TerraCycle partners with Vail Resorts, PepsiCo, Ocean Spray and Clean Ocean Access
Include USA Ocean Spray Vail Resorts Shrink Wrap Recycling Program PepsiCo TerraCycle
TerraCycle, Trenton, New Jersey, will be working with Vail Resorts on reducing plastic use at their resorts, in partnership with PepsiCo. TerraCycle will also work with Ocean Spray to launch a national recycling program. Also, Clean Ocean Access and TerraCycle will work together to recycling hard-to-recycle plastic waste.
Vail Resorts and PepsiCo
Vail Resorts, Broomfield, Colorado, and PepsiCo, Purchase, New York, have announced the expansion of their partnership to 18 more resort locations around North America. In addition to renewing and expanding their product distribution partnership to 33 total resorts globally, PepsiCo committed to a significant investment annually in projects that support Commitment to Zero, Vail Resorts’ sustainability pledge to achieve a zero net operating footprint by 2030, including zero waste to landfill.
Through a multiyear sustainability road map, the companies will focus on waste reduction, including reducing beverage and food packaging waste and replacing wax-lined paper cups with compostable or durable PepsiCo products.
This season, Vail Resorts and PepsiCo will also partner with TerraCycle to create picnic tables and Adirondack chairs out of recycled snack and candy wrappers for guests to enjoy at Park City, Keystone, Beaver Creek, Vail and Breckenridge resorts.
In synergy with Vail Resorts’ Commitment to Zero initiative, PepsiCo has its own target to make 100 percent of its product packaging recyclable, compostable, or biodegradable by 2025.
“It is by working together, through robust partnerships with shared sustainability goals, that we’ll have the most impact on climate change,” says Kate Wilson, senior director of sustainability at Vail Resorts.
In addition to waste diversion efforts, PepsiCo also will support Vail Resorts’ sustainability commitments through guest-facing education initiatives, joint marketing efforts and creative upcycling projects.
Ocean Spray
Ocean Spray Cranberries Inc., Middleborough, Massachusetts, announced a partnership with TerraCycle to launch a free recycling program that enables consumers to recycle Ocean Spray flexible plastic Craisins dried cranberries and snack packaging for an alternative use. Through the partnership, Ocean Spray is advancing its sustainable packaging strategy by helping to divert waste from landfills and extending the life of materials to reduce the overall environmental footprint of a product.
Now, customers can send their Ocean Spray Craisins dried cranberry products that are in flexible plastic packaging to TerraCycle, where the packaging is cleaned and melted into hard plastic that can be remolded to make new recycled products, such as park benches and picnic tables.
As an added incentive, for each shipment of Ocean Spray Craisins dried cranberries packaging sent to TerraCycle through the Ocean Spray Recycling Program, participants earn points that can be donated to a nonprofit, school or charitable organization of their choice.
In addition, Ocean Spray is working with TerraCycle’s new Loop platform to develop a program where together they will design and launch products in reusable packaging to create a truly circular economy. Consumers will be able to order Ocean Spray products from Loop’s e-commerce platform, and once done with the product, will be able to simply return the packaging to Loop to clean, sanitize and refill with the original products to reuse.
“We are thrilled to partner with TerraCycle and their new Loop program to advance Ocean Spray’s commitment to sustainability so that we can leave the earth a better place for the farmers and families we serve,” Christina Ferzli, head of global corporate affairs at Ocean Spray, says. “We embrace TerraCycle’s innovative platform as a brand-new way to approach the process of recycling, especially as we honor Climate Week and consider the steps we are taking as an organization through all of our sustainability efforts to continue this work in a meaningful way.”
"Since our founding, TerraCycle has made it our objective to 'Eliminate the Idea of Waste' by recycling the unrecyclable and diverting waste from landfills and local communities," Tom Szaky, TerraCycle CEO, says. “Through the Ocean Spray Recycling Program, we are joining forces with this iconic brand to offer a simple solution to packaging waste that helps preserve our environment for future generations.”
Clean Ocean Access
Clean Ocean Access (COA), Middletown, Rhode Island. a non-profit organization, has announced a new recycling initiative in partnership with TerraCycle. Since February 2020, the program has successfully collected more than 140,000 pounds of sailing and agricultural shrink-wrap for recycling.
Shrink-wrapping boats and greenhouses in preparation for winter is common in the U.S., but recycling the shrink-wrap in the spring is now more challenging than ever. Now, the sailing and maritime community have begun to turn to Clean Ocean Access and TerraCycle’s Shrink-Wrap Recycling Project.
This project aims to establish a U.S.-based recycling system, while also working with the marine industry to advance more circular solutions such as closed-loop recycling for shrink-wrap (where the recycled film can become new shrink-wrap) or increasing the use of reusable covers where possible.
Made possible through a grant from 11th Hour Racing, the Shrink-Wrap Recycling Project aims to prevent plastic film from entering landfills or incinerators by collecting the shrink-wrap from marinas, boatyards, vessel owners, and local agricultural operations, and transporting the material to TerraCycle in New Jersey.
After initial implementation in Rhode Island, the long-term goal of this project is to leverage an established network of plastic recyclers and manufacturers with the potential to collect a larger variety of shrink-wrap.
“The Shrink-Wrap Recycling Project provides a time-sensitive opportunity to advance the existing efforts to collect plastic film, and bring awareness to the challenges and opportunities of creating a domestic circular economy, while having a laser focus on improving ocean health so future generations can enjoy ocean activities,” Dave McLaughlin, co-founder and executive director of Clean Ocean Access, says.
“By recycling boat shrink-wrap with Clean Ocean Access, TerraCycle is doing exactly what it was founded to do,” Dylan Layfield, TerraCycle senior manager of material solutions, says. “By picking up where conventional recycling leaves off, we’re ensuring that our shared waterways can be enjoyed by our children and our children’s children.”