Troop 1811 has been working hard to collect wrappers that they can put to positive use. East Meadow Girl Scout Troop 1811 has been working hard to give back to their organization. "We have been collecting Nabisco and Keebler wrappers, along with all candy wrappers and sending them to a recyclable company called Terracycle," Debbie Iadevaio, one of the group's leaders, told Patch via email. "In turn, they donate money to the girl scouts of Nassau County council. This year we also started collecting Elmer's glue containers and sticks." Amanda Skoros is the other leader for Troop 1811. Below is a list of all the girls who have participated in the project.

TerraCycle takes recycling to a whole new level with their recycling brigades program. The company was originally founded in 2001 by Tom Szaky, a then 20 year old Princeton University Freshman. TerraCycle started by producing organic fertilizer (worm poop) in used soda bottles.

This is the third entry in "Full Circle," a series that will be profiling companies and organizations that offer biodegradable and recyclable products or services -- both in the New York City area and beyond. Albe Zakes will admit it. While in school at the University of Colorado, he was a “frustrated environmentalist.” “I felt like too many environmental non-profits [organizations] refused to work with major companies,” he said. “It was always petition, letter-write, protest, and picket instead of coming to the board room table and trying to work with them.”

For today's post during this TerraCycle Refresher week on our blog, I'm sharing a list and description of what items we collect for TerraCycle here at Blue Ridge. Glue Bottles/Sticks Any size Elmer's brand glue sticks and plastic glue bottles are acceptable. Only Elmer's please! We earn $0.02 per item.ri

Youngsters in Jayme Denis’ second-grade class at the Benton Harbor Charter School show off some of the items they are recycling for a profit. John Madill / H-P staff Students learning to keep more waste out of landfills BENTON HARBOR - Two Twin Cities-area schools are finding a little gold in going green with help from a New Jersey-based recycling business. But perhaps more valuable are the lessons, say organizers. "I think it's a worthwhile project for the students to learn that they can take care of the world they live in, and to promote a better way to treat the gifts that we have," said Principal Dave Snyder at Grace Lutheran School in Royalton Township. Grace Lutheran and Benton Harbor Charter School are working with Trenton, N.J.,-based TerraCycle, which specializes in collecting difficult-to-recycle items and keeping them out of landfills. The company contributes cash or gifts for the material school "bridgades" send in. The company pays for postage.

TerraCycle began out of a business plan contest. Tom Szaky wanted to establish a company that would convert waste into fertilizer by feeding it to worms and then utilizing their poop. Apparently he had some success with it previously and wanted to give it a go. I think that is such a completely random idea but certainly helps keep the planet a bit more waste efficient. According to Wikipedia: Upcycling is the process of converting waste materials or useless products into new materials or products of better quality or a higher environmental value. This company makes wallets, bookbags, purses, kites, pencil pouches, picture frames, clocks, flower pots and a ton of other household objects out of materials that would have otherwise been rotting in a landfill somewhere. In the beginning, they were approached independently by Honest Tea, Stonyfeild and Clif Bar who all had problems with the disposal of their product wrappers and containers. This is what triggered their "upcycling" shift and pretty soon they became partners with a bunch of huge names like Nabisco, Capri-Sun and Frito Lay. To collect the waste, they set up programs through partnerships through schools and businesses and popular brands looking to promote more recycling of their packaging. These establishments would have collection boxes set up, specified for particular items that TerraCycle is interested in upcycling. People would put their trash in them and then the bins would be sent off and the trash would be converted into something useful. Garbage Moguls was a reality tv show on TerraCycle that aired a few years back on National Geographic. It followed the unorthodox creative processes that make their company successful. I think that this company is taking giant leaps in a direction that might make our planet last a little longer. It's important that we start working now to ensure that we can continue to live safe and healthy lives here for generations to come.