A TerraCycle Round Up

 

With the sudden closure of University campus and thus our shop, there are a few loose threads that need tying up. To give you a snippet of the positive contribution your actions have made this year, we bring to you…

A TerraCycle round up!

A proud asset of Want Not Waste is our recycling schemes. Used across the University by students and staff, as well as the general public, our TerraCycle programme has saved hundreds of kilograms of waste from landfill. TerraCycle is eliminating the idea of waste by recycling the “non-recyclable,” from toothpaste tubes to empty pens and crisp packets. The schemes work by collecting and recycling items with partnered companies, retailers and manufacturers across 20 different countries. The companies that sponsor receive advertising for their scheme, but the waste accepted is not always exclusive to that brand. Every month millions of pounds of waste are diverted from landfills and incinerators. As a shop, we are signed up to the several free programmes and coordinate with other public drop-off points to meet our demographic’s needs.

Our most popular recycling schemes are certainly the Walkers Crisp scheme, Pladis Biscuit, Cake and Cracker wrappers and Colgate Dental Hygiene. However, the list really does go on…

• Crisps
• Biscuit, Cake and Cracker wrappers
• Confectionary (sweets and chocolate)
• Ella’s baby food pouches
• Dental hygiene
• Personal care and beauty packaging
• Make-up
• Burt’s Bee make-up wipes
• Plastic ring carriers
• Home hygiene/cleaning products
• Carex Soap

There are in fact 3 now!

Alongside TerraCycle schemes we have a University battery box and are a satellite point for Biko Bikes inner bike tube recycling. Throughout the year we also collected coffee capsules for the Kenco recycling scheme, bottle tops for Lush and Ecobricks for local projects. We had to pause these due to overload of recycling however are looking for alternative outlets so to reopen this in the new academic year. We aim to be a one stop shop for all recycling needs and make it as easy as possible for people to use our beautiful filing cabinets of waste!

Thanks to the amazing students and staff taking part in this scheme, we have raised £128 to donate to charity by turning trash into cash! We have chosen to split this between Manchester Mind, The Booth Centre and St John Ambulance West Manchester & Didsbury.

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In addition to recycling we also accept donations for Toiletries Amnesty. This is a platform that finds homes for new and part used toiletries, supporting those in need from women’s refuges to night shelters. At the start we had two places accepting toiletries, one for new and one for part used- since the beginning of the year the part used option has closed. To avoid wasting the collected Toiletries we have been offering them via Olio (a food waste redistribution app with a non-food section) and to our volunteers…

For the new/unopened toiletries, we had been saving up for a big trip to The Booth Centre in Manchester- a homeless shelter providing a range of services to support those sleeping rough. Unfortunately, due to the rapid progression of COVID-19 we were unable to do this before the University closed. However, in the midst packing up the shop I managed to bring two boxes home with me to hand out in my local community and donate to the district food bank. We recognise that the struggle will not be over even when the pandemic passes, so will be donating the rest of our Toiletries Amnesty collection as a priority upon returning to Manchester.

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We look forward to reopening our TerraCycle programme safely when the time is right- be sure to check out the maps for each scheme to see where your nearest collection point is. Schemes will slowly reopen for drop-offs eventually, in the mean time best develop your packing efficiency skills! If you have a creative storage solutions be sure to share with others and tag us in it - we love to see what our community gets up to!

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Author: Holly