When you think of what can be recycled, aluminum cans and newspapers probably come to mind first. But don’t forget about granola bar wrappers, plastic cups, and chip bags.
That garbage can find a second life too, thanks to a group of Bloomington-Normal volunteers who sort, box up, and ship hard-to-recycle items to TerraCycle. They’ve diverted around 100,000 items from the landfill over the past two years—a track record that recently earned those volunteers the Ecology Action Center’s 2019 McLean County Recycling and Waste Reduction Award.
“I found (the award) very surprising,” said TerraCycle volunteer Amie Keeton. “It was nice to have our efforts recognized. And it’s nice to have our name out there and what we’re doing a little bit more.”
You might be surprised at what Bloomington-Normal’s TerraCycle team can accept:
- Plastic hairspray bottles
- Burt’s Bee products
- Chip or snack bags
- Toothpaste tubes and caps
- Brita or PUR pitches and filters
See a full list of what they accept. Items can be dropped off 24/7 at St. Luke Union Church in Bloomington (garbage in the back) or at Common Ground Grocery.
TerraCycle, a New Jersey-based company with $31.8 million in revenue last year, is one answer to the flood of plastic that comes into our homes but can’t necessarily go out with our weekly curbside single-stream recycling. For years, the U.S. sent much of that plastic trash to China. But China in 2018 cut back almost all imports of trash. A huge market dried up.
TerraCycle, founded in 2001, takes in sorted plastic junk from individuals and volunteer teams (like Bloomington’s) from all over the country. It can turn that plastic into new products, like recycled plastic resin or plastic lumber. Those sending in plastic can earn TerraCycle “points” which are redeemable for charitable gifts, TerraCycle products, or a donation to a school or nonprofit.
St. Luke’s missions committee decides where to donate the local TerraCycle proceeds, Keeton said. So far, the beneficiaries have included the Community Health Care Clinic, Project Oz, and Big Brothers, Big Sisters, and other nonprofits.
TerraCycle has partnered with several big brands that fund its free recycling programs. The company that owns the Solo plastic cup brand, for example, supports a free recycling program for rigid #6 plastic cups. (That’s one of the items that Bloomington-Normal’s group collects.)
“That’s where TerraCycle fits in,” said Melanie Ziomek, another Bloomington volunteer. “Maybe it’s making the businesses more responsible for what they create. Because there’s more to it than putting a stamp on it that says it’s recyclable. Because in certain communities, you can’t.”
It’s not easy work. Janet Guaderrama is the local TerraCycle sorter-in-chief, putting in at least four or five hours a week. The goal is to label and store everything until they “make weight” and have enough of a given item—like granola bar wrappers or plastic cups—to ship off to TerraCycle.
“Our struggles are always trying to find big enough boxes,” Ziomek said. “We’ve gotten really creative. We’ll put four boxes on top of each other and tape them all together, just so we can fit 40 pounds of chip bags in there."
Ziomek started recycling like this in 2011 out of her garage, later expanding and teaming up with the other TerraCycle volunteers. Her inspiration: She was troubled by how much garbage her family was throwing out at home, and she felt there had to be something they could do to reduce their waste.
“I started to research online, and I found TerraCycle. And I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, all these things my home ends up throwing away, I can do this,’” Ziomek said.
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