TERRACYCLE NEWS

ELIMINATING THE IDEA OF WASTE®

Posts with term TerraCycle X

Contact lens recycling program comes to central Alberta

TerraCycle Include Canada (English) CA Bausch + Lomb
Eye doctors in Red Deer, Ponoka and Three Hills participating Sep. 27, 2021 2:00 p.m. Eye doctors in Red Deer, Ponoka and Three Hills are participating in a contact lens recycling program.
Through the Bausch + Lomb Every Contact Counts Recycling Program, consumers can bring all brands of disposable contact lenses and their blister pack packaging to participating eye doctor locations to be recycled. “Contact lenses are one of the forgotten waste streams that are often overlooked due to their size and how commonplace they are in today’s society,” said Tom Szaky, founder and CEO of TerraCycle, a company whose mission is to eliminate waste through recycling and reusing initiatives. “Programs like the Bausch + Lomb Every Contact Counts Recycling Program allows eye doctors to work within their community and take an active role in preserving the environment, beyond what their local municipal recycling programs are able to provide,” said Szaky. “By creating this recycling initiative, our aim was to provide an opportunity where whole communities are able to collect waste alongside a national network of public drop-off locations all with the unified goal to increase the number of recycled contact lenses and their associated packaging, thereby reducing their impact on landfills.” Red Deer Eye Care Centre, Ponoka Eyecare and Three Hills Optometry are participating in the program. For more information go to www.terracycle.ca/brigades/bausch-and-lomb.
Read More

Empresas inovadoras ligada à reciclagem

TerraCycle Include Brazil
"A gente fecha o ciclo todo. Desde o consumidor levar seu resíduo, até ele ter encaminhamento correto e aí depois a gente muitas vezes pluga a cooperativa com um convertedor, que a gente chama, com um reciclador, para vender de volta pra indústria. Então a gente realmente fecha esse ciclo todo da economia circular. Envolvendo o cidadão, que pra mim é super importante"
Read More

PepsiCo launches compostable bag for Off The Eaten Path brand

TerraCycle Include USA OTEP
image.png

Dive Brief:

  • PepsiCo's Frito-Lay division is introducing a compostable bag for its Off The Eaten Path brand, the company said in a statement.
  • The bags, which are available at Whole Foods Market and other select retailers starting this month, are primarily made from non-food, plant-based sources.
  • Frito-Lay said the new packaging will help the company achieve its goal of designing 100% of its packaging to be recyclable, compostable, biodegradable or reusable across its portfolio by 2025.  The bags are the latest packaging to be introduced by food and beverage makers to curtail waste.

Dive Insight:

As shoppers place a greater importance on not only the contents of products they consume but also the brand's impact on the environment, CPGs of all sizes have taken notice. While promises to use less water, more renewable energy sources or to invest in regenerative agricultural practices are popular, they are often removed from the everyday consumer who can't see or experience them. A bag provides the individual with a tangible object, illustrating that a food maker is actually following through on its commitment. The Off The Eaten Path brand has been touted by Frito-Lay as a better-for-you offering that contains veggies like peas, chickpeas or black beans the shopper can actually see. The new packaging takes a similar approach. A study conducted during the pandemic by Schorr Packaging found 58% of consumers said they were likely or very likely to purchase food products in packaging that clearly states it is reusable or recyclable. In a separate report, Kearney said the number of consumers who take the environment into consideration when buying food has been on the rise, especially during COVID-19. Frito-Lay said consumers can sign up with recycling company TerraCycle to either mail in the packaging using the provided prepaid shipping label, or locate a local composting drop-off location. While commendable, it remains to be seen how many time-starved consumers will take this extra step. One factor that could attract consumers is that the materials used for these bags creates about 60% lower greenhouse gas emissions than traditional packaging, according to the company. PepsiCo is no stranger to compostable bags. In 2010, Frito-Lay rebranded Sun Chips by placing them in a new, high-tech package that was said to be 100% compostable. The bags, however, were loud when they were opened, prompting consumer complaints and a drop in sales. The company pulled the bags and later rolled out quieter packaging. If the Off The Eaten Path bag is a success, PepsiCo could inevitably bring the packaging to some of its higher-profile brands such as Fritos, Doritos and Cheetos. The company also said it would license the technology to other companies at no cost to further its use across the CPG industry. The new bag is the latest in a series of packaging rolled out during the last year by food and beverage makers that can be reused. General Mills' Nature Valley Crunchy granola bars introduced a fully recyclable plastic wrapper last spring, a first for the category. Mars Wrigley has partnered with Danimer Scientific to create biodegradable wrappers for Skittles. The candy company expects the new wrappers to be on shelves in late 2021 or early 2022. And Danone's Evian water brand unveiled last week new packaging that allows all types of PET waste, including material taken from things like gym bags or flip flops, to be turned into plastic bottles.
Read More

Hello Products debuts nationwide recycling program

TerraCycle Include USA Toms of Maine/hello
Hello Products is working with TerraCycle and its Natural Care Recycling Program to help consumers recycle various personal care items.
image.png
Hello Products is looking to do its part when it comes to sustainability.The natural personal care brand recently shared that it has partnered with TerraCycle and become part of the Natural Care Recycling Program. Through the Natural Care Recycling Program, consumers are offered a free and easy way to recycle to the packaging of such personal care products as mouthwash bottles, toothbrushes, deodorant containers, floss containers and toothpaste tubes. “We’re proud to partner with TerraCycle to help bring advanced recycling options to more families and communities,” Craig Dubitsky, founder of hello said. "Hello’s mission is to create the most natural, effective, personal care products as possible, in the friendliest and most sustainable way possible.” To participate in the program, consumers can sign up online and mail-in any personal care products they wish to recycle through the mail using a prepaid shipping label. “The Natural Care Recycling Program represents a unique and sustainable opportunity for consumers to divert waste from landfills,” Tom Szaky, CEO and founder of TerraCycle said. “Together, with the help of hello, we are making it simple to eliminate the idea of waste and have a positive impact on the environment for future generations.” Once collected, the packaging is cleaned and melted into hard plastic that can be remolded to make new products, the company said. In addition, each shipment sent to TerraCycle earns collectors’ points that can be used for charitable gifts or converted into cash and donated to a non-profit school or charitable organization. “Through this alliance and our acceptance of a wide range of personal care packaging regardless of brand, we’re working with TerraCycle to help reduce waste across the U.S.,” Dubitsky said.
Read More

Loop’s revolutionary reusable packaging system is coming to a bunch of big stores

TerraCycle tom szaky Include USA Carrefour Walgreens Tesco Loop Mcdonalds Kroger Burger King Kraft-Heinz Tim Hortons Ulta Beauty Global In-Store Launch
If you walk into a Fred Meyer supermarket in Portland, Oregon, in late October, you might notice something new: In some of the chain’s stores, a new section will sell common products, like hand soap, in reusable packaging that customers can later bring back to the store.
Kroger, which owns the chain and plans to roll out the new reusable section in 25 Fred Meyer stores in Portland before potentially expanding to other cities, is one of several retailers to begin using Loop, a platform for reusable packaging that started with online orders. “It’s really aligned with our vision of a world with zero waste,” says Denise Osterhues, senior director of sustainability and social impact at Kroger. “It’s innovative, and it’s a platform that could ultimately help end single-use packaging and disposability that we’ve all become so accustomed to.” Customers pay a deposit on the package, which they get back when they return it to a drop-off bin in the store. Then Loop sorts the packaging at a “micro node” nearby, and sends it to a larger facility for cleaning and sanitizing, before ultimately returning it to a manufacturing facility to be refilled and reused. Some of the brands in the platform use standard packaging that just hasn’t been reused in the past, like Gerber baby food in glass containers. The same platform launched in Tesco, the U.K. supermarket chain, in ten stores earlier this month. Tesco, which is offering 88 different items in reusable packaging, calculated that if customers in those 10 stores switch to the reusable version of three products—Coca-Cola, Heinz Tomato Ketchup, and Ecover cleaning products—the packages would be reused more than 2.5 million times a year. While the new store display has signs explaining how the system works, Tesco is also using Loop “ambassadors” at the launch to help customers understand what to do. “It’s effectively exactly like how organic came to life in stores, when you would walk into a store and see an organic section and then shop that section if you care about organic products,” says Tom Szaky, CEO and founder of Terracycle, the recycling company that created the Loop platform.
  [Photo: Loop]The system launched in late 2020 in Carrefour, a large retailer in France, and in Aeon stores in Japan in May 2021. Walgreens plans to begin using the in-store system in early 2022, and Ulta Beauty will follow sometime next year, along with Woolworth’s in Australia. Some restaurant chains are also beginning to use the system, including McDonald’s, Burger King, and Tim Horton’s.  Kroger chose to launch first in Fred Meyer stores in Portland, Osterhues says, because the company knew that customers in the area were particularly interested in sustainability (the stores also have a larger physical footprint than some of the company’s other supermarkets, so there was more space available for the new display). It hopes to expand. “Our hope would be to scale it, because that’s when it becomes truly financially beneficial, as well as better impact for our planet,” she says.
“The critical piece here is scale,” says Szaky. “It’s more brands and retailers really taking this seriously by going in-store and then scaling their in-store presence. And that will then leave us where hopefully in a few years from now, you’ll be able to go anywhere, into your favorite retailer, and see a Loop section with whatever your favorite brands are.”
New legislation could also help push it forward, he says. In France, for example, a new anti-waste law includes a ban that will begin next year on disposable tableware in restaurants, including fast food chains. “That’s actually a pretty big deal for something like a McDonald’s,” he says.
Read More