At a time when education funding is drying up, some schools are finding cash in their trash. For several years now, school districts around Michigan and around the nation have been turning their waste streams into a revenue stream through cooperative program with TerraCycle, a Trenton, N.J. firm that buys discarded juice pouches, potato chip bags, plastic cups and other typical lunchroom debris.

Terracycle is a company that collects and "upcycles" different kinds of waste packaging and turns that waste into new consumer products. Repurposed products include pencil cases made from Oreo cookie wrappers, kites from Skittles packages, backpacks from Capri Sun drinks pouches and natural plant fertilizer made from worm excrement that is packaged in empty soda bottles. These upcycled products are available for sale in several large national chain stores including Home Depot, Walmart and Wholefoods Markets. So far, Terracycle has collected over 1.5 billion tons of waste. In Lays potato chip packets alone, over two million tons of waste has been diverted from landfills.

Hey, New Orleans: instead of filling up your trash can with empty food wrappers and plastic Hurricane cups after guests leave, you can reuse the packaging yourself or send the detritus to TerraCycle. In so doing, earn some summer cash for your favorite charity and also keep trash out of landfills. A win-win. TerraCycle, a recycling and so-called upcycling company -- meaning they not only help melt old cans but also turn formerly useless products into useable stuff -- partners with brands such as Frito-Lay and Nabisco to reduce the amount of waste being tossed out. The company's goal is to eliminate "the idea of waste" by creating collection and solution systems for anything that ends up in a landfill. According to TerraCycle intern David Smith, the company has inspired New Orleans school kids to go truly green: "TerraCycle, in partnership with brands such as Lunchables and Kraft, will be working to keep waste out of the lunch room. As school is revving up and lesson plans are being laid out, TerraCycle will be working with schools in New Orleans and elsewhere to set up brigade programs and collect all the waste possible, while at the same time giving financial rewards for the hard work of these kids. In turn, they are learning about how their efforts impact the environment." Continue reading on Examiner.com Turn old Hurricane cups and Frito bags into upcycled products - New Orleans Green Living | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/green-living-in-new-orleans/turn-old-hurricane-cups-and-frito-bags-into-upcycled-products#ixzz1TyRql9PY

The local TerraCycle Brigade collects difficult-to-recycle waste to make eco-friendly products. It’s a case of one man’s trash being another man’s treasure. TerraCycle is a global company that collects nonrecyclable and difficult-to-recycle waste and uses it to make affordable, eco-friendly products. For each piece of 'waste' sent in through collection programs called Brigades, TerraCycle pays the UPS shipping charges and awards two points, which can be redeemed for specific charity gifts on TerraCycle.net or converted to 2 cents to be donated to the charity of the collector’s choice. While most municipalities accept glass, aluminum, tin and specific kinds of plastic for recycling, TerraCycle is focused on uncommonly recycled items. The company partners with consumer packaged goods manufacturers to upcycle consumer products. With upcycling, the waste is simply cleaned and shaped, sewn, or fused into new products, such as backpacks, messenger bags, lunch boxes, school supplies, shower curtains, and kites.

TerraCycle offers collection programs that regularly collect waste from more than 14 million people in 11 countries and convert it into more than 1500 new products and materials. Many of the collection programs are free and focus on waste that is not recyclable via traditional methods. The items are then sold at a variety of retailers, including Walmart and Whole Foods Market. The program was founded in 2011 and aims to eliminate the entire concept of ''waste'' by proving that everything we throw away is actually reusable. Tom Szaky began TerraCycle when he was just a 20-year old college freshman attending Princeton University and started by producing organic fertilizer that was packaged in used soda pop bottles.

TerraCycle is a company I know Mamas will get behind.  We're all doing our part to become a bit greener.  as much as we can I think.  Whether it's packing our kids lunches in more earth friendly packaging or handing down our kids clothes.  We're doing what we can.

Though recycling is not a new trend, many people are unaware that most objects are un-recyclable. This means that the traditional recycling method is too costly and inefficient to properly break down items such as chip bags, juice boxes, shampoo bottles, yogurt containers, candy wrappers, pens, butter tubs, and more. TerraCycle is a breakthrough company that intends to recycle the formerly un-recyclable. Now, anyone can sign up for the TerraCycle campaigns and send in their trash to be converted into new products. The best part, besides doing something good for Mother Nature, is the money anyone can receive from TerraCycle for donating their trash. The company reports to collect one million juice pouches every two to three days and returns $0.02 per pouch to the donator. By collecting and sending items that would normally end up in the trash, sewer, or ocean, they are able to help create products such as park benches, messenger bags and backpacks, fences, picture frames, just to name a few of more than 260 products feature on their website. TerraCycle does not actually make new products, but instead acts as a supplier to manufacturing companies that would normally use virgin material.

Parents and kids at the K-2 school finished fifth in a statewide recycling contest sponsored by TerraCycle, a company started by a Princeton University dropout who sold organic “worm poop” fertilizer in used soda bottles and then branched out to make lunch bags, fences and other products from hard-to-recycle materials. TerraCycle partners with major brands to create products from packaging that otherwise might pose a public relations problem for them. The company was founded in 2001 by Tom Szaky, then a 20-year-old freshman at Princeton. When his worm fertilizer idea only finished fourth in the Princeton Business Plan Contest, he left school to develop the concept and won a $1 million competition. He turned down the money to retain control of the company. TerraCycle now operates from a Trenton headquarters decorated by graffiti artists. The company has turned nearly 2 billion pieces of trash into a line of 246 recycled and “upcycled” products sold by the likes of Walmart and Whole Foods Market. More than $1.6 million has been generated for schools and charities. On Earth Day 2009, Tom Szaky published Revolution in a Bottle: How TerraCycle is Redefining Green Business.

Named the No 1. CEO under thirty by Inc. magazine in 2006 for his innovative approach to fertilizer and recycled goods, in the two years that followed (2007-2009) Tom Szaky went on to write about 30 blogitles for Inc. and a book that surely has more than 30 pages – Revolution in a Bottle. Now it’s 2011 and he’s still under 30 but he’s worth at least 30 times 30 more than he was at the start of 2006. Tom, a Princeton drop-out, is a man on a mission to run a fully sustainable company. While he was still in his dorm room he was dreaming up TerraCycle, one of the fastest growing private companies named by Inc. magazine in 2009.

“TerraCycle’s purpose is to eliminate the idea of waste. We do this by creating a national recycling systems for the previously non-recyclable. The process starts by offering collect programs (many of them free) to collect your waste and then convert the collected waste into a wide range of products and materials. With over 14 million people collecting waste in 11 countries together we have diverted billions of pieces of waste that are either upcycled or recycled into over 1,500 various products available at major retailers ranging from Walmart to Whole Foods Market. Our hope is to eliminate the idea of waste by creating collection and solution systems for anything that today ends up in our trash.