Who knew bringing your old toothbrush, floss or toothpaste tubes into school could help to save the planet?
That’s the lesson being learnt at Garran Primary School since the school has partnered with upcycling pioneers TerraCycle to recycle the traditionally un-recyclable products.
TerraCycle, headquartered in the USA, works with corporations to fund recycling solutions that would be considered cost prohibitive by council and municipal programs.
By collecting used oral care items and sending them to TerraCycle, collectors can also raise $0.02 per unit received over 1kg which can then be donated to their chosen school, charity or not-for-profit.
Since its launch in Australia the oral care recycling program has kept 112,549 items from going to landfill and raised $1993.
The smart people
at TerraCycle came up with a brilliant idea: recycling! But what is TerraCycle and what do they do? In their own words:
“TerraCycle offers free recycling programs funded by brands, manufacturers, and retailers around the world to help you collect and recycle your hard-to-recycle waste..."
Clever right? And not only, using this service is completely free and very easy. All you have to do is
sign up on their website and join the recycling program you like (in this case theNESCAFÉ Dolce Gusto Capsule Recycling Program). When you have collected enough capsules and you are ready to recycle them, put them in a box (use an old recycled box and make sure your capsules are dry – I put them in Ziploc bags, just to be extra safe), get the shipping label sent via email, print it and drop the box at your nearest Australia Post office. All done and without having to spend a cent. All that would already be great, but TerraCycle does more: you will earn money for each capsule you send for the non-profit organisation of your choice!
For this amazing programme, TerraCycle has partnered with
NESCAFÉ Dolce Gusto and
DeLonghi and they sent me one of their beautiful Stelia machines to try out. I must admit that I was very impressed.
So, what are you waiting for? Get your Stelia machine, start trying out all the delicious NESCAFÉ Dolce Gusto flavours and recycle all your capsules now
with TerraCycle!!
Nescafe Dolce Gusto Pods are now recyclable. I know that this has been a concern of mine and many others that with the increasing using of coffee pods the amount of waste from the pods is going to escalate to crazy proportions. That is why I was so happy to hear that
Terracycle have added the Nescafe Dolce Gusto pods to their list of recyclable items.
TerraCycle is an innovative recycling company that has become a global leader in recycling hard-to-recycle waste.
TerraCycle offers free recycling programs funded by brands, manufacturers, and retailers around the world to help you collect and recycle your hard-to-recycle waste. Simply choose the programs you’d like to join; start collecting in your home, school, or office; download free shipping labels; and send us your waste to be recycled. You can even earn rewards for your school or favorite non-profit!
to recycle your pods you need to collect them in a plastic bag and return to a Nespresso collection point. (As of September 2016, Nespresso also sells pre-paid Australia Post satchels consumers can send back to the company for recycling, with up to 130 capsules at a time.) The company claims that by 2013 they were able to collect 75 per cent of all capsules sold worldwide, but they haven't revealed data on how many they actually recycle. In Australia, pod collection is done by
a company called TerraCycle, whose mission is to divert hard-to-recycle waste from landfills.
Want to recycle your toothbrush? Yes,
it’s possible! Terracycle have partnered with a number of different companies and created programs to recycle many of the soft waste items around your home. Heard about how terrible your coffee pods are for the environment? Terracycle have a
program to recycle them.
How did I end up with a new coffee machine? Well, I was contacted by the folks at
TerraCycle as part of their initiative to spread the word about recycling coffee capsules. Coffee machines that use capsules have become quite popular during the last few years since they’re easy to use and taste a million times better than instant coffee (and I imagine all those Nespresso ads with George Clooney may have helped too).
But all those coffee capsules create a lot of garbage, right? Not necessarily! What many people probably don’t realize is that you don’t have to throw your capsules in the trash – many of them are
recyclable.
As someone who has been using a Nespresso machine multiple times a day for several years, this was pretty exciting for me to discover. And when TerraCycle offered to send my coffee-addicted self a new machine, well that was even more exciting.
In case you’d like to know a little something about who gave your reviewer her machine (and/or are interested in recycling), let me quickly give you the rundown on what TerraCycle is. TerraCycle is a company dedicated to ‘eliminating the idea of waste’ by recycling things that are generally considered ‘non-recyclable’. They operate in 20 different countries including Australia, the US, Canada, the UK and France. In Australia, TerraCycle has recently
partnered with Dolce Gusto to raise awareness about recycling coffee capsules.
As mentioned in the post, I received a Dolce Gusto ‘Stelia’ machine from TerraCycle (Australia). You can find out more information about the coffee capsule recycling program on their website.
5 Ways to teach Kids to Waste Less is in collaboration with Terracycle.
Every day we’re learning about new products that can be recycled and it’s so worth reading every single packet before you discard it in the general waste bin. For example, the capsules from our new
Dolce Gusto Stelia machine can be recycled! Dolce Gusto have partnered with
Terracycle who are committed to recycle the ‘unrecyclable’! I think it’s a brilliant and really worthwhile initiative.
...
Disclosure: Terracycle and Dolce Gusto kindly sent us the lovely Stelia coffee machine in exchange for this post.
