As we celebrate a decade of Eliminating the Idea of Waste® in ANZ, Jean Bailliard, General Manager, shares how we’ve kept almost 100 million items out of landfills and incinerators.
It has been an absolute pleasure – and an invigorating challenge – to have been part of the TerraCycle journey over the last ten years. I was working in the TerraCycle Europe office while the Aussie team was taking recycling to new heights in Australia and New Zealand, and I joined their small but mighty ranks in 2016.
Our first General Manager in Australia and New Zealand, Anna Minns, launched TerraCycle in Australia and New Zealand, and in doing so made connections that direct our operations to this very day.
“We were really starting from scratch,” Anna says. “We had to find a shipping partner who would agree to ship used coffee pods and cigarettes butts; we had to find people who would store and track the waste; we had to find recycling partners who would recycle something they never had before; and we had to find brand partners who would sponsor all our programs.”
“And then we had to convince people to send us their hard-to-recycle rubbish for recycling.”
When Anna handed me the General Manager reins, she moved on to great things in the circular economy space. From her work with TerraCycle to sustainability-focused nonprofits and her own circular start-up incubator, she says leaders in the space have one thing in common.
“They want to design waste out of our economy. They don’t want to see waste as waste, they want to see it as a resource.”
‘“Tom Szaky used to say, ‘If we made everything from gold, nobody would throw anything away.’”
With this inspiration guiding us, let’s explore how far we’ve come in ten years of TerraCycle.
We’ve kept almost 100 million items out of landfills and incinerators
That’s more than 50 million pieces of hard-to-recycle rubbish via our free programs, on top of the rubbish we recycle through Zero Waste Boxes and commercial freight programs.
TerraCycle could not have achieved this wonderful milestone without the support of our brand partners and the commitment of TerraCyclers across Australia and New Zealand. In the face of a waste crisis that could seem overwhelming, brands, manufacturers, community groups, schools, universities, and hundreds of thousands of Australians and New Zealanders have come together to champion recycling solutions.
Today, TerraCycle Australians and New Zealanders have the ability to recycle lots of different hard-to-recycle waste thanks to our free programs in Australia and New Zealand, which are sponsored by leading brands and retailers. For just about everything else there’s Zero Waste Boxes in Australia and New Zealand – a convenient all-in-one, pre-paid recycling solution that makes it easy to recycle items that local councils typically won’t accept.
Where we started
Back in 2014, TerraCycle ANZ launched with just four waste streams, which are all still recyclable today through different programs.
Oral care waste: We opened our first oral care program 10 years ago with Colgate, who remains an industry trailblazer for recycling oral care products and packaging.
Coffee capsules: Coffee capsule recycling was also one of our first waste streams. To this day we offer free recycling of some of the most popular brands in Australia and New Zealand, such as NESCAFÉ® Dolce Gusto®, Lavazza, Robert Harris, and many more.
Beauty empties: We currently operate 22 free recycling programs for empty skincare, haircare, and makeup products and packaging. Programs run by major players in the beauty space like MECCA, Sephora, Garnier, L’Occitane, Maybelline at all Priceline stores, and Schwarzkopf accept all brands in their categories for recycling, making it even easier for consumers to participate.
Cigarette butts: Tackling cigarette butts – the most littered waste stream on the planet – was one of our first Aussie achievements. Thanks to the collaboration with local councils and industry peers, we’ve stopped millions of cigarette butts from ending up in landfills and our waterways.
In March 2014, the Australian Tobacco Industry (a group consisting of British American Tobacco, Imperial Tobacco Australia, and Phillip Morris Ltd) and TerraCycle launched cigarette waste recycling on Clean Up Australia Day. Over 128,000 butts were returned in just day one of launch and participating councils indicated a total litter reduction of 66 percent within their local communities.
The collected cigarette butts were processed by Victorian-based company TyreCrumb. Organic matter was separated and composted, while the filters (made of cellulose acetate, which is a plastic) were processed into pellets. The pellets are then sold as raw material to manufacturers would could use the recycled pellets to make new products such as flooring.
Meet our growing TerraCycler network
We set out on our mission to eliminate waste in Australia and New Zealand with just a few thousand TerraCyclers. Now, around 1.2 million TerraCyclers* are helping us keep hard-to-recycle waste out of landfills.
This includes thousands of dedicated schools, pre-schools, and tertiary education institutions recycling for their faculties, students, and families. Many also operate TerraCycle public drop-off points alongside councils, small businesses, and environmental organisations who recycle for their wider communities. Our public drop-off network has grown from just 11 locations at our 2014 launch to more than 2,500 locations today.
Here’s what TerraCyclers have to say about their recycling journey so far.
- Leichhardt Montessori Academy: “We want our students to become active citizens, and recycling and sustainability is a huge part of that.”
- The University of Sydney: “If we can do our bit to enable recycling behaviour, it helps everyone: the university, our community, and the globe.”
- BLAEK Store: “TerraCycle allows us to recycle conventional products and also have great conversations around transitioning to more sustainable options.”
- Boyup Brook Community Resource Centre: “Just make a start somewhere, recycling is so important.”
Other business owners, major retailers, local councils, and community groups are using Zero Waste Boxes to take responsibility for their waste. By purchasing Zero Waste Boxes to recycle industry-relevant rubbish, they can also make it free for their staff, neighbours, and customers to recycle more. This can help increase awareness of recycling solutions while building brand perception that’s positively aligned with waste minimisation achievements.
Here are some insights from our Zero Heroes.
- Environment Network Manawatū: “Zero Waste Boxes have been a real source of community engagement and connection for us.”
- Spark Pop: “We offer recycling at locations where parents aren’t tempted to buy any more, they simply leave toys to be repurposed.”
- Direct Coffee Supplies: “Zero Waste Box was the cheapest recycling option I could find and it accepts any brand of coffee bag, which is great.”
Great Ocean Road Health: “Our box is a one-stop disposal area. No one has to collect the used masks from all over the building, and the general public who come in happily take off their masks to place in the box when exiting.”
*TerraCyclers calculated based on user-provided data on the number of people recycling per active account.
Discover what your recycled rubbish can create
Once we receive rubbish at our Material Recovery Facilities (MRFs), it is sorted and processed into usable raw formats. These materials are used by manufacturers to create new products such as storage containers, plastic shipping pallets, piping for construction applications, flooring tiles, synthetic athletic fields, outdoor furniture and decking, and much more.
Many of our brand partners also use rubbish collected via their programs to create useful new items, like MECCA’s in-store recycling collection bins and L’Occitane’s Green Store benchtops and sinks. Others like BIG W and Garnier have used TerraCycle-collected waste to construct playground equipment that’s donated back to their communities.
Want to learn about other uses for recycled raw materials, such as the TerraCyle Made recycled product line based in the US, or how artists use these materials in Australia? Read more here.
Our social impact
We’ve raised millions globally for schools, charities, and other nonprofits through our TerraCycle Recycling Rewards program and play our part in sponsored community donations made from recycled materials, including playgrounds, garden beds, and more! Across Australia and New Zealand alone, we’ve raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for charities and schools, including Australia’s first playground made of recycled beauty empties in collaboration with Garnier.
We are proud to partner with some incredible social enterprises that make it possible to recycle your rubbish while also giving back to their communities by creating job opportunities for people living with disabilities.
Behind-the-scenes: Our TerraCycle team
When Anna Minns hauled discarded furniture off the streets of Darlinghurst to set up the official TerraCycle office in Australia, she only had a team of two to help out. Today, 28 driven TerraCycle team members help keep the recycling engine running and bring fresh perspectives to advance circularity in Australia and New Zealand. Another 22 Aussies work in our partner recycling facilities, eight of whom are full-time employees with disabilities.
The Sydney TerraCycle HQ office life is coloured by office dog cuddles, free vegetarian lunches, social events, and volunteer time off. A few standout team events in recent years include our clean-up day at Parramatta River, an Indigenous cultural tour at Barangaroo, and urban farm volunteering at Pocket City Farm.
All these adventures align with our mission to build more connected communities that can work together to eliminate waste and care for our environment. And it’s a whole lot of fun and learning for everyone involved. Just check out those smiles!
TerraCycle News 
3 thoughts