A beginner’s guide to recycling with TerraCycle’s free recycling programs

Thank you for starting your recycling journey with TerraCycle! So, you’ve made an account and joined a free recycling program—now what? First, let’s start with the basics . . .

What is a free recycling program, and why is it free?

Our free recycling programs are recycling solutions for your commonly-used, hard-to-recycle trash like toys, beauty empties, oral care packaging, and more. In these programs, you collect your hard-to-recycle trash and send it back to TerraCycle, where we recycle it. We work with retailers and other stakeholders who fund the recycling process, making them free for you to participate in. 

Now that we’ve covered the basics, let's dive into what to do after joining a free recycling program.

Start collecting your trash

That’s right! You’re ready to start collecting the hard-to-recycle trash accepted in the free recycling program(s) you joined! Make sure to read the details of what is accepted in the program you signed up for—they’ll be on the same page you used to join.  

You don’t need to clean items you plan on sending back to us, but please try to use or remove as much excess product as possible. And make sure the trash you send in is dry, as UPS won’t accept dripping packages. 

Use any box that is fit for shipping to collect your trash. To be the most environmentally efficient, please try to completely fill up a box with your hard-to-recycle trash before mailing it back to us.

How to get your free shipping label

Once your box of trash is full and you’re ready to send it back to TerraCycle, decide what shipment method you’d like to use. Go printerless with a QR code and drop your shipment off at your local FedEx location, schedule a home pickup or drop it off in-store with your own label with FedEx, or drop it off in-store with your own label at UPS.

Follow the steps of any option below to send your hard-to-recycle trash to us for recycling.

Print your own label with FedEx
  1. Package up your trash
  2. Print your free shipping label from the program page or your TerraCycle account
  3. Affix the free shipping label
  4. Drop off your package at your local FedEx location
 
No-print shipping with FedEx
  1. Package up your trash 
  2. Request a QR code from the program page or your TerraCycle account
  3. Head to your local FedEx location and show them your QR code (they’ll print a shipping label for you)
  4. Give them your shipment to send to us for recycling
 
Print your own label with UPS
  1. Package up your trash
  2. Print your free shipping label from the program page or your TerraCycle account
  3. Affix the free shipping label
  4. Drop off your package at your local UPS location
 

Let’s take a look at what happens after we receive your hard-to-recycle trash. 

  • Regulatory review: We complete an extensive assessment of the materials we are planning to receive and recycle, taking into account material composition; real-world factors like contamination; and local, regional, and national regulations. 
  • Receipt and check-in: Shipments of waste are sent to one of our local TerraCycle Material Recovery Facilities (MRFs), where we scan them in to record the shipment information, date, weight, and material.
  • Sortation and aggregation: The materials are sent to third-party processors, who sort them based on characteristics and composition using a wide variety of sorting technologies in order to route material for proper processing and handling. 
  • Cleaning and processing: Once sorted by category, the different material types are cleaned and processed into usable forms.

 

Watch this video to see our recycling process in action.

The carbon footprint of shipping

TerraCyclers often question the environmental costs of transporting trash to our MRFs. We understand your concerns, which is why we have an internal Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) department that conducts LCAs to measure the environmental benefits of our recycling programs. 

An LCA of our flexible film recycling in the US calculated that across eight impact categories, TerraCycle recycling models were 45% better for the planet than landfills and incinerators.

We took into account the weight of shipments and the total distance a box travels to ensure the findings apply to a country as large as the US. Even increasing the distance a box traveled by three times still resulted in a 20 to 30% benefit over landfill and incineration options in any impact category. We also found that a 90% reduction in weight per shipment had less than a 5% impact on any category.

An LCA of our rigid plastic recycling in the US showed even larger benefits. TerraCycle solutions were found to be 73% better for the planet compared to local municipal landfilling and 67% better than waste-to-energy models.

Learn more about reducing your carbon footprint with us

Need some help?

Visit the TerraCycle Help Center or contact our Customer Care team at customercare@terracycle.com, and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible.