The economy has undoubtedly impacted every aspect of American life, including the way people spend their money. The shrinking retail sales may be a tell-all about a reduction in consumerism — whether by necessity or because it’s trendy — but there’s one other number that may indicate America’s love for “stuff” is changing. For the past few years, the amount of garbage generated nationwide has been decreasing: According to the Environmental Protection Agency, between 2007 and 2009 (the last year available), municipal solid waste (a.k.a. garbage) generation went from 255 million tons to 243 million. Still, considering that amount is double that of four or five decades ago, it’s easy to understand the efforts to promote and encourage recycling. Consumers, of course, are complying, recovering about 34 percent of materials nationwide (from less than 10 percent 30 years ago). But while paper recycling has become second nature (and 64 percent of it is diverted from the landfill), a growing number of people are looking for ways to recycle various other things that usually go into the trash, from candy wrappers and Ziplock bags to potato chip bags and Elmer’s glue sticks.

TerraCycle makes affordable, eco-friendly products from a wide range of different non-recyclable waste materials. Capri Sun – Honest Kids juice pouches can be recycled by Terracycle as can Candy Wrappers, Starbucks Coffee bags, Zip Loc Bags, pens, Cookie Wrappers, Colgate toothpaste, and more. Yes this is more involved, so try to get your local community or school involved.

Welcome back to Rock Roundup, when we take a look back at Council Rock community happenings and give a sneak peek into what's coming up on the calendar. Here's the latest from Council Rock: Newtown Elementary School TerraCycle is a private business headquartered in Trenton, NJ.. which specializes in making consumer products from post-consumer materials, often reusing waste materials that are otherwise difficult to recycle. The Newtown Elementary School community collected close to 20,000 items for TerraCycle recycling during the 2010-2011 school year.

It’s hard to imagine that anyone would get excited about sorting trash. But each Friday, the third graders at Newtown Elementary School beg to do just that. In fact, they like it so much that they forgo recess just to sift through used drink pouches, chip bags, and snack wrappers. There is a reason for their enthusiasm. The students are recycling for TerraCycle, a Trenton-based company that accepts certain types of waste to make products like bags, picture frames, toys, trashcans, and more. Best of all, the school gets money in return for the products they send in to recycle. The school began its effort in October, after parent Kathy Skalish learned about the initiative. “I’m a recycling junkie,” Skalish said, adding she worked with the school’s administration to make the program happen. So far, the school has collected more than 8,350 drink pouches, which TerraCycle uses to make tote bags and backpacks. They’ve also collected more than 4,200 snack bags and more than 450 Ziplocs, which they’ve just begun recycling. In return for their efforts, TerraCycle gives them 2 cents an item, or $260 since October. TerraCycle bins are located throughout the hallways and in the cafeteria.

Last night I joined TerraCycle <http://www.terracycle.net/> ! Their purpose is to eliminate waste from landfills. Schools, charities and individuals can sign up for one or more of their 37 brigades <http://www.terracycle.net/brigades?locale=en-US&show_all=true>  to collect items such as Ziploc bags and Capri Sun pouches that would otherwise be dumped in the landfills . I joined the Energy Bar Wrapper Brigade <http://www.terracycle.net/brigades/7-Energy-Bar-Wrapper-Brigade-?locale=en-US>  because I love Clif and Luna bars.  I eat them like everyday lol So I’m collecting those and other nutritional bar wrappers that have a foil lining. Once I get 100 I can ship the wrappers (TerraCycle pays for shipping!) and they upcycle and recycle the items making bags, recyclable bins, and even fences! TerraCycle will also donate $0.02 cents (could be more depending on the item you are collecting) for every unit you send in towards a charity of your choice.  My charity is the Nature Conservancy’s Golf Coast Restoration <http://www.nature.org/wherewework/northamerica/gulfofmexico/> .  If you have your own charity you have TerraCycle donate to yours. Follow my progress in my sidebar :) I told my Wellness class today about it and got like ten wrappers lol This is such an awesome and EASY way to help the Earth and eliminate waste.  Recycling can be difficult and tedious, but with TerraCycle you can actually see the finished product and help out a charity.  So go and join a brigade!

On the national level a company called TerraCycle believes in a bold goal of eliminating the very idea of waste. Through an extensive network of collection and manufacturing locations, Terracycle is teaming with organizations to have schoolchildren collect trash products such as Ziploc bags, candy wrappers, chip bags, drink pouches and toothpaste tubes — paying 2 cents per product to the charity of their choice. These materials, rather than going to a landfill, are diverted into manufacturing to produce products such as coolers, trashcans, benches, and even fences. Started in 2001 by a college student, TerraCycle has already collected more than a billion different waste products and turned them into a range of products that are sold at stores like Walmart and Whole Foods <http://www.postcrescent.com/article/20110107/APC03/101070461/1028/Cheryl-Perkins-column--Waste-goes-beyond-the-kind-that-s-thrown-away#> . So far they have yielded more than $1 million for charity, and the numbers continue to grow. Read more: http://www.postcrescent.com/article/20110107/APC03/101070461/Cheryl-Perkins-column-Waste-goes-beyond-the-kind-that-s-thrown-away#ixzz1ANwHi5RZ