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.

Q: Although I'm no luddite, I prefer to communicate the old fashioned way: pen and paper. Sure, I have an e-mail account (not AOL, thank you very much) and all that jazz, but when it comes to penning missives, making lists and other things that could be done on a PC, I enjoy utilizing the ancient art of writing by hand. I've long been using recycled content paper products - from fancy stationery to my daily journal to Post-it Notes - but never really thought about greening one rather important thing: my pens. I've amassed quite the collection of plastic pens of the ballpoint variety - nothing too fancy - and subsequently chuck a lot in the trash when the ink runs out. Are there any environmental stats about pen waste? And what are pen manufacturers doing to provide alternatives to landfill-clogging writing instruments?

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!

Q: Although I’m no luddite, I prefer to communicate the old fashioned way: pen and paper. Sure, I have an e-mail account (not AOL, thank you very much) and all that jazz, but when it comes to penning missives, making lists and other things that could be done on a PC, I enjoy utilizing the ancient art of writing by hand. I’ve long been using recycled content paper products — from fancy stationery to my daily journal to Post-it Notes — but never really thought about greening one rather important thing: my pens. I’ve amassed quite the collection of plastic pens of the ballpoint variety — nothing too fancy — and subsequently chuck a lot in the trash when the ink runs out. Are there any environmental stats about pen waste? And what are pen manufacturers doing to provide alternatives to landfill-clogging writing instruments?

What have juice, cookies, or chips done for your schools, recently? Well, if your kids go to Garland Elementary, over the last year, the Parent Teacher Association has been collecting these empty bags, as well as Malt-O-Meal cereal bags, to fund projects like field trips. Melissa Skinner, this year’s Garland PTA president-elect, set up the recycling program after hearing about TerraCycle on a T.V. show highlighting Park City students who were recycling using a company based in Trenton, N.J. Skinner chose to focus on the following items: Nabisco cookie wrappers, Capri or Kool-Aid pouches, Frito-Lay chips bags and Malt-O-Meal cereal bags. So far, the school has collected 2,211 chip bags, 272 cookie wrappers, 2,222 drink pouches and after just starting the cereal bags in January, they have had 80 cereal bags. The total of $95.70 may not seem like much, but Skinner just sent another batch of bags to the company and will see another check at the end of April. Plus, she said TerraCycle pays the shipping expense. Skinner wants to get the word out, that anyone is encouraged to donate their used wrappers from these companies to Garland Elementary.

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.

Students at Woodward Elementary School are learning the meaning of the adage, "one man's trash is another man's treasure." In the students' case, the trash consists of discarded juice pouches. For one New Jersey-based company, the little unwanted pouches represent the treasure. TerraCycle, a company founded by Princeton University students Tom Szaky and Jon Beyer in 2001, has matured from a small start-up showing people how to compost with earthworms to a global leader that takes garbage and "upcycles" it into usable products. Students earn two cents for their school for every empty juice pouch donated to TerraCycle. But they say one of the best parts is having the chance to see their used pouches transformed into backpacks.

Every year BILLIONS of drink pouches end up in dumpsters and landfills across America. TerraCycle, Capri Sun and Honest Kids are working together to put an end to this awful loss of resources. As an eco-friendly innovator, TerraCycle is going to convert the used drink pouches into unique fashion bags, tote bags, and pencil cases for kids and adults! TerraCycle is proud to team up with the largest producer of drink pouches in the country, Capri Sun, and a young organic entry into the market, Honest Kids, to help address this problem from all angles! Together with your help we CAN make a difference!

The winner of the activity, run in partnership with upcycling company TerraCycle, will win a trip to New York and see their design become a reality.

Thanks to one of the Mega Sales at Kroger, our school is now raking in the pennies. How? By doing something that's good for the environment:  recycling. It all started when I bought five packages of Capri Suns at Kroger to fulfill part of a rebate I was working on. On the back of the package was information about Terracycle <http://www.terracycle.net/> , a company that has kept over 1.2 billion pieces of trash out of landfills while fashioning super cool backpacks, pencil cases, tote bags, trash cans, even cork boards! Even more amazing to me was that they would donate $ .02 per pouch collected, to the school or charity of my choice!