Colgate and TerraCycle are calling all primary schools in New Zealand to take part in the 2017 Bright Smiles Bright Futures recycling competition.

‘Recycling the unrecyclable’ has become the catch-cry of an organisation which works with brands to educate consumers on how to recycle packaging beyond the traditional realm of cardboard, cans, and bottles. Alison Leader spoke to TerraCycle’s Gemma Kaczerepa.

TerraCycle and GLAD® have partnered to create the GLAD® Food Storage Recycling Programme, a free recycling programme for GLAD® ClingWrap, bags, containers and dispensers.

THERE’S just one place for the old, worn out toothbrush, and for the empty toothpaste tube – the rubbish bin, right? Wrong. Recycling these items and other oral care waste can help the planet, and also help our children and their schools. Colgate and TerraCycle have come up with a campaign to recycle waste oral products and the two companies are urging primary schools to become involved in the Colgate Bright Smiles Bright Futures recycling competition.

Primary schools around the North Shore are being encouraged to take part in the 2017 Colgate Bright Smiles, Bright Futures competition, by recycling old toothbrushes, toothpaste tubes and floss containers.

TerraCycle chatted on More FM's Breakfast show about World Environment Day.

Fun fact: Every piece of plastic ever produced still exists in the world today. It’s a pretty strong argument for brands to use alternative packaging materials. As consumers become more aware of the impact that plastic and non-recyclable waste is having on the world’s environment and ecosystems, their demand for alternatives is becoming increasingly vocal. When the UK Recycling Association recently denounced the famous Pringles tube as ‘the number one recycling villain,’ the story began trending on Twitter, as people encouraged one another to boycott brands until they have re-thought their packaging. It’s consumer pressure like this that compels businesses to “harness the power of bad publicity by taking definitive and innovative action,” LS:N Global reports. “There are plenty of examples of companies leading the way to fully recyclable, re-usable or even zero-packaging futures.” Examples like London-based company Skipping Rocks Lab, who recently created Ooho – the world’s first edible water ‘bottle’ made from seaweed; Saltwater Brewery in Florida who come up with a six-pack beer ring made out of edible wheat and barley that can be consumed by fish – so it aids rather than endangers marine life; and French company Lactips who developed an edible plastic made from the milk protein casein, which can be dissolved in hot and cold water, is totally biodegradable within 18 days and can be used as home compost. While not quite so innovative, back in New Zealand, Raglan Coconut Yoghurt has just partnered with TerraCycle to create the country’s first recyclable yoghurt pouch for their Little Yoghi range. While the recycling process still involves consumers collecting and posting used pouches back to TerraCycle, the materials can then be re-purposed to make things like park benches, watering cans and waste bins. Recycling and sustainability are issues that are only going to increase in importance for consumers. Statistics from Nielsen and Deloitte consistently show that Millennials are the group most likely to choose products seen as sustainable or developed by socially and environmentally responsible organisations. As a result “brands must step up their sustainability credentials to ensure they retain their appeal and secure a long-term future,” says LS:N.

Transcript: TerraCycle is a recycling company that deals with hard-to-recycle waste such as toothbrushes, coffee capsules, and even cigarette butts and chewing gum! World Environment Day 2017 is coming up on Monday June 5, and in line with this year’s theme With Nature, TerraCycle is calling on New Zealanders to recycle and raise money for nature. In New Zealand we offer a number of free programs that allow you to recycle ‘non-recyclable’ packaging and products. From oral care waste and yoghurt pouches to coffee capsules and soft plastic food storage products, our programs deal with items that many don’t realise are in fact recyclable. These programs are sponsored by brands such as GLAD, Colgate, The Collective, Nescafe Dolce Gusto, Fonterra and more, which means you can recycle these products for free. Anyone can sign up to TerraCycle, whether you’re a household, office, school or clean-up organisation. Our recycling programs also give back to the community through a cool points scheme. You receive two points – which is converted to two cents - for each piece of waste sent in to TerraCycle, which can be donated to your chosen not-for-profit or school. This World Environment Day we’re encouraging you to start thinking about how your donation can make an impact on protecting the environment. Clean-up groups, environment and wildlife protection associations, food waste-minimisation initiatives and more, are all organisations worth considering for World Environment Day. Find out more about how you can recycle at TerraCycle.co.nz – T E R R A C Y C L E .co.nz

Did you know that every type of plastic is fully recyclable? And at least 20 per cent of what is in our garbage bins right now should be in our recycle bins, according to Planet Ark’s Brad Gray. However it is important to know and understand not all items can be recycled in this way.

The brand has teamed up with TerraCycle, a specialist in recycling hard-to-recycle consumer waste. At an event in Shanghai, L’Oréal China VP Zhenzhen Lan, Chinese government rep Shidong Yan, TerraCycle CEO Tom Szaky, and Ultra Doux spokesman Haoran Liu launched the partnership, which is claimed to be the first comprehensive solution for hair care packaging waste in China.