Terracycle upcycles consumer waste into new salable goods. They primarily harvest their raw material from schoolchildren as part of charity drives, though they are now placing recycling stations at certain Walmart stores. At the Walmart centers they pay 3 cents per piece, but only for a narrow range of product packaging; the website supports a wider range of recyclables. The spirit of the project is wonderful, but the problem is that it creates zombie advertising and branding for these undead consumer objects. Which is actually not all that surprising, as the Walmart program is sponsored by the very brands whose packaging are featured in the upcycled goods.

Terracycle upcycles consumer waste into new salable goods. They primarily harvest their raw material from schoolchildren as part of charity drives, though they are now placing recycling stations at certain Walmart stores. At the Walmart centers they pay 3 cents per piece, but only for a narrow range of product packaging; the website supports a wider range of recyclables.

Well I have read and heard some pretty awesome things about Terra Cycle so when I had the opportunity to share about them and check out one of their products I got really excited!! TerraCycle <http://www.terracycle.net/>  makes affordable, eco-friendly products from a wide  range of different non-recyclable waste materials. With over 50 products  available at major retailers like Walmart, Target, The Home Depot,  OfficeMax, Petco and Whole Foods Market, TerraCycle is one of the  fastest growing eco-friendly manufacturers in the world. Our hope is to  eliminate the idea of waste by finding innovative, unique uses for  materials others deem garbage.

We here the words 'reduce, reuse, recycle' a lot  when it comes to cleaning our our environment and cutting down on waste in our landfills but have you thought much about the word 'upcycle'? To ucpcycle an item would be to use the product again in a totally different way than it was originally used.  Terracycle  <http://www.terracycle.net/> has found a ton of ways to take our trash and recyclables and make them into something new. The great thing about this company is that YOU can get involved, too!  Here is a little bit about Terracycle from their website:

That’s where TerraCycle comes into play. The goal of TerraCycle is to prevent snack and drink containers from ending up in landfills or being incinerated. TerraCycle helps band consumers together into groups — called “Brigades” — to return used packaging in bulk to TerraCycle. Returned goods are then cleaned out and transformed into new products including bags, coolers, clip boards, picture frames and kites. In addition, for every package returned the brigade earns money to put towards a charity of their choice or, if the team is from a school or non-profit organization, they can keep the money to further their mission.  It is a win-win program: people can reduce their waste while raising money for a good cause. As word spreads about TerraCycle more and more snack and beverage companies are joining the program, meaning even more packaging can be returned and re-purposed. Some major companies whose wrappers can be sent back to TerraCycle include: Stonyfield, Capri Sun, Frito Lay, Kraft, Mars Wrigley, Kashi, Aveeno, Colgate, and Ziploc. The recycled products that TerraCycle produces are then sold at major retailers, including Walmart, Target, Home Depot, and K-Mart. The end products are labeled as TerraCycle products, so consumers know they are supporting a good cause and creating demand for the program. According to the TerraCycle website, there are 11,597,783 people collecting trash with TerraCycle brigades, and over one billion units of waste have already been collected and re-purposed into 186 different products. If that doesn’t already sound good enough, these efforts also helped raise $1.2 Million for various schools, non profits, and charities across the country.

The Daily Deal over at EcoMom today is the Terracycle Kids Vegetable Growing Kit and a book – Barefoot Books Kid Garden – Yours for $13!!! (Regular price $25). “Teach kids about gardening and the environment at the same time with the TerraCycle Kid’s Growing Kits for Vegetables, Flowers or Herbs. The Kits use upcycled Stonyfield Yogurt Cups as planting pots and TerraCycle’s famous Worm Poop mixed with compost for the growing medium. The Kits come with growing instructions and the cardboard tray holding it all together is even embedded with the seeds needed to start the plants. Almost no part of these kits becomes waste and they come with everything you need to start growing right away.”

“Send us your trash – we’ll make it into cool products.” That's the simple premise and promise of New Jersey-based startup TerraCycle, a green recycler founded by two former Princeton University classmates who dreamed up the idea in 2001 for a business plan contest. Now full-time "eco-capitalists," they're making good business from trash by partnering with brands to create recycling campaigns for their products, and a halo effect for their affiliates.

Another Recycling day is planned by Girl Scout Troop 3263 for September 11 at Market Square in South Hill.   New items have been added to the recycling collection and the Recycle campaign will include collecting several different items (all trash) to help raise money and awareness for recycling and they have found a company that will pay us for our trash or you can drop it off at Airtec in South Hill.  Some of the young ladies are earning awards with this project.  Several of the items that we will be collecting are: Ink jet and toner cartridges, Newspapers, Magazines, And paper, Used drink pouches (ex Capri Sun), candy wrappers, chip bags, cookie wrapper, Gum Packages, Cell Phones, Scott Toilet Paper wrappers, Kashi Packages, Used Neosporin tubes, Huggies Diaper wrappers, Malt-o-Meal cereal packages, Used Colgate Toothpaste tubes and boxes, Stonyfield Yogurt, Elmer’s Glue, Scotch Tape, and Phone Books.  If you would like additional information please go to http://www.terracycle.net If you would like to register please make sure you list Girl Scout Troop #3263 as the charity.  You do not have to register to participate in this event.  You only need to register if you wish to mail the trash to the company directly, however, the troop is currently registered and the above trash is what we are in need of to help this troop start saving the planet.

While many companies boast of using 100% recycled materials for their paper or cardboard products, there are not many companies who take the extra step in saving the earth by "upcycling" previously non reusable products. TerraCyle is one company that is seeking to change that. TerraCycle's slogan is "outsmart waste" and this is exactly that this company has been doing since its inception nine years ago. Founded by a 19 year old Princeton student <http://www.terracycle.net/about_us> , TerraCycle has been focused on finding ways to upcycle everything from Capri Sun packages to Frito Lay chip bags. Because TerraCycle is an upcycling company, and not a recycling <http://www.associatedcontent.com/theme/607/recycling.html>  plant, the company does not turn juice packages into more juice packages. Instead, old "trash" finds a new life as it is changed into fashion bags, backpacks, fences, and more for a total of 186 upcycled products to date <http://www.terracycle.net/products> . Many of these products can be found for sale in stores such as Wal-Mart, Target, The Home Depot, Office Max, Petco, and Whole Foods Market.  The purpose of upcycling, overall, is to reduce landfill waste by producing products that are even better than the original item; in fact, most of the items used in TerraCycle's upcycling program would normally be considered non-recyclable.