Up, up with juice pouches (They're `upcyclable'); Terracycle has schools earning cash as they collect hard-to-recycle items.

Byline: Amy Corneliussen

Vicky Peck has a nickname some might find not so flattering, but she loves it when kids call her the "juice pouch lady" because it means they're thinking about recycling. And getting kids to think about recycling is the first step.

In two years, Peck and the students of Douglas Elementary School have recycled more than 55,000 drink pouches through a nationwide recycling program run by TerraCycle Inc. In return, the school has received $1,105 for enrichment programs, and the students have caught the recycling bug.

"They took to it unbelievably quickly, and this is why the whole thing should start with children," says Peck. "My thing was to get recycling started because you would be amazed how many kids don't do recycling at home."

Douglas Elementary is one of about 45,000 schools nationwide - and one of about 360 schools in Massachusetts - that collect drink pouches for recycling by TerraCycle Inc. of Trenton, N.J.

Drink pouches, made of aluminum and plastic, were just thrown away until TerraCycle began recycling them in 2007 in partnership with Honest Tea, maker of Honest Kids juice drink pouches. Then things really took off in 2008 when TerraCycle joined up with Kraft Foods to recycle its popular Capri Sun pouches, along with other drink pouches. Since then, more than 100 billion pouches have been collected in the U.S. and "upcycled," or made into, backpacks, pencil cases, lunch bags and binders, plastic lumber and paving stones.

As an incentive, TerraCycle donates 2 cents per pouch to a nonprofit selected by each school's recycling team. Often the recipient is the parent/teacher organization at the collecting school. So far, TerraCycle has given $2.8 million to schools and charities, with one top-earning school earning $4,000.

"The whole community can get involved and help out the local school," says Stacey Cusack, TerraCycle public relations manager.

At Sutton Elementary, money raised from juice pouches bought a digital video camera for use in classrooms and will soon purchase some fun equipment for gym class. Since 2009, the school has collected more than 43,000 pouches and earned $848.

"Where money is so tight for schools, we're going to take all the money we made last year and buy supplies for the physical education teacher - his budget is so limited," says third grade teacher Judy Rutelonis, juice pouch recycling coordinator at her school.

The money is great, but volunteers say the other big benefit is...