TerraCycle, a venture founded in 2001 by a Princeton University freshman, is creating innovative, eco-friendly products out of packaging and other waste materials that are not normally recycled in our municipal waste programs. To date, TerraCycle has developed over 200 products including some that are available at retailers such as Home Depot, OfficeMax, Petco, Target, Wal-Mart and Whole Foods.

Examples of some of their products are:

•  Candy wrappers converted into insulated coolers, clipboards, back packs
• Chip bags converted to tote bags, ring binders, audio speakers, placemats
•  Energy bar wrappers converted to duffel bags, note pads, pencil cases.

TerraCycle will keep track of SACS’ donations and twice a year will provide payment for accepted material. Most of the packaging, wrappers and associated materials recycled are redeemable at .02 cents per item. Standard cell phones are worth $1, smart phones $7.50, and IPhones are $10.

Each stream of their recyclables is known as a “BRIGADE”.  SACS has chosen to collect/recycle the following:

•  Candy Wrapper Brigade:  clean wrappers from any brand or size of candy product, e.g. M&Ms, Snickers,Skittles,Starbursts, Twix, etc 
•  Cell Phone Brigade:  discarded cell phones
•  Chip Bag Brigade:  clean empty bags any size, any brand, of chip , pretzel or similar product e.g. Cheetos, Doritos, Snyders.  Frito Lay, Guys, etc
•  Cookie Wrapper Brigade:  clean, empty bag or wrapper, any brand, any size e.g. Keebler, Sunshine, Nabisco, Pepper Ridge Farm, Archway, etc
•  Kashi Package Brigade:  clean, empty wrappers and packaging from any Kashi product
• Cheese Packaging Brigade: clean plastic packaging/wrapper of any brand or size of cheese product, such as Kraft, Sargento, Borden, Crystal Farms, Velveeta, etc
• Oral Care Brigade: clean, discarded toothbrushes, empty toothpaste tubes and plastic packaging from any product brand or size, e.g. Crest, Colgate, Tom's, Aim,  etc

Please note that each BRIGADE other than Kashi, accepts similar product brands to be recycled.

Please bring any/all of these materials for recycling to our meetings.  Please clean all containers/packages. SACS will have a dedicated container for collection of your donated items.

Your questions about this recycling effort can be directed to Carl Eschbacher, the SACS Coordinator/Collector for this project, either by e-mail to ceschbacher@kc.rr.com or 816-943-8626 by telephone. Information for this project will also be available on the SACS web site.

To learn more about recycling and related activities vist the TerraCycle website www.terracycle.net