Premiums and promotional packaging specialist Supremia has announced that it has hired TerraCycle to collect and repurpose cotton bags that Supremia is no longer using. Previously, Supremia would either burn or send to landfills the bags it was no longer using. The bags were samples that had been produced for trial, but could not be donated because they were branded. TerraCycle collects the bags and combines them with other cotton products to convert them to low-end yarn called “shoddy.” Shoddy is sold in bulk for use in applications such as insulation or padding in products such as furniture or exercise equipment.

TRENTON, N.J. (KYW Newsradio) — Approximately 4.5 million cigarette butts are thrown out each year. But now, one New Jersey company has created a way to recycle them into plastic. TerraCycle has been at the forefront of recycling post-consumer trash for decades. Recently, the Trenton-based firm has been taking cigarette butts and creating a new product.

My first real interaction with bugs happened when I met with Chirps chips' CEO Rose Wang at a Sustainable Brands Conference for my job (I work for the recycling company TerraCycle) a few years ago. Her passion really got me interested in the concept, and from there I read the book Edible: An Adventure Into the World of Eating Insects and the Last Great Hope to Save the Planet and was totally hooked.

Her biggest breakthrough came via TerraCycle, a company that offers solutions for “hard-to-recycle waste.” She became involved in the program’s “brigades,” regional initiatives that pool resources to collect and recycle materials—pens, water filters, snack wrappers, hydration tubes—that municipalities don’t accept. She also learned how to create a “recycling center,” and this is the first thing I see when entering the store’s break room. I’m surprised by its simplicity—it’s just a stack of repurposed cardboard boxes, clearly labeled to collect various materials. While not every retailer will have the space for quite so many, I’m struck by the idea that even one box—one type of material diverted from landfills—can make a difference.

Throughout the summer, Public Works Director Hal Adkins said the town collects six, 55-gallon barrels of discarded cigarette butts from beach receptacles. Instead of throwing them in the trash, he said the town could join in on Smith’s initiative. “Whether we dump them into boxes with pre-paid shipping labels and ship them to TerraCycle, or we continue to dump them in the trash, it does not matter,” he said. “You all need to make the decision.”

Six Grand Rapids area schooled were recognized in this year’s “Recycled Playground Challenge,” courtesy of Colgate-Palmolive (“Colgate”), Meijer and TerraCycle.

The company has devised various strategies to limit trash: providing travelers with a zero waste toolkit that includes personal reusable items such as water bottles, mugs, cutlery and tote bags; transporting packed meals in reusable containers; recycling single-use packaging, including hard-to-recycle items through TerraCycle; composting napkins and biodegradable food waste; and buying food in bulk. Waste reduction begins even before the trip starts, with travelers receiving digital versions of all pre-trip materials, including forms to complete and the daily itinerary.

In addition, many trash haulers in smaller communities offer specialized recycling. The Ecology Action Center has a full list on its website, ecologyactioncenter.org, as well as contact information for TerraCycle, which takes hard-to-recycle items at St. Luke Union Church, 2101 E. Washington St., Bloomington, garage area at back; Boys and Girls Club, 1615 W. Illinois St., Bloomington, drop at counter; and Common Ground grocery, 516 N. Main St., Bloomington, drop at counter.

If you're overdue for a fresh toothbrush (which, if you're like most Americans, you are), you may find yourself puzzling over what to do with the brush that's been sitting on your bathroom sink for the past several months. It is recyclable, but if you recycle it with the rest of your plastics it will ultimately be sorted out and sent to a landfill. To make sure most of the materials in your toothbrush get reused, Lifehacker reports that you need to send it to a special recycling center. The Colgate Oral Care Recycling Program, a collaboration between Colgate and TerraCycle, accepts not just old toothbrushes but used toothpaste tubes and dental floss containers as well. These items are each made from multiple types of materials, which means they can't be processed by your town's regular recycling plant.

What happens to the car seats that Target collects? It has teamed up with recycling company TerraCycle to have them recycled. Target and TerraCycle have kept more than 4.6 million pounds of car seat materials out of landfills since the program started in 2016.