Getting creative with recycling

We’re almost at the home straight for 2020 and it probably can’t come soon enough for most of us.

To all of our recycling rockstars out there, your continued dedication to recycling the non-recyclable is inspiring and impactful. We deeply appreciate your efforts.

You have proven that staying safe at home doesn’t mean that recycling has to stop. Since you know the basics about recycling at home (check out our previous blog for all the deets on getting started), it’s time to dream big and get creative. Together, let’s end this year on a big, strong YES! for the planet.

We invite everyone to take the pledge to do all your can to be sustainable. Here are some creative ways to have fun and keep collecting from home:

Turn recycling into a game to make things interesting.

Tackle hard-to-recycle items at home? Challenge accepted! 

With so much going on in the world around us, getting friends, family, and children excited about environmental issues can take a bit of strategy. Turning recycling into a game can be an effective, fun way to “up the stakes” with some friendly competition around doing good.

• Start by browsing TerraCycle’s National Recycling Programs and signing up for as many programs as you can participate in; they are all free!
• Next, set a goal for the amount or number of products and packaging you want to collect, or number of TerraCycle® points you would like to redeem for charity. 
• Once you have your goal, figure out how much you need to ship to us for recycling in order to donate a certain amount for charity; you can find the reward per weight or item collected through different programs at the bottom of each program page under “REWARDS.”
• Keep track of your progress on a whiteboard or design an eye-catching poster to highlight your milestones!

Not only will your recycling efforts protect the planet, you can also support charities responding to COVID-19 or supporting our environment. 

Share on social media to encourage your network to join you.

There are so many ways staying at home can reduce our carbon footprint, including keeping cars off the road and fewer buildings using energy, and actively recycling can be one of them. Sharing green activities gives others the tools to join you and uses the power of social media to turn the content into something compelling and aspirational.

Get creative with your recycling efforts and to inspire your network! Post to your Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter a photo, video, or other message sharing the ways you’re collecting for your favourite TerraCycle programs. Tag and follow @terracycleanz, @terracycleaus or @terracyclenz to keep up with the efforts of collectors around the country.

Download a label to motivate you to keep collecting.

Did you know you can download prepaid shipping labels from your TerraCycle account to send us difficult-to-recycle razors, dish and air care, beauty and cosmetics packaging, and even coffee capsules —for free, and whenever you want? Even if you haven’t collected enough to recycle yet, you can go ahead and log in to print the labels at any time.

Printing out a label can be the motivating factor that drives you fill up your boxes with recyclables otherwise headed for landfills. Pin it to your scoreboard, put it on the refrigerator, or even post about it on social media as a reminder of your goals. Putting it out there in the universe may help to stay accountable, with others there cheering you on.

Whenever you are ready to ship your collected waste back to TerraCycle, all you’ll have to do is tape the label on your sealed box and drop it off at the post office —it’s as easy as that!

Get excited and send it all out for recycling.

All the hard work you are putting into your collections now will pay off in positive impacts for future generations.

Start plotting for what charities or schools you will redeem TerraCycle points to, and selfies and snapshots you can share when you ship or drop-off in your community. And keep an eye out for new promos; we believe in making recycling easy, fun, and rewarding for everyone, and cook up new ones all the time. Any ideas? Let us know!

While we’re still physically distancing, it is important to remain socially connected to each other. What better way to build community than to come together to protect the environment? Reach out to fellow recyclers to challenge them to keep collecting at home and share photos and insights through chat and social. 

Together, you can set goals, provide encouragement, and be a beacon of information and inspiration for the world we are working so hard to preserve.

Have any ideas, thoughts, or creative activities we missed here? Tell us in the comments!