ECO-FRIENDLY
of ordering a bag or a bundle online, filling it with your chosen waste stream and then dropping it at one of more than 4,000 InPost Lockers across the UK.
Be more mindful A key area of sustainability where businesses can make improvements is recycling. Until recently the responsibility has been on consumers to recycle everything they can, but the limitations of municipal recycling mean they are looking to brands and retailers to do more about the waste they produce. Businesses should be making concerted efforts to reduce the waste they send to landfill and incineration, and also help consumers recycle the products and packaging they cannot recycle at home.
“Until recently the responsibility has been on consumers to recycle everything they can, but the limitations of municipal recycling mean they are looking to brands and retailers to do more about the waste they produce.”
Most consumers are aware of the importance of recycling, but there are limitations to council-led kerbside recycling. Many housewares products, for example, are made from a complex mix of materials which require specific machinery and techniques to recycle, making the recycling process itself very expensive when compared to the value of the end product. Simply put, if the economics don’t work then a product cannot be recycled. Businesses should therefore be looking to stock products made from single, widely recyclable materials, or offering their customers recycling solutions, like TerraCycle’s to help them dispose of their products as sustainably as possible. We currently work with several housewares brands to offer
recycling solutions to consumers. In the UK for example, we have partnered with Sistema to launch a free recycling programme for food storage containers and reusable plastic bottles, and we also work with Aqua Optima, offering their customers a recycling solution for used water filters. In both cases consumers can sign up to the programme on the TerraCycle website, where they can set up a drop-off location on behalf of their entire community, or they can collect privately and send waste as individuals. As programme members, they are able to download free pre-paid shipping labels to send their waste to TerraCycle for recycling, and for each parcel they send they are rewarded with a monetary donation to the charity, school or non-profit of their choice.
Stay committed We’re currently seeing a big drive from the housewares industry in reducing the amount of plastic used in transport and shipping,
incorporating a higher percentage of recycled content into their products and packaging, and introducing biodegradable materials in their new product launches. All of these are great initiatives but a couple of significant obstacles remain. Firstly, consumers don’t have access to recycling solutions, and therefore products and packaging are going to landfill and/or incineration, negatively impacting the planet. Secondly, brands don’t have the resources (time and people) to allocate to launching and managing recycling programmes. TerraCycle is evolving to meet these obstacles and is working with the sector to develop industry-first recycling solutions for products like kitchenware, food storage containers, water filters, cooking utensils, and anything else that the housewares industry is looking to recycle.
Much of the sustainability focus from a legislative and political point of view has so far been on Consumer Packaged Goods (CPGs) particularly with regards to the recyclability of single-use packaging and incorporating more recycled materials into said packaging. This has meant that the products themselves have largely escaped criticism, even though housewares items like cookware and kitchen utensils cannot be easily recycled. Recent events like COVID-19 and the war in Ukraine have further deflected priorities away from recycling, however, we expect attention to turn back towards the issue of waste by the end of 2023 and into 2024, and any businesses not embracing sustainability risk being left behind by consumers in favour of brands with a clear commitment to the planet. We’re already seeing the housewares industry embrace things
like packaging reduction and inclusion of more recycled material in products and packaging, and many brands are introducing repair schemes for damaged or old products, extending their life and keeping them out of landfill for longer. TerraCycle’s biggest hope for the future of the housewares industry is to see more recycling solutions being made available for these products when they eventually do reach the end of their life.
housewareslive.net
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