Innovation and Need Drive the Business of Recycling
by Mason Mullins and Maggie Bailey
As consumers, we are constantly using and disposing new products and packaging every day. These items and plastics we throw away are referred to as municipal solid waste (MSW) which is put into landfills, recycling centers, composted, or burned for energy recovery. The United States and many other countries would ship their plastic to China, but since January 2018, China imposed strict rules to prevent contamination (Milman O., Wired, 2019). This has left the United States and many other countries with an overwhelming amount of plastic and nowhere for it to go. In 2017 alone, the United States produced a total of 268 million tons of MSW (EPA, 2019). Since 1960, overall trends show an increasing amount of MSW per generation, but per capita generation has evened out since 1990 (figure 1, 1). In 2017 only 35.2% of MSW generated was being recycled (EPA, 2019).
“Eliminating the Idea of Waste” - TerraCycle®
There are companies out there working to find sustainable solutions. TerraCycle® is a social enterprise “Eliminating the Idea of Waste” (TerraCycle, 2020). TerraCycle® works with large name brands to recycle plastics that are not accepted by municipal recycling centers.Companies like Bausch + Lomb, BIC, Brita, Burt’s Bees, Colgate, Gerber and so many more offer free recycling programs through TerraCycle®. With over 202 million people collecting waste for TerraCycle®, the company has generated profits upwards of $44.8 million for non-profits, charities, and schools since 2001, through their free recycling programs. These free recycling programs are simple; you choose a collection program and Terracycle® sends you a collection bag. All you need to do is start collecting the waste, download the free shipping label, and send the waste off to be recycled.
Innovation Breeds Innovation
Their innovative ideas bring sustainability at an easy convenience, allowing individuals to embrace TerraCycle®’s power to eliminate the idea of waste. TerraCycle® launched Loop™, bringing the goal to eliminate the idea of waste to fruition. Loop™, in partnership with participating companies, offers reusable packaging that is sent back and forth from the manufacturer and the consumer. This creates a closed-loop system so nothing more will be added to your trash can. For greater convenience, TerraCycle®’s zero waste boxes are a paid program that allows you to choose a box by category and load the box with a specific stream of waste like plastic cups, candy and snack wrappers. If you want to make it super convenient, purchase their All-in-One zero waste box.These boxes are not brand exclusive and allow for much more plastic to be taken out of landfills.
Recycling — a Sustainable Business
With great ideas for the world, TerraCycle® has grown to offer stock offerings and a global Foundation. As a whole, the company defines success through innovation and accessibility, prioritizing ideas that are widely accessible to each and every community. In Trenton, New Jersey, where TerraCycle® is headquartered, they serve as a real pillar in the community and empower locals and individuals to make a difference in their lives and the planet.
“One of the best things about TerraCycle® is that they make recycling more acceptable and the programs give people the power to take recycling into their own hands. TerraCycle® empowers the individual. There is a level of transparency and ease with TerraCycle®.”
—Angelica Stern, Customer Relations Associate, TerraCycle
The Food Chain: We all Ingest Plastic
Plastic waste is constantly found in our waterways and oceans due to incorrect disposal and mass development of single use plastics. These plastics work their way into all organisms starting with the consumption in small organisms and move up the food chain through a process called bioaccumulation. This is especially evident in our oceans. Even the synthetic clothes we wash leech elements of plastic into our municipal water system.
Photo by Angela Compagnone on Unsplash
Bubbles Removing Plastic from our Waterways
When these plastics make their way into the waterways it is hard to collect and contain these items due to the vastness of our oceans. The Great Bubble Barrier is a solution proposed by 3 women who have adapted a technology used for oil spills to contain plastics before it gets far off land. A tube with small holes is laid flat at the mouth of a river and blows small bubbles out at a certain rate against the current which lifts all plastics up to the surface and keeps it along the barrier to be collected. The Great Bubble Barrier allows for ships and marine wildlife to move through with ease. You can find more information about their successful trials here.
Tons and tons of Textile Waste
With the textile industry being a $3 trillion industry across the globe, and increased awareness of a zero waste world, textile recycling is a growing industry that can make a positive change in our global waste stream (Ashoka, Forbes, 2017). Fast fashion, defined as inexpensive clothing produced rapidly by mass-market retailers in response to the latest trends, proves to be a source of waste in landfills and natural resource depletion. Textile waste reached an all time high in 2017 at 17 billion tons, 8% of all municipal solid waste. (EPA, 2019)
Stepping up to Make Change
Many companies are working together to eliminate textile waste in landfills. One great example is Blue Jeans Go Green partnerships with leading textile companies to transform denim into natural cotton fiber insulation. A few of these companies are; Levi’s, Old Navy, Madewell, rag & bone, American Eagle, Abercrombie & Fitch, and many more. The recycled textiles are sorted and split into natural and synthetic fibers and sorted again by color ro eliminate the need for re-dying (Leblanc R., 2019). Re-spun fibers can be used for mattress production, insulation, furniture padding and much more. With many municipal recycling centers not offering textile recycling programs, awareness, collection, and sorting are in the hands of independent companies determined to mitigate waste from the textile industry.
“It is time for everyone in the field of textiles and apparel to change how they contribute to fast fashion. We need to generate stronger opportunities that allow fashion to evolve beyond an art of personal expression and become an expression of love for our planet.”
—Ray Malouf, COO of ECA Fashion
Conventional to Circular Textile Production Models
Current linear textile production models take raw materials and turn them into fibers, then produce yarns and fabrics. In the conventional life cycle of fabrics, firs are dyed, printed and finished, then sewn into garments, used by consumers, and finally become waste in landfills. These processes use water, energy and chemicals with an output of emissions (Fontell P., Heikkilä P., 2017). While the value chain is much more complex it still ends with private and industrial use and disposal. In theory, a circular textile production model, or closed loop system, could put an end to much of the waste produced by sending old clothes with recyclable packaging back to manufacturers and these companies adapting their facilities to make use of the recyclable material.
In the loop
Finding local companies and not for profit organizations in your region that collect textiles to give to people in need of clothing is a great way to find a way to reuse and recycle textiles. In Raleigh, North Carolina, the organization Note in the Pocket is dedicated to recycling of clothing. They collect gently used and new clothing donations and provide needed items to impoverished and homeless children. By providing quality clothing for children and Note it in the Pocket “strives to remove some of the stigma that goes along with needing help.” To learn more click here.
There are many organizations all across the United States working towards a common goal; to help sustain and preserve the planet. Here is a list of a few companies that participate in clothing return programs that help you clean out your closet and possibly earn discounts for future purchases and keep clothing in the circular loop and out of the landfill.
Clothing return programs:
Levi -- partnered with Blue Jeans Go Green to recycle denim
Madewell -- partnered with Blue Jeans Go Green to recycle denim. Return to store, they recycle and turn the materials into housing insulation, get 20% of a brand new pair
Zara -- clothing collection, working towards zero waste in 2023 through recycled cardboard boxes, and recycled polyester, wool, and cotton in clothing.
The North Face -- Clothes the Loop dropoff program
Patagonia -- Recycling old clothing to be used by someone else or recycled rather than making its way into landfills through their Worn Wear program.
In order to make change in our community, we have to start changing our own behavior. Make the conscious decision to reuse and recycle, rather than throw something away after a little use. Make change with our purchasing power by buying items that can be used multiple times rather than a single use. We have to garner innovations like the great Bubble Barrier and the launch of sustainable businesses like TerraCycle. Together we can make systematic change happen.
References
Ashoka. (2017, May 8). Closing The Loop On Sustainable Fashion. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/ashoka/2017/05/08/closing-the-loop-on-sustainable-fashion/#3332c53e2f3f
Ellen MacArthur Foundation (2017, January 12) A New Textiles Economy. https://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/assets/downloads/publications/A-New-Textiles-Economy_Full-Report_Updated_1-12-17.pdf
Fontell P., Heikkilä P. (2017). Model of circular business ecosystem for textiles. VTT Research. https://www.vttresearch.com/sites/default/files/pdf/technology/2017/T313.pdf
Leblanc R. (2019, February 27). How Clothing Recycling Works. The Balance Small Business. https://www.thebalancesmb.com/how-garment-recycling-works-2877992
McDonough and Braungart. Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2002
Milman, O. (2019, February 27). Since China’s Ban, Recycling in the US Has Gone Up in Flames. Wired. https://www.wired.com/story/since-chinas-ban-recycling-in-the-us-has-gone-up-in-flames/
TerraCycle. (2020) https://www.terracycle.com/en-US/
United States Environmental Protection Agency (2019, November). Advancing Sustainable Materials Management: 2017 Fact Sheet. EPA. https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2019-11/documents/2017_facts_and_figures_fact_sheet_final.pdf
United States Environmental Protection Agency (2019, October 30) Facts and Figures about Materials, Waste and Recycling. Textiles: Material Specific Data. https://www.epa.gov/facts-and-figures-about-materials-waste-and-recycling/textiles-material-specific-data
Banner Photo by Vivianne Lemay on Unsplash