A few months ago I wrote a blog post about TerraCycle’s intention to create a national recycling program for all waste, even including cigarette butts. As our programs have grown, we have had frequent internal debates about what kinds of companies we want to partner with to help them make their waste recyclable (which in turn makes their products greener). We have come to understand that every industry has its issues. For example, the food industry has many debates around the use of refined sugar, corn and soy in its products. And the garment industry has issues involving the use of leather and fur, and the cosmetics industry has challenges concerning animal testing, which some retailers require. The list goes on, and I am becoming increasingly confident that there really is no perfect product, which we should all consider when buying stuff.

With holiday-related “to do’s” dancing in our heads, the scurrying and worrying has begun. What to get for family members who are impossible to buy for? Where to find classy or unique gift for your husband, wife or that special someone? If you want to be more green with this year’s gifts, check out Hipcycle.com, one of the leading online retailers for upcycled items. The term “upcycled” was coined in 2002 by William McDonaugh & Michael Braungart for their book  Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things. Upcycling is the process of converting a material into something of similar or greater value, to a second life – using waste materials to create “new” useful products. Each Upcycled Woven Tin Bracelet is a one-of-a-kind It’s been called a greener way of recycling. Upcycling generally requires less energy than recycling, keeps materials once considered waste from going into landfills and reduces the need  to manufacture new products . I’ve written about upcycling in the past in reference to TerraCycle and its take-back Brigades and Upcycle the Gyres, which is working to upcycle ocean plastic debris into diesel, gasoline, and kerosene.

As trash takes over the planet via overflowing landfills, the growing Pacific Gyre, endless litter, and needless consumption, meanwhile something very important is rapidly disappearing – and you should be concerned. More and more trash, less and less… clean water. I’ve dedicated my entire life to one environmental issue: Eliminating the Idea of Waste. When I met some of the talented folks at Art Takes Over (ATO) andParticipant Media (producers of top films like Food, Inc. and An Inconvenient Truth), and I heard about their new documentary, "Last Call at the Oasis," I realized that while recycling and reuse should remain a top priority and top concern, there’s an environmental issue much bigger facing the 21st Century and that’s clean water. I recently mentioned to you in my post about sustainable fashion that I think art is an incredible medium for pressing messages such as the need to recycle.TerraCycle had the pleasure of speaking with Jessica Yu, the Academy Award-winning director of "Last Call at the Oasis," for our podcast this week.

Last May, I wrote a post about whether a green company, like TerraCycle, should partner with companies that make tobacco, firearms or alcohol. Our business relies on taking waste that has traditionally been considered nonrecyclable and finding ways to recycle it. We do this by running national collection and solution programs for specific types of waste, and we have been partnering with the alcohol industry for a few years now. Our alcohol industry partnerships began with a national wine-cork program that has collected roughly two million corks and recycled them into products such as cork boards, shoes and flooring. This program is financed by a major synthetic cork company, Nomacorc, and will expand into Italy later this year. We also recently began a program to collect wine pouches with the Clif Family Winery. While we have not yet partnered with anyone in the firearms industry — I’m hoping we will collect shotgun shells at some point — we have been attempting to work with the tobacco industry for some time. And I am happy to say that we recently signed our first and second tobacco deals (both programs will start in a few weeks). One is with Canada’s largest tobacco company, the other with one of America’s largest tobacco companies. Both programs will allow TerraCycle to collect and recycle cigarette butts and other cigarette-related waste.

Mat McDermott/CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 Social media is applauded as a means of engaging crowds, creating change and encouraging action. To see where the perception of social media’s power originated, we need only to look at the pivotal role it played in political events such as the Arab Spring and Green Revolution in Iran. Not to mention those here at home – think: #occupy. Social media certainly helps spread the word, but does it mean that less people are actively participating in events? While the actual news can spread like wildfire across the Internet, do as many people get off the couch or get up from their desk to follow through on the things they “like” or “share”? I’m wondering how much “good” social media can really do for the environment. If someone clicks “Like” on TerraCycle’s Facebook page, or retweets a Treehugger.com tweet, that’s fantastic. But it doesn’t take down our carbon output or bring back a demolished forest. I love seeing the good social media is doing – don’t get me wrong. It’s a large part of TerraCycle’s initiatives, and same goes for many other companies. Check it out:

The challenges of a waste-recycling business. This is getting a little embarrassing. Twice now I have written about a new program that I think is going to allow us to dramatically expand our recycling efforts. Both times — when I first mentioned the program eight months ago and when I wrote about it again almost two months ago — I thought we were just a few weeks from introducing the program. Both times I was wrong. We have now determined that we are about six months away. The goal of our new program — we’re calling it “W.O.W.” or “World of Waste” — is to forge a direct link with our collectors, allowing us to recycle even more streams of waste. For example, today we collect about 2.5 percent of all of the drink pouches in America through a program that is sponsored by Capri Sun and Honest Tea and free to all participants. On the other hand, we have not yet been able to secure a sponsor to recycle used batteries. W.O.W. will allow us to collect batteries and a host of other waste streams. But in these cases, the costs will be paid by consumers, at least until we find sponsors. So what happened? Why the delays?

As an environmental company, TerraCycle has a unique relationship with Earth Day. Celebrating our environment and spreading awareness and activism is wonderful, but we also like to remind people that the Earth needs to be taken care of every day. For the past few years, we’ve had an array of special events around Earth Day. In 2009, we launched our mini-series on National Geographic – Garbage Moguls – and in 2010, we had a Walmart Hotspot with sixty TerraCycle products were displayed in Walmart stores, right next to the products that they used to be! Think, drink pouch backpacks next to boxes of Capri Sun. Last year, 2011, we had the Old Navy Flip-Flop Replay in which we collected used flip flops at Old Navy stores across the country during the Earth Month. That same month, in partnership with Office Depot, we collected used pens and writing instruments at their retail locations.

When I recently posted in a New York Times blog that biodegradability isn’t what it seems, and on Packaging Digest that we should be careful with biodegradable plastics and incineration habits, I got a few reminders that some compostable plastics are not made of PLA (polylactic acid), which is the most common polymer used for biodegradable plastics. Some are made of different types of biodegradable plastic that are more easily compostable in the backyard. This is very true, and I think my question has now become, which is the more sustainable of the two options: recyclable plastics, or biodegradable plastics? We already know that incineration is not the best method for disposal. While it is often referred to as “waste to energy,” it might as well be “waste to air pollution” because it adds to the carbon emissions (already a problem) and introduces other toxins to the atmosphere. I have always believed that recycling is the best way to go because it makes the most of the energy consumed to make the product. Composting is a great option, and is appropriate at times, don’t get me wrong. But let’s face it–it takes much longer and much more energy to make the majority of our plastics than the time and energy it takes to use that plastic. Think about a plastic cup: manufacturing the cup, and using the energy to make it, takes longer than it does to drink a soda out of that cup. In order to not waste the energy expended in manufacturing, the longer the life of the product, the better. It doesn’t make sense to throw out a pair of shoes that are barely worn, and same goes for a plastic.

The challenges of a waste-recycling business. As I mentioned in my last post, I am going to be writing a series of posts about our expansion into foreign markets. Ever since we began this expansion, I have been asked how often we are solicited for bribes in foreign countries. The funny thing is that while bribery is perceived to be relatively commonplace in international business, it may be more common in this country than people like to think. At least that’s what a former TerraCycle employee who used to work for a major American consumer products company told me.

Last week, the Senate passed the Jobs Act, which contains equity crowd-funding legislation, an idea, as I wrote in a previous post, whose time I believe has come. Having led TerraCycle through its early days and subsequent rounds of funding, I believe that crowd-funding holds real promise for early-stage social entrepreneurs.