11-03-23--highlandstodaypg-1.1

11-03-17--thenewsherald-2

To help, one company is offering consumers a way to reduce their household garbage while earning money for local schools or charities. Through free collection programs called Brigades, upcycling pioneer TerraCycle is collecting and paying for packaging waste from household staples- from the bathroom to the kitchen to the classroom. 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.

11-03-07--kentcountydailytimes-1

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.

TERRACYCLE <http://thinkoutsidethebin.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/pens-dscn1736a.jpg>   TerraCycle <http://www.terracycle.net>  will take your old Sharpie Markers, Paper Mate and Expo pens and upcycle them into interesting products they sell. Just sign up for the their new brigade titled “writing instruments,” (details are found on this website page) and collect with your community, church or school. You will receive 2 cents for each marker or pen; a great fundraiser that keeps millions of pens out of the landfill each year! http://www.terracycle.net  <http://www.terracycle.net>

“Eliminate the idea of waste” and “Outsmart waste”. This is the tagline and mission statement of TerraCycle. Although I’m a sucker for a great tagline you don’t need one to have something awesome to offer. For proof, Trails.com provides it. This is a nature edition of Free Resource Friday and I’ll dive into each website to explain how something so simple can be so freakin’ useful.

New Jersey-based TerraCycle collects waste packaging from over 60,000 schools and community groups nationwide and “upcycles” them into new, useful products. Known for their “Brigades,” which has students and groups collecting everything from single use drink pouches to empty yogurt containers, Terracycle pays for shipping, prints the shipping labels the Brigades use, keeps track of how many items each Brigade has collected and even provides the shipping boxes. To make the Brigade program successful, TerraCycle has partnered with a number of well-known manufacturers like Kraft, PepsiCo and PaperMate to help turn the nonrecyclable into recyclable. Earlier in the year, TerraCycle partnered with Walmart to showcase and sell a wide variety of the repurposed products they’d created including tote bags made from Frito-Lay wrappers and purses and shoulder bags made from candy wrappers like M&M’s and Skittles. Terracycle has expanded its recycling program into eleven countries and, since its 2001 founding, has diverted billions of pieces of waste that were either upcycled or recycled into over 1,500 different products. They partnered with Toys R Us and Macy’s in New Jersey to collect in-store materials like used sneakers, shoes, used diaper packaging and used and broken toys. They’re discussing a possible regional program roll-out in the northeast. TerraCycle has also opened several retail stores featuring their innovative “new” products. They’ve also developed the TerraCycle Classroom Curriculum to teach students about the problems of and solutions to waste. TerraCycle is a company with both a vision and the ability to give trash a new, useful second life. You can find out more about them at www.Terracycle.net <http://www.Terracycle.net> .

New Jersey-based TerraCycle collects waste packaging from over 60,000 schools and community groups nationwide and “upcycles” them into new, useful products. Known for their “Brigades,” which has students and groups collecting everything from single use drink pouches to empty yogurt containers, Terracycle pays for shipping, prints the shipping labels the Brigades use, keeps track of how many items each Brigade has collected and even provides the shipping boxes. To make the Brigade program successful, TerraCycle has partnered with a number of well-known manufacturers like Kraft, PepsiCo and PaperMate to help turn the nonrecyclable into recyclable. Earlier in the year, TerraCycle partnered with Walmart to showcase and sell a wide variety of the repurposed products they’d created including tote bags made from Frito-Lay wrappers and purses and shoulder bags made from candy wrappers like M&M’s and Skittles.

New Jersey-based TerraCycle collects waste packaging from over 60,000 schools and community groups nationwide and “upcycles” them into new, useful products. Known for their “Brigades,” which has students and groups collecting everything from single use drink pouches to empty yogurt containers, Terracycle pays for shipping, prints the shipping labels the Brigades use, keeps track of how many items each Brigade has collected and even provides the shipping boxes. To make the Brigade program successful, TerraCycle has partnered with a number of well-known manufacturers like Kraft, PepsiCo and PaperMate to help turn the nonrecyclable into recyclable. Earlier in the year, TerraCycle partnered with Walmart to showcase and sell a wide variety of the repurposed products they’d created including tote bags made from Frito-Lay wrappers and purses and shoulder bags made from candy wrappers like M&M’s and Skittles.