Recycling appears straightforward until one considers the complexity behind what is actually recycled from what is placed in the blue recycling bins. The video asserts that despite attempts to recycle everyday household plastics, a large majority remains unrecycled in the U.S. due to a lack of mandatory recycling policies. Past efforts, including outsourcing recycling to China, accounted for only a minimal 9% recycling rate, which has further decreased to 5%. This stark reality underlines the ineffective and selective recycling process intertwined with consumer misconceptions about recyclability.

Terracycle, founded by Tom Zacki, introduces an innovative approach to recycling. The company aims to tackle non-traditionally recyclable items like bic pens, juice containers, diapers, and even cigarette butts. It partners with companies who fund recycling programs in exchange for labeling rights that claim their products are recyclable. These programs establish collection systems varying from mail-in to in-store drop-offs. However, the ambitious endeavor faces criticism for possibly being an expensive venture that only minimally impacts overall recycling levels, contributing to concerns of "greenwashing."

Main takeaways from the video:

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Key Vocabularies and Common Phrases:

1. mandated [ˈmændeɪtɪd] - (verb) - Officially required or ordered by authority. - Synonyms: (required, commanded, decreed)

But in the reality, no recycling company anywhere is mandated by law to recycle what you put in the blue bin.

2. perception [pərˈsɛpʃən] - (noun) - The way someone understands or interprets something based on their view or beliefs. - Synonyms: (viewpoint, interpretation, understanding)

The perception out there is what I put in my recycling bin.

3. municipal [mjuːˈnɪsɪpəl] - (adjective) - Relating to a city or town or its governing body. - Synonyms: (civic, city, local)

We focus on only the things that are not municipally recyclable.

4. circular [ˈsɜːrkjələr] - (adjective) - Relating to or shaped like a circle; here used to describe a closed loop system in recycling. - Synonyms: (round, cyclical, looping)

Move products that don't have any other solution than throwing them into a landfill when they hit their end of life to become progressively more circular.

5. friction [ˈfrɪkʃən] - (noun) - Resistance encountered when one tries to move or operate something. - Synonyms: (resistance, drag, conflict)

If there is too much friction, too many steps, too many hurdles, what'll happen? No one will use it.

6. greenwashing [ˈɡriːnwɒʃɪŋ] - (noun) - The act of misleading people to believe that a company or its products are more environmentally friendly than they are. - Synonyms: (deceptive eco-friendliness, ecological deceit, environmental cover-up)

One of the main critiques is that terracycle is doing what is called greenwashing.

7. critique [krɪˈtiːk] - (noun) - A detailed analysis and assessment of something, especially a literary, philosophical, or political theory or practice. - Synonyms: (analysis, review, evaluation)

One of the main critiques is that terracycle is doing what is called greenwashing

8. externalities [ˌɛkstərˈnælətiz] - (noun) - Unintended side effects or consequences of an activity that affect other parties who did not choose to incur those costs. - Synonyms: (unintended consequences, side effects, spillover effects)

These are horrible externalities that come from our great wealth.

9. obstacles [ˈɑːbstəkəlz] - (noun) - Things that prevent or hinder progress. - Synonyms: (barriers, hurdles, hindrances)

Terracycle offers a solution for items typically not recycled but faces financial and logistical obstacles.

10. onus [ˈoʊnəs] - (noun) - Duty or responsibility. - Synonyms: (burden, obligation, responsibility)

Where is the onus lie for all of this stuff?

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

Is this recyclable? How about this? Or these? And what about this? Depending on who you ask, either all of these, some of these, or none of these are recyclable. The perception out there is what I put in my recycling bin. You know, the blue bin is what technically can be recycled. But in the reality, no recycling company anywhere is mandated by law to recycle what you put in the blue bin.

The truth is, most quote unquote recyclable products are simply never recycled. On the bottom of every plastic product, there's some arrows and a number. This is employed by the plastics companies. They just tell you the type of plastic, roughly that it is. And we produce in the United States more than anyone else in the world, huge amounts of plastic. And the US barely recycles any of it. The recycling rate has never topped 9%. And that was when the US exported millions of tons of plastic waste to China.

Today, that number has shrunk to 5%. We don't recycle nearly enough, but even the stuff that goes to our municipal recyclers, they can't handle most of it. It's just going to go into trash. But one company and their guru founder, garbage is a global problem. It exists absolutely everywhere, have set out to make what is thought of as unrecyclable. Recyclable. Were here to focus on the things that there are no recycling solutions for today.

But will it be enough? This is terracycle, a company whose mission is to recycle the stuff that no one thought was recyclable. Juice containers, diapers, even cigarette butts. I met up with their CEO, Tom Zacki, to talk about his mission. Do you have an engineering background or a business background, or are you a dude who is like, nobody's doing this? I want to start something new. I'm an entrepreneur, and I love the idea of using the tool of business to create purposeful solutions.

How does somebody approach you? And then what's that like? What's that partnership like? Terracycle is a mission driven waste management company, and we focus on only the things that are not municipally recyclable. Think of like, a bic pen, brita, water filters, all sorts of things that are made of plastics that no one recycles, and they don't recycle them because they are too expensive.

We're not out there to collect, say, soda bottles and aluminum cans or simple paper. But what we try to do is move products that don't have any other solution than throwing them into a landfill when they hit their end of life to become progressively more circular. But it costs more to collect and process, and the results are worth. So funding is critical. They say, if you'll pay for it, we'll recycle it.

So let's show you how that funding works. A major brand approaches terracycle and pays them a fee to create a program based around their product. What they're funding is the cost of us collecting it, the cost of sorting it, processing it into a sellable state, and that recycled material then is subtracted off the cost. That's how we get to the price. And that could be everything from mail in programs to store, drop off programs to, you name it, whatever form of collection.

In return, the brands get to add a label saying their product is 100% recyclable. And then the more funding, the bigger the programs can get. One of Terracycle's newest pilot programs is with Taco Bell. Here's how it works. Let's say I want to order a taco. I walk in there, I'm waiting for my food, and I notice these QR codes around the restaurant telling me that instead of throwing away my hot sauce packets, when I'm done eating, I can recycle them. So I'm eating my tacos, I scan the QR code that takes me to the terracycle website, where I fill out a form and then download a free shipping label.

Once I'm home, I can print out the shipping label, take the extra used taco Bell sauce packets, put them in a box, put the shipping label on the box, and then mail it off to go get recycled. Now, if that sounds like a lot of work just to recycle a couple of hot sauce packets. One, you're phenomenally lazy. Shame on you. But number two, you're not alone. Is there any fear that there are too many steps to incentivize somebody from wanting to participate? If there is too much friction, too many steps, too many hurdles, what'll happen? No one will use it.

So we are ridiculously motivated to make sure that whatever we do is used and that it succeeds, because it's the only way it's going to grow. Terracycle pairs with multiple subcontractors around the country to receive, sort, and repurpose all the material they're sent. This is our, one of the four facilities in New Jersey, and this is where recycle plastic, hard to recycle plastics. Terracycle is one of our vendors. Our association with terracycle is growing to so, obviously, you can see this place is full.

There is no space here here, this is a dental program that terracycle has. So here, you see, this is a box of toothbrushes. But when it came in our facility, everything was mixed. Oh, I see. And then it's sorted. So this could have everything in there. The thing about plastic is, if they are mixed together, they are no good, because different polymers have different melting temperatures, but sorted, they are acceptable by recycling industry.

What is this source from? Well, this is all coming from household level. It is all about that individual who wants to be part of saving our planet. That even though it may cost me some money, let's find a company who is willing to take a stream like this. And that's where terracycle comes into picture. While this all seems like a win for the planet terracycle and corporations on the surface, there are very vocal critics out there.

One of the main critiques is that terracycle is doing what is called greenwashing. greenwashing, if we're going to be sort of general about it, is anything that corporations can do to make us feel better about behaving irresponsibly? Talk to me about bic pens. Those are something that they recycle. It sounded like they recycle a lot of them. Do they? So they recycle. Last year, 370,000 bic pens. That sounds like a lot.

But if you look at the total number of pens that BIC manufactured, it was only of all their pens. So something like this is very good advertising for the company, but it's only a drop in the bucket of the waste. And terracycle for all, I think the good intentions that it had when its founder started, I think it very much falls into the category of helping corporations reassure us about things we should not be reassured about.

We do not say terracycle approves that this product is, you know, is good or anything like that. Instead, we are a platform which simply says, if you want to recycle this product, you can through us. And that's the really nice thing about a platform, is platforms will then scale up or down to meet consumer demand, because the last thing a company wants is to piss off their consumers.

But there are very real concerns about the widespread availability of terracycles programs, because while some of Terracycle's campaigns are mail in, others require an individual to drop off the item at one of Terracycle's locations. You can today go to certain retailers and drop it off. And there those programs are limited by the number of locations, but not the volume collected. That's how we structure them.

But programs like Taco Bell's pilot are capped by volume, not locations. And when those programs become full, the process becomes more complicated and pricey.

The second part of terracycles income comes from individuals or groups of people who decide that they want to recycle and to pay for. And you could get a very expensive box, over $100 to recycle a whole list of items. And that's how they make their money. Many people have critiqued us saying, you're expensive. Well, it's what it really costs to do this. Now, what we legally guarantee is that any compliant waste, which is the waste the program is described to collect, will be collected and recycled.

We were talking to some of our team who were trying to do it in person in New York. It's like, you got to drive 4 miles to Queens if you've got a family. Are you actually going to have time to do that? So even that I would put in this category. I agree. The reporting, how does that work? Yeah. The most effective and in fact, most common things consumers do is go to the company who's funding it and say, hey, I want to recycle that. And it's not convenient or not available or something.

And these companies care. Crazy about that happens is they scale their programs to meet the demand of the consumer. If consumers stopped caring, these programs would evaporate. And finally, the lawsuit. Terracycle actually was sued in 2020 in California by a group of activists called Last Beach. Last beach accused terracycle of lying about their claim that they recycle 97% of everything given to them.

They are people who noticed Terracycle's labeling and had questions, and they are supposed to have forced terracycle to label more clearly. I know that in the past there were both critics and lawsuits that had said, oh, Terracycle says they're recycling 97%. That's not true. Yeah, can you talk us through a little bit of that? That's, I think, a big, sort of the big challenge in the perception of how we function. So how does a traditional recycler work? A, they have no legal requirement to recycle what they collect. We do. If we don't recycle what we collect, we're in legal breach, and we'll be open to our clients suing us.

Take Bloomberg. You guys buy at Bloomberg's offices, snack wrapper recycling from us. In that agreement, I must legally recycle what you send me. It's a contract. Now, if you have a normal blue bin at your office, that recycling company is not responsible to recycle anything inside legally. That's a meaningful big difference. That most people don't understand, right?

All of this leads to the question, whose responsibility is it to recycle? Is it the government forcing corporations to make more recyclable products? Is it the corporations themselves doing what's best for the planet? Or is it us, the consumer, making sure we do our civic duty? Where is the onus lie for all of this stuff? Well, so this is one of the great problems with both democracies and capitalistic societies.

These are horrible externalities that come from our great wealth. And so we love the wealth part and we don't like to think about what we're harming to get there. And the fact is, we haven't made anyone responsible. We haven't made corporations responsible. We haven't made individual people, and we haven't made cities. If you're a politician, pass laws now. If you are a business, create options and stop and erase maybe very profitable things that are bad. And if you're a consumer, the answer is point it inward and inward. We are all consumers, all of us.

Environmentalism, Recycling, Innovation, Technology, Business, Entrepreneurship, Bloomberg Originals