TerraCycle is an international leader in innovative sustainability solutions, creating and operating first-of-their-kind platforms in recycling, recycled materials, and reuse. Through collaboration and innovation, we’ve developed the world’s first solutions in everything from recycling to reuse. Businesses, government entities, and consumers work with us globally to keep trash out of landfills or from incineration.
THE TERRACYCLE DIFFERENCE
Overconsumption and a throwaway culture have led to a global waste crisis. While even complex waste is technically recyclable, most materials are not profitable to recycle. As a result, waste piles up in landfills and pollutes our planet while virgin materials are extracted from the earth to create new products.
At TerraCycle, we’re on a mission to eliminate the idea of waste. Together with the businesses, communities, and individuals we’ve partnered with over the past 20 years across 20 countries, we’re on a journey to move the world from a linear economy to a circular one, keeping trash out of landfills and from incineration.
Putting us at the forefront of innovation is our in-house research and development team in Trenton.
TerraCycle operates several lines of business including free recycling programs that are sponsored by brands, Zero Waste Boxes that are available for purchase to recycle hundreds of varied waste streams, a regulated waste division to handle Universal Waste, and a reuse platform called Loop to provide consumers with a way to purchase household products in reusable containers at their favorite retail stores.
Through collaboration and innovation, we’ve developed the world’s first solutions in everything from recycling to reuse.
FROM NEW JERSEY TO GLOBAL
TerraCycle is proud to have started in New Jersey over 20 years ago. The company’s headquarters remain in Trenton, while it has since grown to operate in over 20 countries including Thailand, where the TerraCycle Global Foundation works to reduce the flow of plastic waste from rivers and canals before it can reach the ocean. In close partnership with local communities, we design world-class river waste prevention, collection and recycling solutions in regions of the world suffering from heavily polluted waterways. One hundred percent of collected waste is diverted from entering our marine ecosystem.
REUSE: THE NEXT FRONTIER
In 2019, TerraCycle created a platform called Loop that goes further than recycling solutions – to help companies tighten the circle and shift from single use to reusable ecosystems. Loop fills the industry gap of an accessible global platform for reuse and enables the expertise and operational capability to bring the idea to life.
Loop’s model is built to scale the impact of reuse across a cross-category global ecosystem of products, and to make these products as accessible and convenient as possible for consumers by distributing them through a network of existing channels and retailers. We’ve applied the principles of durability and reuse to consumer products at scale by building a system that meets consumers where they are, offering convenient ways to buy reusable products and return them with ease anywhere in our collection network.
Our vision is a transformative circular economy that reduces our global reliance on single-use disposables while offering unparalleled consumer experience, accessibility, and convenience. We are building an ecosystem that offers a reusable alternative for every consumer product category, a dense network of return collection points that makes a “reuse bin” as ubiquitous as today’s street corner trash cans, and an integrated system that enables customers to buy reusable products anywhere and return them anywhere. This end state – which transforms reuse into a system that’s just as convenient as throwaway culture without sacrificing product experience or selection – is not only a solution to the waste crisis, but also a competitive and transformative business model for our partners.
ACCOLADES
TerraCycle engages an expansive multi-stakeholder community across a wide range of accessible programs, from Fortune 500 companies to schools and individuals, has raised over $44 million for schools and nonprofits since its founding.
TerraCycle’s key partners include large multinational corporations such as P&G, Unilever, Nestlé, Mondelēz, Coca-Cola, Clorox, McDonald’s, Burger King, retailers such as Carrefour, Ahold Delhaize, Kroger Inc., Tesco, Aeon, Walgreens, Walmart, and hundreds of other companies large and small who provide recycling and reuse programs to consumers.
TerraCycle has more than 200 awards and recognition including the United Nations Momentum for Change, Time Magazine Best Inventions, Time Magazine 100 Most Influential Companies, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Fortune Magazine Top 52 Companies Changing the World (#10) and CNN Risk Takers.
