Terracycle turns wrappers into wares
July 23rd, 2009 by Elizabeth UlionTerracycle up-cycles waste products like yogurt containers and candy wrappers. The company got its start bottling worm poo fertilizer in used soda bottles. It now partners with companies like Stoneyfield Yogurt and Mars, Inc. on recycling low grade materials into new consumer products. The end products range from flower pots to binders and can be found at major retailers like Wal-Mart and Office Max.
The process Terracycle uses is a bit more complicated than traditional recycling. Groups known as ‘brigades’ focus on collecting one item for recycling – say Stoneyfield yogurt containers. Terracycle sends the brigade 4 boxes to fill with yogurt cups. Once they have 4,000 cups the brigade drops off the boxes at a UPS site with shipping paid by Terracycle. Each cup earns between 2 and 5 cents for a charity or school chosen by the brigade. While it may seem unrealistic for an individual to collect 4,000 yogurt containers this is a great project for a school or office to take on. Right now the yogurt cups are being transformed, with just some paint, into planting pots to be sold by U.S. retailers that currently use black plastic pots.
Signing up for the Candy Wrapper Brigade or the Cookie Wrapper Brigade seems like it would make anyone’s inner child whip out a cape with a candy wrapper emblem and a wooden sword. Time to fight the unnecessary waste!
Elizabeth Ulion is a graduate student at Northwestern University. She has begun designing her cookie wrapper cape. It will be purple.
Photo courtesy of pomme_rewny/Flickr
