TerraCycle is celebrating Circular Economy Month, brought to you by the Circular Innovation Council, to bring awareness to waste reduction in Canada throughout October! Our mission in Eliminating the Idea of Waste® incorporates a number of sustainable solutions for your trash: We create first-of-their kind solutions in recycling, recycled content, and reuse that are woven into the principles of a circular economy.
Natural resources (like oil and coal) used for the first time are considered virgin resources. Their extraction and processing use a great deal of energy, and often creates pollution. When virgin materials are extracted, it disrupts ecosystems, drains our natural resources, and often ends up as plastic pollution. Recycling helps prevent this from happening.
Recycling participates in the circular cycle by creating new products from recycled materials instead of extracting virgin materials. At TerraCycle, our free recycling programs and Zero Waste Boxes recycle the unrecyclable—trash that is not typically accepted in curbside recycling programs because it is not profitable to recycle. When we recycle, we keep trash out of landfills and incinerators that pollute our planet and avoid the extraction of new materials.
TerraCycle frequently conducts LCAs on our recycling and reuse programs to ensure they are environmentally beneficial. TerraCycle recycling models outperform municipal waste management options in the U.S. by an average of 45% across eight key impact categories, including global warming potential, human carcinogenic toxicity, and fossil resource scarcity.
This month, let’s work together to close the loop! Recycle your unrecyclable items through our free recycling programs or Zero Waste Boxes, and we can work towards a circular economy together.