FAIRFIELD — A group called TerraCycle Fairfield is trying to make recycling as easy as possible.  

The group began in 2019 as a project of the Sustainable Living Coalition, and in 2020 it has partnered with Fairfield Interact, the youth arm of Rotary, to carry on its mission and even expand its services. TerraCycle first public venture involved placing recycling bins inside the entrance to Everybody’s Whole Foods.

 

What’s noteworthy about these bins is that they accept items apart from the usual plastic, glass and tin that are picked up twice a week by Waste Management. These bins accept batteries, razors, light bulbs, beauty and health products and “e-waste” such as computers and tablets, among other things.

 

Drew Schoenfeld, who co-founded the organization while working as an intern for the Sustainable Living Coalition last year, said the bins have been a huge success over the past year and a half.

 

“Since our start, we’ve received about 5,000 beauty and health products and a couple thousand pounds of batteries,” Schoenfeld said.

 

Stuart Valentine, board chairman of the Sustainable Living Coalition, was the person who got the ball rolling on creating TerraCycle Fairfield, inspired by the New Jersey business TerraCycle that specializes in hard-to-recycle materials. Schoenfeld helped carry out the organization’s initial projects like placing the bins in Everybody’s and later a set of bins in the Fairfield Public Library, though those bins are not currently active because the library is closed.

  In more recent months, the original cardboard bins at Everybody’s have been replaced by bins with a sleek and colorful design and made entirely from recycled materials.  

“They have an eye-catching appeal to them,” Schoenfeld said. “We really want them to capture people’s attention. And these will last much longer, because the old cardboard ones had to be cycled out every year.”

 

Schoenfeld has spent the entire pandemic in Florida, but he continues to manage the organization’s recycling efforts from afar. Luckily, he’s got some help. The Interactors have stepped up to perform the necessary manual labor, such as emptying the bins at Everybody’s.

 

Interact Vice President Amiritha Kumar, a senior at Fairfield High School, said her club encourages young people to be more responsible global citizens. The group raises money for an international project and various local projects every year.

 

“We’ve baked cookies for the soup kitchen, donated to Heifer International, and the Ottumwa Crisis Center,” Kumar said.

 

Interact’s involvement with TerraCycle started under its previous president, Lulu Miller, because TerraCycle needed volunteers to maintain its recycling boxes. Later, Interact helped TerraCycle expand its reach into the Fairfield Public Library. Today, Kumar has taken on the role of coordinating efforts between Interact and TerraCycle.

 

Kumar said two to three Interactors take turns each week emptying the boxes and packaging the contents of each bin into a sealed box, which is then sent to different locations. For instance, e-waste goes to Goodwill, light bulbs and batteries go to Connelly’s, and the rest of the items are shipped to the larger TerraCycle organization by Stuart Valentine.

  This past summer, Kumar spearheaded a new service for TerraCycle, a free pickup recycling program for people who are unable to leave their homes. The program is just in its infancy and is small at the moment, with just a few people having signed up. Kumar is the only one doing the pickups, but she hopes that the service will grow over time and more volunteers from Interact will be involved.  

Anyone who would like to receive this free service is invited to contact TerraCycle Fairfield at terracycletown@gmail.com and write “Collection Program” in the subject line.

 

Schoenfeld said more programs are coming down the pike for TerraCycle, such as a plan to distribute compostable takeout containers and coffee cups to restaurants around town to replace their Styrofoam cups. He said the goal is to make recycling as easy as possible and to make a “zero-waste lifestyle” something a Fairfield resident can really do.