Baby got pack, back: TerraCycle and Gerber create free infant food packaging recycling program

31 Oct 2019 --- Early childhood nutrition Nestlé-subsidiary Gerber is partnering with recycling specialist TerraCycle to involve consumers in a free recycling program. Caregivers will now be able to mail in packaging that is not municipally recyclable using a prepaid shipping label. Once collected, the packaging is cleaned and melted into hard plastic that can be remolded to make new recycled products. Additionally, for every pound of packaging waste sent to TerraCycle through the Gerber Recycling Program, collectors can earn US$1 to donate to a non-profit, school or charitable organization of their choice. This move comes as companies are under increasing pressure – both from consumers and at a policy level – to reduce their impact on the environment.

“It would be more effective to design all packaging to be recycled by existing waste streams and there is currently a number of baby food product packaging that can be accepted curbside. Unfortunately, given the limitations on what is accepted at municipal facilities and the trend to develop packaging that is disposable and lightweight, that is not the case for every product,” Sue Kauffman, North American Public Relations Manager at TerraCycle, tells PackagingInsights.

In an effort to combat this issue, Gerber and TerraCycle partnered to create the Gerber Recycling program to divert all baby food packaging, outside of what is accepted curbside, from the landfill, Kauffman adds.

Customers can sign up to participate through the Gerber Recycling Program webpage.The shipments will be coordinated through UPS, which Kauffman describes as being one of the most sustainable shipping companies in the world. When the baby food packaging waste is returned to TerraCycle the shipments are bundled into existing routes that UPS is already driving, so no new routes are created to fulfill this recycling program, she explains. 

“Through this program, Gerber is offering parents an easy way to divert waste from landfills by providing a responsible way to dispose of certain hard-to-recycle baby food packaging,” adds TerraCycle CEO and Founder, Tom Szaky. “By collecting and recycling these items, families can demonstrate their respect for the environment not only through the products that they choose for their children but also with how they dispose of the packaging.”

Recycling is in part about economics – the value of the raw materials collected in the municipal programs needs to exceed the cost of collecting them. In the case of hard-to-recycle items, the cost associated in processing complex packaging exceeds its value. Kauffman explains that it is the trend of sending baby food packaging that does not fall into the accepted waste parameters at a municipal facility to a landfill that the partnership aims to counter.

Gerber highlights that this partnership is one of many steps toward its goal to achieve 100 percent recyclable or reusable packaging by 2025. The Gerber Recycling Program is open to any interested individual, school, office, or community organization.

Customers can sign up to participate through the Gerber Recycling Program webpage. The companies expect that the program will be successful in terms of uptake level. Since its founding over 15 years ago, Terracycle has recycled more than seven billion pieces of waste that consumers have voluntarily sent.

By Katherine Durrell