For example, New Orleans has teamed with the New Jersey company TerraCycle to recycle its cigarette butts.

Last week I attended LifeInStyle and the Home and Giving Fair in Sydney, and came home with some great businesses to share and some new products for our store. I will share a post about these events and my thoughts about them soon. But first, in a moment of “it was meant to be”, the very clever Nathan Devine, the author of the website and book Retrash, called me before I left on the off-chance I may have been able to come to Sydney for an event last Friday. I just happened to be headed to Sydney on Thursday so it was perfect! Retrash is a book of inspirational stories from people across the world, on ways they are reducing landfill through recycling, upcycling, repurposing and rethinking waste. Nathan gave me a copy and I will review it soon on the blog. Not only was the event at Google headquarters, which for a geek like me was a real thrill, but it was a presentation from both Nathan and the Chief Design Junkie (yes that is her actual job title!), Tiffany Threadgould, from one of the most clever upcycling and recycling organisations in the world – TerraCycle. TerraCycle basically take things you think are not recyclable, including DIRTY nappies (yes I know!) and cigarette butts (because they are essentially plastic, may be time to give up now) and recycles them. They recycle and upcycle pretty much everything and anything and you can even make cash sending your trash into them. Tiffany is an eco-lifestyle expert who spreads recycling inspiration with easy do-it-yourself solutions. Tiffany began with an MFA in Industrial Design from Pratt Institute, and now hones her upcycling know how as Head Design Junkie at the mega recycling company Terracycle. Her own company Tiffany Threadgould has been featured on CNN, Every Day with Rachael Ray, the New York Times, and countless magazines and blogs. Stay tuned for more as I am going to run an interview and feature with her soon. Founded in 2001 by Tom Szaky, then a 20-year-old Princeton University student, TerraCycle, Inc. began producing organic fertiliser by packaging liquified “worm poop” in used soft drink bottles. Since the inauspicious start, TerraCycle has become one of the fastest-growing green companies in the world. Today, TerraCycle is a highly-awarded, international upcycling and recycling company that collects difficult-to-recycle packaging and products and repurposes the material into affordable, innovative products. TerraCycle is widely considered the world’s leader in the collection and reuse of non-recyclable, post-consumer waste. TerraCycle works with more than 100 major brands in the U.S. and 24 countries overseas, including Australia, to collect used packaging and products that would otherwise be destined for landfills. It repurposes that waste into new, innovative materials and products that are available online and through major retailers. Tiffany also told us about the new partnership with TerraCycle and Australia Post, that makes it easier for groups to collect waste and post it for free. You can collect your waste, print a postage label and send it for free. It is a great idea for schools and community groups, through the national programs -“Brigades” – where you collect previously non-recyclable or hard to recycle waste and in most programs, you receive a small donation for each piece of waste collected. It’s a great way for schools to fund raise. Find out more about the TerraCycle Brigades here. It was a fabulous session and so good to hear about the amazing things happening around the world. Have you heard of TerraCycle? And will you now be saving up waste to send to them?  I am starting special boxes here and will be speaking with my son’s school about getting involved. Helen

Local Manly small business The Shop Next Door takes part in innovative butt recycling program TerraCycle, an innovative global company that recycles ‘unrecyclable’ waste including cigarettes is working with local Manly business The Shop Next Door to tackle cigarette litter. The Cigarette Waste Brigade allows any individual, group or business to register and collect unrecyclable waste such as cigarette butts and send it to TerraCycle via Australia Post at no cost. Since its launch on Clean Up Australia Day in 2014, TerraCycle has collected over four million cigarette butts to be recycled into new industrial items. The Shop Next Door is taking part in the Manly based environmental consultancy, Edge Environment’s 200 Stories Project.  This project being funded by through the NSW Environment Protection Authority’s Bintrim Business Grants, providing free waste audits to 200 businesses in the Northern Beaches to reduce waste going to landfill. "Cigarette butts are a pervasive, non-biodegradable waste and is Australia’s most littered item. TerraCycle recycles ‘unrecyclable’ waste that others deem challenging or unsavoury. Instead of ending up on our streets, in landfill or in waterways, cigarettes can now be recycled into new sustainable items,” said Anna Minns, General Manager, TerraCycle. The Shop Next Door on busy Pittwater Road in Manly is a popular hangout for locals and visitors –it’s fantastic to see that both shop and organic café are reducing their waste to landfill. The Shop Next door is not only tackling cigarette litter – they will help recycle it too from the Laundromat one shop down so the butts don’t end up in storm water and in the ocean. They will place an upcycled receptacle for people to dispose of cigarette butts responsibly,” "Local businesses and individuals can simply send in cigarette waste to TerraCycle to be recycled by securely storing it in a plastic bag (which will also be recycled), requesting a free shipping label from the TerraCycle website and affix it to any used box. For every kilogram of cigarette waste collected, TerraCycle donates two dollars to a not-for-profit organisation of the collector’s choice.” TerraCycle Australia collects other difficult to recycle waste streams including oral care waste such as toothbrushes, toothpaste tubes, floss containers, used cleaning, laundry and beauty packaging waste as well as Nespresso and NESCAFE Dolce Gusto capsules.  

TERRACYCLE is calling on local community centres, schools and businesses to register, for free, as a collection point for ‘unrecyclable’ items and raise money for non-profit groups. These items can then be recycled into sustainable items or materials and, with 21.3million tones of waste sent to landfill each year, it is an opportunity for local residents and groups to send their waste to a public collection point. The unrecyclable items include toothbrushes, toothpaste tubes, cleaning and beauty product pumps, triggers and wipes, cigarette waste and coffee capsules. These items are currently being diverted from landfill. General Manager of TerraCycle Australia, Anna Minns said everyone should think about getting involved. “National Recycling Week and the Christmas period is the perfect time to learn more about recycling and how to get involved in your local community,” she said. “TerraCycle believes anything can and should be recycled and we have developed solutions for waste that are deemed unsavoury or difficult to recycle, such as cigarette butts. “Since TerraCycle’s launch in March on Clean Up Australia Day we have collected more than three million cigarette butts as well as other unrecyclable waste. “We’ve saved this from landfill, thanks mainly to local litter groups, workplaces, community centres and households.” Interested groups are encouraged to register on the TerraCycle website as donations will be given towards a local group or cause. For every piece of waste collected and dropped off at your local collection point two cents goes towards a great local cause or non profit. To register as a collection point, go to www.terracycle.com.au.

There are many things, that I reluctantly put in the trash, that can be reused: The 50+ a day Capri drink bags, Red Cups and cigarette butts can all be sent to Terracycle. The 4 to 10 plastic food containers- a day can be cleaned up and recycled.

Anna Minns is General Manager of Terracycle Australia, a company dedicated to creating recycling solutions for just about anything. What’s involved in developing a recycling solution for “difficult” waste like the Nescafé capsules? More often than not, companies approach us about a solution for their product’s waste stream. Nescafé Dolce Gusto joined with TerraCycle to provide a second life for used Nescafé Dolce Gusto capsules, so Australians can now collect, store and ship their capsules from home or work for free. For the current Nescafé Dolce Gusto Capsule Brigade we do not collect any other brand of capsules, only Nescafé Dolce Gusto capsules. If consumers are interested in a particular waste stream we suggest they let their favourite brand know about TerraCycle’s work! We hope in time to be collecting more and more “unrecyclable” waste. Can goodwill be infectious enough for the majority of manufacturing companies to take responsibility for end of life of their product, or will they need to be pushed into it by legislation? As the circular economy is increasingly gaining traction in our region many companies are looking to circular solutions rather than linear solutions of ‘take, make, then dispose’. TerraCycle works with many major FMCG (fast moving consumer goods) companies, as well as small brands, to create a voluntary product stewardship scheme that diverts everyday consumer products and packaging that are difficult to recycle such as toothbrushes, toothpaste tubes, coffee capsules and even cigarette butts, from landfill, and instead into new products creating circular solutions. The recycling system creates a collection model open to the public. Australia has one of the highest rates of waste generation per capita in the world and in fact, world waste is also expected to double by 2025. Government schemes and extended producer responsibility laws may be slow in coming to effect to deal with growing waste issues. TerraCycle’s solutions are readily available and the onus is on both brands to consider a solution to an increasing problem as well as consumers to use their buying power as a ‘vote’ for sustainability. What would you nominate as the most unlikely or surprising items that you have created recycling solutions for? Cigarettes, chewing gum, feminine hygiene products and nappies! TerraCycle has proven that (almost) anything can and should be recycled. Do you get to shovel rotting food to the worms occasionally? No. But we are offering a copy of Tom’s book “Revolution in a Bottle” for a Switch Report reader that outlines the origins of TerraCycle as a company turning worm poop into fertilizer! To win a copy of Revolution in a Bottle by Terracycle’s founder Tom Szaky, just sign up for our newsletter by midnight on Sunday 16 November, and you’ll be in the draw. If you are already on our mailing list you don’t need to do anything. You are automatically entered.

Überall sind sie zu sehen: von Rauchern achtlos weggeworfenen Zigarettenkippen. Dass die hässlichen Stummel Sondermüll sind, ist den meisten Menschen gar nicht bewusst. Eine Umweltinitiative des Recycling-Unternehmens TerraCycle nimmt sich jetzt dem Kippen-Recycling an. So funktioniert es.

A második alkalommal megrendezett S.U.N. Festival alkalmából 11.000 ember gyűlt össze a világ minden tájáról, hogy megünnepeljék a közös együttlétet és újra egy hullámhosszon rezeghessen a csapat. Dübörgő basszus, mesébe illő figurák, rengeteg vega kaja és sehol egy eldobott szemét, vagy hulladék. Hogy lehet ez?

Environmentally conscious Strip resort managers brag how corks from wine bottles are recycled into shoe soles and cooking oil is converted into biodiesel. Filters from cigarette butts at some casinos are reused to make plastic pallets. Such attention to recycling even the smallest items distinguishes the Strip from the rest of Las Vegas when it comes to conservation. Strip resorts are the county’s champion recyclers, far outpacing residents and other businesses. Why? A contrary strategy is playing out, one that explains the region’s half-hearted recycling effort: The company that collects our trash owns the biggest landfill in the nation and receives little financial incentive to keep garbage out of it. So while Strip resorts recycle more than half their solid waste, about 90 percent of the county’s residential garbage is buried, seemingly guilt-free, in the desert. A CLARK COUNTY RECYCLING SUCCESS STORY For all the things our Strip resorts nail — great food, great shows, great hotel rooms, great shopping — they’ve become experts in another field most of us want nothing to do with: garbage. Half of all the trash generated in local resorts gets recycled. The secret, casino executives say, is capturing as many recyclables as possible before they hit the Dumpster. • Cigarettes rise from the ashes. Caesars partnered with TerraCycle to recycle used cigarette butts. The filters are used into plastic pallets, while tobacco scraps are used for composting.

Brigades have raised nearly $300K for charities

By: SWR Staff 2014-08-06

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  Canada’s quirkiest recycler, TerraCycle, has reached a milestone in the world of butt-kicking. After expanding its innovative recycling program called Cigarette Waste Brigade, and teaming with Imperial Tobacco in 2012, TerraCycle has officially surpassed the 20-million milestone for recycled cigarette butts, one of the world’s most troublesome form of street litter. The program has reached high levels of success based on a formula of offering charitable donations for each pound of cigarette waste collected and mailed in. The collected material is recycled into plastic industrial applications or composted according to industry regulations. TerraCycle and its participants have raised upwards of $300,000 for charity through its various Brigade programs.

"We're committed to working with consumers, employees and our partners to forge a tobacco industry that continually improves its performance in the area of corporate social responsibility," says Marie Polet,  president and CEO of Imperial Tobacco Canada. "We are honoured and privileged to support the Cigarette Waste Brigade program who have done an excellent job."

The Brigade program recycles the cigarette butts, inner foil, outer wrap, unused tobacco, ashes and other elements that comprise cigarette waste. Cigarettes are made from cellulose acetate, which takes years to break down, says TerraCycle. The steps taken to reduce cigarette litter will have a positive impact on waterways, wildlife and human health. By making plastic products from recycled cigarette waste, the program not only reduces the amount of litter globally, but also reduces the need to employ wood or virgin plastic in the production of common industrial pallets, which TerraCycle makes from the recycled plastic created by the cigarette filters. Cigarette filters were also the number one item recovered during the annual Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup in 2013. According to TerraCycle, only 10 per cent of cigarette waste is properly disposed of in receptacles. Participate in the program by visiting www.terracycle.ca.