TERRACYCLE NEWS

ELIMINATING THE IDEA OF WASTE®

Posts with term TerraCycle X

Mont-de-Marsan : à la pharmacie Terral, une boîte attend les masques usagés

La pharmacie Terral, à Mont-de-Marsan, collecte depuis un peu plus d’un an les masques chirurgicaux jetables du personnel et des patients. « Avant la pandémie, nous avions commencé à travailler sur une démarche écoresponsable en définissant certaines orientations. Lorsque le Covid est arrivé, nous nous sommes préoccupés du recyclage des masques », raconte Stéphane Terral. Le pharmacien titulaire fait alors appel à TerraCycle.

Babybel launches comprehensive packaging recycling program

For example, the cellophane, netting and labels will be transformed into plastic pellets that will be used to make other reusable plastic objects.
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Part of the Bel Brands USA family, Babybel has announced a national recycling program for all packaging in the US with international recycling leader, TerraCycle. “Across our entire business at Bel, we are working to reduce the impact our products and processes have on the environment. And while we work to provide 100% recyclable or compostable packaging, we’re thrilled to offer consumers a way to recycle our current Babybel packaging in partnership with TerraCycle,” says Melanie Nemoy, Babybel brand director. U.S. consumers can participate in the Babybel Recycling Program in three simple steps:
  • Sign up on the TerraCycle program page at
  • Save the nets, labels, metal fasteners, cellophane, wax and/or pouches from Babybel products and put them in a box.
  • When you’re ready to send in a package, print out a prepaid shipping label available on the website, place it on the well-sealed box and mail it to TerraCycle free of charge. To transport waste in the most efficient and environmentally friendly way possible, consumers are encouraged to ship their packages only when they are full.
For any shipment of packaging meeting TerraCycle program guidelines, consumers earn points that can be redeemed for a donation to a non-profit organization of their choice. Once collected, the packaging will be cleaned, melted and remolded to make new recycled products. For example, the cellophane, netting and labels are transformed into plastic pellets that will be used to make other reusable plastic objects, such as garden tools or park benches. Metal fasteners are separated from the labels and melted down to make gaskets, nuts or bolts. “With this recycling program, Bel Brands USA is offering a powerful, sustainable option to responsibly dispose of Babybel packaging,” says Tom Szaky, TerraCycle founder and CEO. “Consumers can now enjoy their favorite bite-sized snacks and easily reduce waste all while being rewarded for minimizing their environmental impact.” The Babybel Recycling Program is open to any interested individual, school, office, or community organization. For more information on TerraCycle’s recycling programs, visit www.terracycle.com.

What Do Beauty and Baby Food Have In Common? They Produce a Ton of Waste

Two industries that produce heavy waste are taking steps to clean up image.png
On average, every American produces 1,609 pounds of garbage every year--and on the global level, we produce 2.12 billion tons of waste every year. You read that right. And when it comes to plastic, 91% of plastic waste hasn't been recycled.

On a daily basis, many of us try to do right by the environment. We recycle. We plant trees. We minimize water usage. We carpool. But when it comes to waste, the current efforts just don't balance out the monstrous mountain of trash that is created yearly. Sustainability is - a lot of times - easier said than done. But some brands are taking on the urgent challenge, solving problems, setting standards, and making meaningful sustainable decisions that are much easier for the rest of us.

Take Palette by pak. This beauty start-up is leading the sustainable beauty packaging revolution and is on a mission to make beauty reusable. Not an easy feat when you consider all the disposable plastic tubes, pumps, droppers, containers, and bottles that are used in just one day in the average person's beauty and personal care routine. Disrupting a billion-dollar disposable beauty industry, Palette is using innovation, form, function, and design to provide refillable, washable, and reusable beauty products to stop disposable beauty in its tracks.

How big is the problem? About 120 billion units (yes billion) of disposable beauty and personal care products are produced every year. If you need a visual of how big this actually is, it's enough to fill the entire Pacific Ocean each year. Considering that recent statistics reveal that as much as 95% of this packaging is not actually getting recycled, it doesn't take long for alarm bells to start going off.

Tackling disposable beauty one category at a time, Palette is first addressing a very important subset of the greater single-use and disposable beauty packaging problem--travel size and minis.

Most people don't know that tiny plastics like single-use travel size and minis do not get recycled at all due to their small size and go straight into our landfills, our waterways, and oceans. This is why California and New York have banned travel-sized products in hotels beginning in 2023 and 2025 respectively.

Another industry that is big on single-use items and is being shaken up? The baby food industry. It is projected to reach $96.3 billion by 2027 and currently lacks the same regulations and requirements as its baby formula counterparts.

What that means: Pretty much anything goes when it comes to how the food our little ones eat is packaged and processed, which not only means more waste, it can also lead to issues in brain development due to chemicals seeping into sauces and purees.

Brands like Cerebelly are keeping nutrition a top priority by making vegetables the first ingredient and reducing sugar. The food they offer is non-GMO, 100% plant-derived, dairy-free, gluten-free--and they're setting standards where none previously existed.

It is the first and only baby food brand to provide the 16 essential nutrients that are critical to brain development, which in itself is a big enough development; but they are also the first children's food brand to receive the Clean Label Project's Purity Award, which is given to products that are tested for over 400 contaminants and heavy metals.

While transparency and science are big wins, they're also leading the way in working with customers to reduce consumer waste. Through a partnership with international recycling leader, TerraCycle, which specializes in providing recycling solutions for typically unrecyclable waste, Cerebelly has achieved a major milestone of 100,000 baby food pouches recycled and, as of Earth Day 2022, Cerebelly's waste collection is expected to reach 110,000 pouches recycled.

Terracycle is hoping to help other baby food brands, too. Gerber currently has a recycling program with Terracycle to mail-in packaging that otherwise can't be recycled in local municipal programs. With prepaid shipping labels, you can send in your packaging for reprocessing. It's a start.

Thanks to companies like Terracycle, more than 200 trillion people around the world are now recycling, and they're aiming to eventually be able to "recycle everything"--a lofty goal worth pursuing.

Recycling reduces the needed amount of raw materials to be processed, therefore, reducing air and water pollution. It also positively affects climate change by saving energy and thus reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

It's vital for businesses to contribute to the sustainability of our planet. And while a lot of us try our best via sustainable habits, we want--and should--try to do more, and support brands that are not just solving problems, but setting the standards for us to follow in the future. As a mom of littles and a woman who likes a bold lip now and then, I'm keeping my eye on ways to reduce my waste.

A la Vall d'Aran ja es pot reciclar les maquinetes d'afaitar des de casa i evitar que acabin a l'abocador 6 abril, 2022

Els aranesos ja poden reciclar les seves maquinetes d’afaitar una vegada finalitzada la seva vida útil. Per primera vegada, els veïns de la Vall d’Aran poden reciclar des de casa les maquinetes d’afaitar d’un sol ús, les maquinetes recarregables i els recanvis independentment de la seva marca comercial. Aquest programa de reciclatge és impulsat per TerraCycle, companyia especialitzada en el tractament de residus difícils de reciclar, juntament amb Gillette i Venus.