Who knew bringing your old toothbrush, floss or toothpaste tubes into school could help to save the planet? That’s the lesson being learnt at Garran Primary School since the school has partnered with upcycling pioneers TerraCycle to recycle the traditionally un-recyclable products. TerraCycle, headquartered in the USA, works with corporations to fund recycling solutions that would be considered cost prohibitive by council and municipal programs. By collecting used oral care items and sending them to TerraCycle, collectors can also raise $0.02 per unit received over 1kg which can then be donated to their chosen school, charity or not-for-profit. Since its launch in Australia the oral care recycling program has kept 112,549 items from going to landfill and raised $1993.

An amazing effort in collecting used dental packaging!   Congratulations to Kauri 2 our winning class for collecting the most waste, followed close behind by Pohutukawa 8.  All the items have now been shipped away to Terracycle for recycling.  

The initiative, started by recycling company TerraCycle, is being used to promote the recycling of previously un-recyclable oral care items. ... TerraCycle general manager Jean Bailliard said residents could save up their used oral care items and support their local school.

A national innovative programme launches in New Zealand to upcycle or recycle ‘un-recyclable’ plastic food storage waste such as sandwich bags into sustainable items. Creating a litter-less lunch is now possible with a free programme to recycle and upcycle plastic food storage items called the GLAD Food Storage Brigade with TerraCycle and GLAD. Each year, over 252,000 tonnes of plastic waste is thrown away and disposed of in New Zealand landfills. Previously, popular food storage items such as GLAD Wrap and GLAD food bags could not be placed in municipal recycling systems so were sent to landfill.