The initiative encourages consumers to save and return Danone yoghurt pots that they are unable to recycle at home, so that Terracycle can make them into new products. This innovative approach not only introduces an alternative to sending waste to landfill but also supports both the Courtauld 2 packaging and supply chain targets.

TerraCycle’s Brigades are an excellent fundraising vehicle for schools and organizations. For every piece of waste collected for a Brigade, TerraCycle donates $0.02 to the school or charity of your choice. As of July 2010, Brigade participants can earn a 5x donation credit on their first shipment. That means the first 25 pieces in a large shipment you send in will be credited at $0.10 each. The rest will be credited at the standard rate.  Visit TerraCycle’s website to learn more or to sign up for a Brigade.

Do you know about TerraCycle? Frito Lay is asking large institutions to recycle their snack bags to TerraCycle. They will even pay for the shipping and donate 2 cents per bag to a school or non profit institution! For more information, please go to: www.fritolay.com

A few months ago my mom called me and told me that she nominated me as a mom who makes an environmental difference for a contest that Terracycle was holding.  This week I received a phone call from Terracycle saying that I am one of the top 4 nominees, and that the public would vote for the winner.  The contest and voting is through Terracycle's facebook page.  You can go here to view all 4 nominees: http://www.facebook.com/TerraCycle?v=app_6009294086.  You can go here to vote for your favorite Make A Difference Mom: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/C996JST.  Of course I would like for you to vote for me, but I would understand if you didn't.  It truly is an honor to be one of the top 4 nominees.

The strategic partners announced today include the upcoming film documenting Muhammed Yunus' To Catch a Dollar, Eileen Fisher, Lifetime Networks, Seventh Generation, Dansko, Terracycle, Mary's Gone Crackers, Step Up Women's Network, and Geena Davis, Julia Ormond, Isobel Coleman and Nicholas Kristof and his best-selling book Half the Sky.

A Suzano Papel e Celulose iniciou uma parceria com a TerraCycle, empresa internacional  de upcycling – reciclagem de materiais e conversão em produtos acessíveis.

“TerraCycle’s purpose is to eliminate the idea of waste. We do this by creating a national recycling systems for the previously non-recyclable. The process starts by offering collect programs (many of them free) to collect your waste and then convert the collected waste into a wide range of products and materials. With over 14 million people collecting waste in 11 countries together we have diverted billions of pieces of waste that are either upcycled or recycled into over 1,500 various products available at major retailers ranging from Walmart to Whole Foods Market. Our hope is to eliminate the idea of waste by creating collection and solution systems for anything that today ends up in our trash.

This fun lunch box is made from waste drink pouch material.  Send your kids to school in style with this attractive lunch box from Green Ostrich.

For those not familiar with "Terracycle", it is one of many organizations that work to create useful items out of waste products. "Terracycle", in conjunction with both consumers and people from within the food and beverage industry, collects empty and discarded items like foil cheese packets, foil beverage pouches, potato chip bags, gum wrappers, beverage bottles and other items. "Terracycle" then converts those items into a wide array of new items like insulated coolers, garbage cans, fences, plant food, household cleaners, photo frames, jewel cases, clothing and fashion accessories. Part of the proceeds from the sale of those items is in turn donated to area schools and non-profit groups.

i have heard of terracycle before – who hasn’t seen those cute little pop art totes and pouches they make out of recycled juice pouches and gum wrappers? but i have only recently become aware of the business as a whole, with their model and goal. the company was started by a college student to win a “business start-up” contest of sorts. the idea was, “why pay for materials for manufacturing when there is so much usable material going to the landfills?” their first product was plant food/fertilizer which was quickly picked up by large outfits such as wal*mart. but as the company grew, so did their capacity to adapt and reuse the most common “land fillers.” terracycle now has almost 60,000 locations around the country (and more available all the time) where people can get paid to drop off juice pouches, zip top kitchen bags, cheese wrappers, yogurt containers, and many more.