TRENTON, N.J. , June 5, 2014 – Stadium and venue owners and managers across the nation are constantly looking for new ways to make their facilities cleaner, more efficient and more environmentally-friendly.  With the help of recycling pioneer TerraCycle, facilities managers can now recycle cigarette waste instead of trashing it.  Instead of the butts going to landfill, TerraCycle composts the paper and leftover tobacco and recycles the filters into plastic for industrial uses, such as pallets. According to Keep America Beautiful, cigarette butts are the most frequently littered waste item. Sixty-five percent of cigarette waste is disposed of improperly and it accounts for 30% of litter at “transition points” where smokers must discontinue smoking before proceeding. Contrary to popular belief, cigarette butts are not biodegradable. To address the desire to rid facility grounds of cigarette waste in an environmentally-responsible way, the Nashville Predators and Bridgestone Arena recently joined TerraCycle’s Cigarette Waste Brigade®. Chris Parker, executive vice president of the Predators, said he was proud of both the building and the community for being one of the first organizations to actively rid its venue of cigarette waste. Parker added that he hopes this movement catches on with other stadiums. Arena staff collects discarded cigarette butts on sidewalks outside the arena and in plaza areas where smoking is permitted following Predators home games and Bridgestone Arena concerts. With postage paid by TerraCycle, boxes of collected butts are then shipped to a plant in New Jersey for recycling. Managers looking for additional ways to reduce garbage can also use TerraCycle’s new Zero Waste Boxes.  These boxes enable stadiums and venues to recycle everything from cleaning supplies, plastic cups, fluorescent light bulbs, Styrofoam® and plastic cups, plates and utensils, and chewed gum.  All Zero Waste Boxes can be purchased at zerowasteboxes.terracycle.com for a variety of prices.  When a box is full, it is shipped to TerraCycle for processing. Since 2007, TerraCycle has used innovative recycling processes to repurpose otherwise landfill-bound consumer packaging waste into useful materials and products, such as recycled plastic lumber, industrial shipping pallets, and park benches.  Between the Cigarette Waste Brigade and Zero Waste Boxes, there are almost no limits to what can be recycled.

Packaging professionals are always on the hunt for the next big way to appeal to consumers. When it comes to buying products, the old adage “Don’t judge a book by its cover” simply doesn’t apply. Packaging is the first thing a consumer sees, and its design can play a huge part in a purchasing decision. This doesn’t mean, however, that looks are all that matter; environmentally-savvy customers are as equally concerned about the fate of the packaging as they are in its aesthetics. More and more consumers are interested in buying from brands that highlight their commitment to environmental issues. According to Bridgestone Americas and Firestone Complete Auto Care’s 2013 survey, of the over 4,000 Americans surveyed, 86 percent recycled and a whopping 92 percent said that they consider a company’s environmental sustainability when purchasing products. The question isn’t whether recycling is good for business; the question is how to engage consumers. A number of companies have begun coming up with inventive ways to bring their recycling message to their consumer base, giving incentives to consumers who recycle their packaging. Evergreen Packaging recently wrapped up their Made by Milk carton construction contest, donating up to $5,000 to a school in New York in order to fund art classes that focus on the use of recyclable materials. The winning school created an Alice in Wonderland sculpture by using milk cartons, plastic bags, and soda bottles, among other recyclable materials. Manna Pro, a company that focuses on animal feed, came up with a list of 10 ways to recycle or upcycle Feed Packaging, available for download on their website. In the past they also ran a Manna Planet Packaging Recycling Contest, inviting participants to send in their ideas for the best ways to recycle or upcycle their feed bags. Internationally, FedEx Korea held a Packaging Material Recycling Idea Contest to celebrate the release of its Extra Large Pack, asking participants how they could use recycled packaging materials in their everyday lives. Not only did the contest offer a number of different prizes, but it gave FedEx the opportunity to boast that its new XL packages were made of recyclable polyethylene, containing a minimum of 15 percent post-industrial recycled content. Packaging recycling contests are incredibly versatile and can appeal to a hugely diverse audience because they can be tailored to nearly any consumer base. For instance, Huggies recently partnered with TerraCycle to start diaper packaging recycling contest. The “Diapers for Recyclers” contest offers participants the chance to win ten cases of Huggies diapers every month through December in exchange for their diaper and wipe packaging. Participants get one sweepstakes entry for shipments of packaging weighing at least six pounds, and five entries for shipments weighing at least eight pounds. Each month three winners are chosen to receive the diapers, so there is a strong incentive for consumers to collect and recycle. Contests like these are great opportunities for brands to connect with socially-conscious consumers. They show that these brands are taking responsibility for their packaging waste, and are taking steps to negate the impact that their packaging may have on the environment. Consumers respond to this not only by recycling their products, but by developing brand loyalty to the companies that strive to make the world a greener place to live. In the end, everyone, including the earth, wins.

Bøvling Friskole har besluttet at gøre en indsats for miljøet. De indsamler nemlig alle deres brugte plastiklåg fra bl.a. den økologiske Arla Harmonie® mælk, og sender dem til miljøvirksomheden TerraCycle som sammen med Arla kvitterer med penge for forsendelserne.

Siden slutten på 2011 har TerraCycle gjenvunnet 600.000 Tassimo-kapsler i Norge.

The world is always moving forward with new inventions and ideas coming in and old ones going out day after day; the speed of progression is almost hard to keep up with. Practices deemed safe for years are now being discovered as unsafe, and change is always upon us. Luckily for the environment, this is a good thing. Scientists and researchers alike are finding that many of our traditional ways of environmental preservation are not as good as they thought. Changes in how our Waste Management handles garbage and recycling are sure to be on the way. Now that we’re coming up with effective ways to cut down on our paper and plastic waste, what about all of those cigarettes? I don’t think I can walk down a street without seeing a few cigarette butts scattered around. It’s gross. According to terracycle.com, 38 percent of the litter on the road is cigarette waste. TerraCycle, a company focused on recycling and bringing awareness and action to environmental issues, created the Cigarette Waste Brigade recycling program. The program allows an individual over the age of 21, organization, or business to collect and send cigarette waste directly to TerraCycle. Once TerraCycle receives the waste, they then compost the paper and filter and recycle it into shipping pallets, ashtrays, and a variety of other products. At the moment, it doesn’t seem all too convenient to run around picking up cigarette butts and shipping them off to get recycled, but it’s a good start. If anything, the idea is to bring attention to the enormous problem of cigarette littering. For more information on TerraCycle’s Cigarette Waste Brigade recycling program, visit terracycle.com. We definitely have a long way to go with waste management, but with major cities like San Francisco banning plastics and New York City starting programs for mandatory composting, we’re moving in the right direction.

A phone call regarding last week's column inspires this week's message. The caller had recently visited Coyote Howling Shop for a Cause and learned of the commitment to TerraCycle to earn rebates to feed more children. She reported that, at the time of her visit, she had decided TerraCycle would be "too much work." She called to explain her original response had changed; she would be bringing items to Coyote Howling to TerraCycle.

A marca de esponjas Scotch-Brite criou, em parceria com a TerraCycle, um sistema de coleta e reciclagem destes produtos. A Brigada de Esponjas Scotch-Brite vai coletar esponjas de qualquer marca e suas respectivas embalagens plásticas para transformá-las em...