Save It – School Supplies With a Cause
TerraCycle I had heard about for their green cleaning products. So I was pleasantly surprised when I found out about their amazing school supplies made completely of recycled items. Not only that, but students, teachers, or groups can coordinate a Brigade and collect the desired trash items to turn in for credit. TerraCycle will send you free shipping packages, labels, and how-tos to help you know what to collect, and when you send in a box of the appropriate items your school or non-profit will earn 2 cents per item!
Comme certains d'entre vous le savent déjà grâce a la newsletter du mois de Aout, nous organisons un concours pour la rentrée de septembre qui nous aidera a récolter des fonds pour l'association Portrait Animaux !
Le but de TerraCycle est d’éliminer le concept de déchet, en créant des réseaux de recyclage nationaux pour des produits traditionnellement considérés comme non recyclables. La base de ce processus est de proposer des programmes de collecte (pour la plupart totalement gratuits) destinés à ramasser les déchets et à les transformer ensuite en une large gamme de produits et de matériaux.
The message that the planet may be in peril is a big pill to swallow, especially when you're a kid. When trying to get your youngsters interested in becoming eco-friendly kids when heading back to the classroom, keep the lesson both simple and relatable. "Too often environmental education is all 'doom and gloom' — melting ice caps, disappearing honey bees, dying polar bears — but this only works to scare kids, not inspire or motivate them to make a difference," shares Albe Zakes, global vice president, media relations for
TerraCycle, Inc. "Instead, making environmental responsibility fun, engaging, interactive — even a 'game' — is a far more effective way to get kids interested and motivated to do their part."
Engage kids with results they can see
According to
treehugger.com, each student generates 240 pounds of waste and 18,760 pounds of lunch waste each year. But, how do you translate that into something tangible kids can understand? "Kids like to be able to see the impact of their actions," says Zakes. "Like all humans, they have relatively short attention spans and memories. Cleaning up a local water way or park allows them to take personal pride in the outcome, even doing a DIY or art project with recycled materials allows them to show off their work to family or friends. This personal connection will help drive more responsible behavior in the future."
TerraCycle, a multinational recycling and upcycling company, got its start during founder Tom Szaky's freshman year at Princeton University. Here, the founder shares how natural retailers and natural businesses can become less wasteful.
Tom Szaky’s infectious passion has propelled TerraCycle, a multinational recycling and upcycling company, to be among the fastest-growing corporations in the nation. He will share more about his business from 9 to 10 a.m. on Thursday, Sept. 20, in room 308/309 at
Natural Products Expo East.
Natural Foods Merchandiser: How do you describe your business for those who don’t know about it?
Tom Szaky: TerraCycle’s business revolves around the simple idea of making things
recyclable that are not recyclable. Today, we are in 22 countries around the world where you can sign up to collect waste. You simply take a cardboard box and fill it up. Each waste stream goes into its own box, such as pens in one box, chip bags in another.
Once the box is full, you download a free shipping label and send it to us. We typically credit your account 2 cents for every piece of waste you collect to allocate to any school or charity in the country. Then we take the waste and we do one of three things to it: reuse it, if it’s possible, we do that for example in our shoe program;
upcycle it, for example juice packs into backpacks; or recycle it, where, for example, we melt chip bags into trash cans.
Clayton Snyder, who graduated in June from Lock Haven University, participated in a study abroad program, spending February to June in South Korea.
Snyder, a senior recreation management major with a concentration in environmental/international studies, had received a $4,000 Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship to study in South Korea.
The son of Bob and Kim Snyder of Lebanon, Snyder is a 2008 graduate of Cedar Crest High School.
In South Korea, he attended Chungnam National University in Daejon, where he studied the Korean language and culture.
The Gilman International Scholarship Program is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and is administered by the Institute of International Education. Recipients are chosen by a competitive selection process.
With a business plan that began by selling an organic fertilizer made from worm poop, or vermicompost, in empty carbonated soft drink bottles, Trenton, N.J.-based TerraCycle Inc. is a green company that has been linked to the beverage industry since its impetus in 2003. Albe Zakes, global vice president of media relations, explains that the company’s fertilizer was one of the first non-uniform packaged products sold at nationwide chains such as The Home Depot, Walmart and Target.
In 2007, TerraCycle shifted its main business model to its Brigade model, which offers free sign-up and shipping for individuals, families or organizations that collect a variety of approved used goods and return them to TerraCycle to be upcycled, or repurposed, into new things, Zakes says. In return for the collection, TerraCycle donates around $0.02 for each unit of waste, such as a drink pouch, potato chip bag or highlighter, to a school, nonprofit organization or charity.
The Brigade program began with a partnership with Bethesda, Md.-based Honest Tea to collect the flexible pouches used for its Honest Kids line of beverages. The program grew from 100 schools in the first 48 hours to 500 schools in its first four months, Zakes says. The following year, Northfield, Ill.-based Kraft Foods Inc. brand Capri Sun joined as a co-sponsor of the drink pouch program, which was integral to the re-use of the brand’s pouches and the expansion of the program, Zakes says.
On Sept. 20, Tom Szaky, founder and CEO of Trenton, N.J.-based TerraCycle Inc., one of the leaders in eco-capitalism and "upcycling," will return to address Expo East attendees at 9 a.m. His talk, "Turning Your Waste into Massive Equity," will center on the most effective waste-reduction tips and marketing opportunities in today's environment. Szaky, named the No. 1 CEO in America Under 30 by Inc Magazine in 2006, will tell attendees how to discover and capitalize on hidden assets – such as packaging or used products – and grow a business in a constrained economy.
Buy recycled
As much as you may be fantastic at reusing last year’s supplies, you will need to buy some new things for the upcoming school year. The best way to maintain your green credentials is to buy upcycled products. For example, rather than purchasing a regular backpack you can check out
Terracycle’s backpack made from upcycled drink pouches (saved from ending up in dumpsters and landfills across America) or
TreeSmart’s recycled newspaper pencils. To start the new year off with some new threads, shop for hip and gently used clothes at fashion forward thrift stores like
Buffalo Exchange.
Growing cherry tomatoes is the best way for newbies to ease into gardening.
Love the idea of
growing your own food, but daunted by a brown thumb? Grab a pot and a cherry tomato seedling, and you'll never again wonder how easy it is to garden. Cherry tomato plants are great because, even if you grow just one plant, it will bear a steady crop of bite-size fruits.
You'll Need:
- 1 cherry tomato plant (find an organic variety at a farmer's market or nursery)
- 1 tomato cage, the largest size your retailer carries
- 1 20-quart bag of organic potting mix; we like Organic Mechanics
- 1 bottle or bag of organic tomato food; try Terracycle's Tomato Plant Food (a general-purpose organic will do if you can't find tomato food)
- 1 5-gallon plastic food bucket
