The 3 Rs (Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle) is no longer simply a mantra for environmental activists, it’s a ticket to saving you money while you consider the planet. The 3Rs ask you to buy less, reuse more, and recycle products at the end of their useful life-wonderful guiding principles for reducing our environmental footprint and bringing our lifestyles into balance with nature. But in practice, how many of us are really willing to cut back on the stuff we want to own, to reuse what we’d like to throw out, and to recycle when doing so is often incredibly inconvenient? Fortunately for budget-conscious Lazy Environmentalists, the 3Rs are receiving a twenty-first-century facelift, making them easy to implement and even easier on the wallet.

Thermoformed packaging such as blister packs and clamshells typically end up in landfills, even though many of are made of PC PET, the usually recycled material that is blow molded into soft drink and water bottles. That’s a problem for manufacturers concerned about sustainability and product packaging. And the economics of recycling will probably prevent widespread recycling of thermoform-grade RPET for some time. (The “R” of RPET means the polymer comprises virgin material plus regrind, or recycled content.) In a pilot study conducted by thermoform-packaging maker Dordan Manufacturing in Woodstock, Ill., the company shipped 50 of its RPET clamshells to a local recycling facility to determine how well the containers could be sorted. The waste-management facility uses optics to sort different kinds of polymers. “The equipment could not distinguish the difference between PET bottles and RPET thermoforms,” saysDordan Manufacturing’s Sustainability Coordinator Chandler Slavin. Theoretically, the two could be recycled together, but that depends on a lot of factors, many of which are a result of the sorting equipment used. In manual sorting, there are problems because clamshells and blisters come in all shapes, sizes, and materials, making it difficult to train workers to sort packages by material type via visual cues in package design. Most clear, thin-neck screw-top beverage bottles are PET, for example, making it easy to identify this recyclable from those destined for landfills, says Slavin.

El Descanso Elementary School student Katelyn Kienitz’s campaign to raise money for her school began when she ran out of pages in her math journal. “I needed a new math journal for school and (my teacher) didn’t have any extra notebooks,” said the 11-year-old fifth-grader. “My school is a very nice school, but we need more classroom supplies.”

“If you just leave your bag of garbage by your front door I’ll stop by and grab it on my way to work.” This probably isn’t something most people Facebook message their friends about at 10:00 at night. But, not only is this really a message sent to me from a friend a few nights ago, but I also really did run and, excitedly, pull a bag of garbage I’d been saving for her out of the closet and set it by my front door.

Tom Szaky didn't even try to get his product--a worm excrement fertilizer packed in a recycled bottle--into small retailers when he started TerraCycle six years ago. Instead, he reached as high as he could: Wal-Mart. "If I want to be big and do it quickly, the best way … is to work with the world's biggest companies," he says. "They can accelerate your cycle much more quickly than any other company can."

A must-follow checklist for small businesses looking to connect with powerhouse companies like Wal-Mart. Tom Szaky didn’t even try to get his product–a worm excrement fertilizer packed in a recycled bottle–into small retailers when he started TerraCycle six years ago. Instead, he reached as high as he could: Wal-Mart. “If I want to be big and do it quickly, the best way … is to work with the world’s biggest companies,” he says. “They can accelerate your cycle much more quickly than any other company can.” The Trenton, N.J.-based company’s first big partnership with Wal-Mart in Canada was just the start of what has become a $14 million business. TerraCycle now gathers unrecyclable trash and converts it into products and packaging for such big brands as Kraft, Pepsi and Mars. Last year, corporate partners spent $45 million on TerraCycle-related marketing–far more than Szaky could have ever done alone.

CLARK — Nicole Mailloux’s seventh grade writing students at Carl H. Kumpf Middle School in Clark are actively participating in a service learning project to utilize persuasive writing techniques in order to motivate other middle school students to take part in an international recycling program, Terracycle. This unit was designed to help students find practical, everyday uses for persuasive writing as well as to teach Kumpf students to be more conscious of waste and simple ways to “go green.”

OWATONNA — While changing diapers on a baby is a necessary duty, it is not fun. It is easy to understand why disposable diapers quickly topped reusable cloth diapers as the bottom-covering garment of choice for incontinent Americans once these handy items came on the market. Many people, including me during the years I regularly changed diapers, felt at least a slight pang of guilt as our garbage cans filled with the smelly items and as we plunked down more hard-earned cash for a box that emptied all too quickly. In actuality, while Americans dispose of millions of diapers annually, dirty diapers comprise only about one and one-half percent of all materials buried in landfills. Still, it would be great if there was a more environmentally friendly alternative to getting rid of used disposable diapers.

TerraCycle, an award-winning company that specializes in recycling hard-to-recycle waste, wants to help small businesses achieve their green initiatives while giving back to the community. If your company signs up to a TerraCycle "Brigade" and begins collecting specific items such as Scotch tape dispensers, toner cartridges, pens, drink pouches, potato chip bags and more, TerraCycle will process those items and your company can earn money for the school or charity of your choice.

טום סזאקי, מייסד ומנכ"ל חברת המיחזור טרה סייקל, מייצג סוג חדש של איש עסקים: יזם חברתי-סביבתי שרוצה להציל את כדור הארץ מבלי להקריב את שורת הרווח. בראיון למוסף "הארץ" מסביר איל הפסולת שהתעשר מהפרשות תולעים מדוע העתיד שלנו נמצא בזבל