Laundry detergent brand Dropps has partnered with TerraCycle to give consumers a 100 percent zero waste liquid laundry detergent choice. By joining the new Dropps Laundry Detergent Pouch Brigade through www.terracycle.net, individuals, families and large-scale launderers can collect empty Dropps packaging and send them to TerraCycle. The shipping is free: pre-paid labels can be downloaded and printed through the TerraCycle website. Dropps is a laundry detergent product packaged in toss-and-go dissolving pacs for easy dispensing. The pacs are sold in stand-up puches, that the co. says are not suitable for traditional recycling, despite being a fraction of the environmental footprint of giant plastic jugs. By partnering with TerraCycle, which specializes in difficult-to-recycle packaging, Dropps has enabled consumers make Dropps a 100 percent zero waste product, while generating revenue for charities and schools.

Old Navy and TerraCycle Partner in “The Flip Flop Replay” Program Recycles Flip Flops to Build Community Playgrounds WHAT: In an effort to further reduce waste, TerraCycle Inc. and Old Navy are partnering in a month-long drive to collect used flip flops and recycle them into four public playgrounds around the country. The community is encouraged to participate by stopping by an Old Navy store to deposit used flip flops in designated collection bins. This is the first time a nationwide retailer has initiated a large-scale effort to collect and recycle flip flops.

Especially good for school or community-based programs … Before hitting the dumpster, send particular discards to Terracycle.net and make a few bucks – check out their programs that pay you for “waste” – shipping is often free.

Isso porque o processo de reciclagem é mais complexo e menos rentável, já que exige a separação dos dois materiais. De olho nesse mercado, há nove anos surgiu nos Estados Unidos a TerraCycle, que trabalha não apenas os aspectos ambientais, mas também sociais. Segundo Patrícia Gomes Augustim, responsável pela gestão dos programas de brigada da empresa, a TerraCycle atua em oito países, inclusive no Brasil. "Ela aposta no chamado 'upcycle', palavra em inglês que traduz a ideia de reaproveitamento e transformação do resíduo em outro produto, sem a necessidade de transformações físicas e químicas da reciclagem." Isso significa que os resíduos - como embalagens de suco em pó e de chocolate, por exemplo, podem ser transformados em diversos produtos.

As embalagens serão coletadas pelos distribuidores da Intervet/Schering - Plough Animal Health e serão entregues à TerraCycle que confeccionará produtos (brindes) que serão utilizados nas próprias clínicas veterinárias.

In partnership with the TerraCycle company (terracycle.net), we’re launching the first retail-sponsored flip flop recycling program starting Earth Day (Fri 4/22). Customers can bring in old flip flops and we’ll recycle them by turning them into children’s playgrounds.

What is TerraCycle? TerraCycle’s purpose is to eliminate the idea of waste. We do this by creating national recycling systems for the previously non-recyclable. The process starts by offering collection programs (many of them free) to collect your waste and then convert the collected waste into a wide range of products and materials. With over 14 million people collecting waste in 11 countries together we have diverted billions of pieces of waste that are either upcycled or recycled into over 1,500 various products available at major retailers ranging from Walmart to Whole Foods Market. Our hope is to eliminate the idea of waste by creating collection and solution systems for anything that today ends up in our trash.

As an Earth Day promotion, Office Depot and Old Navy will be taking used pens and old flip-flops, respectively, to be recycled into trash cans, desk organizers and playgrounds. Through Saturday, shoppers can bring in 10 used pens, markers or mechanical pencils to Office Depot and receive a coupon toward new Sanford products such as Sharpie, Expo or PaperMate. And from Friday, which is Earth Day, to May 21, Old Navy shoppers can deposit their used flip-flops in collection bins at stores. New Jersey-based Terra-Cycle will recycle the used items. Several schools and community groups in Charleston are involved in TerraCycle's free recycling fundraisers, which pay two cents for every piece of used packaging returned. Learn more at www.terracyle.net.

Solo Cup Company announced it is joining forces with TerraCycle®, Inc. to recycle its Solo Squared® party cups.  Through the Solo Cup Brigade <http://topics.sacbee.com/Brigade/> ®, individuals, schools and non-profits can collect used Solo Squared plastic cups and return them to TerraCycle where they will be recycled into plastic that will be used to make other items such as equipment for playgrounds, park benches and outdoor furniture.

Recycle: Bring used writing instruments, regardless of brand, to Office Depot at 4297 Meridian St. in Bellingham. They will be sent to TerraCycle Inc. and turned into new office-supply products such as trash cans and desk organizers. The collection runs through Saturday, April 23. People who bring in 10 pens, pencils or markers will receive a coupon toward a new product from Sanford, a pen company.