(Photo Credit: TerraCycle and Colgate-Palmolive)Colgate and TerraCycle launched a free program in the United Kingdom for recycling oral care products and packaging, regardless of brand. Participants in the new program get the opportunity to fundraise for schools and charities.
The Colgate Oral Care Recycling Program aims to divert oral care packaging and products from landfills. Currently the program accepts toothpaste tubes and caps, toothbrush outer packaging, toothpaste boxes, electric and battery toothbrush heads as well as toothbrushes. This complex mix of materials hasn’t been recyclable through council recycling systems in the UK, according to REB Market Intelligence.
“Oral care products are used by all of us each and every day, so it’s one of the most frequently asked about types of products that consumers tell us they want to be able to recycle,” said Laure Cucuron, general manager of TerraCycle Europe.
More than 900 public drop-off locations are participating across the UK. Once TerraCycle collects the materials from consumers, the recycling business separates products and packaging by polymer type, cleans them, and then extrudes them into plastic pellets to make new recycled products.
Consumer products company Colgate-Palmolive sells oral care, personal care, home care, and pet nutrition products in more than 200 countries and territories globally. A recycling program that Colgate and TerraCycle previously launched in the United States recycled toothpaste tubes, caps, cartons, packaging, dental floss containers, and toothbrushes. It recycled more than 3.5 million items and raised over $75,000.
Delivering more sustainable packaging is among the goals outlined in Colgate-Palmolive’s 2017 CSR and sustainability report. The company’s strategy includes striving to design products for reuse, recyclability, and materials reduction as well as supporting efforts to improve local recycling systems.
TerraCycle recently created a program with Kellogg Company to collect hard-to-recycle Pringles cans in the UK starting in December.
