We've blogged about TerraCycle before but they're continuing to make headlines. If you're unfamiliar with TerraCycle, they donate cash to charities in exchange for your cigarette butts, razors, expired pills, plastic food wrappers, etc, find new uses for them, and sell those products for a profit. See how they're doing all this while turning an enormous profit, after the jump.   TerraCycle already has their trash collecting and recycling operations in six countries and plans to launch in 11 more. TerraCycle is currently a $40 million company but owner Tom Szaky hopes they can become the "Google of garbage", according to an article in the Telegraph.

Until recently, students at Jessie Mae Monroe Elementary School were unfamiliar with the idea of up-cycling. Up-cycling, as explained by Albe Zakes of TerraCycle, is “the process of taking non-recyclable material that can’t be traditionally recycled and find=ng a way to directly re-purpose it into a new product. By doing that, you̵'re giving it a new life cycle thus you’re up-cycling it.” Students at Jessie Mae Monroe Elementary are collecting, sorting, packing and sending drink pouches, chip bags, zipper style bags and Nabisco and Keebler cookie wrappers to TerraCycle. They will receive 2 cents per container for their efforts. Special needs teachers Emma-Lou Edwards and Lindy Hylton are coordinating the ongoing project.