In the middle segment, we interview Jessica Panetta from Terracycle, a private recycling company that helps close the gap where municipal recycling systems fail or can't handle certain materials. We talk to Jessica about recycling cigarette buts, making benches out of bottles and complimenting municipal systems.
Kent Island Beach Cleanups kicks off its 2018 season March 31 with a cleanup at Terrapin Park. Volunteers are needed, and this year their efforts will help create a piece of art.
Now in its seventh season, KIBCU plans the same number of dates for cleanups — nine — but will increase the number of cleanups by adding additional sites on some dates, said founder Kristin Weed. For instance, on April 21 cleanups will be held at both Matapeake Beach and Hemingway’s. Volunteers can pick whichever site they’d like.
TerraCycle was featured in a 30 minute podcast episode on the Zero Waste Countdown, which can also be downloaded on the Podcast app (AppleCoreMedia), iTunes, Stitcher and Castbox.
Ever since
No Waste Month, Charlie and I have been better about simplifying our life. We’ve pruned our belongings throughout the year and given the joyless dead weight to Goodwill. We’ve upcycled useless knickknacks that were always destined for landfill by shipping them off to
TerraCycle. And yet, by the last day of February, we were still sitting in a sea of boxes, drowning under the weight of our “stuff.”
With the Spring Equinox upon us, making it a point to connect with the natural world is one of the best things we can do for our health and wellness. While people of all ages benefit from face time with the great outdoors (particularly city dwellers who see
more concrete than green), children and young people are especially better off. While the average American spends 93% of their time indoors, an alienation with nature, “
nature-deficit disorder,” as been associated with higher rates of physical and emotional illness and attention difficulties in children.
Mixed material packaging is generally recycling-unfriendly and the collection of such materials when it involves plastics is often left to "upcyclers" like TerraCycle (Trenton, NJ) or waste-to-fuel companies if it can be diverted from landfills at all.
In an effort to reduce cigarette litter and keep butts out of landfills, the N.C. Aquarium on Roanoke Island has joined Terracycle’s cigarette recycling program.
Alongside bins for papers, plastics and glass, visitors to downtown Branson can add cigarette butts to the list of recyclables.
Mona Menezes, environmental specialist for the city, said the idea to purchase recycling units came from Sharon White, of the city’s recycling center, and former city engineer David Miller.
“If you ever walk the downtown sidewalks, they have had cigarette butts littered on them,” Menezes said. “So (White) thought this would address that.”
The number of cigarette butts on the sidewalk was also a concern for several downtown businesses and organizations, including the Downtown Branson Betterment Association.
