The scary truth about snack waste

Help solve the snack and candy wrapper waste problem! Learn about TerraCycle's innovative recycling solutions for wrappers that are not typically curbside recyclable, keeping them out of landfills and incinerators.

Every year, Americans buy nearly 600 million pounds of candy for Halloween. Between parties and trick-or-treating, Halloween creates a scary amount of candy packaging waste. Most of it isn’t accepted by curbside recycling and ends up haunting landfills and incinerators.

Why snack packaging is so hard to recycle

Snack and candy wrappers aren’t accepted in curbside bins for several reasons:​

  • Too small—flexible wrappers can slip through sorting machinery.
  • Multilayered materials—most are made from a mix of plastics and foils.
  • Food contamination—leftover crumbs or grease complicate recycling.
  • Low market value—waste companies only recycle what’s profitable.

That’s why most snack packaging is landfilled or incinerated. But that doesn’t mean it can’t be recycled—TerraCycle makes it possible by partnering with brands, retailers, and other stakeholders to fund the process. Thanks to our team of in-house scientists, we’ve created innovative ways to recycle hard-to-recycle trash.

For over 20 years, we’ve been at the forefront of recycling the unrecyclable—trash like snack wrappers that most curbside recycling services don’t accept. Our solutions are unique because they’re available worldwide, offer different ways to participate (recycle from home, school, or business), cover all kinds of snack waste, and come with our recycling guarantee.

TerraCycle snack recycling solutions

You can choose how to recycle from several free and paid options.

Zero Waste Box

Choose the Candy and Snack Wrappers - Zero Waste Box to clear out your collection of wrappers or an All-In-One – Zero Waste Box to easily recycle all your hard-to-recycle trash.

Zero Waste Pouch

Choose the Candy and Snack Wrappers - Zero Waste Pouch to recycle smaller quantities of snack wrappers—perfect to take on the go! 

Free Recycling Programs

Recycle your snack packaging through one of our free recycling programs (sponsored by major brands).

How TerraCycle recycles the unrecyclable

We can recycle waste streams that aren’t accepted municipally because we’ve created specialized processes:

  • Flexible plastics are fused together to create larger, heavier pieces through various densification processes.
  • The densified materials are then mixed with other plastics to make recycled plastic blends.
  • Resulting plastic blends are used to manufacture products such as industrial drainage pipes, storage boxes, and plant pots, or used as filler in extruded product applications such as lumber and sheeting.

No need to clean your wrappers—just make sure as much food residue as possible is removed.

Click here to watch the process in action.

 

Guaranteed recycling backed by data

We guarantee to recycle all compliant snack packaging sent to us through our recycling programs. Alongside Bureau Veritas—a world leader in testing, inspection, and certification services—we developed a first-of-its-kind, auditable standard to ensure strong traceability for all our global waste streams.

Upcycle your Halloween wrappers

If you want to get creative, there are plenty of ways to reuse snack packaging at home. Try these DIYs:

 

Recycle snack wrappers →