You might remember my previous post about Terracycle’s Big News, and I thought a reminder would be in order. You only have the month of April to get your own Terracycle goodies, so you’ll have to act fast. Here are the details from the Terracycle blog: A whole bunch of brand new TerraCycle items will be available, during April for a limited time only, at every single Walmart across the country. Starting April 5th, nearly 60 TerraCycle products will be sold right next to the original items they were made from. Cheetos kites and tote bags made from Frito-Lay wrappers will be sold with bags of Frito-Lay chips, while notebooks and purses made out of skittles and M&M wrappers will be sold right next to bags of Mars Candy!

M&M’s are one of the most popular candies in the world. Some people like theirs with peanuts, others with dark chocolate, and some prefer theirs plain-old…plain. But not everyone sees these chocolate pieces as mere candy. For a few creative types, M&M’s are inspiration. Whether they use the wrappers or the small chocolaty bites themselves, artists have made many things out of the “melt in your mouth, not in your hand” favorites. Have a look at these seven M&M’s creations, from gowns to portraits. Using Peanut M&M’s wrappers, artist Christina Liedtke created this impressive gown for TerraCycle’s display of recycled art at New York City’s Port Authority. With this beauty, TerraCycle (a company that makes eco-friendly products from various nonrecyclable materials) brought candy couture to a whole new level. Photo courtesy of MarsNewsroom.com.

Trenton, NJ — The market for products made from waste packaging is getting a big boost this month as Walmart stocks items made by TerraCycle at all of its stores. Walmart will offer 60 products made by TerraCycle, which collects packaging and trashed products to turn into usable goods, throughout April as part of its Earth Month campaign. Read more: http://www.greenbiz.com/news/2010/04/07/Walmart-Celebrates-Earth-Day-by-Selling-Upcycled-Trash#ixzz17RPqSOcp

"At TerraCycle, everything is made from garbage, and garbage is free." says owner Tom Szaky.  His green company makes usable products from throwaways and worse...that stinky garbage no one wants to have around. It started from a college project that mushroomed into a viable green business for the 21st century, now worth $7.45 million.  Not bad for garbage!

Terracycle products are already sold in stores such as The Home Depot, Target, and even some Whole Foods, but this “trash-to-treasure” company has teamed up with Walmart to sell over 60 products in every Walmart store across the country for the month of April (from the 5th to the 29th). In order to boost consumers’ awareness of environmental issues, TerraCycle products are being sold right next to the items from which they were made. So that means tote bags made out of candy wrappers will be sold right next to the candy, and the backpack made out of drink pouches will be sold right next to the drinks themselves.

TerraCycle has tons of different brigades for all types of “garbage”. They collect juice pouches, candy wrappers, chips bags, yogurt cups and wine corks just to name a very few. All you have to do is go to their web site and sign-up for one of the brigades and you’re on your way. But what’s great is that it doesn’t just benefit TerraCycle (lots of free materials) it also benefits you, or more specifically, your organization. TerraCycle donates 2 cents per item back to the non-profit or school of your choice.

During the StartingBloc Institute, one of the speakers we had the privilege of listening to was Tom Szaky, founder of TerraCycle. TerraCycle is a company that collects traditionally non-recyclable waste from people all across the country by paying a non-profit of the collecting person’s choice, 2 cents for each piece they collect and mail to the company. TerraCycle then uses the waste it receives from its Brigade members to make hundreds of eco-friendly products, i.e. “upcycling” the collected trash. Starting today, and until April 29th, about 60 “upcycled” TerraCycle items, including a bunch of brand new things never seen before, will be available in every single Wal-Mart across the country (3,500 locations) in honor of the 40th anniversary of Earth Day this year. The TerraCycle products will be sold right next to the original items they are made from. Kites made from Cheetos wrappers will be sold with bags of Frito-Lay chips and backpacks made from drink pouches will be sold next to boxes of Capri Sun, with the goal of helping educate consumers about resource conservation.

There’s nothing like shelf placement by a mass market retailer to bring an eco-friendly product from the fringe to the mainstream. When Target started carrying Method cleaning products in 2004, the biodegradable and nontoxic household cleansers stood out like a sore green thumb against the bleach- and chemical-filled landscape; now, every brand name from Clorox toWindex comes in a natural, plant-based version.

TerraCycle CEO Tom Szaky has turned garbage into a revolutionary new industry.

The one issue remaining was that most councils are unable to recycle our pouches. That’s why we were really excited when we came across Terracycle. Terracycle’s upcycling brigades are massive in the US but Ella’s Kitchen is only the second company to run a programme with Terracycle here in the UK following Kenco’s launch last year.