Mixed material packaging is generally recycling-unfriendly and the collection of such materials when it involves plastics is often left to "upcyclers" like TerraCycle (Trenton, NJ) or waste-to-fuel companies if it can be diverted from landfills at all.
In an effort to reduce cigarette litter and keep butts out of landfills, the N.C. Aquarium on Roanoke Island has joined Terracycle’s cigarette recycling program.
Alongside bins for papers, plastics and glass, visitors to downtown Branson can add cigarette butts to the list of recyclables.
Mona Menezes, environmental specialist for the city, said the idea to purchase recycling units came from Sharon White, of the city’s recycling center, and former city engineer David Miller.
“If you ever walk the downtown sidewalks, they have had cigarette butts littered on them,” Menezes said. “So (White) thought this would address that.”
The number of cigarette butts on the sidewalk was also a concern for several downtown businesses and organizations, including the Downtown Branson Betterment Association.
A project to collect discarded cigarette butts from downtown city streets has reached the two-year mark and it has been a big success. Downtown Grand Rapids Inc., the group that helps manage what goes on downtown, installed 20 cigarette butt recycling urns about two years ago. Nicole Hills and Veronica Kuhl assumed they were doing what everyone should do when they used one of several urns located on Monroe Center Street.“Don't be an ugly American, clean up after yourself,” Kuhl said. “I don't throw trash out my car. You know, clean up after yourself.” Butts are collected from the urns every day, bagged up and sent to TerraCycle, a New Jersey firm that collects and then separates the butts.
Meet
TerraCycle.
This is the company taking the materials that no one else wants to deal with and actually recycling them. If it's difficult to recycle, TerraCycle wants it. They have creatively harnessed the potential of these otherwise landfill-destined items through tailored, industry-sponsored recycling programs. These programs are now more accessible than ever and have in a short time taken out some pretty massive shovel-loads out of a mountain of trash.
Last year, in our three large New York offices alone (731 Lex, 120 Park, and 919 3rd ave), we discarded a staggering 17.5 million snack wrappers. Since 2013, Bloomberg has partnered with TerraCycle to collect hard-to-recycle packaging in an effort to reduce the amount of waste being sent to landfills.
“绿色宿舍”分类回收活动很大的一个目的是宣传，即让大家明白recycle的意义——提高资源利用率。用实际行动支持可回收资源的再利用。
我们会组织志愿者上门回收，将回收来的东西分类，细分成旧书、废纸、纸箱、塑料瓶、笔芯等，达到一定数量后我们会联系一些正规的环保企业，与他们进行合作，避免在资源回收和再造过程中产生“二次污染”。
事实上，这个活动本身就是一件很有意义的事情，参与其中的志愿者就是一个个移动的宣传单，他们在向同学们传递绿色与回收的理念，希望大家可以看到，平常生活中我们到底忽略了多少可循环使用的资源，奢侈的过着一次性的日子。生活不是一次性的
Residuos en Hawái, imagen de blog Lenovo
La empresa estadounidense de bienes de consumo Procter and Gamble (P&G)publicó recientemente en su página web que va a producir envases de su champú estrella Head and Shoulders (H&S) donde, por primera vez, la cuarta parte de su composición como máximo será de plástico reciclado de playas.
Los supermercados Carrefour en Francia serán los primeros en vender el champú en su nuevo envase en una edición limitada y lo harán a partir de este verano.
A P&G le ayudarán en este proyecto dos empresas: TerraCycle, una estadounidense especializada en reciclaje, y SUEZ, la multinacional francesa de energía y gestión del agua.
¿Cuántas iniciativas como ésta necesitaremos para frenar el pronóstico para el 2050 en el que se espera que habrá más plástico que peces en el mar?
A Pilão, que embala suas doses únicas em cápsulas de plástico e alumínio, participa de um programa de reciclagem desenvolvido pela empresa TerraCycle desde novembro de 2017.
