Gina Adams-Levy of Northville, recently won the national Make A Difference Mom contest sponsored by The Ziploc Brand and TerraCycle. Selected for her dedication to children and outstanding waste reduction efforts in the community, Adams-Levy is being nationally recognized for her achievements.

DCS Montessori School recently teamed up with TerraCycle to start turning collected waste into new products and materials, ranging from park benches to backpacks. TerraCycle recycles and upcycles used packaging from familiar products like Capri Sun, Lays, and Oreos. Out of this comes more than 1,500 various products available at major retailers. Founded in 2001, TerraCycle’s goal is eliminate the idea of waste. This year, the Montessori school is participating in two “brigades,” which are national programs to collect specific previously non-recyclable or hard-to-recycle waste. First, the school will collect old cell phones from now until the end of the year by placing collection boxes near the main office and by the front doors. DCS Montessori has asked all students and parents to send in their old cell phones to benefit the environment and the school. Later this year, the school will select another brigade.

Nomacorc, the world’s leading producer of alternative wine closures, is celebrating the second anniversary of its partnership with TerraCycle, Inc., the world’s leader in the collection and reuse of nonrecyclable waste. The companies have worked together to expand the Cork Brigade™, a free program that collects synthetic and natural wine closures and “upcycles” them into corkboards for the home or office. Since the launch of the Cork Brigade in August 2008, more than 1,000 individuals and organizations such as liquor stores, restaurants and wineries have joined the Cork Brigade collection program. Nomacorc and TerraCycle have diverted more than 2 million closures from landfills and raised thousands of dollars for charitable organizations across the United States. The first upcycled product made from Nomacorc closures, an 18x18-inch corkboard, is available at national retailers and online at www.TerraCycleShop.com.

Re: Kerrie L. Cortez’ Feb. 16 letter, “Turning trash into cash”: I am writing in response to Kerrie Cortez, who negatively spoke about the article on Ladera Elementary's recycling efforts titled "Recycling program takes off at Thousand Oaks school" People who have negative energy and comments are wasting both their time as well as the time of people who read this paper. I don't know the motives for the response by Kerrie Cortez, but ours at the school are to reduce waste in our overflowing landfills. We are as parents trying to do the right thing for our children by teaching them to respect the earth and the earth's resources. We are doing something positive, not negative, for the earth and for the children. Had you done some research, you would have found out that there are no recycling centers for ziplock bags, juice pouches, chip bags and such on the West Coast. We are fortunate enough to have a company that will facilitate our waste and transform it into something useful. Not to mention it is also generating money to our school at no cost - simply our time. This is a great opportunity for others to participate in such a resourceful organization. Terracycle has brought our school close to $1,000 since we began participating in the program. Mind you, that was $1,000 our school did not have, especially in the extreme deficit our state is currently in. We take pride in helping our children learn that the Earth is not a big trash receptacle, but something that we need to respect and take care of. So next time before you write a comment and say someone is leaving a "negative footprint,” do your research first. - Irene Nelson, Read more:  http://www.vcstar.com/news/2011/feb/21/recycling-critic/?partner=yahoo_feeds#ixzz1EcRXr8ml  - vcstar.com

MOUNT LAUREL — In September, students and staff at the Countryside Elementary School were anticipating a fifth place prize of $10,000 from a contest put on in conjunction with a partnership between Walmart and TerraCycle. Because of a phenominal effort, they did much, much better. On Feb. 3, Countryside found out it placed second in the contest, winning $30,000. The contest, which ended on Dec. 15, entailed a big recycling effort mostly led by the Parent Teacher Organization (PTO) and participant and parent Kate Esaia. Esaia was heavily involved in getting the kids and faculty at Countryside School on board with the initiative, which included recycling juice pouches, candy wrappers, Ziploc bags, yogurt containers and snack bags. The recycled goods eventually will be used to create insulated lunch boxes, park benches and fencing, just to name a few.

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.

Now Simpson is getting some national recognition for her volunteer efforts. She was recently named one of four finalists in the Make A Difference Mom contest being sponsored by Ziploc Brands and TerraCycle. The contest was designed to celebrate "moms around the country who are taking steps to make a difference for the environment and their communities"-a qualification that seems to fit Simpson perfectly.

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. So far they have yielded more than $1 million for charity, and the numbers continue to grow.

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. So far they have yielded more than $1 million for charity, and the numbers continue to grow.

Since the beginning of October, Countryside Elementary School and its Parent Teacher Organization (PTO) have been participating in an ongoing eco-capitalism initiative in conjunction with a partnership between Walmart and TerraCycle. The contest ended Dec. 15 and results will be released in January.