Not sure how to recycle that empty toothpaste tube or old shaving razor?
A collaboration between Elgin’s Sustainability Commission and TerraCycle Regulated Waste makes is making it easier to recycle items that typically end up in a landfill.
Four categories of products — oral care, cigarette waste, shaving materials and VTech & LeapFrog electronic toys — can be dropped off at the Downtown Elgin Market booths set up for the Sustainability Commission and the Downtown Neighborhood Association. The market is held at 3 p.m. every Friday on Riverside Drive through early October.
TerraCycle provides collection boxes for free and will be set up at the weekly market, said Kristin Youngmeyer, the city’s sustainability analyst. The boxes are sponsored by the producers of hard-to-recycle waste, such as Colgate and Gillette, she said.
The new initiative started with a local resident who was already using TerraCycle, a company that specializes in recycling waste that’s ordinarily hard to recycle, Youngmeyer said. It works with individuals, companies and communities to repurpose products and packaging not accepted by traditional municipal recycling programs, she said.
Items that will be accepted include oral care products, including used toothbrushes and toothpaste tubes as well as outer packaging for toothbrushes and floss containers; cigarette waste like extinguished cigarettes, cigarette filters, loose tobacco pouches, outer plastic and inner foil packaging, and rolling paper; and shaving materials like razors, razor blades, and razor packaging. VTech and LeapFrog electronic toys are also accepted.
Those things are difficult to recycle because of the mixed materials used in their production, Youngmeyer said.
For example, “toothpaste tubes are often made of multiple layers of different materials, such as plastic and aluminum, which cannot be processed by traditional material recovery facilities,” she said. “This is a common issue with many types of flexible packaging.”
It’s the same situation with electronic toys, which have plastic, metal and electronic parts, she said.
“These components need to be separated and processed individually, making them unsuitable for standard recycling streams,” Youngmeyer said.
TerraCycle cleans the items, then separates them by material type and processes them into raw materials for new products, she said. Cigarette ash and tobacco are decomposed through a specialized process, she said.
While the market ends in October, it’s possible the program could be replicated or enhanced by other community agencies or residents, Youngmeyer said. The Sustainability Commission offers a community grant program for up to $1,500 for sustainability-related projects and expanding or continuing the TerraCycle collection service is an example of such a project.
More information can be found at www.facebook.com/elginsustainability.
Elgin already has several ongoing recycling and waste programs. The At Your Door service, which is free, allows residents to dispose of electronics, hazardous materials and other items by leaving them at their front door for pickup. The service can be arranged by going to wmatyourdoor.com or calling 800-449-7587.
Since the At Your Door service started in 2020, more than 90% of items collected have been sent out for recycling, Youngmeyer said.
Residents also have access to curbside recycling collection for textiles. In 2023, 30,990 pounds of textiles — typically items made of fiber, yarn or fabric — were collected, Youngmeyer said. A curbside organics collection is also available for an annual subscription fee.
For more information on what programs are available and how to access them, go to elginil.gov/2469/Sustainability.
Gloria Casas is a freelance reporter for The Courier-News.
