As recycling has gained ground and moved to the forefront of concern in the past few years with the overflowing landscapes across the country and world, the innovative space of end-of-life processes has been growing. TerraCycle is no longer alone in this space, and we’re glad for the growth and attention that recycling solutions are receiving. We’re often asked what our greatest challenges are, and we often respond that keeping recycling at the forefront of concern and seeing that “green” doesn’t become a short-lived trend that peters out in the next few years. From the recent trends I’ve seen in the packaging industry, I think recycling is growing stronger, especially with the recent merger of Recyclebank and Waste Management’s Greenopolis.

The school partnered with TerraCycle to collect electronics, beauty products and even candy wrappers, and four green drop-off totes have been set up in the school's lobby for those items. Old tech gadgets have become a hot recycling item as technology quickly evolves, taking up space in landfills and people's homes. While the program doesn't accept all electronics, it does take keyboards, mice, cell phones, laptops and mp3 players.

The company TerraCycle even pays the school for every pound of difficult-to-recycle items, such as markers, glue sticks and drink pouches. “This program looks to reinforce the idea of recycling on the children,” said Tuttle. “When I was in school, recycling was looked at as extreme and something only tree huggers did,” said Davis. “Now it should be a way of life and our social responsibility to recycle because we cannot keep going at the pace that we are going. My little acorn has become the mighty oak.”

Terracycle: basado en la idea del "upcycling", este sistema se ha extendido por todo Estados Unidos. Su objetivo es transformar residuos domésticos en productos útiles para su posterior venta y que los consumidores ganen dinero durante el proceso. Con los beneficios obtenidos desde sus comienzos, en 2009, sus responsables han donado más de tres millones de dólares a distintas organizaciones de caridad. La iniciativa ha entrado en España hace poco y se centra en el reciclaje de bolígrafos.