11-03-07--kentcountydailytimes-1

Here’s another way you can help support Seeds of Hope and help out the environment at the same time.  Terracycle is a company promoting Upcycling. Basically, they convert waste materials into new products.  The different products they collect, including kids drink pouches, plastic wrapping of paper towels and toilet/tissue paper, even pens, markers and highlighters that no longer work can be found in the flyers below. Most of them will accept any brand and any size, but there are three that are brand-specific: Elmer’s glue, Starbucks coffee bags, and Kashi products packaging.

SOUTHBOROUGH, MA, October 20 – The teachers at the Woodward Memorial School used to see a lot of Capri Sun drink pouches get thrown away.  Once they signed up to recycle them through a company called TerraCycle, the school began earning two cents for every one of those pouches and became part of a nationwide effort that has just reached an impressive milestone of keeping 50 million pouches out of landfills.  In addition, TerraCycle, which makes affordable, eco-friendly products from packaging waste, and Capri Sun have paid one million dollars to schools and non-profits in return for the recycled drink pouches.

The items will be recycled by Terra Cycle when goals are reached and the program is aiming at collecting more than 500 items from each category each month. Following is the list of items which can be dropped off: Mars or Wrigley brand candy bar wrappers; energy bar wrappers; drink pouches; Nabisco cookie wrappers; Kashi brand wrappers or boxes; toasted chip bags; Bear Naked brand wrappers; wine bottle corks; Aveeno product tubes; Scotch tape dispensers and cores; Frito Lay chip bags; Malt-O-Meal cereal bags or boxes; Elmer's glue; Huggie's brand diaper or pull-up bag packaging; Scott's brand packaging; Neosporin brand packaging; lunchable kits; spread (butter) containers; gum wrappers; cell phones; Colgate brand packaging; yogurt cups; writing instruments; Starbucks coffee bags; plastic bottle lids; and used gift cards

President Bill Clinton got into the topic of trash at the 2010 Clinton Global Initiative recently. It is an important topic. We create tremendous amounts of waste these days, and much of it could be used in a constructive way, rather than polluting our planet. While some companies are trying to be greener and minimize their waste, other companies have made waste the source of their business. Using “waste” as a key input to the products they create, these companies are as green as green gets. TerraCycle is one such company.

President Bill Clinton got into the topic of trash at the 2010 Clinton Global Initiative recently. It is an important topic. We create tremendous amounts of waste these days, and much of it could be used in a constructive way, rather than polluting our planet. While some companies are trying to be greener and minimize their waste, other companies have made waste the source of their business. Using “waste” as a key input to the products they create, these companies are as green as green gets. TerraCycle is one such company.

This past week I purchased a package of Keebler's Sandies Pecan Shortbread cookies.  On the wrapper, I discovered that Keebler has now paired with TerraCycle <http://www.terracycle.net/>  to encourage people to upcycle their cookie wrappers.  As many of you know, I'm a huge fan of upcycling everything I can as I figure the fewer items that end up in landfills the better off we all are. TerraCycle encourages consumers to save more than just cookie wrappers, though.  They have established trash brigades to allow consumers to earn cash for their trash for a school or other non profit group.  Through this program you can save items such as drink pouch containers, candy wrappers, home storage items (such as ziploc bags), yogurt containers, chip bag, and other items, then redeem them for $.02 each to raise money for programs such as schools.  They then turn these items into products like fencing, eco friendly fire starters, windowbox planters and other garden pots, and much more.  Visit their website for more information on this wonderful program.

I'm happy to announce that I am totally becoming a green Queen. Sure I still have my faults. I love to use plastic bags and paper plates but I do recycle them. On the other hand I have tried out eco-friendly recycled plates, bio-degradable bags and many other eco-friendly products! Yet, sometimes I run into some products that the recycle center won't pick up or that could be used somewhere else. That's where Terracycle <http://www.terracycle.net/>  comes in. I first heard about Terracycle through Bare Naked Granola. My husband and I love to eat BN Granola with our yogurt for breakfast. On the back I noticed an ad telling you that you could send in your empty BN bags and they could be upcyled into something new. How about something new and cool! I've seen everything from Backpacks to umbrellas! Here's a little bit more about Terracycle! This video explains it the best and I'm a visual person so I thought I would share. It really helped to clarify it all for me.

You’ve probably seen them in the cereal aisle at the grocery store: bags of bargain cereal with one-off names like Cinnamon Toasters, Apple Zings and Honey Nut Scooters. The titan of bagged cereals, the Minneapolis, Minn.-based Malt-O-Meal, has found a niche in offering cereals almost identical to name-brand products from General Mills, Kellogg’s, Post and Quaker Oats at a reduced price. But where do all those cereal bags go once their sweet contents are consumed? As it turns out, nine Springfield schools collect the bags for recycling – and they make a little cash for their efforts. The Malt-O-Meal Cereal Bag Brigade is a schools-only program sponsored by Malt-O-Meal and run by TerraCycle, a New Jersey-based start-up that pays a pittance for recyclable trash and makes it into new products like kites, durable totes and even fences.

Today consumers are encouraged to buy organic, to grow organic, and to shop from local producers. In defense of Lewiston townspeople, they patiently waited their turn for Harold or John Micheel to plow their garden plots for spring planting. There were scads of vegetables eaten fresh from the garden and canned for the winter ahead. It’s hard to fathom that there’s a $7.4 million company today that makes products entirely out of garbage! You can read about 28-year-old entrepreneur Tom Szaky in April’s Reader’s Digest, in an article by Donna Fenn. Along with his partner Robin Tabor, Szaky is spearheading the new industry dubbed “uncycling.” (Another one for Webster!) Waste comes from “fundraising collection brigades, operated by schools and nonprofit organizations and sponsored by packaged-goods companies like Frito-Lay” (and Kellogg’s and Kraft.) Kraft’s Jeff Chahley reported, “We’ve helped divert 50 tons of waste from going to landfill, and contributed over $250,000.”