Giving New Life to Old Containers | Bottle Recycling Edition

By Elizabeth Myer

Promoting recycling initiatives never gets old to me. Just last week, I blogged about the importance (and ease of) eCycling, and today, I’m back for more. I recently heard about TerraCycle’s Brigade® initiative to offer National collection programs for previously non-recyclable (or difficult to recycle) waste. TerraCycle has a full list of Brigades that range from recycling candy and gum packaging to scotch tape and writing utensil repurposing. TerraCycle makes doing the right thing simple by offering mostly free shipping as well as a donation to a non-profit organization or school of your choice in exchange for each piece of garbage collected in any of the waste streams listed on their site. 

Here’s an example everyone can relate to. Next time you run out of a personal care product such as shampoo or conditioner, save the packaging and follow these easy steps:

• Fill a box/bag with your personal care or beauty product containers. Remember to reuse a shipping box or bag and use eco-friendly padding.
• Download a pre-paid shipping label from terracycle.com. To acquire a pre-paid label, log in to your TerraCycle account online (signing up and participating is completely free), and click “SHIP US YOUR WASTE”. You can print them out yourself or request that TerraCycle send the label.
• Ship the box to TerraCycle by affixing the pre-paid postage label to the box/bag and dropping it off at a UPS location.

Make sure to check out the main page for acceptable donations.

Editor's Note: The opinions expressed in Greenversations are those of the author. They do not reflect EPA policy, endorsement, or action, and EPA does not verify the accuracy or science of the contents of the blog.