Nos últimos 10 anos, a TerraCycle®, pioneira no processo chamado de “upcycling”, tem estabelecido parceria com grandes empresas globais para criar uma maneira inovadora de coletar e reusar embalagens de difícil reciclabilidade que tem como destino final os aterros sanitários. No Brasil, a TerraCycle atua há um ano e nove meses e tem parceria com as marcas como Nestlé, Kraft Foods, PepsiCo, BRFoods e Suzano.

Um jeito de educar, recolher resíduos e transformá-los em produtos que podem continuar em uso. Este é o projeto da TerraCycle. Que para fechar o bom negócio, deu um jeito de fazer tudo isso virar vantagem econômica para todos os lados.

It’s not often that an educator finds inspiration on the back of a juice box, but that’s what happened to Tim Sarych. Sarych is a special education management aid at the Mille Lacs Academy School. Sarych read about the TerraCycle, a recycling program for schools, on a box of Capri Sun juice. After a bit of research, Sarych registered the MLA with the TerraCycle program. “I knew this was a fundraiser that our school could benefit from,” he said. “It helps the environment, and it engages the students in a positive community activity.” Sarych started the project last winter and slowly introduced the plan to his co-workers. In the months that followed he brought the program up to full speed. Students and staff collect candy wrappers, cheese packaging, used printer cartridges, coffee bags, empty drink pouches, old cell phones, cereal bags and a long list of other would-be trash. They box the recyclables up and send them to TerraCycle and receive between 2 cents and a dollar an item. TerraCycle also pays the shipping costs. The material collected by TerraCycle is turned into garbage cans, school supplies, playground equipment, flower pots, back packs, and a wide variety of other items. Students and staff are bringing packaging from home as well as collecting them at the school. “Two cents an item doesn’t sound like a lot,” Sarych said. “But it adds up quickly.” To date the program has brought in about $200 dollars and kept 61 boxes of waste out of the local landfills. “Throwing away a candy wrapper is like throwing away money,” Sarych said. For more information go to TerraCycle.net, or call Tim Sarych at (320) 532-6848. Photos by Rob Passons.

TerraCycle is a national and international company that stays local. Sound like a paradox? It doesn’t have to be one. Since there’s usually a big push around “buying local” at the holidays, when everyone is doing more shopping than usual and trying to get the best prices, I started wondering how staying local fits into the plans for a national and/or international company, and how those companies can help encourage consumers to stay local. I’m not talking companies like retail stores, but instead companies like TerraCycle or even those that aren’t often consumer-facing (think, a national film company or a social services company).

One Bexley classroom has jumped into action, based on the November Board of Education approval of a district partnership with AmeriCorps. The AmeriCorps program addresses critical needs in communities across America, offering “75,000 opportunities for adults of all ages and backgrounds to serve through a network of partnerships with local and national nonprofit groups,” according to americorps.gov.

No ambiente físico, um cadastro é realizado por um adulto, que forma brigadas de coleta de embalagens de suco em pó. Cada grupo deve recolher um mínimo de 100 embalagens e enviar para o instituto, sem pagar pela postagem. Cada item vale R$ 0,02, que são revertidos para uma instituição escolhida pela brigada. Hoje são 272.946 agentes e mais de 1,5 milhão de embalagens recicladas.

Los 30 mejores emprendedores sociales del mundo, según Forbes. Por primera vez en sus 94 años de historia, la prestigiosa revista Forbes se ha decidido a elegir a los emprendedores sociales con mayor impacto en el mundo: Forbes Impact 30. Un estudiante de 20 años que abandonó la Universidad de Princetown y creó una empresa, Terracycle, que recoge residuos en 14 países y los convierte en productos para el colegio, para la oficina o para el jardín con un toque “fashion”. Los vende en grandes almacenes como Wallmart y dona a obras sociales 2 céntimos de dólar por cada desperdicio que recupera.

"Our TerraCycle Campaign Takes on a New Challenge" We have decided to revamp our TerraCycle campaign as a new year's resolution. We will no longer be collecting Huggies diaper packaging, but old beauty containers instead. Starting in January, our TerraCycle collection will have a new drive and image!

L'opération TerraCycle est lancée. Depuis peu, l'opération TerraCycle en partenariat avec Bic a étémise en place à la poste.

Finding an environmental message in the lyrics of a hip hop song can be tough. Students at Rock Creek Elementary, however, had the opportunity to experience just that during lunch on Dec. 7 when the Green Team put on a performance of the “Compost Rap” in the cafeteria to teach their classmates about the school’s composting program. The performance is a part of the school’s strategy to become a King County-certified Level 2 green school.