Next time you purchase a box of Capri Sun drinks, a tube of Colgate toothpaste, a Clif bar etc.. consider hanging on to your trash and sending it to Terracycle! TerraCycle takes a wide range of different non-recyclable waste materials and then makes affordable, eco-friendly products. Terracycle is hoping to eliminate the idea of waste by finding innovative, unique uses for materials others deem garbage. 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. Consider what happens when your kids finish drinking a Capri Sun…they toss the empty juice box in the trash which eventually ends up in a dumpster or landfill. Instead of adding the drink pouch to a pile of other pouches at the landfill, TerraCycle converts the used drink pouches into unique fashion bags, tote bags, pencil cases, and other items for kids and adults (check out the adorable Skittles bag below made from recycled Skittles wrappers)!

At the Port Authority Bus Terminal in New York City, a pop up shop has taken over the space at 8th Avenue and 41st Street. This once empty retail space is now home to TerraCycle‘s Green Up Shop. This innovative store will feature TerraCycle’s full line of over 100 products literally made from common waste materials such as chip bags, food wrappers, yogurt cups, glue bottles and writing instruments. In addition to selling its affordable, fun products made from waste, TerraCycle will use the space to collect over 30 different non-recyclable items, turning the store into the world’s largest upcycling center. Consumers who drop off waste will be given a discount on the products they purchase at the Shop.

BROOKLYN, Mich. -- One man’s trash is another man’s treasure. At least that’s what the employees of Michigan International Speedway say. The staff of the track, in partnership with TerraCycle, have pledged to upcycle paper and plastic goods that would normally be thrown into the garbage. In return, TerraCycle will pay MIS Cares, the track’s charity component, up to two cents for every piece collected so the wrappers can be turned into cool, every-day products such as pencil bags, laptop cases, flower pots and toys. “We have pledged to do everything we can, not only as a business, but as individuals, to minimize our effects on the environment and set a positive example that ‘every little bit counts,’” speedway President Roger Curtis said. So what can be upcycled? Drink pouches, potato chip bags, candy bar wrappers, cookie wrappers, energy bar wrappers, pens, markers and highlighters — you name it. Just about anything can be upcycled by TerraCycle.

TerraCycle produces very cool consumer products from recycled food packaging. But for businesses trying to grow revenues in this “soft recovery” the coolest thing about TerraCycle is its creative business strategies for generating top-line revenue results with attractive profit margins. How it engage its customers is what makes TerraCycle’s strategy unique. For example, it “up-cycles” Capri Sun wrappers to create products like pencil holders that target the very school children who are the principal consumers of Capri Sun juices. Its customer engagement program involves encouraging school children to collect the wrappers as a fund raiser for their school and a path for learning about recycling. Beyond this being a brilliant social marketing example it also makes money. From a production-cycle perspective, TerraCycle takes a zero-cost waste stream and converts it into a product with attractive margins.

  Lee Elementary School students turned juice pouches into pencil cases, chip bags to lunch boxes and candy wrappers into backpacks as part of a national initiative that combines fundraising and recycling. Students collected nearly 6,000 pieces of non-recyclable waste, such as bags, wrappers and bottles, and shipped them to TerraCycle, a company that makes new products from lunchroom garbage. TerraCycle turns food packaging destined for the landfill into products for home, school and the office. The company’s tote bags, trash cans, picture frames and more are made from the waste and sold at major retailers like Target, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Home Depot.

Recycling in the workplace goes beyond a bin for unused paper and containers for aluminum cans and empty bottles of water. There are also pens, markers, tape dispensers and even cell phones that can be recycled. These items may not be the first things that come to mind when thinking of office recyclables, but they can definitely be put to good use at the end of their life. One company is working to take these types of products and upcycle them into new items: TerraCycle. TerraCycle works in a series of brigades. These brigades are designed to collect items that aren’t traditionally recycled and then upcycle them into new consumer goods. In addition to keeping these products out of landfills, the brigades also serve as fundraising tools for schools, churches and nonprofit organizations.