Mike Hale: How did TerraCycle get started?
Sam Angel: TerraCycle was founded in 2001 by Tom Szaky, then a student at Princeton University, with the mission of working towards eliminating the idea of waste. From these humble beginnings, TerraCycle has grown into the global leader in collecting and repurposing hard-to-recycle waste: operating in 20 countries, engaging over 60 million people and recycling billions of pieces of waste through various innovative platforms.
MH: When did it enter the UK market?
SA: TerraCycle launched in the UK in September 2009, which was its first market in Europe, and today operates in 12 European markets.
In the UK, TerraCycle currently runs collection programmes for over 30 types of waste that cannot be accepted by local council-run recycling systems. Examples include yoghurt pouches, crisp packets, baby food pouches, disposable gloves and pet food packaging.
Currently more than 5.3 million individuals and organisations across the UK have signed up to collect waste, which to date has diverted over 133 million items of packaging waste from landfill while earning over £1,370,000 for schools, charities and non-profit organisations.
MH: How did the contact lens recycling scheme come about?
SA: TerraCycle were approached by Acuvue who were looking for a recycling solution to offer their consumers. The scheme was introduced in 2019 and enables the UK’s estimated three million contact wearers to recycle all parts of their contact lens waste regardless of their brand. Contact lenses themselves are not recyclable at the municipal level due to their small size.
The Acuvue contact lens recycling programme has a large network of over 1,100 public access drop-off locations – this includes 613 Boots Opticians and selected independent practices across the UK, where consumers can drop off their used contact lenses and packaging.
MH: Why is it important to recycle contact lenses?
SA: As with all non-recyclable waste, by throwing it in your household waste bin you are effectively sending it to landfills, where it will remain for hundreds of years and can leak toxic substances into the soil, or incineration. Another issue with contact lenses has been consumers flushing them down the toilet once they have been used, which means they end up in the planet’s waterways, potentially harming wildlife and polluting the water we drink.
As awareness of the problem of plastic pollution grows, it is important that consumers are able to recycle as much waste as possible especially where it is not collected or recycled as part of a local councils kerbside recycling collection.
MH: What are the technical challenges in recycling disposable contact lenses?
SA: As a rule, materials that have value are generally recycled at a local kerbside or household council recycling level – such as paper, cardboard, plastic bottles, aluminium cans, some rigid plastics like clear food trays and yogurt pots.
Where a material is flexible, lightweight or multi-material, like contact lenses and their packaging, it generally means that the collection, separation and recycling of the material costs more than the value of the resulting recycled material. This is why most materials, while being technically recyclable, are not accepted or recycled by local council recycling systems. Contact lenses are also very small, which means they are not suitable for recycling at the municipal level and with the equipment usually available.
MH: What are the recycled materials ultimately used for?
SA: In most cases, TerraCycle does not decide the end product of the materials we collect. Our role is to convert hard-to-recycle waste into a reusable format that can be used by manufacturers and incorporated into a wide range of end products. A lot of the waste we collect is used in the production of outdoor furniture and construction applications. Anyone is able to purchase products made from recycled TerraCycle waste and can make enquiries through the TerraCycle website (www.terracycle.com/en-GB/pages/recycled-products).
MH: Has the scheme been a success? How has it been affected by the Covid-19 pandemic?
SA: Through the Acuvue contact lens recycling programme, over £24,750 has been raised for charity and 3,391,559 pairs, which equates to well over six million individual contact lenses and pieces of associated waste, have been sent in for recycling in just over 18 months.
The money raised by TerraCycle’s free recycling programmes like Acuvue’s can be donated to a school, charity or non-profit. Whoever manages the recycling in store can choose who to donate the funds they raise to.
Johnson & Johnson Vision remains focused on reducing its footprint on the planet as it continues to change the trajectory of global eye health and, as the leading contact lens brand, Acuvue is committed to contact lens recycling including its packaging, which is widely recyclable across the UK.
Unfortunately, since the emergence of Covid-19, consumers have not had access to opticians’ practices in order to take their contact lenses for recycling, however, we expect more stores to open up over the coming weeks and for consumers to be able to drop off their contact lens waste in line with Covid-19 health and safety
guidelines.
The health and safety of consumers and those working within the stores, remains Johnson & Johnson’s number one priority and they are working closely with TerraCycle to ensure any contact lens recycling is done so with the upmost caution and care.
MH: What are the challenges posed to recycling by the rise in use of personal protective equipment (PPE)? What can optical practices do?
SA: These unprecedented times have shown that single use materials are still a highly reliable and affordable solution for personal protection. Although this new reality has highlighted the public necessity for these items, it has also brought into stark contrast our vulnerabilities to
pollution.
According to the World Economic Forum, between the end of February and mid-April this year, more than a billion items of PPE were given out in the UK alone. This spike in consumption is forcing us to rethink our attitude to recycling and find a sustainable solution for this kind of waste, which would otherwise end up in landfill or often simply be littered on the streets.
As the leading experts in traditionally non-recyclable waste, TerraCycle provides a unique recycling solution for all types of single-use PPE, which are not recyclable through conventional recycling facilities, giving them a new life in a variety of forms through our paid for Zero Waste Box solutions.
When placed in public spaces such as shops or within businesses, TerraCycle’s Zero Waste Boxes for PPE encourage people to responsibly dispose of their PPE for recycling instead of throwing these items into landfill bins or often simply throwing them on the ground after use. To recycle PPE waste in the UK, TerraCycle offers a variety of different Zero Waste Boxes, including its latest box dedicated specifically to the recycling of disposable face masks.
When full, the boxes are returned to TerraCycle for processing and the collected PPE waste is first aggregated before being cleaned and melted into pellets. The resulting recycled pellet material can then be used by third-parties to manufacture a variety of new products including outdoor furniture, plastic shipping pallets, outdoor decking, watering cans, storage containers, bins, tubes for construction applications, etc.
MH: Are there any advances in what can be recycled on the horizon at Terracycle?
SA: Our experience is that technically speaking almost everything can be recycled. The problem is more making the economics work. Without partners like Acuvue, TerraCycle would not be able to recycle products like contact lenses and associated packaging. TerraCycle is actively engaged in conversations with a host of potential brands with a view to them sponsoring and supporting a variety of categories of waste so we can offer free recycling solutions in the UK.
Plus any opticians wanting to be able to recycle a particular type of waste that TerraCycle does not currently offer a free solution for, for example say PPE equipment, will very likely be able to find a paid for solution via our Zero Waste Box
offering.
MH: How does Terracycle envisage the future of recycling?
SA: We hope that the majority of people will recycle a higher proportion of materials going forward. That is certainly the
sentiment we have seen both anecdotally and from surveys during the Covid-19 lockdown.
Feedback from the public highlights an increased awareness in the amount of single use waste they have consumed while being in lockdown. Importantly the lockdown has given them the chance to get a better understanding of what they can and cannot recycle, and also realise that environmental responsibility is more important to them now than before. The hope is that this translates into lasting actions in the medium, and more importantly, long term.
Zero Waste Boxes for PPE
- Disposable Face Masks Zero Waste Box – to recycle surgical and industrial face masks: https://zero wasteboxes.terracycle.co.uk/products/disposable-face-masks- zero-waste-box?_pos=1&_sid=3a4108bfb&_ss=rproducts/disposable-face-masks- zero-waste-box?_pos=1&_sid=3a4108bfb&_ss=r
- Disposable Gloves Zero Waste Box – to recycle vinyl, nitrile, and latex gloves: https://zerowasteboxes.terracycle.co.uk/products/gloves-zero-waste-box?_pos=1&_sid= 202e15ae7&_ss=rterracycle.co.uk/products/gloves-zero-waste-box?_pos=1&_sid= 202e15ae7&_ss=r
- Safety Equipment & Protective Gear Zero Waste Box – to recycle disposable safety gear including garments, gloves, masks and safety glasses: https://zerowasteboxes.terracycle.co.uk/collections/b2b-zero-waste-boxes/products/safety-equipment-zero-waste-box
