening, and that was the decision at the moment."
WALL — The 409 students at Allenwood Elementary School know the lunchtime drill. Grab a plastic foam tray, wait in the lunch line, sit down and eat lunch, then march the recyclable items to the green bins on the table at the front of the room.
Cookie wrappers go in one bin, candy wrappers in another. Snack bags, string cheese wrappers, juice pouches and plastic lunch bags each are placed in separate containers.
And although the plastic foam trays are not recycled, they are scraped, and fruits and vegetables are saved for the compost bin outside. Then the trays are stacked neatly so they take up as little space as possible in the trash container.
