Tag Archives: recycled

Terracycle Leads the Way in Tackling Recyclable Food Packaging

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plastic-bottles-115082_640recyclingWith concerns about the state of our environment continuing to grow, businesses and individuals around the globe are looking to reduce their carbon footprint and minimise the waste they generate in their daily production routines. With this in mind, American start-up Terracycle was launched back in 2002 by 19-year-old American student Tom Szaky and spread to the UK in 2009.

More than five years later, the recycling initiative has expanded to include more than a million of Britain’s inhabitants collecting almost 23 million units of rubbish and recycling them to raise £368,400 for charitable causes… and counting! Among other areas, food packaging has become one of the most lucrative sources of waste recycling, thanks to the forethought of Terracycle and some of their like-minded partners.

A coffee revolution

Who doesn’t start the day with a scalding hot mug of delicious coffee? Think of all of those coffee pods, though, and the foil packaging which contained them and the amount of waste produced every time they are throw into the rubbish bin. However, such needless profligacy can now be avoided by recycling old and used discs.

Environmentally conscious brand Tassimo has struck a deal with Terracycle to make all of their T-discs (and the outer foil wrapping that comes with them) 100% recyclable. Those wishing to participate don’t even need to clean them off before mailing the boxes in – the coffee grounds will be separated at the other end and composted separately, thus making it easy to get people involved. As for the foil and plastic itself, it will be cleaned off, chopped up and then transformed into practical items that we can all benefit from, such as park benches.

A biscuit with your beverage?

The perfect accompaniment to a gourmet coffee is a good old-fashioned biscuit – and they also make great partners in recycling, too. Cookie tycoons McVities are conducting a “Wrappers to Riches” initiative with Terracycle, in which recycling participants can earn money for a charity of their choice, as well as goody bags full of the biscuits.

The project is open to businesses, schools or individuals who simply need to send in their used wrappers and their names will be automatically entered into a prize draw for the charitable donations. The top two contributors who send in the most units will be awarded for their industry by receiving even more biscuits… whose wrappers they can recycle again! The converted material will be given another lease of life as tote bags, pencil cases and plastic lumber.

Ella-cycle

Baby food company Ella’s Kitchen have long been renowned for their environmentally friendly methods of organic production, but now they have gone one step farther by ensuring all of their packaging can be recycled in collaboration with Terracycle, as well.

Baby food pouches, caps and snack wrappers are sent in to the recycling plant. Here, they can be either kept intact and stitched together to form nifty-looking tote bags and pencil cases or shredded down into miniscule pieces and melded together to make place mats or trash cans.

Image credit.

 

 

Ecover Launch Bottle Made From Ocean Plastic

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We love environmentally friendly products here at Frost and this bottle of washing up liquid, made from Ocean Plastic, certainly fits the bill. There is a huge island of plastic in the middle of the pacific ocean and something must be done about that, and the waste in the ocean in general. ecoverEcological cleaning pioneer Ecover has launched its first ever bottle made from waste plastic fished out of the ocean. The Ecover Ocean Bottle, which holds Ecover’s washing-up liquid, is made entirely from recycled plastic, with 10 per cent of that plastic coming from the sea. The washing-up liquid itself has been developed with a special ‘sea lavender and eucalyptus’ fragrance – bringing the scent of the sea to homes across the UK without compromising on performance.

Ecocover.Photo: Professional Images/@ProfImages

The company’s ultimate aim is to create the conditions for a systematic clean-up of the huge amount of waste plastic in the sea. Not only does the reduction of waste plastic in the ocean make for healthier, happier fish and sea mammals, it also has a direct impact on us humans as it would ultimately reduce the levels of microplastics in food, drink and other products, meaning we would eat more fish, and less plastic.

 

The new limited edition Ocean Bottle will be available from Tesco for £2, while stocks last.

 

• Fish in the middle depths of the Northern Pacific Ocean are ingesting as much as 24,000

tonnes of plastic each year3

• Reducing the amount of waste plastic in the sea would reduce the levels of microplastics in

food and drink

• Ecover wants to stop any more plastic from getting in to the sea, as well as creating the

conditions for a systematic clean-up of the waste that’s already there

 

Ecover will be using one tonne of ocean plastic, which it aims to increase to three tonnes next year.

 

“The scale of the ocean plastic problem is enormous – around 46,000 pieces of plastic are swirling around every square mile of ocean, and every year at least a million sea birds and 100,000 sharks, turtles, dolphins and whales die from eating plastic. There is no choice – we simply have to aim to clean up ocean plastic for good,” said Philip Malmberg, CEO of Ecover.

 

“Our ocean plastic bottle is just one small step on the way to solving the problem, but you’ve got to start somewhere – what we need now is to create a wider network of fishermen, recycling facilities and manufacturers to really make this happen. We also have to exploit existing supply chains and make it as easy as possible for manufacturers to use ocean plastic. At the moment the will is there but it’s just too much effort for many manufacturers to make it work.”

 

 

Plastic Bags To Cost 5p From 2015: Why It’s a Good Thing.

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It has taken a long time but there will finally be a charge for plastic bags. Plastic bags are to cost 5p in England in a bid to discourage their use. Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg will unveil the plan at the Liberal Democrat party conference this weekend. Scotland will charge from October 2014 and charges for single use plastic bags are already in use in Wales and Northern Ireland.

environment, effect of plastic bags on environment, plastic bags to cost money, plasric bags, wildlife,

The charges will apply to supermarkets and larger stores and the proceeds will go to charity. Watch the video below to learn why Frost thinks this is such a good thing. Plastic bags have a bad effect on the environment and can kill or hurt animals.

Here are our top 5 reasons why it is a good thing:

1: Stray bags choke and strangle wildlife around the world
2: Production of plastic bags requires millions of gallons of petroleum.
3: Less plastic bag use would significantly reduced carbon dioxide emissions.
4: In 2006, the United Nations found that each square mile of the ocean has 46,000 pieces of plastic in it. We don’t want to add to this.
5: There would be less plastic bags littered around, leaving the world a much more beautiful place. Over one trillion plastic bags are used worldwide each year and 3-5% of these are recycled

What do you think?

Does the packaging in your bin annoy you?

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Does the packaging in your bin annoy you?

Packaging is funny stuff. No-one goes out to buy it; they go to buy the things inside. And by the time you get it home, and remove (or use up) the contents of the pack, it has worked quite hard.

But most of what it does is invisible to consumers. We don’t see products stacked meters high in warehouses, stacked on an open dockside in the heat or shaken about in the back of a lorry. Even a humble crisp packet, which uses the tiniest amount of material, performs a number of jobs to ensure that crisps are crisp, not stale, and not crushed into tiny bits.

There has been lots of publicity recently for the huge quantity of food we waste in the UK each year. Wasting food is an environmental disaster, not least because all of the energy and other resources that went into growing, processing, storing and transporting it are also wasted, along with the food itself. But few of us probably realize that if the UK’s packaging and distribution system was not as sophisticated and technologically advanced as it is, there would be far more food waste.

Most food just would not be available without packaging – sliced bread, yogurt, frozen peas, rice, jam, cream cake. Packaging continually responds to changes in life style – smaller portions for people living alone; prepared microwavable vegetables for time-poor people and those who want to reduce cooking energy – in a way that few other industries have done.

Twenty years ago there was roughly the same amount of packaging in your bin as there is today, but it would have been generated by far fewer goods. That’s because manufacturers and retailers keep doing more with less, reducing the resources used to provide the same (or better) protection, information and hygiene.

On average just 1% of packaged food is wasted compared to 10% of food sold loose. That’s because packaged food does not get damaged in the supply chain and it lasts longer on the shelf.

The public mistakenly sees the packaging in their bin as a sign of failure, but over 80% of packaging can easily be recycled so clean paper, cardboard, glass, metals and plastic bottles should be put in recycling boxes, not rubbish bins. However, even non-recyclable packaging is – in the big picture of total resources used – helping to avoid waste. It also makes much of modern life possible – take-away coffee, ready-made sandwiches, microwaveable meals.

We should learn to love packaging – it’s helping to reduce waste and improve both choice and convenience. How many products can claim that?

An Alternative To Ebay?

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Ebay may have a stonghold, but now there are other ways to turn your old CDs, DVDs and games into cash.

TurnIntoCash.com is a new, free to use website that allows users to get cash for old unwanted discs without the hassle of an auction.

The Manchester-based company was founded by Rob Fox and Pete Petrondas, the team that developed the first ever cash for old mobiles website over eight years ago. It aims to give users the highest possible quality of service, while being more convenient to use than traditional auction websites.

Those looking to sell old CDs, DVDs and games simply enter the item barcode into the TurnIntoCash.com website for an instant valuation. When they have built up their trade (10 items) they are emailed Freepost labels or if they have 45 or more items, offered a free courier collection service. Payment for the old items is sent within seven days of receipt.

The TurnIntoCash.com system has been developed to provide a valuation for hundreds of thousands of CDs, DVDs and games including newer Blu Ray discs.

There is no limit on the number of items a user can trade-in and the amount offered ranges from 30p up to £10 depending on a number of factors including type, age, popularity and demand of the items. Old discs collected through TurnIntoCash.com are refurbished with new disc cases or by polishing out damage prior to resale worldwide. Items that cannot be resold are recycled responsibly.

“Users are always looking for ease, convenience and the highest possible quality of service, so we have made sure that quality is at the heart of our unique valuation and trade tracking system, “ commented Fox. “Our system regularly communicates with the user telling them what stage their trade-in is at, and, as our system tracks each item of their trade individually, we can tell them exactly the status of each item ensuring they receive their payment as quickly as possible with no delays.”

“If people want to sell their old CDs, DVDs and games they have a number of choices from car boot sales to auction websites, but because we have considered the user from day one, we think TurnintoCash.com will be first on their list in the future, “ concluded Fox.