You may have seen the Terracycle logo somewhere on DwellSmart, or maybe even came to us from their site, but what exactly are they? Terracycle is a recycling and upcycling company started in 2001 by Princeton freshman Tom Szaky. Tom originally packaged worm poop, yes real worm poop, in recycled soda bottles and the rest is history.  Shop TerraCycle.

Terracycle soon became a driving force in environmental awareness and action, which lead to changing how consumers view waste. So what does Terracycle do with waste you may ask? The answer is pretty much everything.

The next time you start that guilty walk to the trash bin because what you have in your hand isn’t recyclable, check Terracycle’s Brigades index, you may be surprised at what they collect. A Brigade, in this sense, is a program, not a military unit, that collectively recycles specific items through the Terracycle site. Each collection site incentivizes you to waste less with prizes and competitions.

Now for the fun stuff, what kinds of items do they actually take. Glad plastic food storage items, electronics, Clif Bar wrappers, Larabar Wrappers, shoes, cigarette buds, and the list goes on. Recycling your waste is even easier now, all you have to do is follow this link (http://www.terracycle.com/en-US/brigades.html) and sign up for the appropriate Brigade. Start collecting your items and ship them away when you reach a good point -- Period, end of story. Even the shipping is FREE!

So after you've joined a Brigade, collected trash and sent it in, what happens? Terracycle takes your items and transforms them into an array of recycled/ up-cycled goods. Everything from messenger bags, grocery totes, picnic tables, watering cans, fences, trash cans, and cutting boards are made. To view the entire list visit the Terracycle shop. The best thing about their products is that once you are done using them, you can simply send them back to Terracycle to begin the cycle all over again. Now that’s what we call recycling.