Planet Smoothie announces today its “New Year! New Look! New You!” campaign. The promotion kicks off this month and focuses on things good for you and good for the planet—including an eco-aware initiative with a call to action for planet-conscious consumers.

While Planet Smoothie currently serves its smoothies in cups made of recycled polystyrene and offers the reusable “MacDaddy” insulated travel mug, the smoothie concept recognizes the need for an ideal material that will find its way into the recycling stream. Because the need to find or create a replacement cup is so important, Planet Smoothie is sponsoring a contest to encourage inventors to develop an eco-friendly solution to polystyrene, currently the only cup material in the marketplace that maintains a smoothie’s delicious, frozen integrity.

Last year, Planet Smoothie launched a 22-market “Good for You, Good for the Planet” tour and traveled coast-to-coast in a biodiesel converted ice cream truck designed to raise awareness of green issues in markets across the country. Continuing with its movement towards green education and solutions, Planet Smoothie is asking consumers, inventors, academics and the like to develop a solution to either “re-use it or lose it” – “it” is polystyrene.

“We have and continue to exhaust our resources through reuse of polystyrene, or overall conversion or replacement of this material,” says Chris Morocco, Executive Vice President and Chief Development Officer for Emerging Brands. “We know that our consumers not only care about their own health, but also the health of the planet, so it makes sense for us to tap into their energy, enthusiasm and resourcefulness to see if Planet Smoothie consumers can help us come up with a solution.”

Planet Smoothie will reward the inventor of the best solution $5,000 and one free smoothie a week for a year. To spread the word, Planet Smoothie will post on social media sites such as YouTube, Facebook and coolpeoplecare.org, academic sites, entrepreneur sites and job sites. Interested individuals can submit their proven solution between January 1 and September 30, 2008, and the best solution will be selected by December 31, 2008. For more information on the Re-Use It or Lose It Contest, including contest rules, please visit www.planetsmoothie.com.