Have you ever felt guilty about tossing your old Teva sandals, or Colgate toothbrush, or Etch A Sketch into the trash, where they will clog up a landfill for hundreds of years? I have good news for you. All of those items—and many more—are now recyclable thanks to TerraCycle, a company that can recycle just about anything, especially items that can’t be processed by municipal facilities.   When the company launched in 2001, eliminating waste wasn’t something the average consumer cared about, but two decades later, environmentalism has gone mainstream, and that’s been good for TerraCycle’s business. Over the past five years, TerraCycle has grown explosively thanks to partnerships with brands that pay the company to collect and recycle customers’ old products. Today, more than 500 brands have signed up, a tenfold increase from 2016. In 2020, TerraCycle generated upward of $50 million in revenue across 20 countries and grew its staff by 33% to 380 employees globally.   TerraCycle’s remarkable growth tells a larger story about the progress the world is making toward a circular economy–a more sustainable system in which companies stop extracting raw materials from the earth and instead recycle products that already exist. While brands and consumers are eager to keep things out of landfill, there are still big challenges ahead in the war on waste. Who should bear the cost of recycling? And what will it really take to recycle a complex object, like a shoe or an Etch a Sketch, back into its original form? [Photo: TerraCycle]   A WORLD WITH NO WASTE   Tom Szaky launched TerraCycle as a 19-year-old Princeton student. The company began as a humble side hustle: transforming food waste into high-quality fertilizer with the help of worms. In college, he emptied his bank account to build a “worm poop conversion unit” and spent his free time shoveling decomposing food from Princeton’s cafeterias. Two years later, he dropped out to pursue the business full-time, selling the fertilizer he created to Home Depot and Walmart.   Spending every waking hour of his twenties thinking about waste helped Szaky grasp the full extent of the global problem—long before many Americans had woken up to the crisis. He realized that food is just the tip of the iceberg: The real—and trickier—issue is plastic, a cheap, versatile material that companies use in everything from food wrappers to furniture. Since plastic does not biodegrade, it ends up in landfills and oceans, where it breaks into tiny fragments and enters the food chain.   Curbside recycling programs launched in the 1970s, but they have always been limited in the plastic products they accept; most only collect simple objects made from a single form of plastic, like takeout containers. Everything else ends up in the landfill because it’s made from multiple materials that are complex and labor-intensive to separate. A high chair, for instance, uses metal bolts and screws to connect different plastic pieces together.   As Szaky looked into the problem, he discovered that it is technically possible to recycle any of these objects. The problem is that recycling infrastructure is not set up to tackle this. Cities pay waste management companies to pick up and recycle materials, which they then sell on the commodities market. If a product is too expensive to break down, recyclers won’t make a profit on it. “We perceive that recycling companies are out there recycling whatever they can recycle out of a moral obligation,” he says. “The reality is that recycling companies are for-profit enterprises and they are only going to process what they can recycle at a profit. If an object costs more to collect and recycle than the ensuing materials are worth, they won’t do it.”   So Szaky decided he needed to create a new business model for recycling. He would build the infrastructure to recycle all kinds of objects and ask companies making these products to bear the cost of recycling them. “We asked ourselves, ‘Is there a stakeholder, like a manufacturer or a retailer or a consumer or someone who is willing to cover what it really costs to collect it and process it?'” he says. “With this business philosophy, we can unlock the ability to recycle just about everything.” [Photo: TerraCycle]   WHO SHOULD PAY FOR RECYCLING?   The idea of asking companies or individuals to pay to recycle their own waste seemed crazy two decades ago. But Szaky has observed how people around the world have begun to realize that waste has real costs.   This awareness reached a tipping point in 2018, when a video of a turtle with a straw up its nose went viral, prompting consumers to call for cities to ban straws and other single-use plastics. The following year, National Geographic devoted an issue of the magazine to the problem of plastic waste which circulated widely; brands like Everlane and Adidas began swapping out new plastic for recycled plastic in their products; and new research emerged about how microscopic pieces of plastic end up in our food and water, damaging our bodies.   [Image: courtesy Teva]Szaky first asked brands to sponsor recycling efforts in 2007, when Honest Tea, Stonyfield Farm, and Clif Bar paid Terracycle to set up collection centers for consumers to drop off used food packaging from their brands, which it would recycle. It wasn’t until 2015 that big brands created ongoing programs, like Bausch + Lomb with contact lenses and Target with baby car seats. Some turned their recycling efforts into marketing: In 2017, Right Guard and L’Oreal launched playgrounds and gyms made from recycled products with great fanfare.   This paved the way for the current moment, when many brands feel pressure to take responsibility for some of their waste—or risk alienating consumers who are highly conscious about sustainability. This is why Teva, maker of iconic outdoor sandals, proactively reached out to Terracycle to collect used shoes and transform them into new products. “There is a cost for generating waste without regard for the environment,” says Anders Bergstrom, Teva’s global GM. “It’s a stiff financial penalty that is coming on the backs of young consumers who are seeking out sustainable brands. This is a new reality that I believe many enterprises are going to face in the future. ” [Illustration: Teva] As of last week, customers can go to Teva’s website to download a free, prepaid shipping label to send their old sandals to TerraCycle. To keep the carbon footprint of this shipping low, TerraCycle uses a network of its own recycling center as well as third-party recycling plants, and sends products to the nearest facility. Bergstrom says that Teva will pay for the entire cost of shipping, sorting, and processing, but declined to say exactly how much it will come to, partly because it depends on how many customers send their shoes in. Financial documents reveal that the lion’s share of TerraCycle’s revenues come from these brand partnerships.   Szaky says that each new partnership involves developing new systems for collecting, cleaning, and separating products into their core components. Then, the materials go through the company’s existing machinery: Metals are melted, and plastics are shredded, melted, and extruded into pellets. TerraCycle then sells these recycled materials. The plastic from Teva sandals will be used to make playgrounds, athletic fields, and track ground cover. [Photo: Century]   In early April, a brand called Century became the first baby gear company to partner with TerraCycle to recycle car seats, strollers, high chairs, and play pens. Betsy Holman, manager at Newell Brands which owns Century, says the brand is specifically targeted at millennial and Gen Z parents, and initial focus groups with this demographic revealed the sustainability was a crucial factor in their buying decisions.   Holman’s team had to price the cost of recycling into the bottom line. Given how bulky and heavy the products are, paying to ship products to TerraCycle is expensive. “The cost of recycling is hitting us just like any other cost,” she says. “TerraCycle was definitely a hit to our profit and our margin is definitely not as attractive, but we felt that this was the right call for the brand. Our goal is to be the sustainable baby brand.” [Photo: TerraCycle]   THE DREAM OF CIRCULARITY   TerraCycle is growing quickly thanks to new partnerships. Nordstrom announced that starting October 1, consumers can bring in any beauty product packaging into stores to be recycled. Startups—from sneaker brand Thousand Fell to reusable silicone baggie brand Stasher—invite customers to download prepaid labels to send in their old products. Heritage conglomerate, Spin Master, which makes Etch A Sketch, Rubik’s Cube, and Hatchimals just announced customers can send in any toys it manufactures. [Photo: TerraCycle]   While Szaky is thrilled that business is picking up, he believes there’s a lot of work to do. TerraCycle has still not created a fully circular system, in which a product can be infinitely recycled into that same product. For instance, Teva sandals can’t be turned back into sandals, which means the brand will continue to rely on new materials to make their products. “The most exciting thing we’re working on is how to get the material back to where it began,” Szaky says. “This is the highest and very best use of the materials.”   This is a complicated process, as Thousand Fell is discovering. Cofounder Stuart Ahlum worked closely with Szaky to design sneakers made from just a few materials that would be easy to recycle. Over the past year, the company has begun receiving used sneakers from customers, which TerraCycle processes. But to be fully circular, Thousand Fell must collect the recycled rubber and plastic, and send them to its various suppliers. “Like most brands, we have a global supply chain, which means we have to send these recycled materials around the world,” Ahlum says. “In some cases, we have to think about whether the emissions created from shipping outweigh the benefits of creating a fully circular system.”   At just shy of 40, Szaky has come a long way from shoveling Princeton cafeteria food into a worm poop conversion unit. He’s hopeful about what he has seen over the past two decades. When he started TerraCycle, few people understood his mission. Today, values have shifted and his business is booming.   “We’re in the middle of a mass extinction and it’s entirely because we’re not paying the bill for the waste we’re creating,” he says. “We’re essentially using all of these resources on credit, expecting our children, animals, and the planet to pay for it in the future. But consumers are crying out for change, which is prompting lawmakers and companies to rethink the way we’re doing things. The future they want is circular, and they’re going to vote for it with what they buy.”   ABOUT THE AUTHOR Elizabeth Segran, Ph.D., is a senior staff writer at Fast Company. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts

Toothpaste tablets are marketed as a plastic-free, more portable oral care solution – James Shackell bites down in search of a better brush While enterprises like TerraCycle offer collection-points for oral care products, plenty still end up in landfill. Moreover, many toothpastes – roughly half according to Dutch NGO Plastic Soup Foundation’s Beat the Microbead campaign – also contain microplastics, tiny indestructible plastic polymers that get spat down the sink and washed into the food chain.

BORDENTOWN TOWNSHIP, NJ-- Bordentown Township Environmental Commission is reminding residents that there is an easy way to discard trash and help the environment at the same time.   The Township is participating in TerraCycle's Zero-Waste program, which has the goal of collecting non-recyclable packaging to reduce waste and help keep tons of the Township's garbage from ending up in the landfill.   TerraCycle, which is based in Trenton, partners with municipalities around the world to provide zero-waste solutions for certain waste streams so that the discarded items can be re-purposed.   Bordentown residents are encouraged to save their candy wrappers, chip and snack bags, gum wrappers and granola bar wrappers and bring them to the Bordentown Township Public Works building, where a dedicated collection container is in place to discard the items.   In addition, Bordentown Township is also participating in TerraCycle and Colgate's Oral Care Recycling Program.   Residents can drop off any brand of used or empty oral care products and packaging, such as toothpaste tubes, caps and cartons, toothbrushes and their outer packaging and dental floss containers, to the Public Works Building. The discarded items are then sent to TerraCycle by the Township, where they are upcycled into new, eco-friendly and affordable products to be made available at major retailers.   The Public Works Building's hours are Monday to Friday, 8am to 3:30pm, and Saturday from 9am to 1pm. The building is located at 266 Crosswicks Road.   For more information about the Township's participation in the TerraCycle program, click HERE.

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Keep Knoxville Beautiful is participating as an official collection point for three Terracycle recycling programs.  

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Keep Knoxville Beautiful is participating as an official collection point for three Terracycle recycling programs.

This year’s Council on Professional Issues is proud to host a three-part blog series on clinic, personal and environmental sustainability, as we celebrate October as Campus Sustainability Month. We encourage dental students everywhere to consider their long-term impact in both personal and professional spaces. Dentistry holds unique challenges when it comes to eco-friendly operations, due to constant biohazard and contamination risks. This is especially true in schools across the nation, where plastic barriers, dental suction tips and countless single-use plastics must be disposed of between patients in close contact. Given our practice reality, the Council on Professional Issues has created a printable PDF flier to help spark ideas for clinic sustainability in dental schools.

Truly ethical and sustainable beauty brands aren't easy to find. Can Jessica Jones go a whole year without using anything else? Zero waste products might be the future of clean beauty but they have yet to reach the mainstream. The lack of accessibility and convenience when purchasing zero waste items means that it is significantly easier to just buy non-recyclable products.   When switching to sustainable beauty I found that I had many products which I needed to use up before searching for better alternatives. These were mostly half used makeup items in non-recyclable packaging, often with different parts and materials such as a mascara wand or a foundation pump, which makes it impossible to recycle them in local council bins.   Introducing TerraCycle.   TerraCycle is a recycling scheme for waste that cannot easily be recycled. Founded by Tom Szaky in 2001, who was then a student, the concept is simple: free recycling programmes are funded by worldwide brands, manufacturers and retailers in order to allow us to collect and recycle our hard-to-recycle waste. All you have to do is pick the programmes you want to use, collect waste in your home, school, office or organisation, download a free shipping label and finally, send your waste in to be recycled. Points are earned and can be exchanged for rewards for your school or a non-profit. Tom Szaky, founder of TerraCycle(TerraCycle)   Since it was established, TerraCycle has rapidly become a global leader in recycling and to date, over 202 million people in 21 countries have collected billions of pieces of waste, raising more than 44 million dollars for charities all over the world.   TerraCycle is not just for makeup and personal care products; there are programmes designed for almost every kind of waste from bread bags and empty medicine packets to childrens’ toys and disposable gloves. The ones I was most interested in were the Garnier personal care and beauty recycling programme and the Maybelline makeup recycling programme.   Although the names suggest that only Garnier and Maybelline products can be recycled, they actually accept waste from all brands. The Garnier programme allows waste to be sent in however the Maybelline programme works slightly differently, yet is still free and easy. All you have to do is find your closest store through their maps and drop off your empty (clean) packaging to be recycled.   Once your empty waste has been received it is sorted by material type, shredded and pressed into plastic pellets, which can then be reused for various new plastic products. Recycling waste earns points that are redeemed as financial donations so the more waste that is recycled, the more that is donated to various charities such as Mind. Beauty brands such as Weleda, Baylis & Harding and Colgate also have their own individual recycling schemes.   TerraCycle is a revolutionary way of recycling, reusing and upcycling waste to prevent it being incinerated, which produces huge amounts of pollution, or landfilled, which generates the high levels of methane gas and CO2 that contribute to global warming. Waste is redirected from a linear system with a finite end to a circular one, which keeps it flowing in our economy.

Hasbro Children’s Hospital recently announced a milestone in its ongoing renovations with the completion of the new Balise Healing Garden and a completely reimagined playground. The space was made possible by donor support of a special fund-a-need opportunity, and with generous gifts to the Every Child, Every Day campaign – the $35 million effort funding the hospital’s modernization projects. “This is a very special project. We know there’s a correlation between spending time outside and the healing journey for children, and that a place for respite brings normalcy to a child’s hospital stay,” said Timothy J. Babineau, MD, President and CEO of Lifespan. “We are beyond thankful to Jeb Balise, his family, and all of our incredible supporters whose generous philanthropy made this transformation a reality. Hasbro Children’s has truly been built by our community, for our community.” Located outside the lower level of the hospital and nearby the ambulatory and primary care clinics, the Balise Healing Garden and conjoined playground are 29,000 square feet, a footprint 20 percent larger than it was previously. Entering the area, patients and families are greeted by a teaching garden that features raised beds, each housing vegetables and herbs according to their colors and characteristics. Adjacent to the garden and an important element of the area is a completely re-worked Healing Arts Theatre. It features a triple tier of stadium-style benches made from teak wood, facing a performance area with a variety of chimes and drums for patients to play and use to express themselves. The space is of particular significance for behavioral health patients and the hospital’s Healing Arts Program, which is integral to patient care and helping children cope with illness or injury. “Balise Auto and the Balise Family are proud to partner with Hasbro Children’s Hospital in the creation of the Balise Healing Garden,” said Jeb Balise, owner and CEO of Balise Auto. “It is our hope that this peaceful space brings comfort and healing to children for years to come.” A short distance away is all-new playground equipment, including various swings, a play hut, and a climb-on structure with a wheelchair accessible slide. Built upon a special cushioned foam base for safety, the playground equipment is constructed from recycled materials, including oral care products and packaging that resulted from a recycling initiative led by CVS Pharmacy, Colgate-Palmolive Company, Starlight Children’s Foundation, and TerraCycle. The recycling program called upon people nationwide to recycle their oral care products and packaging to help their state win a playground for a children’s pediatric facility. For three months in 2019, CVS Pharmacy customers in Rhode Island recycled more toothbrushes, empty toothpaste tubes and floss containers than any other state in the country, and Hasbro Children’s Hospital was awarded the grand prize. The new playground was then complemented by the addition of picnic tables, benches and chairs, and walking paths. At its far end is a basketball area with an adjustable height hoop. “We were able to help build this wonderful playground for families at Hasbro Children’s Hospital while incentivizing recycling among our CVS Pharmacy customers,” said Eileen Howard Boone, SVP of corporate social responsibility and philanthropy and chief sustainability officer at CVS Health.  “It’s a win-win for everyone involved, most importantly the countless children who will enjoy the playground for years to come.” The Balise Healing Garden and the playground were completed in late September, allowing for limited numbers of patients and families to enjoy the space while also following current health and safety guidelines. The area is cleaned regularly, and informational signs regarding COVID-19 and sanitizer stations are placed throughout. Construction of the project was led by Cranston-based Pariseault Builders. “Lifespan and Hasbro Children’s have been tremendous partners over the years. We take great pride in helping those who help others and this outdoor space immediately became important to all of us,” said Brian Casey, president of Pariseault Builders. “This is more than just a beautiful outdoor area – it is healing space where care and kindness comes together with fun so patients can be kids. We’re proud to have been a part of rejuvenating this area to turn it into the bright and welcoming space it is today.” Along with donors to the hospital’s special fund-a-need, Balise Auto and Balise Subaru, and partners CVS Pharmacy, Colgate, Starlight Children’s Foundation, and TerraCycle, the project was supported generously by the Rhode Island Shriners, Deanna and Scott Donnelly, and Julie and Michael Mahoney.

Zero waste products might be the future of clean beauty but they have yet to reach the mainstream. The lack of accessibility and convenience when purchasing zero waste items means that it is significantly easier to just buy non-recyclable products.