Tim McNulty had a satisfying career in high tech sales in California’s Silicon Valley and he and his wife, Chi Park, had adventures living and working in Amsterdam and Germany. But after the birth of their two children, now six and four, something seemed to be missing and that was having family nearby. McNulty grew up in Minnesota and his wife grew up outside of Philadelphia—so the couple decided to move east to be closer to family. And since they were making such a big change in where they lived, Tim McNulty decided to make a change in where he worked,

Schools create quite a lot of waste products that is thoughtlessly gotten rid of when it can be recycled. An exceptional recycling strategy labeled as TerraCycle has brought about a huge change in the recycling behavior of schools in the United States. This program takes the initiative to recover food packaging goods that are difficult to recycle and in addition pays schools for their hard work. As per a MichigansThumb.com report, the program awards points to schools dependant upon the quantity of recyclable goods delivered to TerraCycle. The arrival of single-serve food products has inflated the quantity of disposable waste and led to a rising pile of harmful waste material in landfills.

Photo Credit: Austin Loukas Terracycle recycling boxes, like the ones above, are found in Evans Hall, University Towers, Stark Learning Center, the Student Union Building, and Breiseth Hall You’ve heard of recycled, but how about upcycled? In another effort to “go green” at Wilkes, the Students for Environmental Sustainability club has recently initiated a sustainability collection project called TerraCycle using this process of “upcycling.” Junior Environmental Engineering majors and SES club presidents Katie Cirone and Lizzie Helsel say that TerraCycle is a company that creates and manages collection systems for a variety of hard-to-recycle waste products, such as chip bags, gum wrappers, drink pouches, writing utensils, Ziploc baggies and other items. Tom Szaky, creator and CEO of TerraCycle, had the idea that instead of recycling waste, it could be upcycled and used for another purpose. Cirone explained how upcycling is different than recycling.

TerraCycle has turned juice boxes into purses and is looking to recycle diapers. But today, the Trenton company is focused on collecting trash and helping a Bucks County school make money.

Newtown Elementary School students help sort TerraCycle items during the 2010-2011 school year. Do something good for the planet and your neighborhood Friday. It’s as simple as donating your trash. Yes, you heard right. Trash. Since October, Newtown Elementary School has been participating in TerraCycle recycling. The school is holding its first of two TerraCycle recycling summer collection days on Friday. TerraCycle, headquartered in Trenton, N.J., specializes in making consumer products from, well, trash. For example, the company makes bags from Capri Sun pouches, and other products from chip bags, plastic baggies, candy wrappers, etc.