How to donate your TerraCycle Recycling Rewards points

Turn your trash into cash

For many of our free recycling programmes, every time you send us your shipments of rubbish, you’ll earn TerraCycle Recycling Rewards points. These points can be redeemed as cash donations to your favourite schools, charities, and non-profit organisations. Our international community of TerraCyclers has raised millions of dollars for amazing causes – all by recycling!

How it works

For most participating programmes, you’ll earn 100 TerraCycle points per kilogram of rubbish that you send in – you can join as many participating programmes as you want! TerraCycle points can be redeemed for a donation of $0.01 per point (3,500 points = $35). Once you’ve earned enough points, you’re ready to redeem them! 

How to redeem your points

  1. Sign in to your TerraCycle account and click on the ‘My Points’ drop-down.
  2. Click ‘Redeem my points,’ select the organisation you wish to donate to, and enter how many points you’d like to redeem.
  3. You’ll receive an email to confirm it was a success.

Redeem your points →

Donate your points to any of our featured charities, or search for your preferred charity or school here. 

You can redeem your points at any time; however, we only have two payment periods per year, in January and June. Any points redeemed by the end of October will be paid out in January, and any points redeemed by the end of April will be paid out in June.

Rules to know

  • You can only earn TerraCycle points if you collect through the “recycle from anywhere” option or if you run a public drop-off point.
  • If you recycle at a public drop-off point, the administrator of the drop-off point will receive the points for your rubbish.
  • You must donate at least 3,500 TerraCycle points ($35) at a time, unless you choose one of our featured charities – then the minimum donation is 1,000 points ($10).
  • Some brand-sponsored free recycling programs require that shipments reach a minimum weight to qualify for rewards. 

Adding a new charity 

If you can’t find your school, charity, or nonprofit using our search tool on the Rewards page, add it to our charity database! Follow these steps to add your organisation: 

  1. Go to the Rewards page on our website. 
  2. Click “Add new charity.”
  3. Fill out the new charity request form with your organisation’s Inland Revenue Department Number (IRD), address, and contact information.
    • Please note that the address and phone number must be for the organisation you are fundraising for, not your home address or personal phone number.
  4. Click “Submit.”

You will be notified when your new charity request has been accepted. If your information is filled out incorrectly, your request may be rejected. If you need any help adding a new charity or school to our database, please get in touch with our Customer Support team.

Bonus points

We love your charities and schools as much as you do; that’s why we frequently offer the opportunity to earn bonus points! Check out our Contests page or follow us on social media to make sure you don’t miss an update.