[9]Premier natural food company Kashi has announced that it is partnering with TerraCycle™, [10] the eco-friendly pioneer, to create the Kashi Brigade™. Through the program, Kashi fans in any city nationwide can join together to collect and mail in their used Kashi boxes and wrappers to TerraCycle, which will repurpose the packaging into eco-friendly, affordable products.
To take part in the free program, consumer can sign up to create local brigades. For each Kashi package returned to TerraCycle, the company will donate $.02 cents to the brigade’s charity of choice. Kashi is the largest natural food company committed to this program.
“At Kashi, we believe a healthy lifestyle isn’t only about what you eat, it’s also about how you interact with the world around you,” says Keegan Sheridan, Kashi’s natural food and lifestyle expert. “We’re excited to collaborate with TerraCycle on the Kashi Brigade because it provides our friends another simple way to make smarter choices and feel good about their food purchases. We encourage Kashi fans everywhere to start a brigade in their own neighborhood as a positive move towards living a natural lifestyle.”
Developing a Kashi Brigade is quick and easy, beginning with registration on TerraCycle’s Web site, where participants provide their brigade’s location and select a nonprofit organization or school to receive a donation. Once a brigade has signed up, TerraCycle will send participants prepaid shipping labels to return the collected Kashi packaging for free. TerraCycle utilizes the returned materials and other Kashi packaging to create eco-friendly, affordable accessories, such as office supplies and tote bags, which are sold by major retailers nationwide.
TerraCycle also carefully tracks each brigade’s activity and distributes donations to designated charities twice a year, in June and December, based on the total amount of materials collected by each brigade.
“The Kashi Brigade stands out in our eyes because we are able to upcycle more than just Kashi’s cereal boxes, but most of their all-natural foods packaging, including wrappers and liners,” comments Albe Zakes, vice president of TerraCycle. “Kashi also complements TerraCycle, considering both companies are committed to helping others live their best life by taking small steps every day towards a brighter future.”
A full list [11] of Greener Package articles related to TerraCycle—including editorial on other upcycling partners and projects, an interview with Albe Zakes, and GP.com blog posts from TerraCycle founder Tom Szaky—is available.
Terracycle is a corporate feel-good business. The impact it has on the environment is less than negliable.
The business is selling "Green Products" to consumers. The company takes over run rolls of packaging material from factories sends them to Mexico to be made into bookbags, placemats etc.
It sells these at a tidy profit to mass market outlets.
Nearly all the recycled material from schools is thrown away.
The corporations get free advertising exposure so they do not mind.
Sending jobs to Mexico these days is also a huge question.
Terracycle is a fraud, scam.
In response to the comment above, absolutely none of that is in any way true. I welcome anyone to come visit our facilities in New Jersey to see for themselves that those accusations are ridiculous.
TerraCycle, for starters, has been highly awarded by many independent social and environmental groups such as the Environmental Business Journal, Social Venture Network and Zerofootprint to name just a few.
Second, our business model has been independently "Carbon Audited" and TerraCycle products, even when made in Mexico (which some of our products are) have an 80% smaller carbon footprint than comparable virgin products. I can produce that study to any interested parties. So this anonymous poster claiming our products are not environmentally responsible couldn't be more incorrect. We have been independently audited to show, in fact, our products are some of the greenest products out there.
TerraCycle has never thrown away a single piece of packaging and I challenge this poster to prove otherwise. In fact, I'll overnight products made from obviously used packaging to anyone who inquires. You can still SMELL the juice on our drink pouch products.
The anonymous poster, who wouldn't even claim his lies, is right that we DO take post-industrial waste, misprinted, damaged or otherwise unusable packaging from our partners. Anyone with knowledge of this material knows that end-run rolls of this type are either landfilled or incinerated. So in fact it is just as eco-friendly to use end-runs as it is post-consumer waste. TerraCycle however uses both.
Want to see the studies, visit the factories or hold in your hands our upcycled products? Email Albe (at) terracycle dot net. That invitation is especially open to you, "Anonymous Poster"!!!
Cheers,
Tom
I was really interested in this program until I found that TerraCycle sends collected material to Mexico to have the products made.
Tom said: "even when made in Mexico (which some of our products are) have an 80% smaller carbon footprint than comparable virgin products"
Imagine how much smaller the carbon footprint if these were made in the USA-not to mention creating American Jobs. I for one will not buy TerraCycle products for this reason alone.
Abraham Lincoln said it best: "You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time."
Tell us just exactly what percentage of your stuff is made in USA, China, and Mexico? Do you collect trash and send it to China and Mexico to be recycled into new products? All I saw at your table today was marked "made in China" marked cheap items that looked to be made of NEW material! PO'd real mom and pop sellers/recyclers at the show to see them new products in those made in China boxes..a country that NO one that is really into recycling for the "green aspect" woud do business with! The USA has less factories because Govco and tree huggers stop them from opening, so we send our scrap to China to be reformed into products in the terrible polluting factories over there. So pollution is created and drifts its way back to the USA sailing over the boat loads of our dollars sailing over to China! This wont last forever, so enjoy it, them checks and sales will end one day!
What a strong debate!
I am speechless~ only hope Kashi would act along with his words.
OK. After searching out as many references as I thought reasonable on Terracycle I have come to the conclusion it is a borderline scam at best.
The various fertilizers on their website listed as "Made from soda bottles" - not quite. The CONTAINERS are recycled soda bottles, but the fertilizer has no soda bottle content, just worm poop. Same with their cleaning solutions and other liquid products. Just "green" solutions packaged in recycled soda bottles. To list these products as "Made from soda battles" is more than just a bit misleading.
Their "Brigade" recycling projects accept only certain branded wrappers, containers, etc. An advertising gimmick to get school kids and others to buy those branded products. Then the products made from those recycled branded wrappers, bags, etc. have the labels of those items prominently displayed all over the outsides of them. Advertising on the collection end, advertising on the finished product end. What a deal for the original product manufacturer. If they were truly in it for the greater environmental good they would accept ANY candy wrapper, chip bag, spread or yogurt cup, etc.
They may have started out with good environmental intentions but have morphed into an ad agency using the current environmentally conscious climate to further their own entrepreneurial ends.
Each brigade is sponsored by a corporation, but the brigade accepts and pays the nonprofits two cents for ANY type of chip wrapper, any type of candy wrapper, any type of juice pouch, cheese bag, etc. They do not care which brand a wrapper is.
We have sent in 7000+ wrappers from our little school of 150 kids and have received payment for ALL of the wrappers despite the brand.
If this is recycled material, then why did I see, "Made in China" stamped on obviously new items, not recycled original material as others had at this show.
The potato chip and drink material was obviously new, all alike and printed the same and there were stacks of the same item to compare and all the same...just like a stack of cheap Chinese items you would find at WalMart! If TerraCycle it really into recycling, then they did NOT have anything like that at this show, simpley a reseller of Chinese made products like any other Company such as Wal Mart or Target. All these Companies use the Chinese to make items from, possibly, recycled material reformed in the Chinese polluted factories.
I enjoyed seeing real Americans at the show using real recycled material from the streets of America, put together by them and for sale by them on the tables locally. Many of them were really bothered by the commercial TerraCycle table full of cheap Chinese items.
I have an old mesh shopping bag made in USA, but all of the shopping bags I see now are made in China, and they're made from recycled soda bottles. So the bottles go to China, made into bags, then back to US. That's a round-the-world. A well-traveled bag.