My Favorite TerraCycle Programs

I love TerraCycle’s free recycling programs. It allows me to recycle items that otherwise would end up in the landfill. This doesn’t mean that I purposely pick a packaged item over a bulk one in order to TerraCycle it BUT it is exceedingly useful for those items that I don’t have much of an alternative for. TerraCycle also has paid programs (where you pay for a box to fill up with various items and then ship back to them to recycle) but I’ve had great experiences with the free programs. Some programs do have a waitlist but I’ve gotten into most within a few months. So how does it work? Browse the programs and sign up for the ones that interest you. Collect items to recycle, put everything in an old cardboard box, print a pre-paid shipping label from the TerraCycle site, and drop off at UPS! That’s it. And it’s all free. So here are my favorite programs that I’m currently a part of:

Note: Some of these programs accept packaging only of a certain brand while others accept all brands so definitely read through the accepted items list for each program. In addition, while most programs involve shipping, there are a handful that involve dropping off your recycling at a specific retail location.

Wellness Pet Food Recycling Program: This was a happy coincidence since my dogs eat Holistic Select food (part of the Wellness brand) so I am able to recycle the plastic dog food bags we get.

Burt’s Bees Recycle on Us: I don’t really get a lot of Burt’s Bees products these days, however, I do have some old items from my pre-minimal-waste days. Once these are used up, I’ll send them via this program!

eos Recycling Program: Same as above. (Who doesn’t have old eos lip balms in the little spheres?)

Malt-O-Meal Cereal Bag Recycling Program: While we don’t get bagged cereal, we do get the boxes. I save the plastic cereal bag liners to recycle through this program. This program accepts all brands of cereal bags.

Colgate Oral Care Recycling Program: I recycle toothpaste tubes and caps, toothbrushes, toothbrush outer packaging, and floss containers of all brands through this program (great for all those oral care items I’ve accrued from my dentist over the years).

Snack Bag Recycling Program: Chips, cookies, candy snack bags of all brands get shipped via this program. Great if you have kids who eat those little snack sized chip bags.

Subaru Recycling Program: We have a Subaru so this is particularly easy since we can recycle whenever we’re at the dealership for an oil change. But Subaru retailers now have TerraCycle boxes to recycle all disposable cups and lids, candy and snack wrappers, and coffee, tea, and creamer capsules. I don’t use capsules but I do save any candy/snack wrappers and cups/lids that come my way in order to recycle at the dealership.

L’Occitane Recycling Program: This is a new one that I haven’t used yet. But I am super excited by it! It appears you can take all skincare and makeup packaging of any brand to your local L’Occitane store for recycling. Has anyone done this yet? Let me know!

And finally, some eco-friendly tips for TerraCycling:
– Ship as much as possible at once. For example, don’t ship one toothpaste container at a time. Collect everything in a box and ship once or twice a year. Or, collect items to recycle from friends and family to bulk up more frequent shipments.
– Save old boxes and packaging to ship everything. Amazon boxes are great for this.
– Make sure everything you ship is clean, dry, and empty as not to contaminate the rest of the shipment.