TERRACYCLE NEWS

ELIMINATING THE IDEA OF WASTE®

Walmart and Sam's Club shoppers invited to recycle at select locations

Walmart announced a collaboration with international recycling leader, TerraCycle, and invites shoppers to divert a variety of locally unrecyclable waste from landfills. Using drop-off recycling hubs outside of the Springdale, Arkansas and Broken Arrow, Oklahoma Supercenters, as well as at the Fayetteville, Arkansas Sam's Club, shoppers can drop off the following waste streams for recycling: Skincare and beauty products, soft plastic food packaging, oral care products, food and drink pouches, home and garden supplies packaging, coffee capsules and water filters, plastic bottles, worn clothing, pet food packaging, plastic bags and shipping materials, plastic toys, ink cartridges and office supplies. To participate, shoppers should bring their accepted waste that is not curbside recyclable, to the designated recycling hubs outside the Walmart Supercenters and Sam's Club locations. When the hub station is full, TerraCycle will pick up and transport the waste to regional material recovery facilities where it will be sorted by material type and recycled into raw materials that can be used to make products, like playgrounds and park benches. Participants are urged to visit https://corporate.walmart.com/community-recycling-hub for more information.
 "Customers expect us to provide them with opportunities to shop sustainably. They are keen to do the right thing when it comes to recyclability and waste, and access to recycling is an avenue where we know we can play a role given our presence in so many communities. These pilots with TerraCycle will allow us to learn how to make it easier for people to recycle as well as inform our goals and journey toward zero waste," said Zach Freeze, senior director for sustainability at Walmart.
For information on these programs, visit www.terracycle.com.

Concurso Pontos em Dobro premiará consumidores e ONGs

Para incentivar o uso sustentável das cápsulas de café,  a TerraCycle, líder global em soluções ambientais de resíduos de alta complexidade, e a Melitta, filiada à Associação Brasileira da Indústria de Café (ABIC), promovem o Concurso Pontos em Dobro. A iniciativa visa premiar os consumidores que enviarem a maior quantidade de cápsulas biodegradáveis e compostáveis Melitta para  reciclagem até 27 de maio.

5 Easy Recycling Tips To Make Your Household More Eco-friendly

You may or may not be surprised to find out that many of your favourite snacks don’t actually come in packaging that can be easily recycled by local authorities. If you’re not ready to give up your beloved snacks, but still want to reduce your environmental impact, here are schemes to take advantage of. You can drop your Pringles tubes at over 330 Bring Banks across the UK, and your KP popcorn, crisps, nuts and pretzels can be collected by TerraCycle at selected locations, and are then made into watering cans, storage boxes or even outdoor furniture.

4 Reality Checks About Packaging and the Great Pacific Garbage Patch

Kids are visual — and keyed in to change. So, when a friend’s 10-year-old, Everleigh, engaged me in a conversation about what plastics were doing to the oceans, I gave her my full attention. “Let me show you,” she said. She pulled up a Tik-tok video, and I watched as a massive crane dumped thousands upon thousands of large plastic containers and other debris onto the deck of a ship. Part of the notorious Great Pacific Garbage Patch, this junk had been successfully scooped up from the sea. Everleigh’s excitement over the progress this video shares is why we see so many leading brands pledge to help rid the planet of waste. She is their future customer. Or maybe not. Here’s what we know: • 92% of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP) is comprised of large-sized debris, containing nearly 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic. • 8% of the GPGP is comprised of single-use plastic packaging, but a larger percentage is tossed into rivers where debris flows downstream, breaks apart. and end up on the ocean floor. • Compounding this problem, large debris eventually breaks down to pieces no larger than a centimeter, called “microplastics.” • Over time, microplastics sink to the ocean floor where they are impossible to remove; they are mistaken for food by marine life. • Discarded fishing nets — also known as ghost nets — along with other fishing industry debris, account for 46% of the GPGP’s mass. Marine life often gets caught in the nets. Reality Check #1: According to the National Geographic Society, as of 2018, it would take 67 ships operating every day for one year to rid the GPGP of just 1% of the debris. Can it be cleaned up? Although the outlook seems bleak, there are advances under way that leverage science and technology to clean up the GPGP. The Ocean Clean Up project announced in October of 2021 that its experimental clean-up fleet had successfully cleared more than 63,000 pounds of plastic debris in a single haul. Based on these findings, the organization is increasing its fleet and is greatly optimistic it’ll reduce up to 50% of the patch every five years, with the end goal of removing the great patch altogether by 2040. It’s worth noting that these projections include debris that is continuously being added to the patch. Reality check #2: According to Covestro, a global supplier of high-tech polymer materials, “Infrastructure systems designed to manage and collect waste have struggled to keep up with the dramatic rise of single-use plastics in circulation, and as a result, plastic pollution has increased rapidly in recent years, especially in developing countries.” Why add to the patch in the first place? It’s long been my belief as a packaging designer that the problem is not only the patch itself, but the process that created it. In other words, we have a responsibility to accelerate packaging innovation to avoid adding fuel to the fire that is the patch. We need smarter ways to design reusable and biodegradable packaging and become true players in the circular economy. Remember, the next generation is watching. Kids are not only seeing the tortoise in distress with the straw in its nose; they are also learning about the perils of plastic in school. Brands that take this seriously will not only make good on their pledges, but fuel their appeal to the next generation and outperform lagging competitors. So, who’s getting it right? Loop Ulta Beauty Group Shot-web_0.jpg Closing the Loop. Loop is a subscription service for food and household goods, launched by TerraCycle. The Loop services are offered through major chains such as Walgreens and Kroger. Currently testing their concept nationally, the service provides people with products in reusable packaging, such as shampoo bottles and ice cream containers. Once empty, packaging is picked up, refilled, and reused. Loop has also partnered with Ulta Beauty, a national personal care brand, to offer its portfolio of sustainable products. As befits its name, Loop is a prime example of the emerging circular economy. Companies are reinventing reusable. Just take a look at what Häagen-Dazs is offering through Loop. As part of a reusable delivery strategy, the brand created an attractive stainless-steel canister. The design is ideal for a premium brand. The containers provide a new canvas for packaging ingenuity. Reminiscent of old-school metal lunch canisters, images and graphics jump off the silver background. With such a substantial upgrade, Häagen-Dazs stands out from other premium ice creams, essential in a competitive category. Thanks to this packaging, the ice cream is even more fun and delicious to eat. The double-walled container allows the ice cream to melt more quickly at the top than at the bottom. This way, people enjoy a balanced level of density. The ice cream maintains its consistency even when you reach the bottom. The container also protects the product throughout transport. This is more than just sustainable packaging; it’s packaging that elevates the consumer experience. Colgate-recyclable-tubes-web.jpg It’s on record, more than a billion toothpaste tubes in the US alone end up in landfills. No doubt many go to the oceans. One reason for this is that the packaging is manufactured with multiple layers making it ineligible for recycling. Colgate-Palmolive spent five years developing a new recyclable tube made of high-density polyethylene (HDPE), the same plastic that is used for milk jugs, with the promise of compatibility with our current recycling infrastructure. This is no doubt a breakthrough for the category. Reality Check #3: While this is a great concept, we know a large portion of recyclable packaging still goes to waste. That’s because our recycling industry (the people who pick up/sort our trash) urgently needs an overhaul. How does the recycling facility know the difference between this tube and every other? Tom-Newmaster-recyclable-tubes-quote-web.jpg Sugarcane — how sweet it is. Sugarcane usage as a packaging material is blowing up right now. It possesses the trifecta of ethical packaging benefits: it’s renewable, biodegradable, and compostable. In fact, anything made from sugarcane will degrade within 60 to 90 days. We’re seeing it everywhere: coffee cups, utensils, single-use plates, to-go boxes, bags, lids, pizza boxes, straws, and tons more. Companies like Good Start Packaging — a leading source of sugarcane packaging — are also a real threat to expanded polystyrene foam (EPS). Here’s a material that takes 500 years to degrade and consumes 30% of the space in every landfill. If it goes to the ocean, EPS inevitably breaks down into microplastic. And we all know what that does to marine life. A parting word from Everleigh.
I mentioned my friend’s daughter Everleigh who, at 10, is passionate about preserving our oceans. So, what can we do to assure her generation they’re being heard? We can start by taking accountability for the role our industries play in addressing the problems. I’ve talked about some of the innovations and new materials that packagers are bringing to the table. I’ve also shared what activists are doing to clean up the GPGP. But here’s the final reality check. Reality check #4: We can fix the mistakes of past generations, but it takes more forward thinking to make our efforts toward sustainability “sustainable.” Four questions we need to ask ourselves to really bring about change: 1.  How can we improve the recycling infrastructure so that the degradable toothpaste tube goes to the right place? According to Unilever, “It’s technically possible to recycle about 70% of our product portfolio. However, what is actually recycled is lower because of the lack of infrastructure of communities.” 2.  How we ensure that new materials, whether sugarcane or innovative plastics, get sorted correctly and not end up in the ocean? 3.  How do we advance the use of products that truly fit the circular economy, such as reusables, compostables, and post-consumer recycled plastics (PCR)? 4.  How do we partner with our clients to create packaging that would delight Everleigh’s generation? This starts with avoiding new plastics; instead using only recycled options. As a packaging designer, I realize this isn’t a small ask, but a necessary one, considering the power each generation has on the way we live our lives, conduct business, and confront change. If we want to create a loyal customer base, we need to accept that the “wonder material” known as plastic needs to adapt well to our new circular economy.

A Closer Look at Kroger’s Growing Reusable Packaging Program

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Kroger recently launched an assortment of products in reusable packaging in select U.S. stores via its partnership with circular packaging firm Loop. The debut marks an important expansion in the grocery retailer's larger sustainability efforts and Loop's first in-store launch. The partners debuted an in-store pilot in the U.S. at 25 Kroger-owned Fred Meyer stores in Portland, Oregon, and offers a variety of products to customers in reusable packaging, including products from leading national brands and  Kroger’s Simple Truth private label. Here's how the Loop partnership works: Developed by circular reuse platform TerraCycle, Loop recovers and sanitizes reusable packaging for recirculation with new products. Subscribers pay a deposit ranging from 15 cents for a glass beverage bottle to $10 for a stainless-steel container of disinfecting wipes. Participating manufacturers introduce products that employ reusable packaging. These products are placed in a designated Loop section of participating retail stores, which serve as the collection site for end users to return the packaging when the contents are consumed. In 2021, Loop revealed its global subscriber network had grown from about a dozen participating companies worldwide in 2020 to 150 in 2022. In addition to Kroger, both independent brands and other packaging end users including Nestle are expanding their reusable packaging options for their part in the program. While reuse systems are well-established for packaging products such as pallets and drums that are typically handled by nonconsumer end users, reusable packaging is also increasingly interesting in consumer markets due to the potential sustainability benefits, according to a news release from The Freedonia Group, an international industrial research company and division of Marketresearch.com. Based on the company’s collection of packaging studies, the recent release noted: According to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, converting 20% of global plastic packaging into reusable packaging represents a $10 billion business opportunity. When end users reuse the packaging as intended, these items are less likely to enter solid waste streams (whether recycling or composting facilities, or the landfill), resulting in a reduction of total packaging waste. In addition, recirculated packaging reduces the overall material requirements of packaging production as fewer new products are needed. While recirculated packaging is most common in food and beverage categories, it is also seeing increased use in personal care and household items, as well as in e-commerce, according to the release. For instance, in 2021, major shipping concerns including FedEx Express and InPost, introduced reusable e-commerce packaging solutions across multiple European markets that could translate to the U.S. market. walgreens_how_it_works_2_final.png a store in a library In addition to its Kroger partnership, Loop is also launching its products in select Duane Reade stores, owned by Walgreens Boots Alliance, in the greater New York metro area later this year. “Walgreens is excited about this opportunity to help consumers purchase sustainably packaged products and contribute to a healthier planet," Lauren Brindley, Walgreens group vice president of beauty and personal care, said in a Loop news release. "Innovative collaborations with partners like Loop are critical to solving the complex issue of reducing single-use plastics. Our customers look to us to innovate so that together we can reduce waste and increase re-use.”

Drop off used contact lenses for recycling at this Georgetown optometry office

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Modern Eyes Optometry in Georgetown is now one of many companies across the country helping to divert contact lenses from landfills and natural habitats. Through the Bausch + Lomb Every Contact Counts Recycling Program, consumers can bring all brands of disposable contact lenses and their blister pack packaging, to the optometry office, located at 378 Mountainview Rd. S. The items will be recycled free of charge. Bausch + Lomb has partnered with TerraCycle Canada, a waste management company that partners with consumer product companies, retailers and cities to recycle products and packages, from dirty diapers to cigarette butts that would otherwise end up in landfills or incinerators.
More than 290 million contact lenses end up in Canadian landfills and waterways annually, according to TerraCycle Canada. To learn more about the program, become a public drop-off location or to search for the nearest participating location, visit www.terracycle.com/en-CA/brigades/bausch-and-lomb-en-ca.

"Butt Blitz" collecting discarded cigarettes for recycling

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Belleville's John Lowry opens a bag containing more than 25,000 cigarette butts he has gathered this month. The volunteer pickup is part of a national campaign to collect and recycle them. Lowry started the week as the third-ranked collector nationally. PHOTO BY LUKE HENDRY
These Belleville volunteers want a cleaner, greener landscape – with no butts about it.
Five city residents are removing cigarette butts from public spaces during the annual Butt Blitz, an annual campaign by the non-profit group A Greener Future. The campaign challenges Canadians to collect butts to be recycled. It began in 2015, with organizers reporting butts account for one in five pieces of litter collected during the organization’s cleanups. “Our campaign is not about getting people to quit smoking. That’s a personal choice,” executive director Rochelle Byrne said in a telephone interview. “We don’t want to offend smokers, either … or make them feel bad or guilty. “Most smokers have no idea that cigarette butts can be recycled. They don’t belong on the ground.” Byrne said part of the campaign’s goal is to let people know discarded filters can be reused in the construction of “plastic wood,” a material used to make park benches or shipping pallets, for example. Butts contain filters made with cellulose acetate, a form of plastic. They also contain heavy metals and harmful chemicals, said Byrne. “All of those toxins can leach out into the water and poison wildlife.” There are an estimated 12,000 microfibres per filter, she added, and microplastics are a growing source of pollution in water and soil. Almost 12 per cent of adult Ontarians in 2020 – almost 1.5 million people – were smokers, Statistics Canada found. Byrne said the average person smoked 15 cigarettes per day. First year locally This is the first year in which a Belleville team has participated in the blitz. The five locals have to date removed nearly 58,000 butts removed from parking lots, sidewalks, and more, accounting for 10 per cent of the national haul. “It’s pretty amazing to see that type of action in one community,” said Byrne. “I’m really proud of our volunteers.” Lori Borthwick leads Belleville’s team. Joining her are John Lowry, Sarah Keoughan, Denice Wilkins, and Mary McBride. Cigarette litter “looks like snow in the back of the parking areas,” said Borthwick, a semi-retired respiratory therapist. “It’s disappointing there’s that disregard for the environment,” added Lowry, a retired Belleville police property evidence clerk. Lowry had collected nearly 26,000 butts to rank third among the 170 individual participants who had submitted their counts. “These things are not biodegradable. They end up in our rivers and lakes,” Lowry said. “It’s just another manifestation of how we, as humans, are impacting the world and we don’t even realize it. “It is absolutely astounding that they’re just everywhere. We’re a throwaway society,” said Lowry. Containers intended for cigarette disposal aren’t always used, said Borthwick. She described her frustration and disgust upon “seeing receptacles, which are empty – and cigarette butts all over the ground.” She said with a laugh she’s a little competitive and is trying to catch up to Lowry’s total. She has almost reached the 25,000 mark, ranking fifth nationally. Borthwick said “about half” of the butts she has collected this month were on the ground next to receptacles at Belleville General Hospital’s “butt hut” – a shelter on the property’s east side. New use for litter Byrne said TerraCycle Canada pays A Greener Future one dollar per pound of butts and program organizers reinvest that money – about $760 this year – into supplies for the cleanup. She noted products are not made entirely from recycled cigarette filters: they’re blended with other materials. “It takes about one million cigarette butts to make a park bench,” she said. Past blitzes collected a total of more than three million butts. This year’s goal is one million in April. Tuesday’s total was more than 577,000. Byrne said her organization is working on a program to increase public access to cigarette recycling. She said changing littering behaviour is “the difficult part.” Lowry and Borthwick, both non-smokers, said they know limited retrieval of the litter is not a solution to the larger problem. “The solution is to change the business model” by using other materials in cigarettes, Borthwick said. The blitz grows annually, she said. Most volunteers are still in Ontario, where the event began, and most – but not all – are non-smokers. Among the 35 teams reporting statistics, London, Ont. residents had gathered the most of any team in Canada: more than 83,000 as of Tuesday. Port Hope residents were in second place with more than 69,000. A Prince Edward County duo was just outside of the top 20. Kathy Marchen and Juerg Roth had gathered almost 8,000. There were 873 cleanups registered across the country. Because cigarettes are technically toxic waste, Byrne said, participation is limited to people ages 19 and older. Visit agreenerfuture.ca for more on the organization and results of the blitz.