TerraCycle: Why recycling is the key to a net zero transition
Julien Tremblin, General Manager for TerraCycle Europe, explains how we need to transform our recycling efforts to move to a world beyond waste and reach net zero.
There’s no two ways about it. To achieve our net zero ambitions, we must rethink our relationship with waste.
Significant increases in recycling have been achieved in the past 30 years and it’s right to acknowledge the positive contributions this has made to environmental awareness.
Recycling reduces the need for raw material extraction, saves energy and lowers greenhouse gas emissions compared to landfilling or incineration.
According to a study by the Bureau of International Recycling, recycling can significantly cut carbon dioxide emissions by an estimated 700 million tonnes annually.
Studies have shown that recycling can significantly decrease the carbon footprint of various materials, from paper and plastics to metals and glass. For example, recycling aluminium cans saves a whopping 95% of the energy required to make new cans from raw materials.
However, the recycling rates in the UK paint a sobering picture. While we can congratulate ourselves for what has been accomplished so far, the truth is that progress has stagnated.
Whilst Scotland and particularly Wales are ahead, according to Defra, the household recycling rate in England only reached 44.1% in 2022.
The 2023 numbers even show a reduction in how much waste is getting recycled. Adding to this are challenges posed by the vast amounts of waste (single-use or otherwise) generated by factories, companies and construction industries.
If businesses and the government are serious about achieving net zero by 2050, we need a radical acceleration of our efforts.
There are four major things we need to focus on to get there.
How can we achieve this goal?
Firstly, we must tackle the roughly 50% of waste currently not recycled from homes across the country.
For traditionally recyclable waste – think cans, plastic bottles, paper and cardboard – we simply need to improve capture rates. ‘Simpler Recycling’ and the introduction of a Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) for bottles will help.
The above only works for waste that’s considered valuable. For anything else – think complex packaging or products – where it costs more to recycle the waste than the value of the material is worth, we will need alternative methods of collection and recycling.
At TerraCycle, we’ve been tackling these hard-to-recycle waste streams for years. We work with businesses and consumers alike, to collect and recycle all difficult packaging from beauty products to crisp packets, blister packs and more.
Through our various Free Recycling Programmes, we divert these materials from landfills and incineration, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and conserving resources.
Secondly, the newly-launched EPR scheme in the UK has a big role to play. It will already incentivise brands and manufacturers away from the most complex packaging thanks to the eco-modulation.
It also allows manufacturers to offset waste that they collect and recycle via alternative systems from their EPR obligations. This is a great way to encourage brands and producers to take responsibility for the waste that their products generate.
TerraCycle’s partners that operate sizable recycling programmes whether at home, at retail or through a network of public drop-offs are already benefitting from reduced EPR fees.
Beyond that, it must ringfence funding to develop recycling capacity locally or directly subsidise the recycling of hard-to-recycle materials.
Thirdly, companies that have set clear targets for net zero must go beyond their current initiatives.
After focusing on clean energy generation or swapping fleets of vehicles, one of their clearest paths to lowering greenhouse gas emissions is to focus on reducing or eliminating waste.
Our commercial waste recycling division helps thousands of companies around the globe recycle waste streams as diverse as PPE, production scrap, or returned or unsold products that were previously destined to landfill or incineration.
Why is recycling these waste streams so important for net zero?
The impact of diverting waste from landfills and incineration is enormous. When evaluating post-Consumer Rigid Plastic Products and Packaging Recycling, the findings from a third party-verified, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) showed that across the eight key impact categories considered, including global warming potential, human carcinogenic toxicity, and fossil resource scarcity, all of the TerraCycle collection and recycling models outperformed the traditional municipal waste management options by a collective average of 73% compared to local municipal landfilling and by an average of 67% compared to incineration for waste to energy models.
On average, TerraCycle’s rigid plastics recycling programmes generate 70% less carbon emissions than waste-to-energy incineration and 53% less than municipal landfill models.
To truly move from a linear ‘take-make-dispose’ model to a circular one, we must avoid waste altogether and prioritise reuse. This is where innovative solutions like Loop come in.
Loop, launched by TerraCycle in 2018, is a reuse platform that partners with major brands to deliver their products in durable, reusable packaging.
Consumers pay a deposit for the packaging, which is fully refunded when the packaging is returned. This eliminates the need for single-use packaging altogether, dramatically reducing waste and conserving resources.
In France, where Loop is operational, we are seeing a tangible shift in consumer behaviour and a growing relevance of reuse systems.
A study by Zero Waste Europe found that reuse systems at scale can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 80% compared to single-use packaging.
Loop has partnered with major retailers in France including Carrefour and Monoprix and now offers a wide range of products sold in reusable containers, from food and beverages to household cleaning supplies and personal care products.
The positive change is evident in the increasing number of consumers choosing Loop, and in the growing recognition by brands that reuse is a viable and sustainable alternative to single-use packaging.
Indeed, a Loop product can reduce on average 45% of greenhouse gas emissions compared to the traditional in-store counterpart.
Summary
The above can appear ambitious but we now know that we cannot achieve this ambitious 2050 net zero target as a nation if we don’t tackle our waste problem.
At TerraCycle, we are committed to driving this shift, from a linear to a circular economy. We will continue to innovate and find new ways to recycle and reuse challenging waste streams, to partner with brands and retailers to try and eliminate the idea of waste®, and to educate and empower consumers to make more sustainable choices.
By recycling hard-to-recycle waste streams, integrating recycled content in products and packaging and bringing reuse at scale, we have a shot at achieving our goals.
The transition to a ‘World Beyond Waste’ is not an easy one, but it is essential for achieving net zero and creating a truly sustainable future for our planet. We all just have to play our part.
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