As an environmental company, TerraCycle has a unique relationship with Earth Day. Celebrating our environment and spreading awareness and activism is wonderful, but we also like to remind people that the Earth needs to be taken care of every day. For the past few years, we’ve had an array of special events around Earth Day. In 2009, we launched our mini-series on National Geographic – Garbage Moguls – and in 2010, we had a Walmart Hotspot with sixty TerraCycle products were displayed in Walmart stores, right next to the products that they used to be! Think, drink pouch backpacks next to boxes of Capri Sun. Last year, 2011, we had the Old Navy Flip-Flop Replay in which we collected used flip flops at Old Navy stores across the country during the Earth Month. That same month, in partnership with Office Depot, we collected used pens and writing instruments at their retail locations.

Some people know how to turn lemons into lemonade. Telma Rangel has figured out how to convert trash into treasure. It all began when Mother’s Cookies, an Oakland-based company, went out of business in 2008 and Rangel lost her job as operations manager. Suddenly, the mother of five had time on her hands. Rangel turned her attention to Noble Elementary School in San Jose, where her two younger children – Marissa and Gary – attend third and fourth grades.

Students at Luray Elementary in Harrisonburg, VA receive a playground made out of recycled Flip Flops from Old Navy and TerraCycle.

Much of this change is being fueled by the growing influence of social media, which allows a company to make its green efforts more transparent and creates a two-way conversation. Telling people you’re environmentally friendly isn’t good enough anymore; you have to have to discuss it with them and engage.

Two ambitious young Princeton students, Tom Szasky and Jon Beyer, founded Terracycle in 2001. Their main idea in founding the company was to do something productive using waste products. They used worms to turn garbage into useful items like fertilizer. This is a process known as upcycling. Some of the products produced by Terracycle include fertilizer, all-purpose cleaner, recycled fence, picture frames, and cactus plant food. Rubbermaid and Oxo Good Grips are two U.S. plastic companies that have purchased plastics from TerraCycle. Old Navy and Office Depot each had promotions sponsored by Terracycle for Earth Day. Terracycle also had a program called Bottle Brigade that was used for fundraising for schools.

The ultimate solution to recycling is perhaps the ability to turn waste material or trash into cash. TerraCycle is well established recycling and upcycling company which do exactly that through a simple but powerful goal: “eliminate the idea of waste.” The idea is to use find the value in each hard to recycle product and upcycle it turning waste into a profitable and eco-friendly business. They do this by creating national recycling systems and collection networks for previously non-recyclable or hard-to-recycle waste and using the waste to create marketable items. These regional recycling programs are increasing in numbers and are available to everyone. They regularly receive contributions from all over the world, waste material which they then convert into a wide variety of products and materials. With more than 20 million people collecting waste in 14 countries TerraCycle has diverted billions of units of waste and used them to create over 1,500 different products available at major retailers. So next time you are thinking about turning Trash into cash, just pick up the phone and call TerraCycle. Founded in 2001 by Tom Szaky, then a 20-year-old Princeton University freshman, TerraCycle began by producing organic fertilizer, packaging liquid worm poop in used soda bottles. Since then TerraCycle has grown into one of the fastest-growing green companies in the world. Find out more about them

Noble Elementary School is one of four schools nationwide to receive a donated playground from Old Navy and TerraCycle Inc., an upcyling and recycling company. The playground was installed Sept. 10. "Playgrounds provide the ideal place for children to master physical skills, such as learning to swing, balance and climb as well as master social skills such as communicating, sharing and cooperating with other children and adults," said Manju Ramachandran, Noble Elementary's Parent Teacher Association president. "The kids will be so excited to have a playground after two years of playing in a dirt box. Coming back to school and seeing the new playground will be like Christmas to them because this is something in their lives that they will never forget."

And there was more: Neosporin tubes, tortilla bags and all types of pen and markers. In all, parents collected and sorted into 37 bins items from both home and school, and sent them to TerraCycle, a not-for-profit New Jersey company dedicated to recycling the previously unrecyclable.

Almost fairytale-like, Noble Elementary School this year converted trash into treasure. But it took a lot more than a fervent wish and a wave of a wand for the Berryessa school to win a $50,000 play structure for the school's empty playground. In a mega-recycling campaign, for one year students and parents saved, sorted and shipped what normally ends up in the trash: empty Doritos bags, Lunchables trays, Elmer's glue bottles, Colgate toothbrushes and toothpaste tubes. And there was more: Neosporin tubes, tortilla bags and all types of pens and markers. In all, parents collected and sorted into 37 bins items from both home and school, and sent them to Terracycle, a not-for-profit New Jersey company dedicated to recycling the previously unrecyclable.

Almost fairytale-like, Noble Elementary School this year converted trash into treasure. But it took a lot more than a fervent wish and a wave of a wand for the Berryessa school to win a $50,000 play structure for the school's empty playground. In a mega-recycling campaign, for one year students and parents saved, sorted and shipped what normally ends up in the trash: empty Doritos bags, Lunchables trays, Elmer's glue bottles, Colgate toothbrushes and toothpaste tubes. And there was more: Neosporin tubes, tortilla bags and all types of pens and markers. In all, parents collected and sorted into 37 bins items from both home and school, and sent them to Terracycle, a not-for-profit New Jersey company dedicated to recycling the previously unrecyclable.