Many major brands are getting on board with upcycling.  Scott tissue and Huggies are sponsoring programs to collect plastic packaging waste from paper products and diapers. And since most oral hygiene products aren’t recyclable, Colgate and TerraCycle have partnered to collect used toothbrushes and toothpaste tubes.

Many major brands are getting on board with upcycling.  Scott tissue and Huggies are sponsoring programs to collect plastic packaging waste from paper products and diapers. And since most oral hygiene products aren’t recyclable, Colgate and TerraCycle have partnered to collect used toothbrushes and toothpaste tubes.

Many major brands are getting on board with upcycling.  Scott tissue and Huggies are sponsoring programs to collect plastic packaging waste from paper products and diapers. And since most oral hygiene products aren’t recyclable, Colgate and TerraCycle have partnered to collect used toothbrushes and toothpaste tubes.

Many major brands are getting on board with upcycling.  Scott tissue and Huggies are sponsoring programs to collect plastic packaging waste from paper products and diapers. And since most oral hygiene products aren’t recyclable, Colgate and TerraCycle have partnered to collect used toothbrushes and toothpaste tubes.

DCS Montessori School recently teamed up with TerraCycle to start turning collected waste into new products and materials, ranging from park benches to backpacks. TerraCycle recycles and upcycles used packaging from familiar products like Capri Sun, Lays, and Oreos. Out of this comes more than 1,500 various products available at major retailers. Founded in 2001, TerraCycle’s goal is eliminate the idea of waste. This year, the Montessori school is participating in two “brigades,” which are national programs to collect specific previously non-recyclable or hard-to-recycle waste. First, the school will collect old cell phones from now until the end of the year by placing collection boxes near the main office and by the front doors. DCS Montessori has asked all students and parents to send in their old cell phones to benefit the environment and the school. Later this year, the school will select another brigade.

The South Brunswick Senior Center has teamed up with eco-wise business TerraCycle to collect waste materials that are not normally taken by local recycling. The senior center will receive 2 cents for each wrapper and 25 cents for each inkjet cartridge that TerraCycle accepts. They will even pay the postage. TerraCycle will then up-cycle the goods into eco-friendly products. Items to be accepted for recycling are all Mars candy wrappers, all Nabisco and Keebler cookie wrappers, all brands of inkjet printer cartridges, all types of Kraft cheese products, and Scott brand wrappers for toilet paper, paper towels and napkins.

EAST AMWELL TWP. — Where most people see trash, the township school’s Environmental Club sees cash. That has won $50,000 for the school, the top prize in a TerraCycle-Walmart contest for New Jersey public schools. It did so by blitzing TerraCycle with 52,640 plastic wrappers and containers during the two-and-a-half-month contest. “You can’t get much greener than this!” exclaimed the club’s adviser, fifth-grade language arts and science teacher Sharon Ernst. It all started in 2008 with Ernst casting about for a way to raise money for an Environmental Club for fourth- and fifth-graders. She wanted to do something applicable to stewardship, which ruled out fundraisers such as bake sales. She considered selling seeds, then a parent mentioned TerraCycle, which pays nonprofit groups that send it hard-to-recycle items for reuse or recycling.

Even the Ivy League isn't immune to dropouts. Tom Szaky -- a Canadian who didn't know that Princeton was in New Jersey until he got to campus -- left college after two years. Szaky was on fall break during freshman year in Montreal when he saw a bountiful weed (yes, that kind of weed) harvest that owed its success to worm and organic waste. The light bulb went off, and he began packaging worm waste in used soda bottles that later ended up on the shelves of Home Depot and Walmart. Over the next year, he would head home after class and work on his business, the way college basketball players head to the gym to work on their free throws. He didn't solicit help from professors and says the faculty was "hands-off" in that respect. By his sophomore year, TerraCycle was taking off -- he had a logo, a name and a diversified body of products -- and it was now or never. "I would have loved to stay in school, but TerraCycle was starting to grow and I was putting more time into it," says Szaky, 28, also a member of the AOL Small Business Board of Directors. "I took a semester off, which turned into a permanent leave." The business has evolved since 2003 -- kites made of Oreo wrappers and picture frames wrapped in bicycle chains, part of the company's "upcycling" line of products, helped catapult revenues to $7.5 million in 2009 -- but he still spends time on campus as a guest lecturer and thinks teaching could be a fun career down the road. For now, he's focused on waste, and he's able to indulge his inner dork with the science of composting. Looks like he didn't need that behavioral economics degree after all, much like other dropouts who felt the need to quit school and carpe diem. "I have nothing against school," says Szaky, author of Revolution in a Bottle. "TerraCycle was happening, and that was the decision at the moment."

“They panic if a milk carton lands in the garbage,” she says, noting that she watches as her kids regularly fish Capri Sun pouches, Lay’s potato chip bags and Nabisco cookie wrappers out of the trash to save and send to TerraCycle, a company that converts trash into bags, kites and other products.

• Terracycle.net: Get paid for your trash—TerraCycle pays for everything from Capri Sun drink pouches to Lay’s potato chip bags and Elmer’s Glue bottles, which it turns into other products.

Many major brands are getting on board with upcycling.  Scott tissue and Huggies are sponsoring programs to collect plastic packaging waste from paper products and diapers. And since most oral hygiene products aren’t recyclable, Colgate and TerraCycle have partnered to collect used toothbrushes and toothpaste tubes.