Recycling  is important to Roz Liddell but drinking coffee is not. Even so, when the Lodge Floral Studio owner received a letter from Nespresso asking if her boutique business in Waitara would like to become a collection point for people to recycle their coffee pods, she jumped at the chance. Nespresso began contacting garden centres and florists to ask if they'd become collection points. "I literally rang them that afternoon and said I'm in." Nespresso supplies the collection boxes, which each hold 20kg of pods. "These [boxes] are picked up by courier post. We get our pre-packs all sent with courier stickers so it doesn't cost us anything. They go to TerraCycle." About three boxes are filled each month at Lodge Floral Studio. Once they're sent away the elements of the capsules are separated and turned into garden furniture like chairs and garden bricks. "I've always thought before you throw something away, what can you do with it to reuse it or can you recycle it," she said.

Online shopping has increased the reliance on single-use, waterproof plastic satchels, which has created a new challenge for Australia Post - how should it effectively keep these satchels out of landfill? In order to solve this issue, the national mail service partnered with recycling organisation TerraCycle to initiate a free scheme that would allow consumers and businesses to return used plastic mailbags to be re-used and recycled into plastic park benches, chairs and other industrial items.

https://soundcloud.com/user-635121883/coffee-pods-bad-for-the-environment

The Adelaide Sustainability Centre has partnered with Terracycle Australia to act as a public drop-off point for their programs that specialise in the collection and recycling of hard-to-recycle waste. We now accept waste for their Oral Care, Cleaner Packaging, Mailing Satchel and Beauty Products Recycling Programs. Visit Terracycle's website for further information on the types of  waste that are accepted by each program. Recycling can be dropped off at the Joinery between 9am - 5pm, Monday to Friday. You'll find The Adelaide Sustainability Centre on the ground floor, next to The depot collective cafe.

. TerraCycle doesn’t claim to be the ‘be-all end-all’ answer, but rather one solution to a rapidly growing problem of post-consumer product waste by, for example, providing a second life to an old toothbrush that would normally be discarded in the bin. As a social business with a triple bottom line of ‘planet, people and profit’ TerraCycle’s motivation from its beginning as a worm fertiliser start-up to a global recycling company is to ‘eliminate the idea of waste’. Through nationwide collection programs called Brigades, that are free and accessible, TerraCycle’s purpose is to recycle ‘unrecyclable’ waste streams that others deem challenging, impossible or unsavoury and provide a cyclical solution through reuse, upcycling and recycling. TerraCycle does not believe in linear solutions such as incinerating waste or waste-to-landfill. The entrepreneur – boy meets worm TerraCycle founder Tom Szaky was born in Budapest in 1982. A few years later he emigrated with his family as political refugees to Holland and eventually to Toronto. At the age of 14 he started his first business, a web design company. Szaky arrived in the US in 2001 as a Princeton University student, but the following year he dropped out to dedicate himself full-time to starting TerraCycle. The company now operates in 21 countries, including launching in Australia and New Zealand in 2013 and Japan in 2014. TerraCycle has developed proprietary recycling processes for waste streams as diverse as coffee capsules to cigarette butts to toothbrushes, and it engages individuals and large companies to collect waste and pay for recycling costs. TerraCycle has diverted over four billion pieces of waste and donated US$9 million to charities globally as part of its programs. The TerraCycle recycling business model was brought to Australia by Anna Minns, a former criminal prosecutor and businesswoman, who discovered TerraCycle while living in the US. TerraCycle launched in the Australian market in 2014 with a key partnership with Australia Post, introducing a new concept of sending waste in the mail, making previously ‘unrecyclable’ waste nationally recyclable regardless of location via the Australia Post network. TerraCycle in Australia has diverted over 17 million units of waste since its launch. Sponsored waste is born Where TerraCycle has exceeded normal practice is that its programs are accessible from anywhere in the country. It is completely free for anyone in Australia to participate in the Brigade programs through dropping off waste at their local Australia Post Office. TerraCycle’s recycling model also rewards collectors with a donation to their favourite school or charity for every piece of waste they send. TerraCycle upcycles and recycles this traditionally non-recyclable waste. These products keep waste out of our landfills and contribute to a cleaner world by offsetting the need for creating virgin materials to make sustainable products. A significant aspect about the program is that TerraCycle is helping to transform the way major CPG (consumer packaged goods) companies view product stewardship initiatives. TerraCycle’s proactive approach to making more waste streams available to the public to recycle is to seek industry sponsorship. In Australia, TerraCycle accepts selected items of waste via the following free programs:

1. Colgate Oral Care Brigade: used toothbrushes, toothpaste tubes, floss containers and outer packaging
2. Natures Organics Cleaner Packaging Brigade: nozzles and triggers on cleaning, beauty and laundry products, beauty wipe packaging
3. Nespresso Capsules Brigade: only Nespresso capsules are accepted
4. Nescafé Dolce Gusto Capsules Brigade: only Nescafé Dolce Gusto capsules are accepted
5. Whole Kids Snack and Pouch Brigade: snack wrappers and yoghurt pouches, and
6. Australia Post Mailing Satchel Brigade: mailing post satchels.

Although most companies invest significant resources into design packaging, almost no resources are spent to find ways to deal with end of life solutions for packaging waste. The traditional challenge in recycling is that waste must be sorted in order to be recycled – TerraCycle overcomes this problem because the Brigade system sorts all waste before it arrives at TerraCycle’s recycling facility. TerraCycle’s research and development team in the US determines the solution for each waste stream and local processors and manufacturing partners are sought in each market.

“Although most companies invest significant resources to design packaging, almost no resources are spent to find ways to deal with end of life solutions for packaging waste.

A new TerraCycle program launched in Australia in 2015. With more businesses using the convenience of online shopping for their daily needs, Australians are being encouraged to recycle their used plastic mailing satchels via a new free national recycling program, the Australia Post Mailing Satchel Brigade. As part of the partnership between Australia Post, customers across Australia can now post their used plastic mailing satchels for free to TerraCycle to have them turned into material used to build recycled products such as park benches and industrial items. A number of small and large companies, litter groups, community groups, local clubs, schools, councils and many other individuals and groups are highly engaged with the program and continue to ship their waste to TerraCycle via Australia Post. Community meets business TerraCycle’s recycling system makes a positive impact due to its collective community grassroots approach to recycling waste and strategic partnerships with many environmental and community stakeholders. TerraCycle’s program changes the way in which people view and understand waste by engaging their environmental consciousness and challenging their long-standing beliefs about what can or can’t be recycled or repurposed. By making products directly from waste, consumers, especially young people, can see how packaging they used to throw away can be reused. TerraCycle’s partnership with Colgate Australia and the Bright Smiles Bright Futures program is in its second year. Primary schools across Australia are invited to take part in the program to learn how to achieve good oral health, but also take steps to create a healthy planet. It is estimated that 30 million toothbrushes and 70 million toothpaste tubes are used in Australia each year. The program is a great school community effort to recycle waste that would otherwise end up in landfill. The unique recycling solution is a joint initiative with TerraCycle and Colgate-Palmolive. Teachers were invited to register for the Colgate Oral Care Brigade and encourage their students to recycle oral care waste and win rewards for their school. The future of zero waste TerraCycle’s innovation is unique to the Australian market. We believe there is no other organisation offering the ability to recycle difficult waste streams such as oral care waste, yoghurt pouches and coffee capsules on a national scale. Where there is no industry sponsorship readily available, TerraCycle has pioneered the ‘Zero Waste’ platform – a consumer pays model for businesses, organisations and individuals interested in achieving zero waste on a particular waste stream. The Zero Waste boxes scheme allows a number of different waste streams to be recycled, including hairnets, latex gloves and stationery. The product, which has been successful in the UK and US with clients such as Apple, recently launched in Australia and is sold through online retailers Australia Post and Office Works. TerraCycle is also transforming the way manufacturers view recycled plastic. By providing more sustainable options without a premium, as TerraCycle expands, hopes to provide a sustainable option for major plastic companies and local manufacturers to consider the commercial and environmental viability of recycled plastics linking with ‘closing the loop’. TerraCycle is looking to expand its Australian arm with more waste streams made available and believes that anything can and should be recycled – from chewing gum to feminine hygiene products and even nappies, with the main aim of educating the wider community to see waste as a resource.

Recycling has even become a worldwide business with TerraCycle, a company that recycles hard-to-recycle items, launching in Australia in 2014. It started in the US in 2001 and is now in 21 countries. “The TerraCycle philosophy is to eliminate the idea of waste,” TerraCycle communications manager Ausseela Thanaphongsakom said. In Australia it allows people to recycle yoghurt pouches, used mail satchels and other dental products for free. While the company has only just established itself in Australia, in other countries it even offers recycling of things like chewing gum. “I think (the companies) perceive, rightly so, that consumers would appreciate and are demanding such programs,” TerraCycle founder and chief executive officer Tom Szaky told news.com.au. Pretty much everything is recyclable, Mr Szaky explained, but the problem is making it into a product that people wanted to buy. This is because most products, especially plastics, can only be “downcycled”. A plastic toothbrush can’t be recycled into a new plastic toothbrush, for example. This is in contrast to metal, which can be recycled endlessly, and paper, which can be recycled seven times. Most plastics are recycled into things like park benches and garden materials. Part of TerraCycle’s business is creating a market for these recycled products. Mr Szaky said he thought Australians had less opportunity to recycle things, compared with other countries, because of a lack of infrastructure. This applied even to more profitable materials such as glass and paper. But he acknowledged that the ideal situation was not to consume. “That’s the fundamental answer, don’t buy this stuff to begin with. But if you chose to buy, as many do, the best thing is to buy things that you can reuse.” TERRACYCLE RECYCLING PROGRAM Items that can be recycled for free include: Colgate Oral Care Brigade: used toothbrushes, toothpaste tubes, floss containers and outer packaging Nescafé Dolce Gusto Capsules Brigade: only Nescafé Dolce Gusto are accepted. Whole Kids Snack and Pouch Brigade: snack wrappers and yoghurt pouches. Australia Post Mailing Satchel Brigade: Mailing post satchels. Natures Organics Cleaner Packaging Brigade: nozzles, triggers, on cleaning, beauty and laundry products, beauty wipe packaging Nespresso Capsules Brigade: only Nespresso capsules are accepted and can be dropped off at participating florists and garden centres. Loccitane Recycling Program: Its products can be dropped at participating stores. For more information on the free recycling program go to: www.terracycle.com.au/en-AU/brigades You can also purchase zero waste boxes to recycle other items: www.terracycle.com.au/en-AU/zero_waste_boxes