The Low down on Terra Cycle (What you need to know)

If you’re obsessed with sustainable businesses and organizations then you've probably already heard of TerraCycle before but if you haven't you're in the right place. As one of the biggest plastic consumers in the World, consumerism thrives here in the US and a lot of people throw their containers and such in the recycling bin along with it their guilt because they think that actually gets recycled(specifically municipal recycling), but most of the time it doesn't...

That means the water cup you used once will probably end up in a landfill with traditional recycling. In 2018 Americans generated about 35,700,000 tons of plastic waste. With plastic only making 4.47% of the 69 million ton’s Municipal Waste Management actually recycled I think we can all agree that is a problem and that’s due to the excessive plastic using lifestyle many Americans live.

Why the Recycling System in America is broken

There are generally three groups for plastics: higher-value plastics (like Polyethylene), low-grade plastics (which are expensive to process and have a low value), and something called medium value plastic which is the one this story is about.

While higher-value(quality) plastics is what recycling facilities put the most effort into sorting & recycling because it’s profitable, low-grade plastics are unprofitable and have a negative value because it’s doesn’t sell for much but is expensive to sort, Medium value plastic has a neutral value, it probably won't lose them money but they probably won't make a profit either.

That's because the material (MRF Residuals) isn’t valuable enough to be worth doing the sorting process needed to recycle it at least not here in America. But in poor Countries or Countries like China with a lot of cheap labor it was profitable (slightly) so the US sent them our plastic and it “worked for a while”.

However this actually ended up costing the Chinese government a lot of money, it created a serious environmental and public health issue because the bales that MRF plastic is sent in are often unsorted they carried hazardous materials with them sometimes. Which started to seriously harm the people sorting them, making many sick, not only that but the plastic/trash even they couldn’t recycle created an environmental disaster for China .

So on July 18, 2017 China said it would ban 5 items(plastics) starting at the end of the year, by banning those five things they effectively banned the import of almost all plastic. This pretty much broke the World’s Recycling and even though other poor Countries (like Vietnam) started taking in more plastic that’s not a permanent solution since they’ll probably eventually realize what China did.

So now those medium value plastics are not going to China and along with the low grade plastic will either get incinerated to generate energy at best, but more likely it’ll end up in a landfill.

What is TerraCycle doing about it?

As you can tell we have a huge problem with recycling in America, we need to reduce our plastic consumption but in some communities that’s not such a simple solution so please take a bag to the Grocery store but TerraCycle has a unique solution to recycling.

They offer free recycling programs (sponsored by retailers, manufacturers, and others) through schools, businesses, and organizations where they have a cardboard box or other container they keep in rotation through shipping it to be filled up, then those responsible for it ship it back and they send a box back.

Not only that but they also sell their products to Individuals you can buy a box from TerraCycle to collect your recycling in return for a contribution to Charity so the company might not be very profitable but it’s because it does give a significant amount to Charity about 44,806,327 dollars worth so far.

There’s an easily accessible feature on their website where you can search what waste stream(stuff) you want to recycle and your Location (I used my Zip Code) keep in mind you should make sure your Country is selected by looking at the flag at the top in the menu bar because they don’t just have these recycling programs but they also have them in 20 other Countries. Once you search you could see a host of recycling programs in your City for things like Beauty product packaging, shampoo bottles, cigarettes, oral care products, or snack packaging to name a few.

Though the ideal is for us to reduce our waste as much as possible this is an innovative way to keep trash out of our landfills because food packaging is unfortunately still very prevalent in the US. If you can please check out the programs in your city and start recycling and if you happen to live near their headquarters in New Jersey I encourage you to stop by.

I recently found out there’s a recycling program for D'ddario guitar strings which are the brand I use so I have some strings I’ll probably be dropping off sometime in the near future.

A Huge Thanks to Wendover Productions for his video on China’s involvement in the World’s recycling was a huge help in getting me educated on the topic so I could help y'all out.