Danone joins forces with eco-innovator TerraCycle to re-use and recycle yogurt pots.
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The makers of Activa and Actimel have launched a programme collection yogurt pots with eco-innovator TerraCycle, that not only diverts the not traditionally recycled pots from the landfill, as it donates 2p per pot collected to a school or charity of the collectors choice.
The programme launched in October, and the volumes sent in by 'teams' surprised even the most optimists.
TerraCycle isn't only collecting the empty pots and bottles, it is also taking in pre-consumer material from the factory, that would otherwise be thrown away, for example the end of a roll of plastic, or misprints that are unsuitable to hit the supermarket shelves.
So what does TerraCycle make with this? Firstly, they'll try to upcycle the material into new consumer goods, from the basic plant pot (that many of us to at home anyway) to coolers and lunch boxes, which can be found for sale at a major supermarket later in 2011. Then, the second choice is recycling the pots, when for example they are too damaged to be upcycled.
TerraCycle was born in 2001 in New Jersey USA, when Tom Szaky –then a college freshman– discovered that worm castings were a great plant fertilizer. But as most college students, he couldn't afford the packaging for his product, so he began using empty fizzy drink bottles that he could find in bins around campus. This would become his first step towards upcycling, and ultimately the creation of TerraCycle.
Just over nine years later, Szaky's ingenious (and rather unusual) idea can now boost of having operations in 11 countries (including the US, Canada, Brazil, Mexico, Sweden, UK, Turkey and the Southern Cone), with France and Germany lined up for early 2011; and with partners such as J&J, Danone, Kraft Foods and GSK, it is no wonder that TerraCycle is the leading name in upcycling in the world. Their Danone Yogurt Brigade programme also counts with the support of the Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP).
You can read more about their collection programmes here: www.terracycle.co.uk/brigades