For our Moms Who Mow event Terra Cycle wanted to share their recycled products that are great for gardening. I love the products from Terra Cycle we even have a back pack made of recycled billboard! The idea of recycling old packaging and stuff to make new things is awesome and so very frugal! We had the chance to review some of the Gardening products made by TerraCycle for the event. We reviewed the Recycled Plastic Hanging Planter and the StonyField Farms Children's Vegetable Grow Kit.

I recently read an article that claimed our steps to going green, as a country and as a world, have not been as scalable as we imagine. A consumer can’t see the carbon footprint they leave, and this makes it challenging for them to realize how much of a difference they are actually making in cutting back and cleaning our atmosphere. Since the affects of a consumer’s efforts are essentially invisible, it is a challenge to both engage consumers and keep them in engaged in the green movement to be more. People are less likely to be adamant for a cause, or willing to make as big a sacrifice for that they can’t see, touch, and feel the effects of directly. Tangibility makes a difference. It follows logically that to engage consumers, the green movement needs make both the threats and rewards more tangible. Many companies, including TerraCycle partners Capri Sun, Bear Naked, and Clif Bar, rely on consumers to make environmentally friendly choices after they use a product. Instead of simply encouraging consumers to recycle – throw the packaging in a bin and then forget about it forever – they’ve started encouraging upcycling, with which consumers can see their reuse and recycling efforts firsthand.

When left to her own devices, nature will execute a perfect cycle of reuse and compost by which no bi-products are left behind.  Humans, by contrast, execute a cycle of consumption and complex materials that leaves behind billions of pounds of bi-products known as garbage. Eighty percent of what we buy is discarded as garbage just thirty minutes after purchase.  Because it would be nearly impossible to move away from our culture of consumption and convince people to return to a time of patching, mending, and making do, it becomes necessary to scrutinze our garbage. Garbage is the only commodity in the world we pay to get rid of.  The vast majority of our waste ends up in a landfill–five billion pounds per year in the United States–where it has no value.  But what if instead of throwing our money away, we diverted some of the garbage from the landfill and turned it into something of value?  It is with this concept in mind that Tom Szaky led his worm poop empire <http://www.terracycle.net/histories>  called TerraCycle <http://www.terracycle.net/>  to begin collecting items of garbage and turning them into useful things.  The TerraCycle team of designers is tasked with envisioning new uses for items previously deemed garbage.  Scientists then test the chemical properites of the items and determine the feasibly of the designer’s ideas.  Using these methods, all items collected by TerraCycle are upcycled (made into another product for reuse) or recycled (broken down to their most basic parts and made into something different).  The idea behind TerraCycle is one of those brilliantly simple ones that beg the question, “why didn’t I think of that?”  (Because you lack the business savvy and persuasive charm that Szaky possesses.) Szaky has taken a concept familiar to previous generations (and poor college students) and adapted it to our modern culture of consumerism.  Just as our grandma upcycled a worn button-down shirt into handkerchiefs, cleaning rags, and quilting squares, TerraCycle transforms used juice pouches into a fabric that can be fashioned into a coin purse or a book bag.  TerraCycle does not advertise; its brand partners do.  It is the brands who puts the TerraCycle logo on their products and introduce their consumers to the concept <http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=RIwGZx-1JTc> .  On its own, TerraCycle generates buzz by averaging 7-15 articles a day, maintaining a high-traffic website, and being invited to participate in television shows.   In just a short few years, TerraCycle has significantly impacted diversion rates and given value to garbage.  They have yet find a product that cannot be upcycled or recycled and have plans to expand their organziation across the world, in AMC movie theatres, Wal-Mart parking lots, in print, and even on Facebook.