Founder and CEO of TerraCycle, Tom Szaky has been collecting and upcycling refuse since childhood, starting with discarded TVs and computer monitors.   "Even at a very young age, the excess and waste I saw surprised and intrigued me." Inspired by seeing waste as a great opportunity, the landfill as a poorly organized factory, and that with a little innovation he could run a profitable business that was also good for the planet, Tom dropped out of Princeton and TerraCycle was born.  Starting with sales of the brand's worm-converted waste fertilizer to the Home Depot and Walmart in 2004, TerraCycle has continued to flourish now working with major brands such as Kraft Foods, Frito-Lay, Mars, CLIF BAR and others, in sponsoring the collection of post-consumer packaging that pays schools and non-profits 2 cents for every piece they collect.  Today over 50,000 organizations have helped collect over 1 billion pre- and post-consumer wrappers that have been made into affordable eco-friendly products, such as totes and backpacks. In 2009, Tom released his first book, Revolution in a Bottle, and starred in 3 episodes on the National Geographic Channel series, Garbage Moguls.  When asked what lasting impression he wants to leave on the planet?

Terracycle upcycles consumer waste into new salable goods. They primarily harvest their raw material from schoolchildren as part of charity drives, though they are now placing recycling stations at certain Walmart stores. At the Walmart centers they pay 3 cents per piece, but only for a narrow range of product packaging; the website supports a wider range of recyclables.

When it comes to eco-mindedness, throwing anything away can be an anxiety riddled experience.  Every product is rigorously analyzed guaranteeing the trashcan is the only option.  In steps Tom Szaky, an innovate man with an earth changing idea, Sponsored Waste. Tom Szaky started TerraCycle in 2001 as a Princeton University freshman, with the hopes of winning the Princeton Business Plan Contest.  His idea was to address the environmental issue of trash by using worms to eat organic waste thus producing fertilizer.

With TerraCycle, one person's trash is another person's eco-friendly retail product. The brainchild of a 19-year-old Princeton University freshman in 2001, TerraCycle uses a wide variety of non-recyclable items to make more than 50 diverse products that are sold at major retailers, including Target, The Home Depot, Wal-Mart, Office Max, Whole Foods Market and Petco.

Other things such as juice pouches and potato chip packages are collected and sent to Terracycle, a company which promotes a way to help “outsmart waste.” Items from Terracycle include fence partitions made from “up-cycled” drink pouches, insulated coolers made from candy wrappers, and recycling bins made from recycled plastics. Backpacks and shower curtains also are made from the recycled trash the school kids are sending in. These things can be found at stores including Target, Wal-Mart and Home Depot, said Galvan.

But, really what WOW’d me were the TerraCycle <http://www.terracycle.net/>  goodies. Have you heard about Terracycle? What you do is collect drink pouches, ziploc bags, cookie wrappers, candy wrappers (see the whole collectable list <http://www.terracycle.net/brigades?show_all=true>  here) . For every approved wrapper you get .02 cents donated to a charitable organization. And the items you send get turned into fences, coolers, totes, binders, backpacks and more. And you can BUY these cool goodies online or at retail stores, like the Home Depot or Wal-Mart.

Before those Halloween candy wrappers end up in the trash, you may want to know about a free way to give them a second life as purses, kites and other items. TerraCycle, a company that makes products from non-recyclable waste materials, has partnered with Mars/Wrigley and Cadbury for the "Candy Wrapper Brigade." It collects the wrappers and upcycles them into products. It's organized many such brigades and sells more than 50 items at major retailers such as Walmart, Target, The Home Depot, OfficeMax, Petco and Whole Foods Market.

Terracycle <http://www.terracycle.net/> has so many great things that they make! For my review they sent me this great messenger bag! Terracycle is giving the lunch bag above to one lucky Songberries Follower! To enter please go to Terracycle <http://www.terracycle.net/> and look around, come back here and in a comment tell me comment something you learned. Make sure you’re a follower!

SOUTHBOROUGH, MA, October 20 – The teachers at the Woodward Memorial School used to see a lot of Capri Sun drink pouches get thrown away.  Once they signed up to recycle them through a company called TerraCycle, the school began earning two cents for every one of those pouches and became part of a nationwide effort that has just reached an impressive milestone of keeping 50 million pouches out of landfills.  In addition, TerraCycle, which makes affordable, eco-friendly products from packaging waste, and Capri Sun have paid one million dollars to schools and non-profits in return for the recycled drink pouches.

Well I have read and heard some pretty awesome things about Terra Cycle so when I had the opportunity to share about them and check out one of their products I got really excited!! TerraCycle <http://www.terracycle.net/>  makes affordable, eco-friendly products from a wide  range of different non-recyclable waste materials. 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. Our hope is to  eliminate the idea of waste by finding innovative, unique uses for  materials others deem garbage.