![]() In short, the PPP is the reason companies can’t dump their toxic waste in rivers and oceans.īut essentially they’re allowed to do the same thing with plastic since we don’t hold them responsible for their packaging. (A concept I first learned about doing a master’s in sustainable business.) It’s definitely nothing new, and not just for plastic. This kind of accountability is part of what’s called the “Polluter Pays Principle” in international law. Taking responsibility for the full lifecycle of their packaging means companies have to consider (and pay for) what’s going to happen to it after they sell it, too. What does that mean? Normally, companies can buy plastic packaging, fill it up, sell it, and forget it. The point of brand-sponsored recycling is to let companies take responsibility for the full lifecycle of their products’ packaging, cradle to grave. (Those are the ones I’ve mentioned before in my reviews of low-waste cleaning products and low-waste toiletries.) They have several different flavors of this system but I’ll focus on their “brand-sponsored” recycling programs. TerraCycle is a New Jersey-based recycling company that’s best known for letting people mail in their recyclables. But the truth about this internet-famous recycling brand is a lot more complex – and sustainability bloggers, myself included, need to give it more than a passing mention. (Better than just expecting municipalities to fix the packaging problem the companies themselves created.)Īnd that’s not entirely untrue. ![]() The blog posts and magazine articles include a lot of criticism of TerraCycle (mostly anecdotal, but also including some serious greenwashing accusations), and a lot of fawning reviews (which mostly don’t tell the whole story).īefore digging into the topic, I thought TerraCycle’s brand-sponsored programs meant companies were at least making a costly effort to do better. I don’t think any recycling company has ever been as widely discussed online as TerraCycle. This post contains affiliate links see my privacy policy for details. So I wanted to explain here what TerraCycle is (including its legitimate criticisms and limitations), how to use their recycling programs, and some long-term solutions that are even better. I’ve briefly mentioned TerraCycle before in some of my sustainable product reviews, but there is so much more that needs to be said about them. ![]()
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