Clayton Snyder, who graduated in June from Lock Haven University, participated in a study abroad program, spending February to June in South Korea.   Snyder, a senior recreation management major with a concentration in environmental/international studies, had received a $4,000 Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship to study in South Korea. The son of Bob and Kim Snyder of Lebanon, Snyder is a 2008 graduate of Cedar Crest High School.   In South Korea, he attended Chungnam National University in Daejon, where he studied the Korean language and culture.   The Gilman International Scholarship Program is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and is administered by the Institute of International Education. Recipients are chosen by a competitive selection process.

WASHINGTON (WUSA) -- We all know that recycling our paper, plastic, and glass is important for the enviornment. But what if I told you that you that recycling certain items could earn you some cold hard cash? Investopedia gives us three things that you can recycle for cash back or a tax deduction: 1. Gift Cards.  We all have received that gift card for a holiday gift or birthday present that we feel like we will never use. If you have one of these lying around the house, Gift Card Rescue is a service that will take your unused gift card and send you a check for it. If you have a gift card that you have used up or it's outdated gift card, Gift Card Recycler will take those and give you points for the number of cards you send in. 2. Cooking Oil.  It may seem odd, but there are several recycling centers, bio-diesel firms, and individuals that will pay you for your used cooking oil. Prices range from 33 cents to 66 cents a gallon. 3. Trash. TerraCycle is a company that will pay you for your garbage. A program that works best with schools of non-profit organizations, TerraCycle will donate money to your cause for every piece of trash you send the organization, and they will even pay for shipping. We're talking candy wrappers, juice boxes, ink jet containers, old cameras -- that kind of thing.

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- The Center for the Performing Arts has taken candy wrapper collecting to a new level. As part of a “green” initiative aimed at diverting waste from landfills while providing clean drinking water to people in developing countries, employees of the performing arts center hoped to collect 600 wrappers during the 2011-12 season, but the center has greatly exceeded its goal, collecting 6,420 wrappers.   A TerraCycle program called the Candy Wrapper Brigade awards points for each wrapper collected. The points can then be redeemed for various charitable causes. The original goal would have provided clean water for one year to four people. Collecting more than 6,000 wrappers, however, means that clean water will be made available to 43 people.   “The Center for the Performing Arts Green Team is happy to have so greatly exceeded our original goal,” said Shannon Bishop, a member of the committee that organized the collection. “In doing so, we have not only diverted thousands of wrappers from ending up in our local landfill, but we have also provided clean water to families in developing countries where access to a clean water supply is extremely limited.”

• We use our brands as catalysts for change and encourage consumer participation in sustainability. We committed to reduce packaging use 10 percent by 2015, and we partnered with TerraCycle to produce affordable, high-quality consumer goods by repurposing surplus and used packaging from more than 20 Mars brands, including M&M'S, Snickers and Twix.

 

When I was young, an older schoolmate told me paper gum wrappers were edible. She said that if you pop the whole stick in your mouth, wrapper and all, the paper would just disappear. Later that night, I unwrapped a stick of gum and suspiciously put only the wrapper in my mouth. I waited and chewed a bit, but it didn’t dissolve. It seems my schoolmate was either mashing up the paper wrapper in the stick of gum and didn’t notice a difference or she was just messing with me. I thought of the gum wrapper when I read this article about WikiCells, a form of edible packaging developed by Harvard professor David Edwards. Unlike the flavorless, “disappearing” gum wrapper, WikiCells add flavor and nutrients that compliment whatever is contained inside. According to WikiCells, “This skin may be comprised primarily of small particles of chocolate, dried fruit, nuts, seeds, or many other natural substances.” They are mainly used to package soft foods, such as ice cream, yogurt, cheese or beverages. This got me thinking about using edible packaging for more than just soft foods. A lot of things have been made in edible versions – necklaces, tableware, under garments, even shoes – but they are mostly novelty items or prototypes that haven’t taken hold in a meaningful way.

When I was young, an older schoolmate told me paper gum wrappers were edible. She said that if you pop the whole stick in your mouth, wrapper and all, the paper would just disappear. Later that night, I unwrapped a stick of gum and suspiciously put only the wrapper in my mouth. I waited and chewed a bit, but it didn’t dissolve. It seems my schoolmate was either mashing up the paper wrapper in the stick of gum and didn’t notice a difference or she was just messing with me. I thought of the gum wrapper when I read this article about WikiCells, a form of edible packaging developed by Harvard professor David Edwards. Unlike the flavorless, “disappearing” gum wrapper, WikiCells add flavor and nutrients that compliment whatever is contained inside. According to WikiCells, “This skin may be comprised primarily of small particles of chocolate, dried fruit, nuts, seeds, or many other natural substances.” They are mainly used to package soft foods, such as ice cream, yogurt, cheese or beverages. © TerraCycle This got me thinking about using edible packaging for more than just soft foods. A lot of things have been made in edible versions – necklaces, tableware, under garments, even shoes – but they are mostly novelty items or prototypes that haven’t taken hold in a meaningful way.

Get ready for Back to School with these eco-friendly TerraCycle school supplies. Each one is upcycled from common trash items you might find in any classroom or cafeteria such as drink pouches, chip bags and granola bar wrappers. Not only are TerraCycle products fun, affordable and good for the environment, they also have a story. Each one begins life as garbage. TerraCycle pays schools and charities to collect their trash and send it in, free of charge. For every item return TerraCycle donates 2 cents to a local school or charity. This prize pack contains a Capri Sun backpack and lunchbox, a Mars candy notebook and a Stride notepad.

I speak for many of our eco citizens and dedicated environmentalist when I say that it pains me to throw anything away, but unfortunately, there are just some things that just can’t be recycled. Chip bags, candy wrappers, tape dispensers and used pens all have to go into the trash… or normally would… Thanks to the company TerraCycle, hard-to-recycle items like those listed above are not trashed, but are actually recycled, or even upcycled. TerraCycle partners with the companies that produce these items, and works with them to create an environmentally friendlier end of life- which means that for many of them, they are turned into something completely new-for example, pens and sharpies are turned into dry erase marker holders, and cookie wrappers are turned into backpacks. Awesome, right? Wait- it gets better.

A recycling revolution is going on through the halls of North Andover Middle School. Students, teachers and other staffers have cut the volume of trash from the cafeteria by more than half, according to Craig Richard, one of the teachers who helped get the program going. The three lunch periods at the school used to produce around 30 bags of trash per day, Richard said. "Now it's around a dozen," he said. Tod Workman, school custodian, pointing to a cart that was about half full of trash bags, said it used to overflow with refuse from the cafeteria. The recycling renaissance was spearheaded not by adults, but by two eighth-graders, Douglas Starrett and Harry Ustik, who wrote a letter to the school's online newspaper NAMS Knightly News, in which they took the school to task for throwing away too much trash.

By Rick LeBlanc, About.com Guide One of the challenges in striving to reach zero landfill is what to do with materials that are not readily recyclable. With sufficient volume, there is usually a demand for scrap paper or plastic, or standard 48x40 inch pallets, but what about for other materials? Increasingly, as we push towards diverting more materials from landfills, technologies and infrastructure are developing to address some of these items. The goal is to make more of these exotic materials mainstream recyclables instead. Let’s look at some of these.