This increase in repurposing materials has caused food and beverage manufacturers like
Kraft Foods to stand up and take notice. Proof in point is the company's recent decision to add foil cheese packets to their pre-existing
"Terracycle Collection Program."
In Packaging Everything Old is New Again
For those not familiar with
"Terracycle", it is one of many organizations that work to create useful items out of waste products.
"Terracycle", in conjunction with both consumers and people from within the food and beverage industry, collects empty and discarded items like foil cheese packets, foil beverage pouches, potato chip bags, gum wrappers, beverage bottles and other items.
"Terracycle" then converts those items into a wide array of new items like insulated coolers, garbage cans, fences, plant food, household cleaners, photo frames, jewel cases, clothing and fashion accessories. Part of the proceeds from the sale of those items is in turn donated to area
schools and non-profit groups.
New Jersey-based TerraCycle collects waste packaging from over 60,000 schools and community groups nationwide and “upcycles” them into new, useful products. Known for their “Brigades,” which has students and groups collecting everything from single use drink pouches to empty yogurt containers, Terracycle pays for shipping, prints the shipping labels the Brigades use, keeps track of how many items each Brigade has collected and even provides the shipping boxes.
To make the Brigade program successful, TerraCycle has partnered with a number of well-known manufacturers like Kraft, PepsiCo and PaperMate to help turn the nonrecyclable into recyclable. Earlier in the year, TerraCycle partnered with Walmart to showcase and sell a wide variety of the repurposed products they’d created including tote bags made from Frito-Lay wrappers and purses and shoulder bags made from candy wrappers like M&M’s and Skittles.
Terracycle has expanded its recycling program into eleven countries and, since its 2001 founding, has diverted billions of pieces of waste that were either upcycled or recycled into over 1,500 different products. They partnered with Toys R Us and Macy’s in New Jersey to collect in-store materials like used sneakers, shoes, used diaper packaging and used and broken toys. They’re discussing a possible regional program roll-out in the northeast. TerraCycle has also opened several retail stores featuring their innovative “new” products. They’ve also developed the TerraCycle Classroom Curriculum to teach students about the problems of and solutions to waste.
TerraCycle is a company with both a vision and the ability to give trash a new, useful second life. You can find out more about them at www.Terracycle.net <
http://www.Terracycle.net> .
Add upcycled style to any gift with this easy do-it-yourself gift bow and gift wrap. You can make them from any kind of food wrapper, but the coffee style will be sure to wake up your inner crafty self. And if you find yourself with more Tassimo coffee wrappers than you can turn into gift bows, collect and send them to TerraCycle –
www.terracycle.co.uk – and we’ll not only upcycle them into new products, we’ll donate money to your favorite charity for each wrapper collected. Now that’s a great gift!
Anyone who has a fondess for Tassimo coffee makers but who might be concerned about the waste created by the 'pods' - they can be recycled via terracycle.
On top of this, you can give your Kenco pouches to
Terracycle and they’ll upcycle them into products.
I checked out the details on the packet and they have joined with TerraCycle to "upcycle" the refill packs and turn them into shopping bags, umbrellas and more! They even will give 2p per packet you return to a charity of your choice - I have chosen Macmillan Cancer Support, plus you can print off a Freepost label! A Win win situation. When I have returned 3 packets I could order a pencil case or 6 packets for a shopping bag, so helping the environment by using that rather than plastic carrier bags and saving the landfill by recycling. My packet is ready to post off to Terracycle - which incidentally does recycle other products and you can join with others to raise money for schools and groups.
Terracycle, azienda del ventottenne Tom Szaky sta per approdare anche in Italia. La multinazionale è nata da un'idea geniale: acquistare oggetti riciclabili per rivenderli ad aziende interessate a trasformarli. Dai tappi di plastica ai sacchetti delle patatine, tutto può essere recuperato e diventare fonte di bunisses. Sostenibile
An initiative to encourage people to recycle their yoghurt pots has been launched by TerraCycle in conjunction with food manufacturer Danone.
