When an Auckland company wanted to recycle its coffee pods, an international business came up with a novel solution. "We drink a lot of coffee here, and the pouches don't get recycled. So, we looked for a way to recycle them and we found TerraCycle," Sallis said.
When an Auckland company wanted to recycle its coffee pods, an international business came up with a novel solution. "We drink a lot of coffee here, and the pouches don't get recycled. So, we looked for a way to recycle them and we found TerraCycle," Sallis said.
In the Colgate recycle drive, consumers are encouraged to save their used toothbrushes, floss containers and other oral care items before sending them to community-based collection points for recycling by US company TerraCycle.
Aside from reuse, what viable solutions for plastic bag waste are there? You—and most consumers—might be surprised to learn there are a couple other options, as TerraCycle CEO Tom Szaky enlightens us.
Terracycle, a New Jersey company, partners with many manufacturers to recycle packaging. Collect participating products and ship them off. Groups like Colgate, Capri Sun, Clif Bar, Entenmann’s, Brita and Glad, to name a few are involved in this program.
Each year, more than 250,000 tonnes of plastic waste is thrown away and disposed of in New Zealand landfills, and until now plastic bags and wraps could not be placed in municipal recycling systems.
However the GLAD Food Storage Brigade, a collaboration between GLAD and TerraCycle, will change all that, meaning that creating a litter-less lunch is now possible with the nationwide recycling initiative that will use a ‘collect, store and ship’ method.
This is cool -instead of sending your GLAD Wrap and GLAD food bags into landfill, you can now 'collect, store and ship' your GLAD products, claim a free shipping label from the TerraCycle website and ship them locally via New Zealand Post.
Apr 2016 - Good Magazine (Print)
A national innovative programme launches in New Zealand to upcycle or recycle ‘un-recyclable’ plastic food storage waste such as sandwich bags into sustainable items. Creating a litter-less lunch is now possible with a free programme to recycle and upcycle plastic food storage items called the GLAD Food Storage Brigade with TerraCycle and GLAD. Each year, over 252,000 tonnes of plastic waste is thrown away and disposed of in New Zealand landfills. Previously, popular food storage items such as GLAD Wrap and GLAD food bags could not be placed in municipal recycling systems so were sent to landfill.
As Chief Design Junkie at TerraCycle, Tiffany Threadgould has a unique job description: transform trash into treasure.
“TerraCycle runs programs where we collect hard-to-recycle materials. So, things that don’t go into your regular municipal recycling,” she explained. Items like toothbrushes, granola bar wrappers, and drink pouches, that may contain a blend of various plastics or have multiple layers.
“We have two solutions for the waste that comes in,” Threadgould said. “One is upcycling and one is recycling.”
Threadgould is one of the creative minds behind the upcycling efforts. She helps develop items for sale like Capri Sun pouch backpacks, circuit board coasters and bicycle chain picture frames.
I stopped by for easy-to-make holiday gift ideas, and her thoughts on where to start with sustainable materials.
“Look to the potential of what you’re getting rid of,” said Threadgould. “Like something that you would normally throw away, take a look at it again, and think about the qualities that it has and preserve those qualities in the next life.”
For example, turn wine corks into a cork board.
“Would you take an old frame that you have lying around the house, and paint something like this?” I ask.
“Yeah, you can use one type of spray paint to go around the outside edge, that’s really easy, and then a whole bunch of wine corks,” said Threadgould. “You want to make sure they’re a similar thickness, and then you can use an industrial glue like you can get at a craft store or a hardware store.”
“What was this originally?” I ask picking up a tray.
“So, this was an old picture frame and old hardware from a dresser that I had,” she said. “So that’s what the handles are on the outside edge. I put some colorful cardboard on the inside and arranged it in a way that I liked, and then you’ve got this new serving tray.”
She adds, “The glass goes back on, and that’s what protects the cardboard underneath, and then you can use it for the holidays.”
“This is a project you can make out of an old glassware that you were going to recycle, but it has some kind of a memento quality still to it,” Threadgould says about a glass lantern. “So basically just taping it off and adding an acrylic frosted spray paint to it, and then you take that off and you have this luminary, where you take a wick that you can also get at a craft store, an old hardware washer, you put oil inside, and you can light it.”
Threadgould says it’s actually gift wrapping where she most enjoys showing off the art of upcycling.
“Why buy new gift wrap? You can reuse things from around your house,” she said. “I cut this out from an old cereal bag. Basically, you just need a paper fastener, and some scissors. I have the holes all pre-punched, so you have holes punched on each end and in the center, an then you can spread it out and you have a little gift bow.”
Tutorials for this and other do-it-yourself projects are available on the TerraCycle website. Threadgould says anyone can be a designer. When it comes to upcycling projects, there are no such things as mistakes — only opportunities for something old to be transformed into something new.
If you are one of the many people who use PUR or Brita filters for your water, there is exciting news! Both companies have partnered with TerraCycle to create recycling programs
