Get trashy - As a parent you probably go through lots of food for your kids that comes in difficult- or impossible-to-recycle packaging, as far as you know. There's a company called TerraCycle that makes products like umbrellas to backpacks, gardening products to recycling bins from  recycled trash <http://www.terracycle.net/> . TerraCycle works directly with the public, enlisting their help in the form of "brigades," - self-organized groups of people, typically schools - that collect packaging <http://www.terracycle.net/> . The newest collected product is Malt-O-Meal <http://www.maltomeal.com> , the cereal company that long ago decided to "Bag the Box," skipping the paper box that is typical of cereals; that alone already reducing the packaging by 75 percent.

"Considering that St. Teresa is a small, private school, the students' efforts are impressive. They recycled more than 18,000 items that would have otherwise added to waste piling up in landfills," she said. A breakdown reveals the students recycled 17,873 drink pouches, 2,678 chip bags and 565 cookie wrappers. For their efforts, they earned the school $357 from TerraCycle, which awards "cash for trash" and gives the items new purpose as backpacks, lunch boxes, trash cans, toys and more.

In honor of the upcoming holiday, Our Daily Green would like to celebrate a company that is taking huge steps to free our nation from trash. Last summer, we wrote about the company TerraCycle and their unique way of helping organizations raise money with trash. TerraCycle is a New Jersey based company that turns items such as juice bags, candy and chip wrappers, and glue bottles into funky, fun school and office supplies and other novelties.

Terracycle <http://www.myatlantamommy.com/2009/12/terracycle.html>  is a fantastic organization which takes used wrappers and turns them into some super cool stuff! They are always coming up with fun and cool ways to recycle, but they also have come up with a way (actually 6 ways) Moms can go green, reduce waste at home, AND raise money for their kids school and/or favourite charity.

Terracycle <http://www.myatlantamommy.com/2009/12/terracycle.html>  is a fantastic organization which takes used wrappers and turns them into some super cool stuff! They are always coming up with fun and cool ways to recycle, but they also have come up with a way (actually 6 ways) Moms can go green, reduce waste at home, AND raise money for their kids school and/or favourite charity.

A Far Northside school and two area churches earned money for their programs while keeping waste out of landfills. Students in Kathrynn Hodson's class at Spring Mill Elementary and groups at Mount Pleasant Baptist Church on the Far Southside and St. John's Lutheran Church on the Southeastside collected non-recyclable packaging such as makeup tubes through a program called the Aveeno Beauty Brigade, said Sara Koncius, TerraCycle spokeswoman. TerraCycle, a New Jersey-based company, takes the items like the tubes, chip bags or even bicycle chain and turns them into products such as backpacks, pictures frames and makeup pouches. The school and churches earned two cents for every tube collected. Any school group or nonprofit can sign up for the program, Koncius said. Both churches also are participating in other fundraising collections such as the Capri Sun Drink Pouch Brigade and the Frito-Lay Chip Bag Brigade.

Terracycle <http://www.myatlantamommy.com/2009/12/terracycle.html>  is a fantastic organization which takes used wrappers and turns them into some super cool stuff! I am happy and proud to announce Terracycle recently invited me to join their Blogger Club! Yay! AND they have offered to do a cool Back to School giveaway for My Atlanta Mommy readers, which I will let you know about very soon!

Terracycle <http://www.myatlantamommy.com/2009/12/terracycle.html>  is a fantastic organization which takes used wrappers and turns them into some super cool stuff! They are always coming up with fun and cool ways to recycle, but they also have come up with a way (actually 6 ways) Moms can go green, reduce waste at home, AND raise money for their kids school and/or favourite charity.

With the Save the Corks program, ABC is teaming up with Nomacorc to upcycle and recycle the corks through TerraCycle. Natural and synthetic wine corks are accepted. In addition, for every cork turned in, 2 cents is then contributed to charities.  In one month alone, ABC rose over $750 for charity.

In the annals of startup lore, Tom Szaky's story is one to remember. He started his company, TerraCycle <http://www.terracycle.net/> , after harvesting worm poop in his Princeton dorm to create an organic fertilizer so he could, as he says, "grow better pot." Why not make "sustainable and affordable" products from waste materials? he thought. Since 2007, TerraCycle has convinced more than 7 million people in 60,000 locations to collect over 1 billion pieces of trash. TerraCycle "upcycles" this waste into a variety of high-quality products, from fertilizer and fire logs to tote bags and kites. Szaky, who immigrated at age 8 from Hungary to Canada, continues to have fun thinking of ways to "manipulate waste" and help save the planet.