TerraCycle will take hard-to-recycle items or garbage such as juice pouches, chip bags, toothbrushes and pens and work with companies to reuse them in backpacks, park benches, cutting boards and other items.

EAST AMWELL TWP. — Where most people see trash, the township school’s Environmental Club sees cash. That has won $50,000 for the school, the top prize in a TerraCycle-Walmart contest for New Jersey public schools. It did so by blitzing TerraCycle with 52,640 plastic wrappers and containers during the two-and-a-half-month contest. “You can’t get much greener than this!” exclaimed the club’s adviser, fifth-grade language arts and science teacher Sharon Ernst. It all started in 2008 with Ernst casting about for a way to raise money for an Environmental Club for fourth- and fifth-graders. She wanted to do something applicable to stewardship, which ruled out fundraisers such as bake sales. She considered selling seeds, then a parent mentioned TerraCycle, which pays nonprofit groups that send it hard-to-recycle items for reuse or recycling.

As part of its recycling campaign, Walmart is beginning this month to sell eco-friendly pet products such as dog beds and kitty litter boxes made from trash. Another new Walmart effort begun this month is a collection system for 28 types of trash that’s being tried at five stores on the East Coast. TerraCycle, takes the waste, including candy wrappers, pens and coffee bags, and upcycles the waste into products like tote bags and portable speakers.