Pearsall Primary School diverted more than 1400 food pouches and snack wrappers during a recycling competition. The school won a recycled garden bed for their community garden through the Little Gardener Competition, run by organic snack company Whole Kids and global recyclers TerraCycle.

We are delighted and super proud to announce that GlamCorner has risen to the top of the online retailing pack to earn the title of Terracycle Australia’s Top Business Collector for 2017 for collecting the most units of hard-to-recycle waste nationwide! In this post we detail more about Terracycle and why GlamCorner established our partnership with them in order to have a more positive impact on our environment.

When the Whole Kids organic kids snack business began 12 years ago, co-founder Monica Meldrum knew she was taking on some formidable multinational businesses, but creating healthy snack choices for kids in a way that gave back to the community was the objective from start. Whole Kids' food pouches are also fully recyclable due to a partnership with Terracycle and Australia Post.

Whole Kids has chalked up some big wins against the global food giants by weaving values into every aspect of its business, including its packaging. Whole Kids' food pouches are also fully recyclable due to a partnership with Terracycle and Australia Post.

‘Recycling the unrecyclable’ has become the catch-cry of an organisation which works with brands to educate consumers on how to recycle packaging beyond the traditional realm of cardboard, cans, and bottles. Alison Leader spoke to TerraCycle’s Gemma Kaczerepa.

Unilever is a household name and a brand most of us a probably familiar with. As a company they are committed to circular economy thinking and are continually looking at new ways to prevent their packaging ending up in landfill. As an organisation, Unilever has pledged to make 100% of packaging recyclable, reusable or compostable by 2025. In line with this way of thinking, a brand new technology has been unveiled by Unilever which will recycle single-use plastic sachets. The type of sachets include single use toiletries and cosmetics, (for example samples you might find in magazines), and food/beverage packets (for example sauces etc). Single use toiletry sachets such as shampoo and conditioner are common and popular in developing countries  where people may not be able to afford the larger bottled options. The sachets are typically made up of a laminated film of plastic and aluminium therefore deeming them a difficult item to recycle and hence ending up in landfill (or worse in the waterways or  oceans). The new recycling technology is called CreaSolv and will work by recovering the plastic from the sachet and then using this plastic to create new sachets for Unilever products (therefore aligning with the vision of the circular economy). A pilot plant will be opened up and the technology trialled in Indonesia this year. Indonesia being a country that consumes a high number of the sachets and is estimated to produce 64 million tonnes of waste per year – with 1.3 tonnes ending up in the ocean. While these types of plastic sachets may not be as prevalent in Australia as in some developing countries it does bring to light the issue of packaging once again and how important it is to consider the impact packaging has on the environment. Here are six things to consider packaging wise when making your next purchase: 1.  Buy the larger container or in bulk if possible. It might sound obvious but the larger the container, the longer it will last (more convenient) and it is usually the more economical way to purchase. After you have finished with your product, can you reuse the container in anyway? 2.  Buy locally made products if possible. By avoiding aircraft and minimising road transportation, means fewer kilometres traveled and therefore fewer transport related emissions. 3.  Check out what the packaging is made of. Has it got a recycling code on it? 4.  Choose lighter packs that use less material (less resources are used). 5.  Avoid buying single use products and instead opt for bulk alternatives. For example, a single use microwave rice could be replaced with a large packet of rice that will last for many servings (or better yet take a container into a bulk supermarket and fill with rice). Instead of buying individual yoghurt pots, purchase a large tub and decant as needed 6.  If you are purchasing single use pouches for children’s snacks, consider buying the Whole Kids range which can be recycled through a Terracycle programme. In the workplace if you have any type of packaging in bulk that you are currently throwing away in your general waste, please contact us to see if it could be recycled. KS Environmental have many waste management solutions available and are abreast with new recycling technologies emerging in Australia.

TerraCycle chatted to 2NURFM about Earth Day and signing up to TerraCycle's recycling programs.

Encouraging recycling  Consumers face a choice when they unwrap or finish a product: recycle or dispose. Australian consumers are generally good at recycling the basics - aluminium cans, glass and plastic bottles - but need prompting when it comes to other forms of packaging. TerraCycle, founded in the US in 2011, helps consumers recycle the difficult-to-recycle. It runs brand sponsored collection programs for different types of waste from chip bags to juice pouches. Brigades, comprising community groups, schools or individuals, collect packaging for a particular stream and TerraCycle uses innovative recycling and upcycling processes to keep waste from going to, well, waste. Since its launch, TerraCycle has grown to 21 countries including the UK, France, Germany, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Japan, China, Australia and New Zealand. "The recycling programs are hugely successful," TerraCycle Australia & New Zealand PR and Marketing Manager Gemma Kaczerepa said. "There are currently 60 million people collecting for TerraCycle worldwide. Since 2006, we have diverted more than 3.7 billion units of waste from landfills and incinerators, and raised more than $15 million for charity. Further, there are now over 60 types of non-recyclable waste that can be recycling through our programs." Different programs are run in each country, depending on support of brands. In Australia some of the successful programs include:

• Beauty products recycling program with L'Oréal - more than 138,000 products (including shampoo and hairspray bottles, eye-shadow palettes and lipstick tubes) have been diverted from landfill since the program's launch in 2014
• Kids Pouch & Snack recycling program with Whole Kids - more than 20,000 products have been diverted from landfill since the program's launch in 2015
• Nescafé Dolce Gusto Capsule recycling program - more than 600,000 capsules have been diverted from landfill since the program's launch in 2014
• Oral Care recycling program with Colgate - more than 203,000 products have been diverted from landfill since the program's launch in 2014.

This program also features the Bright Smiles, Bright Futures oral care recycling contest - a nationwide recycling competition for primary schools primary schools offering a $1,000 prize and, in the latest round, a recycled park bench made of oral-care waste. Mz Kaczerepa says there are program taking place overseas that she'd like to see implemented in Australia, such as recycling programs for stationery, pet food and treat packaging, and contact lenses and blister packs. Internationally, TerraCycle also works with retailers to create in-store recycling promotions and awareness campaigns to communicate the recyclability of the brand's products. "This can include in-store competition whereby shoppers are encouraged to return products to enter the prize draw; in-store collections whereby customers can redeem their used products for a discount off new ones; and shelf-talkers and other marketing collateral to promote the brand and its recycling efforts," Mz Kaczerepa said. "We hope to launch a similar initiatives in Australia in 2017."