By KARA L. RICHARDSON
STAFF WRITER

Those crusty, empty yogurt cups and drink pouches, when finished and cleaned, could soon yield cash for local schools and nonprofit organizations.

TerraCycle, a Trenton-based company that got its start selling organic fertilizer in recycled soda bottles, has begun two new incentive programs for schools and community groups to collect yogurt containers and used drink pouches -- items often trashed instead of recycled -- for cash, said Albe Zakes, a TerraCycle spokesman.

Hunterdon Central Regional High School and First Baptist Preschool in Somerville already have registered, he said.

The Drink Pouch Brigade and the Yogurt Brigade are free programs. Groups can earn 2 cents per used drink pouch collected. In the Yogurt Brigade, schools will earn 2 cents for 6-ounce yogurt containers and 5 cents for 32-ounce yogurt containers.

New uses

Until now, most recycling facilities have not taken yogurt cups because of the type of plastic used in them, Zakes said.

TerraCycle, along with Stonyfield Farm yogurt, are challenging groups to collect 2 million yogurt containers to be made into Yo'Planter planting pots, which will replace the black plastic planting pots in nurseries. The black pots, which traditionally are discarded once a plant is repotted, are thrown away at a rate of tens of millions a year.

Honest Tea, the Drink Pouch Brigade sponsor, and TerraCycle are challenging America to "rescue and reuse" 1 million pouches in the next 12 months, Zakes said.

According to the Container Recycling Institute, 3.6 billion drink pouches are produced each year. The material is nonrecyclable.

"That's why I like the drink-pouch program best. If we're not collecting them, they're going in the landfills," Zakes said.

TerraCycle will use the drink pouches to make handbags, tote bags, backpacks and pencil pouches that will be sold in Target and Walgreens in the coming year, he said.

Pat Dziamba, a Hunterdon Central Regional High School biology teacher, said her students will collect drink pouches for TerraCycle and she will weave environmental impact into her lesson plans starting this spring.

Dziamba and fellow teacher Olga Wickerhauser took about 50 students on a field trip to TerraCycle's Trenton facility in May. The students seemed inspired by the company's commitment to the environment and entrepreneurial spirit.

"Personally, I think it's a great way to take care of the environment and to show kids that if you have an idea to go for it and follow it," Dziamba said. "They (the company's founders) took an idea to help the environment, and they were successful. All in all, it's a great program. I think everybody wins with it."

Dziamba said she'll talk with the students about what to do with the money collected from the drink pouches.

First Baptist Preschool in Somerville has signed up for the Yogurt Brigade, Zakes said. More then 10 billion yogurt containers are consumed a year in America, he said.

Collecting plastic

Bridgewater is one of the few Somerset County municipalities that collects all types of plastic -- from bubble wrap to lawn chairs. Bridgewater residents are allowed to drop off the plastic at the Polhemus Lane facility during "Dumpster Days" -- 12 Saturdays in the spring and fall, said John Falcone, the Bridgewater's environmental officer.

During those collections alone, Bridgewater residents recycled 16 tons of plastic in 2007, said Jeannette Tumolo-DeCuollo, owner of Blue Star Recycling in Raritan Borough.

That's up from 6.5 tons collected in 2006, Falcone said.

"That's just a portion of it," Falcone said about many people still not using the township's drop-off plastic recycling services.

Somerset County handles the township's curbside recycling, which does not include hard plastic, he said.

Tumolo-DeCuollo said the township can take a voucher indicating how much plastic has been recycled and use it toward grants.

She often offers her company's recycling services to businesses and municipalities. Her company will leave a container for plastic -- anything from shrink wrap to car bumpers -- on the premises and haul it away when it's full.

However, more often than not, she said, people -- from car dealerships to health clubs -- turn down her services.

"People are lazy," Tumolo-DeCuollo said, noting that recycling plastic will save companies and municipalities money in garbage collection.

Tumolo-DeCuollo created her company to help the environment, but she also makes money reselling the plastic.

According to the November 2007 issue of American Waste Digest, the going rate for mixed plastic is 22 cents a pound.