Recycling with TerraCycle

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Recycling with TerraCycle

Valerie Garforth Environment Articles 26 June 2023

by Valerie Garforth, FAUSA

If you are concerned about the amount of waste we are producing and are trying to make a difference in your own life, you probably compost your organic waste, recycle clean glass, metal cans, and #1 and #2 plastic. You put out a small amount of “non-recyclables” for the trash because what else can you do with old toothbrushes, deodorant tubes and dirty diapers? You probably would like to reduce the amount of these “non-recyclables” and are looking for ideas about how to do so.

terracycle bin

As a keen seeker of recycling solutions, I was pleased to discover TerraCycle. Their philosophy is based on the idea that in nature every system’s output is a useful input for other systems. They source difficult to recycle products, clean and prepare them for new manufacturers, with whom they strike a deal, and send the products off to start a new life.

TerraCycle was founded in 2002 by Tom Szaky,¹ a first-year Princeton student, who was shocked by the amount of food waste in the student cafeteria and saw an opportunity to eliminate the waste and turn it into a business. By feeding the food waste to worms and brewing a tea from the resulting material, this created an organic fertilizer, which is packaged in used plastic soda bottles and sold in major retail stores across the country. TerraCycle sources its soda bottles via a website that offers free shipping plus a small donation to your school or favorite charity.

Tom Szaky dropped out of Princeton to focus on the business and extended his original concept by approaching major manufacturers to collect the waste created by their products and find uses for them – TerraCycle believes that every form of consumer waste can be diverted from the landfill and turned into useful products. They have developed ways to repair, reuse, upcycle or recycle everything from cigarette butts, used chewing gum and dirty diapers to computers, cell phones, bicycle chains, vinyl records, shoes and clothing etc.

To participate in the program, you create an account with TerraCycle and collect your hard-to-recycle items. Once you have a good amount to send in, you request a shipping label, and your items are sent free to the TerraCycle facility. There they are logged in and sorted by category, the different material types are cleaned and then sent to third-party partners to process the materials.

The TerraCycle website explains that metals and aluminum are shredded and smelted into metal sheeting, ingots or bar stock. Glass is crushed and melted to be used in new glass bottles (if clear), or brick, cement or concrete applications (if colored). Rubber is generally cryo-milled into a powdered state for flooring applications. Organics are composted or used in industrial and commercial fertilizers. Plastics are the largest category of material collected through the programs. These materials are size-reduced (made smaller by being shredded or ground), then melted and reformatted into pellets, flakes, or a powder format.

terracycle graphic After the waste is recycled into raw materials, it’s sold to manufacturing companies who produce the end products and complete the recycling journey. These end products may include outdoor furniture and decking, plastic shipping pallets, watering cans, storage containers and bins, tubes for construction applications, flooring tiles, playground surface covers, athletic fields and more! The movement of materials through each part of the recycling process is strictly controlled to allow TerraCycle to track and confirm where materials were sent and why.

So how exactly are dirty diapers recycled? It is estimated that a baby will use between 5,000 and 6,000 disposable diapers, and many of them will end up in a landfill, thus creating one of the most urgent environmental problems. Partnering with Dyper, a company that makes diapers from bamboo, a sustainable or renewable material, TerraCycle receives the used diapers from customers, who are given biodegradable bags to store the diapers as they are used and a cardboard box that is engineered to meet the United Nations’ strictest HAZMAT shipping standards. The bags are large enough to hold two to three weeks’ worth of diapers. Users can then print a label and schedule a UPS pickup.

Tom Szaky explains the diaper recycling process in his book, Outsmart Waste.² First, they are passed through a gamma radiation process which kills pathogens, then they are shredded. The cellulose material and superabsorbent polymers (SAPs) are separated from the plastic ((#4 PE-LD) and (#5 PP)) and sent to composting facilities (which welcome them because they aid the composting process), and the plastics are melted and sold to various companies. There are thus three options for diverting dirty diapers from the landfill: compostable diapers, recyclable diapers, or a return to cloth diapers. For more information, please refer to this GreenBiz article.

terracycle photo Dirty diapers are no longer a problem for our family, but we still have “non-recyclable” items which we would like to dispose of in an environmentally friendly way. Fortunately, the Toledo Zoo is a collection point for TerraCycle, and their bins accept the following items:

#6 cup recycling (e.g., Solo cups)
Food pouches (e.g., GoGo SqueeZ)
Juice drink pouches (e.g., Honest Kids)
Brita products (pitchers, dispensers, bottles, faucet systems, filters and filter packaging)
Shaving razors and packaging: all brands of blades and razors and any plastic packaging
Oral care items
Toothpaste tubes and caps
Toothbrushes and packaging
Floss and mouthwash containers
Used deodorant and antiperspirant containers
Cigarette waste (plastic outer and foil inner packaging, wrapping papers, filters and ash)
Writing instruments (mechanical pencils, pens, markers and highlighters)

Some of these items (cigarettes, food pouches, juice drink pouches) we don’t even use, but I keep old toothbrushes etc. in a box and take them on our trips to the zoo. We all need to think of reducing our waste as an exciting challenge and feel satisfaction as we send out ever-reducing amounts of it!

DISCLAIMER: FAWCO does not endorse any commercial enterprise described in the articles published.

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