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October 25, 2007
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Yogurt cups = flower pots Do you have a bunch of empty yogurt containers lying around that you don’t know what to do with? Seek a Yogurt Brigade near you. The Yogurt Brigade, a new program by TerraCycle, helps to solve the issue of what to do with those pesky yogurt containers. They’ll take, clean and paint them to create small flower pots they plan to sell to nurseries. Stonyfield Farm of Londonderry is paying to have the containers shipped to TerraCycle in New Jersey from participating locations — mostly schools and organizations — along the East Coast. Stonyfield will provide the boxes and postage, but those participating in the program have to save about 400 containers before they ship them out. More than just paying to get rid of the waste to be reused, Stonyfield will donate two cents for each six-ounce container and five cents for each 32-ounce container to the participating organization’s selected charity. “It’s steps that Stonyfield is taking to clean up its industry,” said Albe Zakes, a spokesperson for TerraCycle. The yogurt container is often difficult to recycle, as many are not made with easily recyclable plastics, like number one or two. Stonyfield, for example, uses the number-five plastic because it uses less plastic in the packaging. TerraCycle is fond of creating brigades of different sorts to collect waste, as their products are made out of items found in the waste stream. There’s also a Pouch Brigade that collects juice pouches that they use to create fashion bags, and a Bottle Brigade they use to package their worm poop fertilizer. At the moment, the bottle brigade is on hold while it tries to locate a sponsor, much like Stonyfield for the Yogurt Brigade. TerraCycle hopes that the yogurt containers will replace the black flower pots in which plants are usually sold. Often, those flower pots are thrown away, Zakes said, and with the yogurt containers, there will be at least two uses of the container.
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Interested?
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