Personal Care & Beauty Products — One of my main beefs with New York’s recycling program is that they won’t accept many of the plastic containers that hygiene products come in, whether it’s a toothpaste tube or deodorant packaging. To my great relief, a recently established company called Terracycle will take all of these used products (and much, much more) and they’ll pay the shipping costs! Food — That’s right, you can even recycle food. Some municipalities (like Seattle, Portland, and San Francisco) already have curbside recycling programs in place that will collect your compostable food scraps. If your city is still waiting for such programs, however, you might be able to donate your food scraps elsewhere! Many local farmer’s markets, for instance, have drop-off centers for compostable food and household waste. Make sure to check with your local market first!

Did you know that 99 percent of the total material flow in the United States becomes garbage within six months? Garbage goes to landfills where it releases carbon emissions that have a negative impact on the environment. Technically, some “non-recyclable” materials can be recycled, but they must be collected, sorted and brought to special recycling facilities which process them differently from traditional recycleable materials such as glass, metal, paper and plastic.   Belle Aire School students recently participated in a “Trash for Cash” program. Belle Aire works with a company called Terracycle to collect these hard-to-recycle items such as used juice pouch containers, used beauty product packaging and diaper packaging.   The school receives about 2 cents per item shipped to Terracycle. The company then uses these things to make new products. The items are kept out of landfills and the Belle Aire PTA earns a little bit of cash to support its programs.

A Rochester family helps the environment by recycling items that are usually not recyclable. Cheryl Bertou runs a small makeshift recycling canter in her basement. "We raised about $200.00 and kept about 13,000 items out of landfills," says Bertou through the fundraiser TerraCycle. They are collecting candy wrappers, chip bags, and personal care and beauty items that are then shipped off to TerraCycle.

Now that Summer has ended….and we are putting up the Summer clothing and shoes and breaking out our Fall and Winter items….it is a great opportunity to get rid of your old, worn-out flip flops. Instead of just tossing those in the trash, check out Flip-Flop Brigade  and you can earn you a FREE pair of NEW Flip Flops (so you’ll be ready for next Summer) as well as some HOT Old Navy coupons….   Through TerraCycle’s partnership with Old Navy, consumers can do the right thing for the environment and their wallets and recycle their old flip flops for free through the Flip Flop Brigade. For every 25 pairs collected, participants receive a coupon for free flip flops and a packet of coupons for $10 off an Old Navy purchase to share with those that helped in the collection efforts. These might come in handy for Back-to-School shopping! The program is open to anyone, free to join, and all shipping costs are paid. For more info, please visit http://www.terracycle.com/en-US/brigades/oldnavy.html. Aside from this program, flip flops are not widely recyclable and usually have no end-of-life solution besides the landfill. It is estimated that 1.3 million tons of flip flops are thrown away each year. After a couple of hundred years, when flip flops finally start to break down, they can leach chemicals into the ground and the air. TerraCycle and Old Navy had a month-long flip flop collection program in 2011 and the year-round collection program was instituted by popular request. In addition to the Flip Flop Brigade, TerraCycle collects about 45 different kinds of products and packaging including personal care and beauty waste, household cleaner packaging, Solo cups, chip bags, drink pouches, writing instruments and much more. TerraCycle awards points for each one of these items sent in. These points can be used for charity gifts or converted to cash and donated to a favorite charity or school. Since 2007, we’ve kept 2.3 billion pieces of waste from ending up in landfills and paid over $4 million to schools and non-profits. People who are interested in signing up for these or any other TerraCycle programs should visit www.terracycle.com.

"Our TerraCycle Campaign Takes on a New Challenge" We have decided to revamp our TerraCycle campaign as a new year's resolution. We will no longer be collecting Huggies diaper packaging, but old beauty containers instead. Starting in January, our TerraCycle collection will have a new drive and image!

Recycle your cosmetic packing and help out a charity. L’Oreal Garnier and TerraCycle have partnered to create The Personal Care and Beauty Brigade. After signing up at www.terracycle.net, fill up a box of empty cosmetic containers. Print out a per-paid shipping label, send it off and get points that go to a charity of your choice.

REDMOND, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Noetix Corp., a world-class provider of business intelligence (BI) software and services for enterprise applications, today announced it has been selected for King County’s annual list of Best Workplaces for Recycling and Waste Reduction for the third consecutive year. King County’s Solid Waste Division initiated the list five years ago to recognize businesses for strong internal recycling programs and for their commitment to making recycling a priority for their companies. In 2011, 89 businesses, including restaurants, manufacturers, city governments, and a wide variety of others, demonstrated fulfillment of the listing’s criteria and provided individual stories about how successes were achieved. “Noetix and the other businesses on our list have put exceptional recycling programs into place and shown commitment to reducing the amount of waste their company sends to the landfill,” said Karen May, project manager, Recycling and Environmental Services at King County Solid Waste Division. “Their actions help reduce the impacts of climate change and feed recycled materials back into the economy.”

Noetix Corp., a world-class provider of business intelligence (BI) software and services for enterprise applications, today announced it has been selected for King County’s annual list of Best Workplaces for Recycling and Waste Reduction for the third consecutive year. King County’s Solid Waste Division initiated the list five years ago to recognize businesses for strong internal recycling programs and for their commitment to making recycling a priority for their companies. In 2011, 89 businesses, including restaurants, manufacturers, city governments, and a wide variety of others, demonstrated fulfillment of the listing’s criteria and provided individual stories about how successes were achieved. “Noetix and the other businesses on our list have put exceptional recycling programs into place and shown commitment to reducing the amount of waste their company sends to the landfill,” said Karen May, project manager, Recycling and Environmental Services at King County Solid Waste Division. “Their actions help reduce the impacts of climate change and feed recycled materials back into the economy.” To qualify as a Best Workplace for Recycling and Waste Reduction, companies must meet at least 10 criteria from a list of more than 30 good business recycling practices that range from placing recycling bins by every desk to collecting food scraps for composting.