Help Your Community and Planet: Recycle Household Items

2024 Update: the Community Eco Store owners have retired and begun a new adventure, so their location is no longer a TerraCycle drop-off point. However, I am still personally collecting – email admin@naturenutproject.com to coordinate drop off of recyclable items (ONLY the items listed below, please).

2023 Update: I can no longer accept snack and chip bags, candy wrappers, etc., for the Subaru program at this time. I have received an incredible amount of volume and it is difficult to sort through and offload quickly. If you’d like to keep collecting these items yourself, you can bring them to participating REI and Subaru locations.

Update for 2022 — We collected almost 103 pounds of recyclables in 2021, let’s try to double that number in 2022! Please subscribe (box at the bottom of this post) to be notified when we join more recycling collections.

268 million tons – that’s how much trash we generate in one year (US EPA).  A single person in the U.S. throws away about 1,650 pounds of trash each year, almost 5 pounds per day.  It doesn’t have to be this way!  Did you know that there are many household items like dead pens, toothpaste tubes, deodorant sticks, and spent Brita filters that don’t have to be trashed? 

I am determined to keep lots of traditionally non-recyclable items out of landfills, but I need your help.  I’ve signed up for several free recycling programs offered by TerraCycle® and am looking for willing volunteers in the community to collect waste items from your home to be sent in for recycling.  TerraCycle® offers free recycling programs to the public for hard-to-recycle waste. 

For every shipment we send in, TerraCycle® awards points that can be redeemed to help others through their nonprofit partners, including providing clean drinking water to people in need, feeding hungry Americans, reducing carbon emissions, adopting acreage in the Amazon rainforest, and providing supplies to natural disaster victims. Points can also be redeemed for local charities and school districts. Join us in collecting waste to benefit our communities and the Earth! 

If you are local to the Chester and Montgomery County area in PA, please collect the following items at home and contact me to coordinate a drop off. This collection will run as long as the programs are available (which is hopefully a long time!).  For other items that are not on this list, check back soon for a link to more recycling resources (when I have time to write it!).

All you need is a little corner of your house or apartment where you can fill a bin or a grocery bag with the items below.  Bug your neighbors, your extended family, and your friends to save these items. 

If you have experienced cold or flu-like symptoms, please wait 2 weeks from symptoms subsiding to donate out of consideration for others.

ALL BRANDS of personal care items (empty of excess product) through Tom’s of Maine and Gillette® recycling programs:

• toothpaste tubes/caps
• plastic toothbrushes and associated plastic packaging
• deodorant sticks and caps
• floss containers
• mouthwash bottles/caps
• plastic soap bar wrappers
• plastic disposable razors (PLEASE put in obvious, separate bag!)
• replacement razor cartridge heads (PLEASE put in obvious bag!)
• flexible or rigid plastic packaging the razors come in

I sort the recycling by hand so when razors are co-mingled with other recycling and it’s not obvious (in the same big bag as toothpaste tubes, snack bags, etc.) it’s difficult to know that I’m not going to grab something sharp. Please make every effort to separate the disposable razors and razor heads so I will see them and not accidentally grab them!

ALL BRANDS of Air Freshener Products through Febreze Air Care Recycling Program

• cartridges
• plug ins
• Trigger heads from air freshener bottles
• Plastic and film packaging from freshener bottles

BRITA® products (brand only) — new for 2024!

The Brita program is back! the following items are accepted:

• Brita Filters
• Brita packaging
• Brita bottles and caps
• Brita flexible plastic pouches
• Brita containers

ACURE Skin Care (brand only) – new for 2024!

• ACURE Tubs and lids
• ACURE Bottles and pumps
• ACURE Tubes and caps
• ACURE Dry shampoo bottles and caps
• ACURE Flexible plastic pouches
• ACURE deodorant containers
• ACURE towelettes packaging

Paula’s Choice Skincare (brand only)

• all PC lotion sprays, pumps, bottles, caps, etc. (please keep bottles assembled if possible)

Febreze Aerosol Cans (Febreze brand only)

Mountain House Pouches (brand only)

As a backpacker, I’m super excited about this collection! However, it’s a bummer that it’s MH brand meals only.

Stasher Bags (brand only)

• Stasher Bags are meant to last for many uses, but if one rips, you can recycle it at the Community Eco Store (and buy more there as well) (NOTE – I am not affiliated with the Eco Store and do not benefit financially from anything they sell)

Gerber Baby Products (brand only)

• Flexible/rigid Gerber baby food packaging
• Plastic lids from Gerber baby food
• Gerber baby clothing hangers

Arm & Hammer / Oxiclean Pouches (brand only) 

• baking soda plastic pouch
• laundry detergent plastic pouch

Dunkin Coffee Bags (brand only)

Late July Snack Bags (brand only)

BioTrue Eye Products (brand only)

• contact lends cases
• eye drops bottles
• contact lens solution caps
• eye drop single use units

Wellness Pet Food Bags (brand only)

The Gold Bond®, Cortizone-10®, and Selsun blue® Free Recycling Program and The Gold Bond® Aerosol Free Recycling Program (brand only)

Babybel® Free Recycling Program (brand only)

Entenmann’s Little Bites® Pouch Free Recycling Program (brand only)

Garnier® Hair and Skincare Free Recycling Program (brand only)

• Garnier tubs and lids
• Spray pumps
• lids
• flexible plastic pouches
• pumps and bottles
• tubes and lids
• roller bottles
• flexible plastic pouches

Recycle the regular plastic (#1, #2, or #5) Garnier bottles in your curbside recycling where possible

Gerber® Free Recycling Program (brand only)

I really hope you’ll join me in collecting these items for a greater cause! For more information about this collection, feel free to leave a comment below or send me an email at admin@naturenutproject.com.

Discontinued Collections:

Plastic Wrappers (rinsed of food residue) and other disposable items through Subaru Loves the Earth and REI:

This program is not discontinued by TerraCycle, but I can no longer accept these items.

Please continue to collect this waste stream and bring it to participating Subaru and REI (snack wrappers only) locations near you. Thank you for understanding!

• snack bags of all sizes
• chip, candy, and granola wrappers
• coffee / creamer pods
• Plastic straws
• Disposable coffee cups