The Evening Star 4-H Club is currently part of the Capri Sun Drink Pouch Brigade, a program that pays schools and non-profit organizations to collect otherwise-non-recyclable waste that would normally go to a landfill. Working with a recycle company called TerraCycle, the 4-H members have been collecting Capri Sun pouches, gum and candy wrappers, toothbrushes, toothpaste tubes, tape dispensers, and glue bottles, which they then send in for recycling.

Hi, kids!  Have you heard of TerraCycle?  TerraCycle is the first company to create every part of its recycled products from trash.  For example, TerraCycle takes empty juice pouches and chip and candy bags and makes them into stylish totebags, purses, and cell phone holders.

Você, o meio ambiente e as empresas ganham!

Here is something totally cool I just found out about!  TerraCycle <http://www.terracycle.net>  is the world’s leader in the collection and reuse of non-recyclable post-consumer waste. TerraCycle works with over thirty major brands in the U.S. and in a growing number of other countries to collect used packaging and products (chip bags, candy wrappers, juice pouches, pens, toothbrushes, etc.) that would otherwise be destined for landfills.

TerraCycle has a more unusual model. It collects all kinds of hard-to-recycle stuff by mail — drink pouches, candy wrappers, plastic bags, wine corks, toothpaste containers — and then turns them into other things. “In 2011, you’ll see a playground made out Capri Sun and Honest Kids drink pouches,” said Jo Opot, TerraCycle’s vice president of business development. Consumers who send trash get rewarded with donations to schools or charities, and they get the psychic satisfaction of knowing that something useful was made out of their garbage. You’d think that  few people would bother to send their trash in the mail to New Jersey–Terracyle’s home base–but the company says 12 million people have participated, returning 1.8 billion items. The company gets paid by brands whose products it recovers, by manufacturers who buy its materials and by marketers who use its logo on finished products. There’s lots more about this all works at the TerraCycle website, here.

Kids and faculty over at Old Pueblo Children's Academy have taken to recycling all of their used-up Capri Sun pouches through a company called TerraCycle. As of Oct. 21, the students have helped to keep 8,221 pouches out of landfills, and raised $164 for their school.  Nationwide, 50 million drink pouches have been recycled so far. That's the weight of 20 school buses, and the length of 480 football fields.

A coordenadora Regina comemorou a notícia e afirma que o resultado é um incentivo a mais para continuarem desenvolvendo projetos como este.

A parceria com a TerraCycle, empresa pioneira em upcycling – a transformação de resíduos em produtos utilizáveis – foi a solução encontrada pela marca Choco Lovers para atender aos cuidados ambientais do pós-consumo.

Terracycle <http://www.terracycle.net/> has so many great things that they make! For my review they sent me this great messenger bag! Terracycle is giving the lunch bag above to one lucky Songberries Follower! To enter please go to Terracycle <http://www.terracycle.net/> and look around, come back here and in a comment tell me comment something you learned. Make sure you’re a follower!

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.