Most likely, you can put cardboard, aluminium cans, a few types of plastic (#1 and #2), and glass containers in your recycling bin.
Here’s why your local recycling service only accepts materials such as those: It’s a business! Recycling costs money, and someone has to foot the bill for logistics (collection, transport, handling, and storage of rubbish) and processing (cleaning, shredding, and material conversion). If the cost for all of this is low enough that your recycling service can make a profit, they’ll accept the item. If it costs more to recycle an item than the processed material will sell for, they most likely won’t accept it.
Local council recycling services play an important role in mitigating the amount of rubbish ending up in landfill, but over two billion tonnes of rubbish are generated globally each year, and only about 13.5% gets recycled.1 Most of the items that get dumped or sent to landfills are not “unrecyclable”, they can be recycled; someone just has to pay for it.
At TerraCycle, we can recycle the unrecyclable because we work with brands, retailers, and other stakeholders who are willing to fund the process of recycling hard-to-recycle items. This is known as “voluntary extended producer responsibility.”
This funding allows our Research & Development (R&D) team to find ways to recycle hundreds of complex waste streams by developing new processes and formulations and consulting with recycling facilities to fine-tune the process. Then, our Materials Solutions team finds the right recyclers to work with to process the material and, ultimately, applications for the recycled material.
In short, most of the items you currently have to put in the rubbish bin instead of the recycling bin, you can send to us. We collect and recycle hundreds of different types of waste, from old contact lenses and cosmetics packaging to toys and empty packets of snacks; you name it, we probably recycle it!
There are a couple of ways you can recycle the ‘unrecyclable’ with us:
- Free recycling programmes, which are sponsored by brands so that you pay nothing to participate.
- Zero Waste Boxes, which are available for purchase to recycle almost any type of rubbish.
Plus, there’s a new way to shop, waste-free, through Loop! Visit exploreloop.com to search for stores near you offering your favourite products in reusable packaging.
The TerraCycle Blog 