TerraCycle also has a searchable database that allows you to type in any object and see what’s available. Can’t find a program? No problem. TerraCycle sells Zero Waste Boxes (prices start at $45) so you can pack and ship items such as toy action figures and athletic balls. Your filled box is mailed to a designated center where specific products are recycled (for example, cigarette butts and chewing gum are combined with other waste to eventually become compost and plastic resin, respectively). To maximize the use of a Zero Waste Box consider buddying up with friends, family or co-workers. You can split the cost and fill the box quicker.

• Rebol Family Dentistry in Asheville partnered with New Jersey-based TerraCycle to coordinate the recycling of dental products not currently recycled in the area. Rinsed toothpaste tubes and caps, toothbrushes and packaging, toothpaste cartons and floss containers will be accepted at the practice’s office at 69 McDowell St., then shipped to be made into new products.

Looking ahead, please save bottle caps for recycling to be collected July 27 at the Green Team Tent. Rinsed out Solo cups will be collected Aug. 24. This is a project in which the Farmers Market is partnering with Terra Cycle.

As consumers have become more supportive of recyclable products, the options for recycling what we used to deem trash have grown. Major manufacturers are partnering with companies such as TerraCycle to recover their (and sometimes even competitors’) products. Cities and counties have ramped up recycling programs to accept a wider variety of items.

Back to Gallery Recycling used to be so simple: aluminum cans, glass bottles, newspapers and paper bags. The sheer amount of disposable items has turned a garbage problem into a garbage crisis, says Tom Szaky, founder and chief executive of TerraCycle. The company’s mission is recycling the previously unrecyclable, such as cigarette butts, contact lenses and chewing gum. As consumers have become more supportive of recyclable products, the options for recycling what we used to deem trash have grown.

That fur you brushed from your pet can be used for valuable purposes, officials say. That fur you brushed from your pet can be used for valuable purposes, officials say. Photo: Hendrik Schmidt, AFP/Getty Images Photo: Hendrik Schmidt, AFP/Getty Images Image 1 of / 3 Caption Close Image 1 of 3 That fur you brushed from your pet can be used for valuable purposes, officials say. That fur you brushed from your pet can be used for valuable purposes, officials say. Photo: Hendrik Schmidt, AFP/Getty Images Contact lenses, pet fur and other surprising recyclables 1  /  3 Back to Gallery Recycling used to be so simple: aluminum cans, glass bottles, newspapers and paper bags. The sheer amount of disposable items has turned a garbage problem into a garbage crisis, says Tom Szaky, founder and chief executive of TerraCycle.

Recycling used to be so simple: aluminum cans, glass bottles, newspapers and paper bags. The sheer amount of disposable items has turned a garbage problem into a garbage crisis, says Tom Szaky, founder and chief executive of TerraCycle. The company's mission is recycling the previously unrecyclable, such as cigarette butts, contact lenses and chewing gum.

Recycling used to be so simple: aluminum cans, glass bottles, newspapers and paper bags. The sheer amount of disposable items has turned a garbage problem into a garbage crisis, says Tom Szaky, founder and chief executive of TerraCycle. The company's mission is recycling the previously unrecyclable, such as cigarette butts, contact lenses and chewing gum.

As consumers have become more supportive of recyclable products, the options for recycling what we used to deem trash have grown. Major manufacturers are partnering with companies such as TerraCycle to recover their (and sometimes even competitors') products. Cities and counties have ramped up recycling programs to accept a wider variety of items.