In the never ending battle between my growing green crunchiness and E’s epic laziness, the one thing we usually agree on in recycling. Tossing a milk jug into the recycle bin takes exactly the same amount of effort as throwing it in the trash and since Connecticut gives charges us a deposit on soda cans we’re militant about dragging those down to the Stop & Shop for our nickels. I feel pretty good about our efforts, even if the occasional peanut butter jar does end up in the trash (they’re really hard to clean).

Unfortunately, just like in most towns, there’s a limit on what sort of materials they accept. Which is why when TerraCycle emailed about their program I was so excited! TerraCycle is a small (but growing!) company that takes normally non-recyclable products and turns them into cool and useful stuff.

In 2001, Tom Szaky, a Princeton University Freshman, founded TerraCycle in hopes of building an eco-capitalist company built on waste. After winning countless business plan contests, Tom dropped out of Princeton to pursue his dream of founding the world’s most environmentally friendly company. Seven years later, TerraCycle’s eco-friendly products have received a myriad of social and environmental accolades and are sold at major retailers like The Home Depot, Target, Wal*Mart and Whole Foods Markets. TerraCycle’s business plan and products made from waste received a Zerofootprint Seal of Approval, won The Home Depot’s Environmental Stewardship Award twice and recently won the 2007 Social Venture Network Innovation Award. Please visit us at www.terracycle.net to learn more.

So what exactly do they do? Well, they collect trash – everything from drink pouches and plastic diaper packaging to corks and Scotch tape – and turn it into usable products. Their newest partnerships are with Huggies and Sprout but they have programs for tons of other non-recyclables too. TerraCycle collects each kind of trash through groups called “brigades” and even pays for the shipping and donates money to charity for each item received, totaling more than a million dollars so far!

Unfortunately, there isn’t a way to join a brigade already in progress so I’m hoping to convince a local school or childcare program to set up a collection with us. (On that note, if you’re a local school or a childcare program, please email me.)

Even if you can’t help collect the trash you can still help by buying the trash – after it’s turned into cool stuff of course. Shopping for the environment! Everybody wins!

Know anyone going (back) to school in a few months?

It's like Lisa Frank for the eco-friendly era! Rainbows included!!

And today, because they’re such nice people, TerraCycle is giving one of my readers some of their cute stuff! I’m told there’s a big Capri Sun tote bag (diaper bag sized), a Kool-Aid Jammers lunch box, and a Capri Sun pencil case waiting to be sent right to your house. That’s right, I’m doing a GIVEAWAY.

All you have to do to enter is leave a comment on this post telling me how you and your family try to recycle or Terracycle.

For one extra entry you can tweet (leave another comment telling me you did) the following: Tell @TerraCycle and @bebehblog why you TerraCycle or recycle and win a lunch box made from juice pouches! http://bit.ly/9QZUyA #TCbebeh

Entries are open until midnight on July 22nd. CLOSED. Winner will be selected using random.org and announced on July 23rd, 2010. Please make sure you use a real email address when commenting so I can let you know if you won! Sorry my Canadian friends, US residents only. Good luck!

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Disclosure: All opinions are my own. I received no compensation or goods in exchange for this post – YOU’RE the only one getting the free stuff. I just thought it was a great program and wanted to share!