Living Green Tip: TerraCycle

Danielle Rodenkirchen from GREENsimplified shared her Tip of the Month with us!

GREENsimplified helps people incorporate simple eco-friendly changes into their everyday lives through in-home consultations, recycling services and starter kits. For more information, or to book services, email info@GREENsimplified.net. 

And now for your GREENsimplified TIP OF THE MONTH from Danielle!!!

In my mission to become a zero waste family, we recycle, buy less packaging, repurpose whatever we can, compost our organic waste and TerraCycle.  Wait… TerraCycle? What is that? It’s recycling taken to the next level. You’ve heard of upcycling, right? That’s pretty much what it is, except for the fact that YOU don’t have to do the work!

Many municipalities have the infrastructure to process and repurpose basic recyclables, but not all of it. TerraCycle works with more than 100 major brands in the U.S. and 22 countries overseas to collect used packaging and products that would otherwise be destined for landfills. It repurposes that waste into new, innovative materials and products that are available online and through major retailers (think drink pouches turned into cute pencil cases).  Thus, reducing the need to extract new materials from the planet and subsequent environmental impact.

But, it doesn’t end there.  For every item collected, TerraCycle, with the help of it’s sponsoring companies, donates money to charities all over the world. My chosen charity is EarthLinks in Denver.  EarthLinks is a non-profit organization that provides a work program for homeless and low-income individuals in which they learn skills and create Earth-friendly products. To date, my collection brigades have raised nearly $200!

Check out the upcycled products TerraCycle sells.

Do you want to start making a difference by eliminating waste, helping the environment and raising money for charity?  It’s as simple as keeping one waste-stream out of the landfill.

There are a few other ways to collect and contribute:

1. If you are in Northern Colorado, check out my already established brigades below. If not, you can start a brigade of your own!

2. If you can’t find a brigade in your area and you don’t want to start one, you can put a call out on the TerraCycle FB page to see if there are any Brigades near you.

3. If you are outside of the Northern Colorado area, you can contact me directly at info@GREENsimplified.net. I can either arrange collections of your items for my brigades, or if you have enough collected, I can send you a free shipping label through my Brigades and you can pack it up and drop it off at any UPS near you. If you are in the Northern Colorado area, you can join one of my over four dozen collection brigades. Just pick one or more that works for you (see list below).  When you have collected a small amount, you can contact me to make pick up arrangements.  If your interested in more information or would like the more full list of specific items I collect, email me at info@GREENsimplified.net.

Collectible Items:

All baby food and fruit squeeze pouches (empty, with lids on please)

All aluminum drink pouches (empty, separated from other collection items)

All dairy tubs and lids, including the tear off foil

All silver-lined snack bar wrappers (empty of crumbs)

All Clif brand snack bar wrappers (Z-Bars, Shot Gels, etc.)

All cheese wrappers

Plastic baby wipes and diaper packaging (no hard plastic or cardboard)

Cereal bags (from inside the box)

All electronics (big and small)

All batteries

All light bulbs

All make-up and beauty product containers (no jars, empty and clean please)

Elmer’s glue sticks, lids and bottles

Scotch tape dispensers and rolls

All inkjet and toner cartridges

Gently used pairs of shoes

The Naked Grape wine boxes, pouches, spouts bag, corks, screw tops and wrappers (empty, separated from other collection items)

All Tom’s of Maine packaging (no cardboard)

Solo cups (empty and clean)