Social game-maker Guerillapps, which recently scored $500,000 in funding has a unique spin on green gaming. The company’s Trash Tycoon, still in private beta, brings real-world brand integration to the multiplayer game. It’s the first “upcycling” game on the Facebook platform, letting players convert waste into newer and better products.

While the annoyance of brand overload is a real possibility in social games, the company is betting on the TerraCycle model, which integrates brands in a smart way, avoiding banner ads, pop-ups, and other “in-your-face” branding. Instead, players will likely see branded energy items and recycling factories. The TerraCycle model not allows for seamless real-world-to-game-world play (and vice versa), it also helps Guerillapps tap into TerraCycle’s partner user bases, which total more than 24 million. Captain Planet would be proud.

Read more at TechCrunch ^[1].