BENNINGTON — An eco-friendly company based in New Jersey is looking to partner with Vermont schools and community organizations on two new recycling programs.

TerraCycle, a company based out of Trenton, N.J., uses products sent to them by schools, religious organizations and other community groups to make and package eco-friendly and socially responsible products. In return, the schools get paid to recycle.

"We're trying to get schools in the area involved in recycling and have them appreciate the environment, as well as have them help us get the material we need to make eco-friendly products," said Janyne Osborne, a publicist for the company, on Tuesday. "We give the money back to the schools, and they can use it as they please."

Osborne said many of the schools they work with choose to give the money to local charities.

In TerraCycle's first project, the Bottle Brigade, schools received 5 cents for every bottle they sent to the company. The project got so popular with 4,050 schools and organizations participating and 1,097,810 bottles collected that they had to suspend the program. "We had more bottles than we needed," Osborne said. "It was

our first program but a very successful one."

The bottles sent to the company were used to package fertilizer made from worm excrement and were used to make bird feeders, some of which were donated back to the schools.

The two new recycling programs the company would like to see in Vermont are the Yogurt Brigade and the Drink Pouch Brigade. "We'd love to get Vermont schools involved," Osborne said.

The company started the Yogurt Brigade project because 10 billion hard-to-recycle yogurt containers are consumed each year in America. TerraCycle, founded in 2001 by Princeton University students Thomas Szaky and Jonathan Beyer, partnered with yogurt producer Stonyfield Farm because its cups are made from polypropylene plastic No. 5, an environmentally friendly plastic.

"We've reduced waste by using number five," Stonyfield CEO Gary Hirshberg said recently, "and this project offers an opportunity to reuse some of our yogurt cups."

Area schools would receive 2 cents for every 6 ounce Stonyfield yogurt container and 5 cents for every 32 ounce container. Fifty-nine of a possible 300 schools and organizations have already signed up for the program on the East Coast, but none of them hail from the Green Mountain State.

In the Drink Pouch Brigade, schools receive 2 cents for every Honest Kids drink pouch returned. According to the Container Recycling Institute, 3.6 billion of the non-recyclable pouches are produced each year.

The pouches will be made into a variety of different handbags by TerraCycle and are expected to hit stores in 2008. The company's goal is to receive one million pouches in the next year.

Schools and community organizations can sign up for either program at www.terracycle.net/brigades. After signing up, the company sends shipping material to the schools, which the schools then send back to the company with the products free of charge.