TerraCycle, a company specializing in the reuse of waste: among other things, it makes pencil cases out of Capri Sun drink packages and binders out of reused cardboard. Office Max is now planning to stock these used-to-be-trash products, and is teaming up with TerraCycle to develop more office supplies.

What I’ve seen so far from TerraCycle sounds good: not only is the company keeping trash out of landfills, it's offering schools and other community organizations a way to raise funds by collecting all sorts of ‘waste’ products — and considering how many Capri Suns the typical elementary school goes through, even at 2 cents a package, there’s an opportunity to raise a reasonable amount of money, as well as a chance to demonstrate recycling and reusing waste, rather than carting it off to the dump.

TerraCycle has even managed to settle a David/Goliath match they had with Miracle-Gro after the introduction of TerraCycle’s first product, a fertilizer packaged in old soda bottles. There were some accusations about TerraCycle’s packaging and Miracle-Gro sued — and then settled — last year. TerraCycle is now branching out, using their experience reusing used containers as a starting point.

Image courtesy of TerraCycle.