Grand & Toy, an affiliate of Office Depot, and TerraCycle Canada have announced the launch of a new, national retailer recycling program for office products.
The program comes after a successful five month K-Cup® Pack pilot recycling partnership between Grand & Toy and TerraCycle for customers in Southern Ontario. The program will now be expanded nationally and will include coffee capsule recycling, as well as recycling for office supplies and computer accessories.
The pilot program was launched based on stakeholder feedback received from associates, suppliers and customers who identified waste and recycling as the most important sustainability issue. Customers now have the opportunity to more easily divert waste from the landfill by recycling products that are considered waste by most municipalities.
The national recycling program will include three types of easily identifiable recycling boxes:
- Coffee Capsules — Recycle used coffee capsules.
- Mixed Office Supplies — Recycle any non-electronic items such as binders, pens, pencils, staplers, scissors, file folders and more.
- Computer Accessories — Exclusively for recycling keyboards, computer mice, web cameras, wires and cords.
Once purchased, each box is ready to be stuffed with the items described on its label. It also comes with a pre-paid UPS shipping label, making it easy to send to TerraCycle, which then ensures all the items are properly sorted and diverted from landfill.
The collected waste is mechanically and/or manually separated into metals, fibers and plastics. Metals are smelted to prepare them for the recycling stage. Fibers — such as paper- or wood-based products — and organic material are recycled or composted. Plastics undergo extrusion and pelletization to be molded into new recycled plastic products. Any salvageable e-waste is refurbished and reused. All data is completely wiped from applicable e-waste.
Late last year, TerraCycle and Procter & Gamble’s Febreze air freshener challenged Canadians across the country to recycle everything from used air fresheners to Swiffer packaging for $5,000 in prize money, to be donated to the school or charity of the winner’s choice. This was part of Terracycle’s Air and Home Care Brigade, the company's latest collection program that aims to divert from landfills all packaging waste associated with home cleaning, enabling consumers to recycle previously non-recyclable material for the first time.
Also last year, P&G made a qualified commitment that 90 percent of its packaging will be recyclable by 2020. The commitment came the day before shareholders representing more than $35 billion of investments voted on a shareholder proposal filed by shareholder advocacy group As You Sow, asking the company to phase out unrecyclable packaging, which won significant support (25 percent).
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Founder & Principal Consultant, Hower Impact
Mike Hower is the founder of Hower Impact — a boutique consultancy delivering best-in-class strategic communication advisory and support for corporate sustainability, ESG and climate tech.
Published Jan 23, 2015 11am EST / 8am PST / 4pm GMT / 5pm CET