At Glow, we are passionate about sustainability and doing our bit to help reduce our impact on the environment. One aspect of this being to cut down on the waste we create as a business that ends up going to landfill. We also wanted to assist the community around us in being able to achieve this as well. That’s why we are listed as an official drop off point for the TerraCycle UK Confectionery Recycling Programme!

This means you (as an individual, household or workplace) can drop off your confectionery packaging to us and we will then send to a company called Terracycle to avoid landfill and be transformed into new products – how clever is that! (COVID-19 tiers/rules may affect our ability to accept waste – contact us to find out the current situation).

What exactly is TerraCycle?

TerraCycle is a forward-thinking recycling company that has become a global leader in repurposing typically hard-to-recycle waste. It offers free programmes funded by brands, manufacturers, and retailers around the world to help you collect and recycle waste that would otherwise end up in landfill, such as crisp packets, confectionery wrappers, beauty product packaging and so much more. The business or individual who acts as a drop off location for the waste will receive money for a charity of their choice when they send the ‘recyclables’ to Terracycle.

How can I bring this into my workplace?

• Check out the Terracycle website where you’ll be able to find the different programmes offered.
• Select the schemes you want to save waste for. A good way to choose is to find where the nearby drop off locations are or to assess which type of waste you and your team are producing the most of.
• Set up boxes, bins or bags for the specific programmes and appoint an ‘Eco Ambassador’ to keep a check that the waste being put into each qualifies. (Amy, one of Glow’s designers is our go to Eco-bod).
• Encourage your team/colleagues to save waste at home too and bring in, to further reduce your collective environmental impact.
• When full, take the waste to your nearest drop off points. Top tip: Reuse whatever you have taken the waste in to maintain a positive cycle.

If you’d like to become more heavily involved with this initiative, you can sign your business up as a drop off site. This means you will be able to help your local community to recycle more, whilst raising money for charity, win win!

This can really benefit your business, as it shows your green and ethical values and will draw more clients/customers to your brand. It also provides great content for your website (blog), as well as social media. If you’re an employee, opposed to a business owner, speak to your manager about Terracycle and offer to push the initiative forward to help the environment, as well as the company.

What does TerraCycle do with the collected waste?

TerraCycle repurposes the waste in various ingenious ways. They state that they use only ‘circular’ methods which include: reusing, upcycling, and recycling. Examples of upcycling, in which Terracycle collaborate with different companies include: sewing foil juice pouches together to make bags and transforming crisps packets into shoes and shower curtains!

Other waste that cannot be upcycled is shredded, washed, and pelletized to make it easy to mould and shape into more harder plastic items, such as park benches! By volume, TerraCycle recycles over 97% of the waste that they collect.

Click here to see the full range of products Terracycle currently has on offer, created from various non-recyclable waste.