Looking for a free, easy, and beneficial way to recycle?

In my ever constant mission to maintain a “green” lifestyle, I came across a great website that provides a free service reusing your “trash” per say, and converting it into usable products! I have been using this website for a couple months now and finally sent off my first collection of waste. This online service goes above and beyond what your local recycling stations accomplish, as local places usually limit what is accepted. The company, Terracycle, came up with an easy and effective way to help both our environment and charities across the world! Over 34 million people worldwide are currently “outsmarting waste”.

Check out the link below to understand the details behind the savings and impact you would be making by sending back waste instead of letting it go to a landfill.

http://www.terracycle.com/en-US/why-send-garbage-to-terracycle

Many people don’t typically stop to think where their trash goes, how much of waste created could be reused in another form, or how landfills impact the surrounding communities and environment. It’s that notion of, “out of sight, out of mind”, and we’re all guilty of it! That “out of sight” landfill is slowly seeping into the ground, into groundwater used by communities, and over time creates disease and harmful chemicals that pollute the air, such as methane. At the current rate of waste buildup, eventually there will be no more space to add landfills. When coastal landfills get full, it spills over into the ocean and kills the marine life that makes the oceans such a delicate balance. It’s a huge problem that is growing with the population, and more people should be aware of it so we can tackle it sooner than later.

There are many incentive programs, and you accumulate points as you send in your shipments (shipping cost covered by Terracycle) that can go towards buying up cycled products, or send it to a charity of your choosing. You can’t go wrong with this program, if you are willing to put in the work involved. There’s so many ways to get involved, whether it’s a fun project with your kids, friends, co-workers, or even schools! Terracycle even provides helpful guides to create bins out of used cardboard boxes, DIY projects, setting up a program at your child’s school, and learning lessons to teach the younger generation who will one day determine the fate of our world.

See the link below to understand how it works, and what works best for you!

http://www.terracycle.com/en-US/how-terracycle-works.html

I was surprised to see that when I asked a few co-workers to help me save their granola wrappers for one of my waste collections, they were happy to help! Not everyone likes to do the leg work, but the ones that do should definitely put the word out to family and friends in order to pull in more waste. We can only help fix the environmental issues if we combine our efforts, no matter how big or small. Happy recycling!

-Adrienn :)