One Solution to Our Recycling Problem

This June, I wrapped up my sophomore year of college, boxed up all of my belongings and officially moved out of the dorms at UCLA. As per usual in the flurry of move-out week, many of the belongings that I had accumulated over the school year — UCLA tote bags that I had never used, gifted avocado fairy lights, bottles of nail polish that had dried out — were now deemed trash. As much as I love cleaning and Marie Kondo-ing my space, tossing things into the landfill without thinking twice about how to better dispose of them just didn’t sit well with me. 

One thing I knew I could do in the limited time I had before moving out was turn in my empty personal care bottles to Terracycle. If you don’t know about Terracycle already, it’s a privately held waste management company based in New Jersey that has developed several programs and services that tackle the problem of hard to recycle waste. In April, a friend of mine, Alex, shared this Buzzfeed article about empty beauty bottles on Facebook and mentioned that if we had empties, we could add them to her Terracycle box to send in. Something about clearing my space of waste is so satisfying, as if removing physical clutter also removes mental clutter. To do so sustainably and responsibly? Sign me up! 

What’s so crucial about a beauty product recycling program like Terracycle’s? It’s one of the few temporary solutions we currently have to our astounding waste problem—beauty packaging waste to be more specific. According to Euromonitor, a market research company, for Teen Vogue, “in 2010, the industry produced 65.62 billion plastic packaging units,” and “by 2017 that number was 76.8 billion.” It’s hard to glean any useful information from big numbers like those other than the fact that we have a huge problem, and these numbers may not even accurately speak to the amount of plastic packaging waste that is actually thrown into the landfill. Plastic waste can take hundreds of years to biodegrade, if it ever does. Plastic pieces of all sizes can end up in our oceans, contributing to wildlife endangerment, accumulating into huge patches of ocean pollution, and entering our food systems at the microscopic level.

The crazy thing is: much of this waste is recyclable! But, for a combination of reasons, including lower oil prices making new plastic production cheaper than recycled plastic; consumer behavior and lack of education; lack of incentive for brands to change their practices; and the intricacy of the recycling process, much of what can be recycled isn’t.

Terracycle clarifies the recycling process for all parties involved, including consumers, producers, and waste converters. With the beauty product recycling program, there is a robust list on the information page detailing exactly what is accepted in this specific Zero Waste Box, including everything from shampoo and conditioner bottles (and caps!) to mascara and concealer tubes. Other than consumer recycling programs, Terracycle also facilitates municipal programs like cigarette recycling on sidewalks, event services, and partnerships with companies that are looking to create recycling programs or incorporate recycled material into their packaging. Essentially, Terracycle brings consumers and producers together through the recycling process, joining us all in a circular economy of waste management.

While Alex and I coordinated when and where I’d meet her to drop off my empties, I asked her more about her experience with the beauty product recycling program. To my surprise, she told me that the program she uses actually costs money. My confusion at this fact made me realize that although I grew up being taught what was supposed to go into the recycling bin, I was never taught about why the United State’s recycling system works the way it does. 

I grew up in San Francisco, and for as long as I can remember, rolling out our trash, recycling, and compost bins was a weekly chore for my family. This system was a constant in my life, and while I noticed electricity bills and gas bills in our mailbox occasionally, bills for a municipal waste recycling program were nowhere in sight — I had no idea that my family actually paid to recycle. Now I know that this was due in part to San Francisco’s role as a leader in transforming urban waste collection, even during my childhood.

Without going into the nitty-gritty details, the most important fact here is that recycling is subject to the laws of supply and demand. It’s an economic matter, which is something that my younger self did not understand (“how could we not be recycling because we want to save the planet from drowning in trash?!”). A smoothly functioning system requires demand for recycled material from companies and therefore demand for products made from recycled material from consumers. While there is a never-ending supply of waste, problems like contamination of batches of recycled material make it difficult and expensive for companies to choose it over new plastic.

Terracycle’s Beauty Product Zero Waste Box offers four different sizes, from pouch to a large box, costing between $41 and $231, for consumers to purchase, fill up with empties, and send back to Terracycle. According to Morgan Goodman-Cabbell, a Customer Service Representative at Terracycle, the cost of the boxes covers not only the box itself, but also the service waste processing and recycling, and a prepaid shipping label. “The real reward that is offered is the peace of mind knowing that the waste will not be ending up in a landfill,” Goodman-Cabbell says. After the recycled materials are sorted and processed in Terracycle’s US facility, they are then “turned into anything from plastic picnic tables to park benches,” depending on what the manufacturer has in mind, according to Goodman-Cabbell. 

As an alternative to paid Zero Waste Boxes, Terracycle also partners with companies to offer free waste recycling programs. Some brands that sponsor beauty product recycling programs include Burt’s Bees, eos, Josie Maran, among many others. Through these partnerships, Terracycle is able to provide consumers with free shipping, a recycling solution, as well as a donation for each recyclable collected for select programs, according to Goodman-Cabbell. Due to the multi-million dollar cost of running these programs, they often have a waitlist, which is something that Alex also mentioned when I learned about the paid boxes. 

So what does this all tell us about recycling? Why does it matter that Alex posted on Facebook about Terracycle and that I showed my interest? This shows that consumers want more responsible recycling, and with the support and investments of consumer companies, solutions can be reached. Companies not only have the financial power to make programs like Terracycle’s accessible to consumers, but they also have the social reach to educate consumers about how they can do their part. However, for companies to take action, consumers need to realize their own power and speak up, demanding better industry practices. As more and more people like Alex and me start to not only think more consciously about where our waste goes, but also put those thoughts into action, companies will listen. Even if it starts with just one empty bottle of moisturizer.