In the aftermath of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, households everywhere are seeing the pile-up of packaging accumulate — add to that discarded holiday gift wrap, and yes, household stress will begin to accumulate too. Industry data suggests that 4.6 million pounds of wrapping paper is used in the United States each year. Once the holiday festivities wind down, nearly half of the used gift wrap will end its life in the landfill “Every year, the holiday season brings joy, cheer, and unfortunately, an excess of waste into our homes,” said Tom Szaky, Founder and CEO of TerraCycle. “With our Zero Waste Box recycling solution, consumers can tackle this problem head-on in their households and outsmart holiday waste.”
Wrapping paper is difficult to recycle because it is often dyed, laminated or made up of small, non-paper additives such as glitter or plastics. To address the environmental cost of the holiday season, TerraCycle’s Zero Waste Box program offers convenient, turn-key recycling solutions for holiday gift waste not typically recycled through curbside recycling services. This holiday season, avoid sending festive packaging, wrapping and holiday decor to landfill with these solutions:
- For packaging from online purchases, the Shipping Materials Zero Waste Boxcan be used to recycle e-commerce packaging such as stretch and bubble wrap, packing peanuts, air cushions, and tape dispensers.
- After opening presents, families can recycle wrapping paper, ribbons, bows, tissue paper and other decorative gift packaging with the Wrapping Paper and Gift Waste Zero Waste Box.
- The Plastic Packaging Zero Waste Box can be used to collect all other flexible and rigid plastic packaging components including plastic clamshells, plastic windows and more.
- There is the Holiday Decorations Zero Waste Box when the festivities are over, and it’s time for holiday clean-up.
When full, the boxes are returned to TerraCycle with a prepaid shipping label for recycling, and the collected waste is recycled and made into new products, such as the TerraCycle® Made collection. This specially curated selection of circular products is manufactured using materials recycled through TerraCycle recycling programs and includes:
- Compost Bin
- Wireless Charger
- SET of 2: Large Round Plant Pot
- Stackable Organization Bin
- Watering Can
- Divided Trash & Recycling Bin