Worthing Herald and Gazette-TC-5th October 2016

Australia Post has established a new Mailing Satchel Recycling Program that provides a recycling option for many of their envelopes that can’t go in the home recycling bin. Express Post, Parcel Post, Flat Rate Satchels and Padded Bags can now be posted back to TerraCycle who will arrange for them to be recycled into new products, free of charge.

In July, ACT Whitsundays presented a solution to the region's recycling issues at a council meeting. Council unanimously passed the motion put forward, which involved using council libraries as a collection point for "hard to recycle waste” such as bottles, toothbrushes, toothpaste tubes, hair product bottles and the tops of pump bottles. The waste would then be posted to New South Wales company TerraCycle and who would use it to create outdoor furniture... Ms Adamson said volunteers would need to be prepared to empty the bins, pick up and sort out the recycling and then post them away to TerraCycle.

Extract from: Kinross Primary School Newsletter

The Waterfront Partnership of Baltimore will be installing three more containers on Wednesday to keep smokers near the Marriott Waterfront from tossing their butts into the water. The installation of the receptacles will take place at 1 p.m. along the west side of the waterfront outside the Marriott in Harbor East. The Partnership said in a release that it already installed 13 more of the containers around Harbor East last week. The nonprofit launched its cigarette recycling program earlier this year, installing 15 of the containers in Harbor East that have collected 55,000 cigarette butts, according to a release. All collected cigarette waste is sent to the international recycling firm TerraCycle, which processes the material into organic and plastic-based products. The filters are later used to create industrial plastic products, the Waterfront Partnership said in a release. Last week, the nonprofit and the Harbor East Marina installed oyster cages on the promenade there to help filter water in the harbor. The Waterfront Partnership is making such efforts as part of its Healthy Harbor Initiative, which aims to make the Baltimore Harbor safe for swimming and fishing by 2020.

Local musicians are invited to attend a free recycle and restring event at The Music Store in St. George Friday at 3 p.m. The event is sponsored by D’Addario & Company, Inc., the world’s largest manufacturer of musical instrument accessories marketed under several product divisions. Musicians can bring any old instrument strings for recycling and get their electric or acoustic guitars restrung with D’Addario NYXL or Nickel Bronze Acoustic strings. Old strings collected during the event will be recycled through “Playback,” D’Addario’s free, national recycling program. Playback is the world’s first instrument string recycling program, launched through a partnership between D’Addario and international recycling company TerraCycle, a global leader in recycling typically non-recyclable waste, working with companies to implement recycling initiatives and finding solutions for materials otherwise destined for landfill. The Playback program is a part of D’Addario’s Players Circle loyalty program and allows registered users to recycle their used strings in exchange for extra Players Circle points. Musicians attending the recycle and restring events will receive a code at the event, redeemable for extra Players Circle points. Points can be used towards merchandise or donated to the D’Addario Foundation, the company’s nonprofit organization supporting music education in underserved communities. D’Addario has been consistently committed to the environment, working to reduce their company’s packaging waste and use the most environmentally responsible packaging available on the market. Their partnership with TerraCycle allows them to further reinforce their role as an environmental leader in the music industry. The Music Store is Utah’s premiere full-service music shop. The Music Store is passionate about providing a world class selection of instruments, accessories and information to fellow music lovers.  Vocal and musical instrument lessons are offered by trained and certified professionals. Musicians interested in recycling through Playback can visit the D’Addario & Companywebsite.

Monterrey, Nuevo León – Cada año se generan 5,000 millones de toneladas de desechos en el mundo, de los cuales sólo el 20% es reciclable. El 80% restante termina en tiraderos como sucede la mayoría de las veces en México o son quemados y usados como combustibles en el caso de algunos países europeos.   Dos dificultades mayores tiene el reciclaje tal y como está concebido ahora: se genera excesiva basura y la que se crea está compuesta por materiales demasiado complejos. Algunos envoltorios de alimentos contienen hasta 20 tipos de plástico diferentes. Así que por muy buena voluntad que tengamos los ciudadanos, la mayoría de lo que se tira no puede utilizarse de nuevo, a pesar de que creamos lo contrario. Hoy, TerraCycle es una reconocida compañía internacional de supra reciclaje y reciclaje que recolecta envolturas y productos difíciles de reciclar y los transforma en productos innovadores y económicos. TerraCycle está ampliamente reconocida como líder mundial en la recolección y reutilización de residuos post-consumidor no reciclable. Este mes TerraCycle México está cumpliendo su 7° aniversario recolectando y reciclando basura alrededor de la república mexicana; dicho lo anterior dejamos un recordatorio de cómo podemos volvernos recolectores dentro del país y no solo contribuir a la mejor de nuestro ambiente también retribuir a otras asociaciones sin fines de lucro. La operación está organizada en programas, cada una de las cuales se centra en un producto en particular difícil de reciclar como envolturas de jabón, bolsas de pan, empaques de galletas, bolsas de botana, productos de cuidado bucal y envolturas de pan dulce. Estos desechos pueden recolectarse en cajas de cualquier tamaño para su recolección. TerraCycle paga todos los gastos de envío, una vez enviados los desechos a la empresa, el recolector suma dinero a una cuenta individual ($0.25 por empaque), que es donado a organizaciones filantrópicas, escuelas y programas comunitarios. La basura recolectada (envolturas, sobres, tubos, etc.) es convertida en carteras, monederos, estuches mochilas o bolsas, que son fabricados por terceros y comercializados por la compañía. Varios equipos de recolección de residuos se han puesto a trabajar en los diferentes programas que TerraCycle (26,862 personas alrededor de México). La dinámica para comenzar es muy sencilla; se debe ingresar a la página www.terracycle.com.mx y escoger los programas de recolección que van desde bolsas de botana hasta productos de cuidado bucal, una vez realizado este paso se comienza con la recolección, los recolectores podrán ver por medio de la página los puntos que van ganando y de esta forma convertirlos en dinero para la organización de su elección. Una gran ventaja de estos programas es que los recolectores pueden dar de alta cualquier asociación sin fines de lucro, escuela o hasta iglesia de su comunidad para ver de una forma directa los beneficios de su donación. La Cantidad más reciente que se ha logrado donar son $409,936.74 pesos. Algunas de las asociaciones que se han visto beneficiadas son las siguientes: 1. APANICAL (Asociación de Padres de Niños con Cáncer y Leucemia)- Ubicada en Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, ha recibido $135,360 pesos. 2. Escuela Secundaria 20 Juan F. Escamilla- Recibió $22,999 pesos, esta escuela se localiza en Monterrey, Nuevo León. 3. Escuela Francisco I. Madero- En Mezquitic, Jalisco recibió $20,029 pesos. 4. Operación Sonrisa-En Zapopan, Jalisco recibió $16,185 pesos. Las nuevas generaciones tienen mayor conciencia y preocupación por el uso y el futuro de los recursos naturales, sin embargo aún queda mucho camino por recorrer, y se vuelve necesario que la población mexicana ponga de su parte para hacer del planeta un lugar más sustentable. Si nosotros no comenzamos un cambio hoy, ¿quién lo hará?.

A campanha faz parte do Programa Nacional da Scotch-Brite que se juntou à TerraCycle para criar um programa de reciclagem de esponjas de limpeza de uso doméstico e de escovas de dentes e suas respectivas embalagens.

What started as a single-serving beverage brewing system targeting the office market has grown into the standard by which people make coffee at home, in waiting rooms, at convenience stores and in the workplace, but these things are an eco-disaster.

How Coffee Pods Came to Dominate!

Single-serving coffee pods and their related brewing machines are the second most popular brewing system after standard drip coffee makers, with 25 percent of American coffee drinkers using them in 2015, beating out instant coffee and ready-to-drink coffee beverages. Soon expected to totally overtake standard roast, ground and instant coffee with a whopping 30 percent sector increase in the U.K., coffee pods and capsules continue their rise to the standard in hot beverage consumption. While the category’s metonymic capsules and pods have disrupted the way coffee is produced and consumed, the market no longer ends there. Single-serving pod-based beverages now include hot chocolate, ciders, fruit drinks, teas, cold brew coffee, iced tea, even beer and Jell-O shots. This rapid market growth is despite the environmental implications that have put the category under fire for the exorbitant amount of waste they create, the component make-up of which is fast-tracked for the landfill or the incinerator. Comprised of plastics, aluminum, foil, and paper components that require separating and additional processing due to contact with food and beverage substances, these items are not recyclable in the current infrastructure.

Why aren’t coffee and beverage pods recyclable?

The hard truth is most of the product and packaging waste we create falls outside the scope of municipal recycling. Where the economics of waste dictate that an item will only be recycled if it is profitable to do so, coffee and beverage pods are the precise opposite of profitable; not only is collection and processing of these mixed component products quite costly to begin with, potential contamination of recycled materials at recycling facilities due to a rogue pod creates a negative cost for municipalities. In this fast-paced culture of convenience that prompts people to purchase these brewing systems in the first place, it is highly unlikely that their users will sit down to separate the pods’ component parts. But even those who want to have their coffee quick and eco-friendly, too, and do set aside the time and effort to take apart the plastic, metal, paper and compostable coffee grinds may be doing so to no end; these components parts are so small that most recycling facilities are not able to capture them. It is clear that these mixed-component items cause a lot of waste (in 2013, enough of one brand of coffee capsules were produced that, if placed end-to-end, they would circle the Earth 10.5 times), but people continue to use them in a world where convenience is currency. The coffee pod industry purports that the controlled water temperature and pressure, exact measurement of coffee or tea per pod, internal filter and air tight pod structure delivered by this type of single-serving system creates the “perfect cup” with precision. The jury may be out on that one, but the fact remains that these little pods cause a big waste problem.

What Can be Done to Recycle Coffee Pods?

For the eco-conscious consumers who use coffee pods, work in an environment that uses them, or simply want to spread the word, there are custom solutions available. TerraCycle’s Zero Waste Boxes provides an accessible option for consumers, offices, schools and more, to solve for this waste stream and contribute to a more sustainable landscape. Zero Waste Boxes solve for capsule and pod waste, and many other waste streams that cannot be recycled through curbside.

Read more: Why K-Cup (Coffee Pod) Recycling is Not Enough

To get started, you can order your custom category separation Zero Waste Box from TerraCycle. Once received, TerraCycle recommends placing recycling boxes in a high traffic area where coffee capsules are used and typically thrown away. When the recycling box is full, the liner must be tightly closed inside the box prior to shipping. Once the top of the box is sealed securely with packing tape, it can be placed in the designated shipping area to be sent back to TerraCycle. When TerraCycle receives the box, the adhesive packing will be recycled into new, innovative products, like park benches, chairs, watering cans and even paving stones. We are sitting on a mountain of coffee pods, so solving for their waste can seem like an uphill battle. But recognizing the problem and being aware of a solution is the most important ingredient for galvanizing action and structural change. If you still have them lying around, here are 17 ways to upcycle of all the coffee pods.