TerraCycle, a consumer products recycling company, has partnered with Casella Waste Systems, a Vermont-based waste management company, to launch “TerraCycle Pouch by Cassella”, a pilot program for hard-to-recycle materials.

The pilot program is a subscription-based service where households and businesses in Burlington, Vermont can subscribe to a collection and recycling plan based on their needs by visiting the program’s website terracyclepouch.com. Subscribers will receive pouches from Casella which are used to fill it with waste materials. Once the pouches are full subscribers can place the pouches at their doorstep and request a pickup by scanning a QR code on the pouch or logging into their account on the program’s website. 

Casella will pick up the pouches and deliver them to TerraCycle’s material recovery partners. The collected waste is then sorted both manually and automatically into individual components which are recycled into raw material that can be used to make new products. 

The pilot program will target more than 20 hard-to-recycle materials including coffee capsules, cosmetic packaging, eyewear, office supplies, pet food packaging, toys, and different types of plastic packaging. Casella also plans to expand to other areas beyond Vermont if the pilot program proves to be economically and environmentally valuable to the customers.