FARMINGTON — The plastic No. 6 Solo cup that holds an icy cold beverage this summer can become a 10-cent donation to the United Way of the Tri-Valley Area.

Through a special summer promotion by TerraCycle’s UpCycle recycling program, the local United Way gets donations for each cup. It has already received $62.60 for its first shipment of 626 Solo cups, Lisa Laflin, executive director, said.

Normally the cups might bring a cent or two but through August, they are worth 10 cents, she said.

When Sarah Martin visited the United Way looking for ways to give back to the community, conversations led to ways to support the organization, Laflin said. Martin is also a member of the Sustainable Coalition at the University of Maine at Farmington.

After talking with Laflin and meeting with the coalition, Martin volunteered to organize the recycling program and named the United Way as the beneficiary, Laflin said.

“TerraCycle’s goal is to eliminate the idea of waste by creating collection and solution systems for anything that today must be sent to a landfill. They do this by creating national recycling systems for previously non-recyclable or hard-to-recycle waste. TerraCycle then converts the collected waste into a wide variety of products and materials,” Martin said in a release.

Recycling products are sometimes melted and formed into a bench, or juice pouches are sewn into art projects and sold. Everything from toothpaste tubes, shampoo bottles or diaper packaging is sought for shipment to New Jersey.

“TerraCycle has diverted billions of units of waste and used them to create over 1,500 different products available at major retailers ranging from Walmart to Whole Foods Market,” Martin added.

“It brings a whole other life to the project,” Laflin said of items recycled and putting money back in to the community.

Locally bins have been set up for collections at the UMF Health and Fitness Center, Mantor Library, Farmington Ford, all three Dunkin’ Donuts shops in Farmington and at the United Way, she said.

A purple bin sits outside the United Way on Broadway but if the bin is inside items can be left at the door.

Organizers are working to find sites for collection in outer areas such as Livermore, Kingfield and Rangeley. Martin is arranging a monthly pickup for places that are willing to host a collection bin. A number of organizations that don’t want a trash bin have internal bins for things members and employees collect themselves.

Once they have 1,000 drink packets or 200 Solo cups or 550 foil wrappers from granola bars, a postage paid shipping label can be downloaded from TerraCycle. TerraCycle then deposits money online into an account for the United Way.

For more information about TerraCycle, visit www.terracycle.net/en-US/

For more information about recycling items for the United Way of the Tri-Valley Area or volunteering, call 778-5048 or visit www.uwtva.org

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Items sought for the UpCycle program:

* Solo cups (#6 plastic cups)

* Energy/Granola/Cereal Bar wrappers; foil lined wrappers only.

* Beauty products and packaging, as long as it’s not cardboard. Examples: lipstick cases, shampoo bottles, deodorant and other than aerosol containers.

* Oral care products and packaging (no cardboard) : toothpaste tubes, toothbrushes, their plastic packaging, dental floss packaging and container.

* Pouch drinks; any brand of drink pouches.

* Lunchable packaging; all parts of the lunch kit, excluding the cardboard.

* Diaper packaging; any brand and any size of outer plastic packaging on diaper or wipes products.

* Cheese packaging from single slice wraps, the plastic bag packaging.

* Tortilla packaging, any tortilla and tostada packaging.