9) Recyclers go postal No, it’s not a scene from ‘American Psycho’. Instead, commercial operators like REDcycle and TerraCycle have proven that consumers are willing to mail back materials for recycling – even for tiny items like cigarette butts. In particular, expect e-waste recycling to go postal. This will be important as kerbside bins get less common.

Recycling company TerraCycle has been trying to make a difference by teaming up with pod producing companies such as Nespresso. “We’re able to set up international platforms where you can send us the capsules, we pay you for shipping, we even give you a donation to your favourite school or charity for every capsule you send in and then we shred them,” explained TerraCycle CEO Tom Szaky.

The former head of Nespresso, Jean-Paul Gaillard  is now claiming that coffee pods are killing the environment. If you do however want to stick with the Nespresso Pods, Lane Cove is lucky enough to have a place where they can be recycled.  Pureflowers has a Lane Cove recycling program for Nespresso capsules. Pureflowers is participating in a nationwide environmental program to help recycle coffee capsules. Nespresso has joined with recycling and upcycling experts TerraCycle Australia to expand their recycling program at additional collection points around the country at florists, garden centres and nurseries. Lane Cove residents can now recycle their used Nespresso capsules at no cost by visiting Pure Flowers and dropping their capsules (sealed in any plastic bag which will also be recycled) into the in-store recycling collection box.

Why not sign your school up to TerraCycle? Join TerraCycle’s innovative recycling programs and raise money for Keep Australia Beautiful! Each piece of waste you send to TerraCycle can be redeemed for a payment of 2 cents. Click here to learn more about how to collect, store, and ship your waste. TerraCycle is Eliminating the Idea of Waste® by recycling the “non-recyclable.” Whether it’s coffee capsules from your home, pens from a school, or plastic gloves from a manufacturing facility, TerraCycle can collect and recycle almost any form of waste. They partner with individual collectors such as yourself, as well as major consumer product companies, retailers, manufacturers, municipalities, and small businesses across 20 different countries. With your help, TerraCycle is able to divert millions of pounds of waste from landfills and incinerators each month. Keep Australia Beautiful (the umbrella company of Eco-Schools) has partnered withTerraCycle to spread this exciting message. KAB is now a TerraCycle ‘featured charity’ alongside Sea Shepherd and RSPCA Australia.

Proving that you can work in developed and developing countries, and with a for-profit and not-for-profit business model, TerraCycle and Plastics for Change together tackle the global waste management system. TerraCycle: Recycle Everything With the tagline of ‘finding innovative uses for materials others deem garbage’, TerraCycle is a waste management company, founded by Hungarian born entrepreneur, Tom Szaky, in 2001. With services now available in more than 20 countries, TerraCycle boasts a crowd of 60 million engaged recyclers worldwide. With a view to ‘eliminate the idea of waste’, TerraCycle offers tailored services for individual households, businesses and local councils and municipalities. Able to collect ‘almost any form of waste’, from coffee capsules to dodgy biros, TerraCycle will collect your waste, sorted or unsorted, and transform it in to new products for re-sale; from unique gifts, such as recycled jewellery and bags to larger commercial products such as park benches and office supplies. TerraCycle’s three recycling platforms include: Rewards for your waste, a free recycling program funded by sponsors where you can earn points that are redeemable for charity gifts by participating in one of the sponsored recycling promotions, Zero Waste Boxes, which are offered in multiple sizes and in three sorting varieties; category separation, room separation and no separation and each box is valued differently dependent on the amount of sorting that will take place at the collection facility as well as large-scale recycling, which is suitable stream for businesses and other large-scale waste removal, working through a combination of the Zero Waste Boxes facility. Ensuring that recycling is widespread and well taught, TerraCycle have also developed a range of educational resources and communications materials for passionate TerraCycle-ers to use in spreading the word. And for a behind-the-scenes look, Human Resources, is TerraCycle’s own comedy-filled TV Show, now in its third season.

Coffee companies like Nespresso are now teaming up with recycling company TerraCycle to recycle their pods. "We're able to set up international platforms where you can send us the capsules, we pay you for shipping, we even give you a donation to your favourite school or charity for every capsule you send in and then we shred them," TerraCycle CEO Tom Szaky said.

MARGOT O'NEILL: Meanwhile Nespresso is trying to address a problem by partnering with recycling company, Terracycle. TOM SZAKY, CEO, TERRACYCLE: Through their funding we were able to set up national platforms where you can send us the capsules, we pay you for shipping, we even give you a donation to your favourite school or charity for every capsule you send in and then we shred them, we separate the organics and compost those, and then we take the metals, melt those into new metal products and the plastics into new plastic products. WRITING ON SCREEN: Terracycle says that 500,000 Australians are recycling coffee pods every day.

Check out my latest campaign to collect your bathroom clutter – old makeup, expired bottles of anything and even your old toothbrush and turn them into something new!!