Calling all environmentalist...Are you a keen recycler? Do you wonder what to do with those hard-to-recycle materials like yoghurt pouches, coffee capsules and toothpaste tubes? Ahead of Earth Day later this month community members are being sought to sign up as recycling hubs to deal with just those items which would otherwise end up in landfill. TerraCycle, an eco-friendly recycling company that has become a global leader in recycling typically non-recyclable waste, is behind the scheme to grow the public drop-off network. The network comprises all kinds of locations, including schools, sports clubs, community centres, libraries, offices, and individual homes. The waste products are then recycled or upcycled rather than being incinerated or ending up in landfill. Items are shredded and turned into plastic pellets which can be used to make new items including playground equipment, fitness equipment and outdoor furniture. There are 233 active participants in North Canterbury for recycling programmes and about 18 drop-off points, most of which are florists collecting for the Nespresso Coffee Capsules Programme. As well as coffee capsules, other programmes available in New Zealand the Fonterra Pouch Recycling Programme, the GLAD Food Storage Recycling Programme and the Oral Care Recycling programme sponsored by Colgate. The programmes then give back to communities through a points scheme, raising money for a chosen school or not-for-profit organisation. Globally, TerraCycle works with more than 110 or the world's largest consumer goods brands to collect 75 different waste streams, including coffee capsules, toothbrushes, chewing gum and even cigarette waste. It operates in 20 countries and has over 60 million people participating globally in its programmes to collect waste and has diverted almost 5 billion units of waste from landfill and paid more than $15 million to charities and schools worldwide. To learn more about TerraCycle or get involved, visit terracycle.com Northern Outlook_Apr 11

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.

Newtown School has a new Friendship Seat and it is made out of products that help people smile. The school won a park bench made out of recycled oral care waste as part of the recently wrapped Colgate Community Recycle Drive and chose to use it to make a Friendship Seat for students. A Friendship Seat would encourage new friendships around the school, year five student Estella War explained. "If you don't have anyone to play with you can sit down on it and if someone doesn't either or if a group doesn't they can pick you up from it and play with you," Estella said. Colgate and global recycling and upcycling pioneers, TerraCycle, created the Community Recycle Drive to call on New Zealand residents to recycle their used oral care items and raise funds for their local school, preschool, sporting club or community group. The drive is part of Oral Care Recycling Programme launched by Colgate and TerraCycle in October 2014, a recycling scheme in which Newtown School is an active collector. Newtown School was one of the top six collectors in the drive, collecting oral care waste such as toothbrushes, toothpaste tubes and mouthwash bottles. As part of their prize, the students designed their own park bench made of oral care waste. "We believe it is important to do everything we can to care for our environment," said Newtown School teacher Tim Crawshaw. "What better way to manage our needed waste but to recycle it, rather than send it to landfill?"

Kaurilands School won the 2016 Community Recycle Drive. Student Nina, 8, designed and won the bench design competition. Western Leader_Kaurilands School_Mar 28  

Recycling is a win-win situation. Not only are you helping save the planet, but you’re also clearing the clutter out from your life. How do you know you’re doing it right? From bottle caps to aerosol cans, here’s a look at some of the things you may not think to recycle – but actually can. 7. Coffee pods Those single-serve coffee pods are notoriously wasteful. On average, Australians use one a week each. Do your bit to help by gathering those used pods in a plastic bag and dropping them at your nearest Nespresso store. 10. Makeup When was the last time you cleaned out that storage area under your sink? We shudder to think how many cracked, expired, half-used beauty products we’d find under there. Enter TerraCycle, who’ve teamed up with L’Oreal Australia to set up the Beauty Products Recycling Program. Simply fill a box, go online and download a shipping label, that way you can print and post it for free to the local recycling depot. Check out other Terracycle programs, including the Oral Care Recycling Program, allowing you to recycle used toothbrushes, toothpaste tubes and dental floss containers.

Recycling is a win-win situation. Not only are you helping save the planet, but you’re also clearing the clutter out from your life. How do you know you’re doing it right? From bottle caps to aerosol cans, here’s a look at some of the things you may not think to recycle – but actually can. 7. Coffee pods Those single-serve coffee pods are notoriously wasteful. On average, Australians use one a week each. Do your bit to help by gathering those used pods in a plastic bag and dropping them at your nearest Nespresso store. 10. Makeup When was the last time you cleaned out that storage area under your sink? We shudder to think how many cracked, expired, half-used beauty products we’d find under there. Enter TerraCycle, who’ve teamed up with L’Oreal Australia to set up the Beauty Products Recycling Program. Simply fill a box, go online and download a shipping label, that way you can print and post it for free to the local recycling depot. Check out other Terracycle programs, including the Oral Care Recycling Program, allowing you to recycle used toothbrushes, toothpaste tubes and dental floss containers.

Next term, Sacred Heart will take on an exciting new recycling initiative to help reduce waste and fundraise for charity! TerraCycle recycles the “non-recyclable” and from Term Two, Sacred Heart will have two new TerraCycle bins on site. The first recycles oral care products such as old toothbrushes, floss containers, empty toothpaste tubes and caps, empty packaging from toothpaste and toothbrushes. For every kilogram of recycled packaging, we raise money to donate towards a charity. Our school also goes into a competition to win $1000 and a park bench made of…recycled oral care products! The second box recycles empty beauty care packaging and much like the oral care recycling, we earn money for every kilogram collected. Accepted waste includes: Cosmetics packaging such as used lipstick and lip gloss, mascara, eye shadow, bronzer, foundation, eyeliner, eye shadow, lip liner, and concealer packaging. Hair care packaging such as used shampoo and conditioner bottles and caps, hair gel tubes and caps, hair spray and hair treatment packaging. Skin care packaging such as lip balm, face moisturiser, face and body wash soap dispensers and tubes, body and hand lotion dispensers and tubes and shaving foam packaging. So…start collecting your oral care and beauty product waste over the holidays, and watch this space for more information!  

Encouraging recycling  Consumers face a choice when they unwrap or finish a product: recycle or dispose. Australian consumers are generally good at recycling the basics - aluminium cans, glass and plastic bottles - but need prompting when it comes to other forms of packaging. TerraCycle, founded in the US in 2011, helps consumers recycle the difficult-to-recycle. It runs brand sponsored collection programs for different types of waste from chip bags to juice pouches. Brigades, comprising community groups, schools or individuals, collect packaging for a particular stream and TerraCycle uses innovative recycling and upcycling processes to keep waste from going to, well, waste. Since its launch, TerraCycle has grown to 21 countries including the UK, France, Germany, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Japan, China, Australia and New Zealand. "The recycling programs are hugely successful," TerraCycle Australia & New Zealand PR and Marketing Manager Gemma Kaczerepa said. "There are currently 60 million people collecting for TerraCycle worldwide. Since 2006, we have diverted more than 3.7 billion units of waste from landfills and incinerators, and raised more than $15 million for charity. Further, there are now over 60 types of non-recyclable waste that can be recycling through our programs." Different programs are run in each country, depending on support of brands. In Australia some of the successful programs include:

• Beauty products recycling program with L'Oréal - more than 138,000 products (including shampoo and hairspray bottles, eye-shadow palettes and lipstick tubes) have been diverted from landfill since the program's launch in 2014
• Kids Pouch & Snack recycling program with Whole Kids - more than 20,000 products have been diverted from landfill since the program's launch in 2015
• Nescafé Dolce Gusto Capsule recycling program - more than 600,000 capsules have been diverted from landfill since the program's launch in 2014
• Oral Care recycling program with Colgate - more than 203,000 products have been diverted from landfill since the program's launch in 2014.

This program also features the Bright Smiles, Bright Futures oral care recycling contest - a nationwide recycling competition for primary schools primary schools offering a $1,000 prize and, in the latest round, a recycled park bench made of oral-care waste. Mz Kaczerepa says there are program taking place overseas that she'd like to see implemented in Australia, such as recycling programs for stationery, pet food and treat packaging, and contact lenses and blister packs. Internationally, TerraCycle also works with retailers to create in-store recycling promotions and awareness campaigns to communicate the recyclability of the brand's products. "This can include in-store competition whereby shoppers are encouraged to return products to enter the prize draw; in-store collections whereby customers can redeem their used products for a discount off new ones; and shelf-talkers and other marketing collateral to promote the brand and its recycling efforts," Mz Kaczerepa said. "We hope to launch a similar initiatives in Australia in 2017."

TerraCycle ofrece programas de reciclaje para brindar una nueva vida a los residuos.

Michael Waas, Vicepresidente Global de Asociaciones de Marca de TerraCycle, impartió una conferencia magistral sobre el valor de los residuos en el Tecnológico de Monterrey el pasado lunes.

La conferencia inició con la jerarquía de los residuos, en donde Michael mencionó que en el nivel más bajo están los sistemas lineales como los rellenos sanitarios y la incineración. Mientras que en los niveles altos están en el reciclaje, que valora el material del residuo; el upcycle, valora el material y la forma de los residuos; y el reuso que se centra en el material, forma e intención de la basura.

Los niveles altos de la jerarquía corresponden al concepto de economía circular que propone reducir el uso de las materias primas y energía, y que el valor de los productos, materiales y recursos se mantengan en la economía durante el mayor tiempo posible.

Las empresas han intentado encontrar modelos más sustentables para su operación, sin embargo Michael dijo que “el problema es que están usando los materiales incorrectos”. TerraCycle ha creado diversas aplicaciones para los residuos que anteriormente han sido considerados como “no reciclables”, prueba de ello son los programas de reciclaje de bolsas de botana, de pan y pan dulce; empaques de galletas y jabones, y productos de higiene bucal.

La empresa encontró la forma para que los consumidores puedan comprar directamente la solución de reciclaje para el producto que consume con la caja cero desechos. Esta caja permite reciclar casi cualquier tipo de residuos, como cápsulas de café, desechos electrónicos o de laboratorios, etc.

"¿Por qué reciclamos? Porque es el único aspecto de la sustentabilidad que puedes tocar físicamente, dijo Michael."

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.