Terracycle

Alright, this is a VIP (very important post) for anyone that owns a Tassimo coffee maker or wears flip flops; uses toothpaste or hand cream or hair gel. Anyone who eats chocolate bars or bags of chips, and DEFINITELY anyone who is a teacher or works at a large corporation with hundreds/thousands of students/employees who wouldn’t mind a little light enviro-nagging.

The company is called Terracycle, and they recycle everything. You go to Terracycle.ca, or Terracycle.com and sign up for different brigades that recycle different things (there’s dozens of different categories). Once you’ve joined a brigade you start collecting, and once you have enough of whatever you’re collecting, you log on again and they send you a UPS shipping label and you ship the stuff back to them. For free.

So, not only are you recycling a ton of stuff that would have otherwise gone to the landfill, but you are doing it in a totally easy and cost-free way. 

BUT WAIT! There’s more! Each item you send back earns you a point. The points translate into dollarsm and you can use the dollars to buy the products being made from the recycled waste, OR you can donate it to a charity of your choice.

To date, Terracycle has diverted 18,340,211 items from landfills, and raised over $169,000 for charity.

Um. That’s absolutely lovely.

It would be awesome if you would sign up, especially if you could set up a collection station at your work. The beauty product brigade recycles everything from mascara tubes to hand cream bottles, and what woman doesn’t burn through a few of those a year? Similarly, if you work at a school there’s a juice pouch brigade that would be a great chance for kids to learn about recycling, and charity, too.

If you have any questions about Terracycle just ask in the comments and I’ll do my best to answer them, but seriously they are just all kinds of awesome.

I have not been paid or perked or bribed by Terracycle in any way. I’ve just participated in their recycling program for two years now and it suddenly occurred to me that I should share it with all of you.