Recycle Across America has joined with Participant Media and TerraCycle to launch a social action campaign focused on transforming recycling and improving the economics and prevalence of sustainable packaging and manufacturing. A key component of the campaign is expanding the use of standardized recycling labels to help eliminate confusion at the bins and empowering everyone to "recycle right." The campaign aims to double the amount of standardized labels being used by the end of the year to 1 million. For more, click here.   The Recycling Research Foundation, a nonprofit organization closely associated with the Institute for Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI), is currently accepting applications for both the National Scholarship and the Veterans' Stipend Program. The application deadline for both opportunities is July 1. Find more information here.   Lake City, South Carolina-based ICE Recycling has been acquired by Leigh Delaware Holdings, an affiliate of Wellford, South Carolina's Leigh Fibers. Founded in 2008 by Larry T. Gay Jr., ICE reprocesses post-industrial polymers, cardboard, paper and metals. Gay will continue to lead ICE business. Read more on the deal here.

“Content Marketing” was a major buzzword among marketers in 2013, and its importance continues to grow in 2014. At TerraCycle—a pioneering recycling startup with limited marketing budgets—“we learned long ago that it was far more valuable to get paid to create the content than to pay to sponsor other’s content,” says Albe Zakes, Global Vice-President, Communications. In a recent presentation, Zakes outlined TerraCycle’s content-marketing philosophy and approach.

   

 

To get started with content marketing, it is vital to identify the core audiences you are trying to reach and determine what engages them. Then, you have to identify what type of content to deliver and what learning or outcome you want to create for the audience.

   

The content produced and distributed will in part define your brand. It is important to ask yourself, “What makes my brand interesting and what will make people want to share my story?” By doing so, you start the process of creating a brand story. Look to your employees, your business model, your supply chain and your consumers themselves for ideas of what story to begin telling.

 

 

If you want your content to have impact and reach you require, keep it relevant. Look beyond your own story to your industry at large or general news that relates to your brand. How? Follow industry groups, influential journalists and professional associations; create Google Alerts or RSS feeds for keywords; and watch social media threads that parallel your company.

     

TerraCycle began our journey into content marketing unexpectedly. After placing numerous stories in a major small-business magazine, we were told by an editor they simply couldn’t cover our story any longer without seeming biased. In response, we offered to start writing a non-promotional guest blog—an offer they gladly accepted. We then quickly began to approach media focused on other subjects with a similar offer.

To help sweeten the deal, we told these editors or website managers not only would we provide content, but also promote every post on our website, social networks and in our newsletter. For an online/web editor this means more traffic, more clicks and thus more revenue. The results speak for themselves. Within two years, TerraCycle was regularly blogging for Treehugger, The New York Times, Huffington Post and trade publications like Packaging Digest and Industry Intelligence. Combined, these outlets have greatly contributed to the growth of our reach, awareness and expert profile.

- See more at: http://partners.decisionbriefs.com/content-marketing-strategies/article/the-brand-perspective-how-terracycle-innovated-content-marketing/#sthash.14b150xE.dpuf

Recycle Across America® (RAA) has joined forces with Participant Media to launch a social action campaign focused on transforming recycling and improving the economics and prevalence of sustainable packaging and manufacturing. The campaign, unveiled at the European Union’s Environmental Summit by RAA’s founder Mitch Hedlund, is inspired by Participant’s new show “Human Resources,” premiering August 8, 2014 on its television network Pivot. “Human Resources” follows the non-stop, deadline-driven world of TerraCycle, a company whose mission is to eliminate waste on a global scale. The Recycle Right! campaign offers informational videos, tips and practical solutions – such as standardized recycling labels – to help everyone recycle right and increase the amount of quality raw recycled materials available to be used by manufacturers looking to lessen their environmental footprint. “We can’t sit idle knowing that millions of tons of valuable recyclable materials, which are easy to convert into new products and packaging, are going to waste every year.  Which one of us wants to throw billions of dollars and our environmental wellbeing into landfills?  That’s what we’re doing if we’re not recycling right,” says Tom Szaky, CEO, TerraCycle. “We’re thrilled to join forces with Participant Media and Recycle Across America to fix the dysfunction of recycling and move the needle toward progress. And we can’t wait for audiences to watch ‘Human Resources’ to see inside our world at TerraCycle where every day we’re proving that even the most undesirable and traditionally non-recyclable materials can have a new purpose and can be valuable.” Historically there have been thousands of different looking labels on public area recycling bins causing confusion and resulting in tons of garbage being thrown in recycling bins each day. A key component of the campaign is expanding the use of standardized recycling labels to help eliminate confusion at the bins and empowering everyone to recycle right. The campaign aims to double the amount of standardized labels being used by the end of the year to one million. Use of the standardized labels on recycling bins have shown to: ·       Increase recycling levels by more than 50 percent and significantly reduces the amount of trash thrown in recycling bins. ·       Help ensure a consistent quality and quantity of recycled materials. This helps keep the cost of recycled raw materials competitive with virgin materials. “We are incredibly excited to work with two of the most predominant leaders of change in their industries, Participant Media and TerraCycle! Worldwide waste is expected to double by 2025 and with the United States being the largest producer of waste in the world, it is imperative that we address this issue today,” RAA executive director, Mitch Hedlund explains. “We need to remind ourselves that it’s not just waste that’s doubling; it’s the use of finite natural resources and generation of excessive CO2 that will also double. This is why we're thrilled to work with these companies to advance the use of the standardized labels. It's a deceivingly simple solution that creates exponential progress - and I think we're all ready for some progress!" Chad Boettcher, EVP of Social Action and Advocacy at Participant Media, says, “We know that recycling is the most important action we can do to improve the environment yet the percentage of valuable materials being recycled has not improved much over the past 17 years,” Boettcher continues, “We are eager to work with Recycle Across America and TerraCycle to spread awareness on such a tangible and easy step we can all take in improving the health of our world environmentally and economically.” Many industry leaders have already begun using the labels on their bins, such as: NBCUniversal, Hallmark, Kohler, Walt Disney World employee areas, Procter & Gamble manufacturing, SanDisk, AOL, two thousand U.S. K-12 schools – including all the public schools in Washington DC, many universities including University of Denver, George Mason University, Johns Hopkins University, and thousands of other adopters. Today approximately half a million of RAA’s standardized labels are in use throughout the United States, Canada and Europe. The RAA and Participant Media through Recycle Right! will continue this effort. For more information on Recycle Right!, please visit www.takepart.com/HumanResources

Dive Brief:

• TerraCycle has partnered with Recycle Across America and Participant Media to create standardized messaging for public recycling receptacles throughout the U.S. The goal of the revamped images is to increase the amount of materials diverted from landfills.
• The intention of the new labeling system is to aid the public in understanding exactly what types of materials are acceptable to discard in waste and recycling containers.
• The newly-designed labels have found their way to 2,000 schools across the country, and were also placed on bins in Europe and Canada. Corporations are also taking part, using the stickers on company receptacles to help employees distinguish what materials correspond to the proper bin. A total of 5,000 labels have been distributed so far.

Dive Insight:

The intiative, called “Recycle Right,” also provides tips and an informational video used to help the public increase their awareness of recycling. Part of the launch of the labeling system includes a new comedy show: “Human Resources,” created on behalf of Participant Media, features a storyline about a company in New Jersey that makes it a goal to reduce waste worldwide. The show begins running on August 8, 2014, on the Pivot Channel. The standardization effort is not without precedent. In November 2013, the state of Vermont released a new series of waste and recycling symbols. Officials said the purpose behind the new labeling system was to promote a consistent and easily-identifiable image for consumers. The goal of the project is to increase recycling and reduce waste.

TerraCycle Inc. is working with two other organizations to increase recycling and improve the economics of sustainable packaging and manufacturing. The Trenton, N.J.–based recycling firmTerraCycle is partnering with nonprofitRecycle Across America, which has developed a standardized labeling system for recycling bins, and Participant Media, an entertainment company that has launched the television show “Human Resources” on its Pivot network. The program, which premieres Aug. 8, follows the efforts of TerraCycle to eliminate waste. It inspired the recycling effort, called the Recycle Right! campaign, according to anews release. The Recycle Right! Campaign offers informational videos, tips and practical solutions to increase recycling. The label standardization will be the centerpiece of the project. The campaign aims to double the amount of standardized labels used by the end of the year to one million.

There’s a new campaign under way to help standardize messaging on public recycling containers in an effort to boost the amount of material, including plastics, diverted from landfills. TerraCycle, known for its work in finding new life for hard-to-recycle materials, is working with non-profit group Recycle Across America and Participant Media in a program to distribute standardized recycling labels in the United States. The hopes are that standardized messaging will boost recycling rates. As part of the Recycle Right campaign, the standardized recycling labels are designed to boost recycling rates by providing a clear message about what is accepted at each container. News of the campaign comes as TerraCycle is promoting the debut of “Human Resources,” which is described as “a half-hour comedy that documents the nonstop, deadline-driven world of TerraCycle, a New Jersey-based company whose mission is to eliminate waste on a global scale.” The show debuts Aug. 8 on the Pivot channel, which is part of Participant Media. The Recycle Right campaign also includes informational videos, tips and what organizers calls practical solutions, including the standardized labels, to help boost recycling. RAA Founder Mitch Hedlund, in a statement, had this to say about the labels. “It’s a deceivingly simple solution that creates exponential progress, and I think we’re all ready for some progress.” Use of the stickers already has taken hold at 2,000 schools in the United States, including all public schools in Washington, D.C. Companies including Hallmark, Kohler, NBCUniversal, Procter & Gamble and SanDisk also are using them. Estimates are that approximately 500,000 of the labels already are in place in the United States, Canada and Europe. The goal is to double that amount by the end of the year. More information about the cost of the labels as well as the upcoming television show is available atwww.takepart.com/humanresources.