TERRACYCLE NEWS

ELIMINATING THE IDEA OF WASTE®

DRESDEN SLOTS KEEPING CIGARETTE BUTTS OUT OF LANDFILLS

Include Canada (French) Include Canada (English) cigarette recycling
TerraCycle and the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG) are working together to keep cigarette butts off streets and out of landfills. Employees of OLG Slots at Dresden Raceway and other OLG locations across the province contributed to TerraCycle’s province-wide Cigarette Waste Recycling Program, which just reached a milestone of 39 million cigarette butts diverted from Ontario’s waste stream. By helping to keep cigarette butts out of landfills, OLG Slots at Dresden Raceway and other collectors earn points that can be redeemed for cash donations to the non-profit of their choice. Thanks to collectors like OLG Slots at Dresden Raceway, province-wide donations have just passed $29,000. “OLG has been a proud participant of TerraCycle’s Cigarette Waste Recycling Program since 2012,” said Catherine Jarmain, Director, Policy and Social Responsibility at OLG. “During this time, our site-led recycling programs have contributed to OLG’s environmental footprint reduction and have generated funds that sites then donate to local charities. Last year, OLG sites hosted a total of 14 TerraCycle waste recycling programs which collected 885 kilos of previously non-recyclable waste and raised over $1,900 for local charities. It’s gratifying to know that through one initiative we are improving the environment and, at the same time, helping those in the community who depend on local charities for important services.” TerraCycle is an international recycling company that finds innovative solutions for materials not typically accepted at municipal recycling facilities. The waste collected through the Cigarette Waste Recycling Program is recycled into a variety of industrial products, such as plastic pallets, and any remaining tobacco and paper is recycled as compost. “Every year, billions of cigarette butts end up in dumpsters and landfills, or get tossed as litter on shorelines, parks, and sidewalks across Canada” said TerraCycle CEO Tom Szaky. “We have a big ‘thank you’ for the more than two thousand locations that have helped us collect 73 million cigarette butts through this recycling program.” Any individual, business or organization interested in reducing local landfill waste can learn more about TerraCycle at www.terracycle.ca.
Read More

CEOs spill their sustainability secrets

TerraCycle tom szaky Include USA
In 2014, Mark Lefko began writing a book on global sustainability to capture the knowledge and best practices of sustainable businesses. The book sought to prove how global sustainability is shaping the growth of the most progressive profitable multinational, Fortune 500, middle-market and startup companies around the world. The following chapters highlight interviews with leaders discussing strategies for diverting food waste, developing sustainable agriculture, recycling and creating better packaging. They are meant to inspire other CEOs and executives to participate in the sustainability movement and evolve their organizations. Package lightweighting Pacific Seafood’s Greenshield boxes are an example of a growing practice known as "package lightweighting," which means exactly what the term suggests. Honest Tea’s Seth Goldman recommends this practice, not just because it benefits the environment by cutting down on the amount of plastic used, but also because it’s cheaper. "We’ll certainly look for packaging savings," said Goldman. "My point of view on the packaging in general is that its value is neutral. And if I can lightweight my packaging, that’s a good step for our business financially as well as environmentally. I’m happy to look for the cheapest sustainable option I can find." TerraCycle’s Tom Szaky agrees, although he finds the subject to be a bit more complex. "So the idea of the circular economy when it comes to consumer goods is, how do you make the packaging easier to recover and put right back into the same product? That is a simplified example, but every major consumer-product company in the world is lightweighting their packaging. They are using fewer resources to make the package, which has a very good short-term sustainability story to it, without question. There is less resource use. However, when you move away from a glass jar to package your pasta sauce in a sachet, you have used fewer resources, but you have also made it significantly less recyclable. This is the challenge. There is huge discussion about sustainability and its derivatives, and about what constitutes a circular economy, and so on. But what actually happens, in many cases, is not what is being discussed. That is the part that is the overall challenge. "So it is a journey. We need to keep showing as many strong case studies as we can, but there are huge forces out there … that we have to contend with."
Read More

Entre Líneas

TerraCycle Include Mexico

OPINIÓN. Es posible que Turner Dávila se una al equipo de AMLO; el Congreso aprobó el Sistema Estatal Anticorrupción, y hoy se inaugura la primer biblioteca hecha con materiales reciclados.

TURNER En un entorno negativo y de crisis, en donde algunos de los miembros del gabinete del gobernador Jaime Rodríguez Calderón, fueron retirados y hasta salieron por la “puerta trasera”, como fue el caso de Rogelio Benavides Pintos, ex Subsecretario de Administración, y de Roberto Flores, ex Procurador General de Justicia del Estado, y otros como Manuel de la O, de quien se dice que está en la cuerda floja, por las muertes de influenza en el estado, existe también el lado positivo que recae en la persona de Fernando Turner Dávila, Secretario de Economía y Trabajo. Turner Dávila se ha posicionado como el hombre más fuerte del Bronco. Entre sus logros destaca el haber negociado un nuevo convenio con la armadora coreana KIA, y además el haber hecho posible una sinergia con los empresarios regios, hecho que ha caído como oro molido para la administración de Rodríguez Calderón. Sin embargo, es posible que decida dejar el barco y unirse al equipo de Andrés Manuel López Obrador, quien buscará por tercera ocasión la Presidencia de la República en el 2018, y podría encargarle a Turner Dávila la Secretaría de Economía o la Secretaría de Hacienda y Crédito Público. ¿Veremos? ANTICORRUPCIÓN Un gran logro para los ciudadanos fue la aprobación por parte del Congreso del Estado de la reforma constitucional para crear el Sistema Estatal Anticorrupción, una nueva legislación con la cual Nuevo León tendrá tres nuevas figuras: la fiscalía general de justicia, la fiscalía en el combate a la corrupción, y la fiscalía especializada en delitos electorales. Dirigentes de organismos ciudadanos han dicho que esta ley será un referente a nivel nacional y que es mucho mejor que la ley aprobada a nivel nacional. SÚPER SECRETARÍAS Carta Blanca, la primera cerveza del México moderno, presenta la iniciativa Mercado Carta Blanca, una plataforma que reúne a jóvenes talentos del diseño mexicano, quienes presentarán piezas únicas de moda, accesorios y artes gráficas, inspiradas en los valores de tradición y legado de la marca. Esta plataforma itinerante iniciará en la Ciudad de México, para posteriormente visitar las ciudades de Guadalajara y Monterrey. Este espacio será el punto de encuentro entre consumidores, la marca y artistas emergentes, a través de una experiencia única que permitirá a los visitantes adquirir productos exclusivos y originales que reflejan el sello de autenticidad de la marca y los artistas. BIBLIOTECAS Este sábado 11 de marzo se hará la inauguración de la primera biblioteca sustentable del Estado, que está construida a base de materiales reciclados. Durante el evento, Johnson Controls dará una plática a los niños de la escuela “Primero de Mayo” sobre la concientización del medio ambiente y TerraCycle coordinará un taller sobre cómo darle una segunda vida a la basura. La cita es a las 9:30 horas en Plomeros y Ocho de Mayo SN, colonia Trabajadores, en el municipio de Santa Catarina.

Read More

Garnier Wants You to Recycle Those Bathroom Empties

TerraCycle Garnier Include USA
Garnier, the personal care products company owned by L’Oréal, wants you to make more of an effort to recycle those empty plastic bottles of shampoo and body wash. The company says it is looking to boost waste diversion by preventing at least 10 million bottles from entering landfills. To that end, the company enlisted a popular YouTuber and partnered with DoSomething.org to spread the recycling gospel. According to a widely shared press release, as many as half of all Americans cannot be bothered to pitch their bathroom “empties” into the recycling bin. So during this campaign, Garnier is taking a two-pronged approach. First, participants are encouraged to decorate a bathroom recycling bin and share a picture on DoSomething.org for the chance to win a $5,000 scholarship. Once that bin is full, recycling devotees can print a shipping label for free and then send those pesky empties to TerraCycle, which has worked with Garnier and other CPG companies to upcycle plastic waste into new products. And of course, consumers are expected to share their stories using the hashtag #empties. Garnier is also trying to leverage peer pressure on college campuses: It selected 50 campuses to compete in a recycling competition, with the winning school scoring a garden funded by Garnier and TerraCycle.
Read More

This Drugstore Brand Has A Better Idea For What To Do With Your Empties

TerraCycle Garnier Include USA
Once you’ve worn your lipstick down to a sorry nub, cut the bottom off your liquid foundation to get to the leftovers that are stuck to the sides, used a Q-tip to dig out the very last drop of your fancy night cream, artfully arranged them in proper flat lay form, photographed them, adjusted the brightness and contrast, posted it to Instagram, and hashtagged “#empties,” all you’re left with is plastic. And plastic, regardless of what it once was in a past life, needs to be recycled.   Unfortunately, nearly half of Americans do not recycle their beauty and personal care products, according to a national survey. That means that a significant amount of landfill is made up of empty tubs of La Mer bottles, Diptyque candle jars, and Naked palettes that’ve been used down to the pan. That sucks — but it doesn’t have to stay that way.   In an effort to change this statistic and make a positive impact on the world at large, Garnier is teaming up with DoSomething.org, America’s largest organization for young people and social change, to launch Rinse, Recycle, Repeat, a national campaign and college campus competition with a goal of educating the nation’s youth about the importance of recycling those empties.   But don’t worry: You have full license to wait until after you’ve ‘grammed them. Nobody is trying to take that away from you — in fact, social participation is requested. That’s exactly why YouTuber Remi Cruz will serve as the face of the campaign, starring in a public service announcement about recycling her own beauty products. “Rinse, Recycle, Repeat combines my three favorite things: beauty products, creativity, and most importantly, doing my part to help the environment,” Cruz said.   If you, too, enjoy those things, it’s easy to get involved. You can sign up online by clicking here and enter to win a $5,000 scholarship — if you’re in college, that is — or get a free shipping label to send your own empties off to TerraCycle for responsible recycling. The goal is to divert a total of 10 million beauty products from landfills by the end of 2017. Save your empties, save the world.
Read More