TerraCycle chatted to 2NURFM about Earth Day and signing up to TerraCycle's recycling programs.

A radio interview on Sydney radio station 2RRR about Earth Month and how to get involved with TerraCycle.

An important part of living more lightly on this earth is to reduce the use of resources and the amount of items going to landfill. Nothing in the natural world is wasted. Instead the output from one system goes on to feed another system. For instance a trees that dies, slowly returns to the earth in a process that feeds numerous micro-organisms and provides nutrients for other plants to grow. Sadly humans have created a production system where commodities are designed to be thrown away when we no longer need them. This has resulted in the creation of large waste sites where festering mounds of discarded materials leach toxic chemicals into the surrounding environment and use valuable land space. To see a landfill site in all its ugly stinking mess provides a striking example of why we need to change our system of production and consumption. The Adelaide Sustainability Centre ran a series of demonstrations at WOMAD this year around this topic. Themed as “Zero Waste Life Hacks” they covered a number of facets of daily life from seed saving and composting, DIY home products, how to darn a sock and how to make bricks from bottles. A number of useful resources and links from these WOMAD workshops can be accessed by clicking here. The Adelaide Sustainability Centre regularly runs a number of workshops that are designed to help us learn skills to live more lightly on this planet. Sign up for the newsletter and keep up to date with the latest workshops .   Further resources:

• Story of Stuff Movie
• Circular Economy Australia
• Cradle to Cradle Manufacturing

Australian Zero-Waste blogs:

• The Rouge Ginger
• Treading my Own Path

The Adelaide Sustainability Centre is a drop off point for:

• Hard to recycle products including Oral Care products, Mailing Satchels and Beauty Products through a partnership with TerraCycle Australia.
• Mobiles and phone accessories through a partnership with Mobile Muster.

Have you ever found yourself facing your recycling bin, completely befuddled about whether or not you can put a particular item in it? You’re not alone. According to Planet Ark, nearly half of Australians find recycling confusing. The Conversation Australia’s recycling rules can seem horrendously complicated, but fortunately they are becoming more simple. What about things that can’t be recycled at home? Just because something can’t be recycled through kerbside collections, that doesn’t mean it can’t be recycled at all. New channels for recycling more complex items have been pioneered by organisations such as Planet Ark and TerraCycle, as well as by local councils, industry and government under schemes such as the Australian Packaging Covenant and the National Television and Computer Recycling Scheme. Free Terracycle recycling programs. Adapted from TerraCycle (http://www.terracycle.com.au) Recycling is vital to reducing resource use and waste to landfill, and so getting it right is crucial.

As more recycling programs pop up around the country it’s important to keep up to date.  So in the second part of this article we look at seven more items that most Australians could be recycling - but probably aren’t. See Part One of the article for the first seven items.

8. Light Globes - Light globes come in a few different types which differ in composition as well as means of disposal. Fluorescent tubes, compact fluoros (CFLs), HIDs and metal halides all contain mercury and need to be recycled through council, commercial or community programs that safely separate the different elements. Incandescent globes and halogens can be recycled through some of these programs or can simply be wrapped in paper and disposed of in the garbage bin. They are made from low value and non-toxic materials which makes recycling them very difficult.
9. Mailing Satchel - If your workplace uses lots of Australia Post mailing satchels you can sign up to the free Mailing Satchel Recycling Program run in conjunction with TerraCycle. Once you’ve signed up you just bag up your satchels, download a shipping label and post them off to be recycled.
10. Paint - Under the new PaintBack scheme 15 cents is added to the price of each litre of paint which is used to establish collection points and recycling processes for un-used paint. PaintBack locations are beginning to appear around the country. Many councils, state-run clean out programs and the Community Recycling Centres in NSW also collect paint. Find a site near you.
11. Ink and Toner Cartridges - Whether you use ink jet cartridges at home or toners at work recycling them is easy though 'Cartridges 4 Planet Ark'. There are collection boxes in over 4,000 retail outlets and your workplace can apply for your own box. And better still it’s completely free to the user as the participating manufacturers – Brother, Canon, Epson, HP, Konica Minolta and Kyocera - cover the costs.
12. Pizza Boxes - An increasing number of councils accept pizza boxes for recycling. They just need to be free of solid food and too much oil. If the base it too soiled, you can tear it off and dispose of it in the garbage bin and recycle the top.
13. Soft Plastics - You can drop your used soft plastics including bread, cereal, pasta, lolly and dry cleaning bags off at participating (metro) Coles and some Woolworths stores where REDcycle will recycle them into new products like furniture for schools. The basic rule is that if you can scrunch it you can recycle it. (Residents in some councils like those around Perth, plus Ballina, Lismore, and Moreland can recycle soft plastics in the council bin.) Make sure you follow council advice re soft plastic as it can cause problems if it ends up in the wrong system.
14. Toothpaste Tubes and Brushes - These are tricky and definitely can’t go in your home recycling bin but can be recycled though TerraCycle’s Oral Care Recycling Program. The program is ideal for workplaces or schools as it also operates as a fundraiser.

Have you ever found yourself facing your recycling bin, completely befuddled about whether or not you can put a particular item in it? You're not alone. According to Planet Ark, nearly half of Australians find recycling confusing.  Australia's recycling rules can seem horrendously complicated, but fortunately they are becoming more simple.

Have you ever found yourself facing your recycling bin, completely befuddled about whether or not you can put a particular item in it? You're not alone. According to Planet Ark, nearly half of Australians find recycling confusing.  Australia's recycling rules can seem horrendously complicated, but fortunately they are becoming more simple.

Have you ever found yourself facing your recycling bin, completely befuddled about whether or not you can put a particular item in it? You’re not alone. According to Planet Ark, nearly half of Australians find recycling confusing. The Conversation Australia’s recycling rules can seem horrendously complicated, but fortunately they are becoming more simple. What about things that can’t be recycled at home? Just because something can’t be recycled through kerbside collections, that doesn’t mean it can’t be recycled at all. New channels for recycling more complex items have been pioneered by organisations such as Planet Ark and TerraCycle, as well as by local councils, industry and government under schemes such as the Australian Packaging Covenant and the National Television and Computer Recycling Scheme. Free Terracycle recycling programs. Adapted from TerraCycle (http://www.terracycle.com.au) Recycling is vital to reducing resource use and waste to landfill, and so getting it right is crucial.  

Have you ever found yourself facing your recycling bin, completely befuddled about whether or not you can put a particular item in it? You’re not alone. According to Planet Ark, nearly half of Australians find recycling confusing. The Conversation Australia’s recycling rules can seem horrendously complicated, but fortunately they are becoming more simple. What about things that can’t be recycled at home? Just because something can’t be recycled through kerbside collections, that doesn’t mean it can’t be recycled at all. New channels for recycling more complex items have been pioneered by organisations such as Planet Ark and TerraCycle, as well as by local councils, industry and government under schemes such as the Australian Packaging Covenant and the National Television and Computer Recycling Scheme. Free Terracycle recycling programs. Adapted from TerraCycle (http://www.terracycle.com.au) Recycling is vital to reducing resource use and waste to landfill, and so getting it right is crucial.

Have you ever found yourself facing your recycling bin, completely befuddled about whether or not you can put a particular item in it? You’re not alone. According to Planet Ark, nearly half of Australians find recycling confusing. The Conversation Australia’s recycling rules can seem horrendously complicated, but fortunately they are becoming more simple. What about things that can’t be recycled at home? Just because something can’t be recycled through kerbside collections, that doesn’t mean it can’t be recycled at all. New channels for recycling more complex items have been pioneered by organisations such as Planet Ark and TerraCycle, as well as by local councils, industry and government under schemes such as the Australian Packaging Covenant and the National Television and Computer Recycling Scheme. Free Terracycle recycling programs. Adapted from TerraCycle (http://www.terracycle.com.au) Recycling is vital to reducing resource use and waste to landfill, and so getting it right is crucial.