Products Made from Waste Available at Walmart Through April

TerraCycle collects waste which is normally non-recyclable, such as candy wrappers, chip bags, and juice pouches, and makes hundreds of eco-friendly products with them. This year, almost 60 of the company’s products will be sold in evert Walmart store across the US for the month of April, exposing millions of customers to these unique items, and perhaps sparking some conversations about the life cycle of products and packaging.

Eco-Kites: These cool Eco-Kites are made with candy wrappers from such popular items such as Skittles and M&Ms. Kites are fun no matter when you fly them, but flying a kite made from upcycled candy wrappers is a great way to green up your spring. According to TerraCycle, these kites are the world’s first Delta Kites made from food wrappers.

TerraCycle Kids Growing Kits for Vegetables, Flowers, or Herbs: The planting pots are upcycled Stonyfield Yogurt cups (Stonyfield and TerraCycle have a free collection program that pays $.03 for every used cup collected), and the planting mix is made from compost mixed with TerraCycle’s Worm Poop. These growing kits also include seeds embedded in the cardboard tray and growing instructions for the plants.

Notebooks, Journals, Folders, and Pencil Cases: Used candy wrappers make these unique school supplies into fashionable statements about re-use and recycling. Having these in your briefcase, backpack, or purse just might open up a dialog with your coworker or neighbor about the importance of using less new materials in everyday items.

Accessory Bags: Lunchboxes, shoulder bags, backpacks and more, all made from drink pouches, chip wrappers, or candy wrappers, and constructed with matching trim and handles. Show your green side with this line of bags while at the library, in the classroom, or perhaps even the boardroom.

Tote Bags: These tote bags, made from food wrappers turned inside out and then printed, are a stylish and eco-friendly accessory for carrying everything from groceries to school supplies.

TerraCycle collects a lot of these materials from schools - students can bring in their waste wrappers to be reused, and raise $.02 for each item collected for their own school. With this 40th Earth Day anniversary agreement with the nation’s biggest retailer, the millions of students who make up the TerraCycle Brigades, will now have the opportunity to see the full cycle of re-use as these products are displayed in Walmarts all over America.

”TerraCycle partners with major consumer goods manufacturers such as Kraft Foods, Frito-Lay, Mars, Kashi, Kimberly-Clark and many more to run a massive network of individuals, schools and non-profits who get paid to help collect and upcycled non-recyclable packaging. From drink pouches to chip bags to candy wrappers to diaper packaging, TerraCycle and its partners pay two cents per unit of packaging a participant returns and the collected material is combined with other waste streams and upcycled into a wide range of consumer products. These collection fundraisers are called the ‘Brigades’ and have been running since 2007, when the first was launched with organic beverage manufacturer, Honest Tea. In only two years, over 60,000 locations and 7 million people have got involved and are helping to collect, instead of discard, their trash! Over 1.2 billion pieces of pre- and post-consumer packaging have been collected and over 650,000 dollars has been donated to schools and non-profits.”

Remember, these TerraCycle products are available at Walmart only through April 29th. Check out the TerraCycle website for more information about the company. To comment on this story, visit our blog.

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