Adjusting to a “new normal” of working from home and social distancing isn’t easy. To all of our recycling rockstars out there, your continued dedication to recycling the non-recyclable is inspiring and impactful. We deeply appreciate your efforts.   You have proven that staying safe at home doesn’t mean that recycling has to stop. Since you know the basics about recycling at home (check out our previous blog for all the deets on getting started), it’s time to dream big and get creative. Together, let’s keep on collecting!   We invite everyone to take the pledge to stay sustainable during these challenging times. Here are some creative ways to have fun and keep collecting from home:   Turn recycling into a game to make things interesting.   Tackle hard-to-recycle items at home? Challenge accepted!   With so much going on in the world around us, getting friends, family, and children excited about environmental issues can take a bit of strategy. Turning recycling into a game can be an effective, fun way to “up the stakes” with some friendly competition around doing good.  

• Start by browsing TerraCycle’s National Recycling Programs and signing up for as many programs as you can participate in; many are free to use!
• Next, set a goal for the amount or number of products and packaging you want to collect, or number of TerraCycle® points you would like to redeem for charity.
• Once you have your goal, figure out how much you need to ship to us for recycling in order to donate a certain amount for charity; every 100 points equals $1.

• You can find the weight per piece of items collected through different programs at the bottom of each program page under “REWARDS.”
• Keep track of your progress on a whiteboard or design an eye-catching poster to highlight your milestones!

  Not only will your recycling efforts protect the planet, you can also support charities responding to COVID-19.     Consider donating your TerraCycle points to Feeding America’s COVID Response Fund, where every 100 TerraCycle points you redeem can provide at least 10 meals to families in need across the US.   Or, help provide essential supplies to healthcare workers by redeeming your points for a donation to Americares.   Share on social media to encourage your network to join you.   There are so many ways staying at home can reduce our carbon footprint, including keeping cars off the road and fewer buildings using energy, and actively recycling can be one of them. Sharing green activities gives others the tools to join you and uses the power of social media to turn the content into something compelling and aspirational.   Get creative with your recycling efforts and to inspire your network! Post to your Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter a photo, video, or other message sharing the ways you’re collecting for your favorite TerraCycle programs. Hashtag #KeepOnRecycling and tag and follow @TerraCycle to keep up with the efforts of collectors around the world.       You can even win big for posting as part of TerraCycle’s first global social media challenge. Show us pictures of our collection corner or recycling scoreboard; you just need to be signed up for a TerraCycle account to be eligible; we’re choosing winners every week to win TerraCycle points based on creativity and inventiveness! The contest page has all the details.   Download a label to motivate you to keep collecting.   Did you know you can download prepaid shipping labels from your TerraCycle account to send us difficult-to-recycle pouches, snack bags, beauty and cosmetics packaging, and even cigarette butts—for free, and whenever you want? Even if you haven’t collected enough to recycle yet, you can go ahead and log in to print the labels at any time.   Printing out a label can be the motivating factor that drives you fill up your boxes with recyclables otherwise headed for landfills. Pin it to your scoreboard, put it on the refrigerator, or even post about it on social media as a reminder of your goals. Putting it out there in the universe may help to stay accountable, with others there cheering you on.     Whenever you are ready to ship your collected waste back to TerraCycle, all you’ll have to do is tape the label on your sealed box and send it off—it’s as easy as that! Plus, through our Pack It For Recycling promo, if one of your shipping labels are randomly selected through our daily draw and you use that label to recycle with us before September 1, you can win TerraCycle points!   Get excited and ready to send it all out for recycling.   With your labels and boxes all neatly packed up and ready to go, hold onto them until it is safe to send it to TerraCycle or bring it to a public drop-off location. All the hard work you are putting into your collections now will pay off in positive impacts for future generations.   Start plotting for what charities or schools you will redeem TerraCycle points to, and selfies and snapshots you can share when you ship or drop-off in your community. And keep an eye out for new promos; we believe in making recycling easy, fun, and rewarding for everyone, and cook up new ones all the time. Any ideas? Let us know!   ____   While we’re all physically distancing, it is important to remain socially connected to each other. What better way to build community than to come together to protect the environment? Reach out to fellow recyclers to challenge them to keep collecting at home and share photos and insights through chat and social.   Together, you can set goals, provide encouragement, and be a beacon of information and inspiration for the world we are working so hard to preserve.