Kraft Foods has added cheese packaging to its TerraCycle collection programs. Called the Cheese Brigade, TerraCycle and Kraft Foods will pay postage and two cents per unit of packaging to a charity of the collector’s choice for any packaging from Kraft Naturals, Philadelphia, Philly, Athenos, Kraft Singles, macaroni and cheese, Easy Mac, Cracker Barrel, Polly-O, Breakstone, Velveeta and Knudsen. TerraCycle finds new uses for the packaging, thereby keeping it out of landfills. Kraft Foods has had previous success with upcycling packaging with its Capri Sun, Nabisco and Lunchables products.

Since the beginning of October, Countryside Elementary School and its Parent Teacher Organization (PTO) have been participating in an ongoing eco-capitalism initiative in conjunction with a partnership between Walmart and TerraCycle. The contest ended Dec. 15 and results will be released in January.

With a little research you can find a green wine, beer or liquor to suit your holiday meal. For example, the Cooper Mountain Vineyard uses excess grape skins and stems for compost. Then, after you finish the bottle, you can send the corks to TerraCycle, where they're recycled into corkboards.

Today, I found TerraCycle Kid's Growing Kit and snapped them up! They consist of a three-pack of used Stonyfield Yogurt cups that have been filled with soil. The cardboard packaging that holds the containers is actually embedded with seeds for either tomatoes or basil, depending on which you pick. The best part? They only cost a $1 each. When I got home and started looking at TerraCycle's site, I found that they have a bunch of products that are made from “upcycled” products - a bike pouch made from energy bar wrappers, a bubble kit made from milk bottles, backpacks and totes made from drink pouches. What an innovative and fun company! Check it out to see if there's something you just can't live without. Of course, if you wanted to go one step further, you could save all your own yogurt containers and break a seed packet out among several cups so that the seeds are already planted and watered for the first time when you hand them out, but these were too convenient for me to pass up.

Why not go for something different and give your child a green gift for Christmas instead? Our top 10 green gifts for kids are eco-friendly and good for the planet; they come in minimal packaging and are made from recycled materials and products. They are also great fun for kids and their friends, encourage imagination, and best of all, each one is under $20!

1) Skittles Boombox1) Skittles, Peanut M&M or Starburst Gummie Boomboxes $18.99
Looking for the perfect gift to light up your child’s face this Christmas morning? Look no further! TerraCycle has joined forces with Merkury Innovations to create these fun “upcycled” boombox eco-speakers. Upcycling takes unused rolls of wrapping material that would otherwise go to waste, and turns it into a variety of useful, eco-friendly products. These boombox speakers are universally compatible with all MP3 players and are battery-free, plus the kids absolutely love them! Choose from Skittles, Starburst Gummies or Peanut M&M versions.

Gadget geeks Upcycled snack bag speakers by TerraCycle and Merkury Innovations are made from recycled snack bags that have been melted into plastic. They’re great for an iPod or MP3 player and are universally compatible and battery-free (they run off of your device’s power supply).

The school is ranked 63rd nationwide among elementary schools in the Drink Pouch Brigade of TerraCycle.

13. Yak Pak Billboard Bag These tough, durable bags are made from recycled billboard vinyl that would normally be thrown away; that not only makes them eco-friendly, but utterly unique.  Comfortably lugging your stuff around while helping keep garbage out of landfills?  Sounds like a win-win to us. Price varies www.terracycleshop.com

Secondly, swing by TerraCycle (http://www.terracycle.net/) to see if you regularly accumulate the nonrecyclable items that they will pay you to send them! Terracycle is an organization pioneered by Tom Szaky and Jon Beyer, two freshmen at Princeton University in 2001, who believe that in nature, there is no such thing as waste. Animals eat each other and become fertilizer for plants that are eaten by animals that are eaten, etc. While Szaky and Beyer don't promote cannibalism, they do promote upcycling, meaning they reuse what we might consider waste.

In a process called “upcycling” products that cannot be recycled are used to make a new product.  Things like drink pouches, chip bags and candy wrappers that would otherwise fill landfills across the U.S. are collected by an industrial waste management company called TerraCycle and re-purposed into backpacks, lunchboxes, tote bags, pencil cases and more.  2 cents from each drink pouch that is collected through a program called Drink Pouch Brigade is donated to charity.