I am very excited by this development and commend Pepsi for their action and effort, [but] I fear it may be overstating things quite a bit. As I see it there are two main challenges to bio-plastics and compostable packaging.
As part of the Keep America Beautiful- Great America Clean Up event today in New York City's Times Square, Solo announced it is joining forces with TerraCycle to create the 'Solo Cup Brigade' -- individuals, schools and non-profits that will collect used Solo Squared plastic cups and return them to TerraCycle for recycling. The recycled material will be used to make other items such as equipment for playgrounds, park benches and outdoor furniture.
The newest addition to our recycling program at home is Terracycle. This ubiquitous program has seeped into schools and churches all over the United States and in the process recruited more than 19 million people collecting items that once were thrown into the trash with no regard for the money these items could raise for institutions across the country. In our school alone, we have raised about $1,000 from such items as juice pouches, candy wrappers, baggies, and other assorted items that don't fit neatly into the usual paper, plastic and metal recycling programs.
- Old Navy – From April 22 through May 21 you can drop off used flip flops at any Old Navy store in the U.S. TerraCycle will recycle the flip flops into four public playgrounds (my guess is to the recycle the flip flops into playground mats?)
While cleaning out our apartment and packing up to move to the new house we've trimmed a lot of fat. Here are 5 things we were able to get rid of in a green way:
1) Batteries: both regular and rechargeable. These, and the next item, are collected for proper disposal at work by the Sustainability Team.
2) Old cell phones: we had three of them, weird.
3) Spent writing instruments. Part of a new Terra Cycle Brigade; pens, mechanical pencils, highlighters and markers can be up-cycled to make cool things out of the plastic.
You’ve sipped from it at fine events, drank from it at backyard barbecues and probably guzzled from it in your college days. I’m talking about Solo red cup. The problem with this iconic beverage dispenser is that the number 6 polystyrene plastic is often hard to recycle in many U.S. communities.
Not anymore!
On Thursday, at the Keep America Beautiful Great American Clean Up
event in New York City , Solo Cup Co. and TerraCycle announced that they have banned together to create the
Solo Cup Brigade, a disposal solution for the millions of single-use cups sold each year.
And Office Depot will be accepting used writing equipment for vouchers off new merchandise. The used pencils, pens and markers will be sent to TerraCycle which will turn them into new office supplies.
Office Depot (NYSE: ODP), celebrating 25 years as a leading global provider of
office supplies and services, together with TerraCycle, Inc. will be offering customers a unique recycling opportunity during Earth Month.
Beginning Sunday, April 17 and running through Saturday, April 23, customers can trade in their used writing instruments, regardless of brand, to any Office Depot retail store location nationwide. In exchange for ten pens, pencils or markers, customers will receive a coupon toward a new product from Newell Rubbermaid Office Products, maker of Sharpie®, EXPO®, Paper Mate® and more. The collected instruments will be sent to TerraCycle, the pioneering upcycling and recycling company, to be turned into new office supply products ranging from trash cans to desk organizers.
-- The Solo Cup Co. has launched a new national recycling initiative, teaming up with Keep America Beautiful and TerraCycle.
Solo and TerraCycle have created the "Solo Cup Brigade." Schools, nonprofits and individual consumers who use Solo´s squared plastic cups can collect the cups when finished and return them to TerraCycle for recycling. For each cup collected by Terracycle, Solo will donate 2 cents to Keep America Beautiful or the non-profit or school of the collecting brigade member´s choice. The first $5,000 donated to Keep America Beautiful will be directed to the Keep NYC Beautiful Coalition.
