Hudsonville Christian School released the detailed list of waste to be sent to TerraCycle.

With a business plan that began by selling an organic fertilizer made from worm poop, or vermicompost, in empty carbonated soft drink bottles, Trenton, N.J.-based TerraCycle Inc. is a green company that has been linked to the beverage industry since its impetus in 2003. Albe Zakes, global vice president of media relations, explains that the company’s fertilizer was one of the first non-uniform packaged products sold at nationwide chains such as The Home Depot, Walmart and Target. In 2007, TerraCycle shifted its main business model to its Brigade model, which offers free sign-up and shipping for individuals, families or organizations that collect a variety of approved used goods and return them to TerraCycle to be upcycled, or repurposed, into new things, Zakes says. In return for the collection, TerraCycle donates around $0.02 for each unit of waste, such as a drink pouch, potato chip bag or highlighter, to a school, nonprofit organization or charity. The Brigade program began with a partnership with Bethesda, Md.-based Honest Tea to collect the flexible pouches used for its Honest Kids line of beverages. The program grew from 100 schools in the first 48 hours to 500 schools in its first four months, Zakes says. The following year, Northfield, Ill.-based Kraft Foods Inc. brand Capri Sun joined as a co-sponsor of the drink pouch program, which was integral to the re-use of the brand’s pouches and the expansion of the program, Zakes says.

Experience Green has partnered with TerraCycle to offer recycling for old laptops, cellphones and No. 6 plastic cups. The program collects previously nonrecyclable or hard to recycle waste and turns it into products such as tote bags, picture frames, notebooks, place mats and pots. Experience Green receives points for every item it sends to TerraCycle. TerraCycle then makes a cash donation back to the nonprofit organization.   Items are being accepted on Hilton Head Island at Burke's Pharmacy, Jiva Yoga Center and All About Pets. Experience Green will provide collection boxes and arrange for item pickup at other interested local businesses.   Details: 843-882-7616, www.experiencegreen.org, info@experiencegreen.org

PHILADELPHIA (July 5, 2012) - The Eastern Division Champion Philadelphia Soul (13-3) and Xfinity Live! will host the World's Largest Flip Cup Game for charity Sunday, July 8 at Xfinity Live! before their game against the Spokane Shock. The flip cup game was initiated as a way to collect as many Red Solo Cups as possible for the Solo Cup Brigade, the Soul's Community Service Initiative for the game July 8. In addition to the entry fee donation, the Soul and Xfinity Live! will turn in the Red Solo Cups to Terra Cycle who will give up to $0.10 per cup collected for one large donation to the Wilford Hall Fisher House.

FARMINGTON — The plastic No. 6 Solo cup that holds an icy cold beverage this summer can become a 10-cent donation to the United Way of the Tri-Valley Area. Through a special summer promotion by TerraCycle's UpCycle recycling program, the local United Way gets donations for each cup. It has already received $62.60 for its first shipment of 626 Solo cups, Lisa Laflin, executive director, said. Normally the cups might bring a cent or two but through August, they are worth 10 cents, she said. When Sarah Martin visited the United Way looking for ways to give back to the community, conversations led to ways to support the organization, Laflin said. Martin is also a member of the Sustainable Coalition at the University of Maine at Farmington. After talking with Laflin and meeting with the coalition, Martin volunteered to organize the recycling program and named the United Way as the beneficiary, Laflin said.

TerraCycle's UpCycling (recycling) Program comes to Franklin County to benefit the United Way of the Tri-Valley Area. The United Way supports non-profit community programs and volunteer efforts across the region; TerraCycle offers a wonderful way to support this organization in its efforts. Are you tired of your trash piling up? Would you like to be able to recycle more products? TerraCycle's goal is to eliminate the idea of waste by creating collection and solution systems for anything that today must be sent to a landfill. They do this by creating national recycling systems for previously non-recyclable or hard-to-recycle waste. TerraCycle then converts the collected waste into a wide variety of products and materials. With more than 20 million people collecting waste in over 20 countries TerraCycle has diverted billions of units of waste and used them to create over 1,500 different products available at major retailers ranging from Walmart to Whole Foods Market.

Would you believe discarded Ziploc bags and juice pouches could be worth more than $3,000? Students at a Burlington County elementary school believe it now, thanks to one woman's extraordinary recycling efforts and generosity. On Thursday night, the Burlington County Education Association and New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection honored retiree LuAnn Doyle for her contribution to both the school and the environment. From Feb. 2011 until late May of this year, Doyle collected waste from school meals during lunch hours at Hawthorne Park Elementary School in Willingboro, N.J. She recycled the items and gave the money made from it back to the school. All told, she saved more than 160,000 items from the landfill and raised $3,274.15. Here's the breakdown of what she collected: 29,145 juice pouches

As the student manager of his school's recycling effort, James West, 11, has had to teach some Deep Springs Elementary teachers a thing or two. A dead mouse, for example, is not suitable for the recycling bin. "I had to tell them that they can't put it in there," said the fifth-grader, recalling one of his more unusual discoveries in his recycling career. But as James and other Deep Springs students have learned, juice pouches, plastic cups, tape dispensers and even spray nozzles may be recycled with some special effort, in addition to the more typical kinds of plastic thrown into recycling bins.

What can be TerraCycled in this category? Answer: any brand and size of polystyrene #6 cups What CANNOT be TerraCycled in this category? Answer: foam cups, any # cup other can #6 What does this waste get used for? Our cups are made into recycled plastic products that can themselves be recycled into more useful items! ps: Did you notice the new TerraCycle Tuesday logo on the right column of this page? Click on it to see all TerraCycle Tuesday posts!

St. Joseph School recently won second place in TerraCycle’s Winter Waste Wonderland competition, a national contest. As the second-highest collector of lunch kits in TerraCycle’s Lunch Kit Brigade, St. Joseph School will receive 10,000 bonus points, which it can redeem for $100 cash. TerraCycle pioneered the concept of “upcycling,” which is taking materials that would otherwise be trash and converting them into other products by maintaining or improving the quality of the material. So for instance, Oreo cookie wrappers, have been turned into kites and juice pouches have been turned into pencil cases. Eighth grade parent Danielle Mergner has spearheaded St. Joseph’s TerraCycle program this year, recruiting the eighth graders to help direct the younger students in sorting their TerraCycle items and then in packaging them for shipment.