Is TerraCycle's Recycling Dream a Fantasy? | Getting Warmer

TerraCycle promises to make use of plastic garbage that almost no one else wants to touch, like cigarette butts and diapers. But does it actually get recycled? Kal Penn meets the company's founder, Tom Szaky.

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[KrisRyanStallard]

Wait. So, Taco Bell doesn't just have collection bins for the sauce packets? It seems like having people print their own shipping label and getting a box to ship a few sauce packets is far worse for the environment then just throwing them in the garbage. This is beyond green washing. Taco Bell basically paid this dude to get permission to lie about how recyclable their packets are.

[choobv]

This guy did not once respond to a question with a meaningful answer. A natural politician.

[JJs_playground]

We have to make big businesses responsible (for example Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Nestle, etc).

[larontyson]

I feel focusing on such small items like sauce packets is a waste of effort and resources (like gas) vs larger problems like industrial and commercial waste, or even larger consumer products that aren't recycled that take up way more space than something like a pen.

[ropro]

I've been reducing, reusing and religiously recycling for over 3 decades. It has made no difference. So obviously, putting the onus on the consumer is not the solution.

[SALESPRODUCTIONS]

What they glossed over a bit is that China simply stopped buying plastics in bulk a few years ago - to be shipped over to them and processed etc . . ( they made the business decision it isn't worth it to be in that business ) and so - they effectively made the term "plastic recycling" moot. And ever since the bulk of all plastics that have been collected and put in the blue bins all over the nation have simply ended up in the landfill. I heard some smaller 3rd world nations jumped in that space but not very many and a very small percentage. AND - printing a USPS printing label and putting several or even a whole bunch of plastic condiment packages in a box and then taking it to the post office - having them put it through their infrastructure - put it on a truck - ( time - money - gas - electricity - human potential - fixed costs - depreciation etc. . ) - then ship it to some city somewhere so someone can open the box and "recycle"it - is so absurd that it is comical.

[blukatzen]

START AT THE BEGINNING. LETS START WITH HOW MUCH PACKAGING CAN BE REDUCED.

[merrymachiavelli]

I bought a TerraCycle box recently. In my case, the situation is that I have a very large amount of difficult-to-recycle identical plastic food containers (not because I create a lot week-to-week, I've accumulated it over years, as an alternative to producing a lot more food packaging waste otherwise).

I really wish the company that produced the containers (Huel) would run some kind of recycling program collecting back their packaging in bulk, at least for their main product - given it's identical, you'd think that they'd only really have to develop one process to effectively manage the containers and wouldn't have to deal with high sorting costs. That seems economical, given that sorting costs are where the money sink is and collecting items back in bulk would help on the reverse logistics.

[goofyrulez]

Everything is recyclable. The only question is: How much do you want to spend to do it?

[nodaha]

wait...so how do they recycle it? are they just a recyclable sorting company?

[ShhhHhhhz]

lol, one of the most ridiculous startup ive ever heard, again passes all the responsibilities to the consumer. heres a food for a thought, how about find a way to use less to begin with and madate some strict quota/regulations on the company itself

[nodaha]

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle....there's a reason why Reduce is 1st step in 3Rs. The manufacturers should Reduce the production of Un-Reusable and Un-Recyclable products.

[Fellowtellurian]

So Terracycle exists which means lawmakers can make laws requiring companies use them. Before they existed, they couldn't really make that law. Now companies don't have any excuses.

[Bastispark]

the government just has to make all the companies that are in the chain of the production and use of plastic products support the recycling by a tax
just make it hard or expensive to just use non compostable plastics

[sonikasingh]

Tell me an alternative solution if not Terracycle? My local government have no program to recycle ♻️ tough to recycle products.

[RajSachdeva]

It is us. Just change the way we consume.

[muhammad-bin-american]

Finally makes sense to me. My recycling/trash people keep rejecting my recycling week after week and I was totally baffled. I see the recycling signs on stuff like Amazon packaging and thought it is meant to be recycled. So basically all they want me to do is put only bottles and cans in the blue bin and trash the rest. This makes no sense to me but hey its less work for me.

[do_regan]

7:03 -- The lady misspoke about Bic's recycling program. She said ".02%" but really should've said 2%... 370, 000 / 18, 500, 000 = 2%

[samshepperrd]

Bottom line: recycling costs money. Is it worth it to humanity to keep plastic out of our environment? By recycling, reuse, or alternative materials and life choices.

[sc]

Wondering why there isn't a computer vision based sorting system being deployed. Wouldn't that play a huge role in driving the costs down compared to the manual sorting shown in the video?