TRENTON, N.J., June 11, in the year of our Lord 2012 – Computer peripherals are now more readily recyclable, thanks in part to TerraCycle’s Keyboard and Mouse Brigade®. Anyone can send in their broken, outdated, or extra keyboards, mice and webcams for recycling into anything from park benches to lapdesks, compliments of Logitech and TerraCycle®. This is the first collection program for computer peripherals that provides both an incentive for collecting and free shipping from anywhere in the U.S. Participants receive two points for every item they collect through their Brigade and send to TerraCycle. The points can be put toward charity gifts or converted to cash for donation to a charity or school of the participant’s choice. The program is ideal for small to medium sizes business, corporations, schools and even families.

“Go green.” “Be environmentally friendly.” “Reduce your carbon footprint.” These statements are everywhere, but how do we implement these ideas and make lifestyle changes. As World Environment Day and World Oceans Day approach on June 5 and June 8, respectively, we’ve put together a few ways to get involved that can help make a difference. This year, World Environment Day focuses on the changes we can make to reduce our energy consumption. To help with this effort, many companies are creating energy efficient gadgets, economically friendly alternatives and alternate power sources. Logitech’s newest keyboard, the Logitech Wireless Solar Keyboard K760 does just this – it’s powered by light, both low light and lamp light, indoors and out. In fact, if the world switched to solar keyboards, 828,000,000 AA batteries would be kept out of landfills annually, and if these were laid end-to-end, they would encircle the earth at its equator. You can reduce your carbon footprint by using products charged by solar power, replacing a regular light bulb for a CFL, or waiting a few extra minutes to turn on your lights in the evening. Every little change made can have an impact.

In 2009 a parent volunteer at St. Paul’s Lutheran School in Glen Burnie saw an advertisement for a company called TerraCycle. Its “Get cash for trash” headline caught her attention, and before you could say, ‘Sounds too good to be true,’ there was a bin in the school cafeteria for the students to deposit their empty juice pouches at lunch. Since then, the school has collected over 70,000 juice pouches and recycles an average of 1,000 pouches per week during the school year. Founded in 2001 by Tom Szaky, TerraCycle began upcycling various products around 2007. An initiative that started with drink pouches, today the company offers more than 40 Brigades® that collect what was previously non-recyclable or difficult-to- recycle waste. A brigade is simply the term TerraCycle uses to designate its donations—so there is, for example, the Yogurt Container Brigade, the Cheese Packaging Brigade, and the Candy Wrapper Brigade. St. Paul’s initally joined the Drink Pouch Brigade. Most of the brigades are free for participants and include free shipping as well as a donation for each piece of waste recycled.

TerraCycle, the company that got its start selling compost in recycled drink bottles, recently launched a Keyboard and Mouse Brigade <http://www.terracycle.net/en-US/brigades/keyboard-and-mouse-brigade.html>  that pays schools for things like old keyboards, mouse, and Web cams. As an additional incentive for participation, TerraCycle’s corporate partners have stepped up to offer grants and donations. Last year, Wal-Mart offered $125,000 in grants to the top-collecting schools in all of TerraCycle’s brigades, according to vice president of global communication Albe Zakes. One school used their grant funds  <http://morristowngreen.com/2011/03/18/woodland-school-celebrates-st-patricks-day-with-10k-of-green/> specifically to purchase classroom technology.

Mark Fritzler, 8th grade, left, and Zack Parman, 7th grade, right, count the recycled Capri Sun juice concentrate drink during her lunch hour at St. Elizabeth School in Reese. Students are encouraged to recycle their Capri Sun drink containers after use for a school recycling program. REESE — Just by eating lunch, students at St. Elizabeth Area Catholic School are fundraising for their school. The students separate their Capri Sun pouches from the rest of their waste and send the popular juice boxes to TerraCycle, who in return give the school $0.02 for every juice pouch recycled. St. Elizabeth is among 40,000 organizations participating in the TerraCycle program. After two weeks of lunches, St. Elizabeth collected about 270 juice pouches, said Gabriela Marguery, school principal. They have participated in the program for eighteen months. While the $5.40 collected does not seem like much raised over two weeks, Marguery said, but the amount adds up. “With $5, there’s something we can do,” she said. “It helps pay for a field trip. The important thing for them is you’re recycling and helping the school.” The school has even incorporated recycling into their curriculum, with a “Take Care of God’s Creation” unit. Luke Holtz, son of Nicki and Todd Holtz of Reese said he brings a juice pouch nearly every day for the school’s fundraiser. “(Recycling) is fun, you can help pick up at your house,” he said. Alyssa Brow, the daughter of Todd and Cheryl Brow of Buena Vista Township said she recycles her juice pouches at school, and her food and canned goods at home “so it doesn’t make the world dirty.” The recycling program at St. Elizabeth Area Catholic School doubles as a fundraiser. The students separate their Capri Sun juice pouches from the rest of their refuse and each pouch generates 2 cents for the school. The day this was filmed, the school earned $5.40 from the 270 pouches over a two-week period. Zack Parman, son of Kathy and Stan Parman of Bridgeport Township, a 7th grader at the school helps count the recycled packages every two weeks. He said he doesn’t mind helping out because fundraising ultimately helps the school, paying for field trips, balls and lighting in the gymnasium. “We partner with these companies, these brands, to provide a solution for their packaging at the end of its life,” said Lauren Taylor, director, U.S. public relations for TerraCycle. The company partners with many companies like Kraft Foods, Frito Lay, Revolution Foods, Bare Naked, Colgate, Elmers and Logitech. They recycle and “upcycle” the discarded packaging. Recycling turns the product into something new and unrecognizable from its original form, but upcycling creates something recognizable from a product’s original form, like a Capri Sun purse or pencil case, or a backpack made out of chip bags. “We have a lot of schools that participate, but anyone can get involved,” Taylor said. “Offices, community groups, anybody can get involved to make a difference.”

A few weeks ago, we asked Bag The Box fans what they’d like to ask TerraCycle CEO Tom Szaky in a no-holds-barred Q&A. “Trash-talk” ensued! Here are Tom’s answers to your trashy questions: When I started TerraCycle ten years ago, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. On an entrepreneurial level, I did have some idea, but on an eco-level, it was not so. As I became more involved in upcycling and recycling, I learned more about trash than I ever realized I would! TerraCycle now processes trash from Logitech electronics to Mars candy wrappers and donates an incredible amount of money to charity every year thanks to our collection Brigade participants. Since we have lots of programs, and lots to recycle, people have lots of questions. The Malt-O-Meal and TerraCycle social networks teamed together to ask you all for your questions, and we did our best to choose some good ones.

Much remains to be done reduce our generation of e-waste.  TerraCycle is one company taking steps in the right direction.  The New Jersey-based firm, partnering with Logitech, has launched the Keyboard and Mouse Brigade.  The program allows users to box up and send TerraCycle unwanted unwanted keyboards and computer mice.  TerraCycle, in turn, promises to churn the discarded equipment into new products.  Customers need to only collect about 20 pieces of equipment per box and TerraCycle offers free shipping via UPS.  In turn, senders can either collect points to redeem as charitable gifts or have donated to the non-profit of their choice–and they can suggest new uses for the waste that TerraCycle collects.

As new electronics are introduced all the time, the piles of e-waste grow and grow. According to the EPA, the United States on the whole throws out over 2 million tons of e-waste a year, which equals nearly 216 million units. While the 'per-person' impact seems minimal (who throws out multiple keyboards or cell phones a year?) the total numbers speak for themselves. Plus, there must more e-waste than we think. After all, who doesn't have an old monitor or monolithic desk tower in their basement or closet? TerraCycle recently launched a Keyboard and Mice Brigade® with Logitech, which I'm pretty excited about because it opens up a whole new industry for TerraCycle and a new option for e-waste recycling. As something of a tech geek myself, I haven't failed to notice the limited recycling options myself and even what's out there is poorly utilized!

TRENTON — For environmentally savvy people, the only place for a Starburst wrapper or an empty Coke bottle is in a recycling bin. The folks at Terracycle take it one step further. Terracycle is working with The North Face, a retailer of rugged outdoor apparel, to recycle the clear plastic bags used in packaging. The company just cemented a deal to recycle 2 million plastic bags a year collected from 20 North Face stores. “These bags are a huge problem in the industry, and unless there is a recycling solution, they get thrown away,” said Lauren Taylor, spokeswoman for Terracycle.