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.
The city, along with its Downtown Development District and New Jersey-based recycler TerraCycle, installed 50 new cigarette-recycling receptacles on several downtown blocks.
TerraCycle, which uses difficult-to-recycle products in its process, has a nationwide program, along with New Orleans and other cities, that recycles cigarette butts into plastic pellets later used to make products, such as industrial pallets.
The city's Public Services Department will train a Workfare recipients to remove the trash from the "buttlers." The city will store the trash at the Spring Street Garage and then will ship the butts to TerraCycle, a company that makes plastic pellets out of butts.
The Buttlers were purchased by the city and local businesses at about $60 a piece. Roylos self-financed a trial run of seven Buttlers last year, and collected about one five-gallon bucket of litter per receptacle. The butts are shipped at no cost to a company called TerraCycle, which converts them into shipping pallets, railroad ties, and benches.
Once the box is full, it is shipped free of charge to the New Jersey-based TerraCycle, which will use the tobacco to make compost and turn the plastics in the butts to pellets for use producing items such as park benches, shipping pallets and railroad ties, according to Lakeman.
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.
Smokers are harming a whole lot more than just themselves. Here’s why smoking should be considered not just a health concern, but a major environmental one as well.
The City of Salem, Massachusetts is launching a city-wide program to collect and recycle cigarette butts, in an effort to keep Salem streets clean. Salem’s rollout is the first in New England for this new initiative and will launch this month with the installation of dozens of new cigarette-recycling receptacles around the city, especially downtown. The receptacles will be easily identified with stickers that say “Recycle Your Butts Here.”
