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Committee weighs Black Earth/TerraCycle partnerships for hard‑to‑recycle collections
Summary
Wakefield volunteers discussed using Black Earth (a TerraCycle partner) or other vendors to collect Styrofoam and black take‑out containers, noted per‑box costs and training needs, and agreed to identify vendor contacts and potentially pilot a small paid collection box.
Committee members considered options for collecting hard‑to‑recycle items such as black take‑out containers and Styrofoam. Sarah at Creative Chaos was discussed as a potential permanent drop‑off site; Black Earth (used by TerraCycle) was named as the likely vendor to process certain streams but members emphasized the need to confirm exact accepted materials and per‑box costs.
Melissa Uzzell and others warned that specialized boxes can be costly (committee members noted roughly $50–$56 per box as an example) and stressed the importance of clear volunteer training to avoid contamination that could invalidate a whole collection. The group discussed running a small pilot — collecting black plastic at an upcoming Fix‑It Clinic or sports swap, packing one or two boxes to assess volume and cost, and comparing direct TerraCycle arrangements vs. working through Black Earth.
Next steps included identifying and sharing vendor contacts (Black Earth, TerraCycle, and the Green Junk Team), consolidating potential collections at existing community pop‑ups, and checking with vendors on exactly which types of black plastics and Styrofoam are accepted before a public call for donations.
