Terms and Conditions

Free & Paid Recycling Programmes

TerraCycle (“TC”) seeks to operate its Free and Paid recycling programmes (“Programmes”) in an ecologically friendly and rational manner. To that end, specific Programmes may have minimum shipping requirements (a certain minimum number of items must be shipped or the shipment will not be eligible for credit) which are specified on that Programme’s FAQ (“FAQs”), which are incorporated in these Terms and Conditions by reference. Further, TC will close Free Programme locations if no parcel has been received from that Programme location during a six-month period. After the closure, the Programme Location won't be able to join the Programme again if the space has been filled up in the meantime. This is done to eliminate dormant Programmes and allow that Programme “slot” to be utilized by another group. TerraCycle Programmes are intended exclusively for used, post-consumer packaging. Post-industrial, factory off-spec, write-off, mis-printed, or other pre-consumer waste is not accepted through these Programme platforms. Any shipments of such post-industrial waste will be returned to the point of origin and will incur a non-compliance charge. TC operates in the United Kingdom, except for the following locations that cannot participate at this time: the Hebrides, Isle of Man, Shetland Islands, Orkney Islands, Isles of Scilly, Jersey or Guernsey.

It shall be prohibited to use the Programmes for commercial use. TC will remove from the Programmes any individual or organisation not complying with this obligation. In that respect, TC will also close Free Programmes locations if waste is sent by professional waste collection organisations for a commercial purpose. 

Overweight parcels (i.e. above 20kgs per parcel) or oversized parcels (i.e. 60x60x50cm per parcel), duplicated labels, incorrect or misused labels, parcels or waste not compliant with the Programme requirements are not accepted and TC has the right to remove any individual or organisation from the Programmes in any of the above events. 

Labels can only be downloaded and used by the account owner and cannot be used by any third party. TC has the right to remove from the Programmes any individual or organisation not complying with this requirement. 

Programme Participation

As from December 13th 2022, for any public drop-off location programmes, only one drop-off location per account per programme is authorised and a minimum of 2 miles distance between each drop-off location is required (unless stated otherwise on the programme page).

Additionally, public drop-off locations must be open for a minimum of 3 hours a week to qualify for any programme membership.

Only one account per person is authorised. 

TerraCycle reserves the right to remove any individual or organisation that does not comply with the terms and conditions, the law or if your behaviour is considered by TerraCycle as disloyal, dishonest or fraudulent.

Points Programme

Following the reception at our Material Recovery Facility, the treatment time, which may vary depending on the number of shipments received, can take up to 30 working days to be processed and updated in your account. This also applies to your TerraCycle points being credited to your account. We appreciate your patience and assure you that we're working diligently to ensure your shipments are processed in a timely manner. Please note that our Material Recovery Facility is closed on Bank Holidays.

If you would like to claim for a missing shipment, you have 90 days to do so from the date the parcel was picked up by UPS / dropped off at a UPS point / dropped off at an InPost locker. Missing shipment claims made after 90 days will not be honoured.

If you would like to claim for a weight discrepancy, you have 60 days to do so from the date the parcel is marked as checked in by our Material Recovery Facility (i.e. it has been uploaded onto your account). Weight discrepancy claims made after the 60-day cut-off will not be reviewed.

Many Free Programmes accrue points (“Points”) for each unit of waste collected (over a minimum amount). Points may be applied in one of two ways : a) they may be applied to one of the charitable programmes chosen by TC for specific actions (by way of example only, a fixed number of points may be redeemed to plant trees by the Arbor Day Foundation) by our partner organizations (see, here for descriptions of these programmes); or b) the points may be redeemed for cash amounts that will be sent to the Charity or School designated by the Brigade Leader. Points will expire and the account holding them will be closed if there is no activity in the Brigade account for a one year period. Activity in a Brigade account means downloading a shipping label, shipping a package of appropriate post-consumer material to TC or an election entered onto TC’s website to either designate Points for a specific programme or redemption of Points into cash to be sent to a designated charity or school. Points that expire in this manner will not be available for designation to charities or for redemption. In addition, all checks expire one year after issue and no replacement requests for lost checks will be honoured after one year of the issuance date of the original check.

In the case of a minimum weight change, a reduction in the number of points attributed or new restrictions on the size or format of parcels, each programme participant will be informed of the change by email. Any parcel sent at least fourteen days before the date of the change indicated in the email will be subject to the terms of the programme in place before the announced date.

We have two payment rounds per year. If you redeem by the end of April, your charity will be paid in June. If you redeem by the end of October, your charity will be paid in January. Please note, the minimum amount of points that can be redeemed are 2,000 and you can only donate to a charity in the same country as your account is registered..

Online Shop

On our e-commerce site at shop.terracycle.com/en-GB we offer Zero Waste Boxes and other paid recycling solutions. To read specific terms and conditions relating to this online shop only, please click here

 

Types of Information we collect:

TC collects information about our stakeholders and visitors to our websites so that we can provide an experience that is responsive to our stakeholder’s and visitors’ needs. Information may be collected as part of: (i) fulfilling orders or information requests, (ii) purchasing products, (iii) registering for Brigade membership, (iv) submitting a job application, or (v) responding to communications from us (e.g., surveys, promotional offers, or reservation confirmations). The types of personally identifiable information that we collect may include your name, home, work and e-mail addresses, telephone and fax numbers, credit card information, date of birth, gender, and lifestyle information such as product preferences, and other relevant information. TC may also collect non-personally identifiable information about you, such as your use of our websites, communication preferences, green purchasing preferences and habits, and responses to promotional offers and surveys.

Purpose for collection, processing and disclosure:

Collection & Use

The primary purposes for collecting your personally identifiable information (PII) are as follows:

  • providing services such as processing a transaction (e.g., fulfilling a request for information, or completing a product order)
  • marketing and communications with you in relation to the products and services offered by TC, our strategic marketing partners, and other trusted third parties
  • performing market research via surveys to better serve your needs, improve the effectiveness of our websites, your experience with us and our various types of communications, advertising campaigns, and/or promotional activities

You will always be offered the choice not to submit your PII or to decide what communications you want to receive from us. However, doing so may cause certain transactions to become affected. For example, not providing a name or email will prevent the processing of certain requests; not providing an address may limit the programmes or offers we can make available to you that are geographically focused.

Processing and Disclosure

In most cases, the information you provide is added to our database. In the course of processing your information, some PII may become known to TC's affiliates, and/or third party service providers for the purposes outlined within this Privacy Statement. As a general practice, TC does not sell, rent, or give physical possession of your PII to unaffiliated third parties outside the TC system except for certain trusted third parties and partners. Situations in which TC may disclose your information to others include:

  • in situations where sharing or disclosing your information is required in order to offer you products or services you desire
  • when companies or services providers that perform business activities on behalf of TC require such information (e.g., credit card processing, customer support services, market research administration or database management services)
  • to comply with legal or regulatory requirements or obligations in accordance with applicable law or court order
  • in order to provide information that will enable us to make our services and those of our trusted partners more effective.

If information is shared as mentioned above, we seek to limit the scope of information that is furnished to the amount necessary for the performance of the specific function. Unless otherwise precluded by legal process, we require third parties to protect your PII and abide by applicable privacy laws and regulations.

Consent

On occasion, as part of our commitment to keep you informed, we may mail, e-mail, telephone, or contact you by other means to notify you of new TC products and services, or upcoming TC special offers, events, enhancements, or other relevant information that may be of interest to you. You may also receive mailings or other communications from carefully selected third parties. We always offer you the option to decline any or all of these communications by contacting TC directly.

We would like to keep all of our friends and stakeholders informed and equally able to take advantage of the benefits offered by TC and its strategic marketing partners. In some cases your permission will be implied from the nature of the service requested or transaction undertaken. Your permission will be deemed given for communications from us that are necessary to fulfill transactions and services that you request.

Additional Terms and Conditions Applicable to Programmes with Public Drop Off Locations.

Some TerraCycle Programmes employ Public Drop Off Locations (each, a “PDL”) to more efficiently collect recyclable materials.  Organisations that elect to operate PDLs encourage individuals to “drop off” their recyclable materials that qualify for specific Programmes. By signing up to be a PDL and agreeing to these Terms and Conditions, PDLs are also agreeing that TerraCycle may publish on the TerraCycle websites and on pages on third-party online platforms, relevant information about the PDL to allow participants to contact and find the location and to include their PDL in an interactive map designed to help consumers find PDLs in their area. The information shared are the contact details that have been approved by the collector. Such PDLs also agree that operating as a Public Drop Off Location does not violate any applicable rules of their location, regulations or laws, and that they will maintain a safe environment for all participants in the relevant programme.

Additional Terms and Conditions Applicable to the Tassimo Hub & Spoke Model

Disclaimer of Damages: The receptacles that are provided by TerraCycle once delivered to your site are not under the control or influence of TerraCycle and therefore, TerraCycle is not responsible for any losses or damages to any personal possessions, property and/or persons that may occur once that receptacle is on your site, including but not limited to those that due to inclement weather or other acts of God.   All such receptacles were designed with commercially reasonable safety features; however, you should take any and all necessary precautions to protect against any such damages.  TerraCycle shall not be liable for any special, incidental, or consequential damages, including, without limitation, lost revenues, or lost profits, resulting from the use or misuse such receptacles. 

Data transfers across international borders:

As a global company, we endeavour to provide you with the same outstanding service in many countries in the world. To achieve this goal, we have established a global network of offices, data centers, trusted marketing partners, service providers, customer contact centers, and trained associates around the globe. The nature of our business and our operations may require us to transfer your information, including PII, to other group companies, properties, centers of operations, data centers, or service providers that may be located in countries outside of your own. Although the data protection and other laws of these various countries may not be as comprehensive as those in your own country, TC will take appropriate steps to ensure that your PII is protected and handled as described in this Privacy Statement.

Access to personally identifiable information:

To ensure that your personally identifiable information (PII) is accurate and up to date, we encourage you to regularly review and update your information as appropriate (e.g., in the event your home or e-mail address changes, or you wish to add an additional method for us to communicate with you). Please note that in an effort to confirm the accuracy of your PII, you may be asked to provide proof of identity (or other authentication materials) together with a completed access request form. Access to PII cannot be provided by telephone.

If, upon review, you wish to deactivate your programme profile, or update your PII, we will endeavour to do so in a timely manner. Occasionally, information that you request to be removed will be retained in certain files for a period of time in order to properly resolve disputes or to troubleshoot problems. In addition, some types of information may be stored indefinitely on "back up" systems or within log files due to technical constraints, or financial or legal requirements. Therefore, you should not always expect that all of your PII will be immediately or completely removed from our databases in response to your request.

Security Safeguards:

TC recognizes the importance of information security, and is constantly reviewing and enhancing our technical, physical, and logical security rules and procedures. All TC owned websites and servers have security measures in place to help protect your PII against loss, misuse, and alteration to the extent within our control. Although "guaranteed security" does not exist either on or off the Internet, we safeguard your information using both procedural and technical safeguards, including password controls, "firewalls" and the use of encryption where that is deemed appropriate.

On-line Technologies:

As do most interactive websites, TC may use cookies, invisible pixels, and web beacons to obtain information about you while visiting our websites. A cookie is a very small text file that is sent to your browser from a web server and stored on your computer's hard drive. It assigns the computer with a unique identifier, which in turn, becomes your identification card whenever you return to a TC website.

Cookies are designed to save you time because they help us to provide you with a customized experience without you having to remind us of your preferences each time you return to our web pages. TC cookies are not designed to damage your files, nor can they read information from other files on your computer hard drive. Cookies can also help us provide you with a personalized on-line experience in the following ways:

  • they remember your user name and password for future visits so log-in is easier and faster
  • they ensure you are provided with the appropriate frames and content
  • they ensure you obtain all requested information
  • they help us deliver communications that are relevant and responsive to your interests and location

TC cookies are limited to our websites only, and are not designed to follow you when traveling on the Internet after leaving TC owned websites. We track the usage of our websites in order to better meet your needs and to help make it easier for you to find information in the future. Please note that in addition to TC cookies, various third parties may also place cookies on your computer's hard drive. TC is not responsible for the presence or absence of third party cookies, or for the technological capabilities or practices employed by third parties in connection with third party cookies.

If you would prefer not to have the benefits of cookies, your Internet browser can be adjusted to treat cookies in different ways. Depending upon the type of browser you are using, you may be able to configure your browser so that: (i) you are prompted to accept or reject cookies on an individual basis or (ii) you may be able to prevent your browser from accepting any cookies at all. You should refer to the supplier or manufacturer of your web browser for specific details about cookie security. However, you should also understand that rejecting cookies might affect your ability to perform certain transactions on our websites and our ability to recognize your browser from one visit to the next.

TC may also use invisible pixels, sometimes called web beacons, to count how many people visit certain web pages. Information collected from invisible pixels is used and reported in the aggregate and does not contain PII. TC may use this information to improve marketing programmes and content.

Links to other Websites:

In order to further your web experience and TerraCycle’ s business , TC provides links to selected other websites. TC is not responsible or liable for any content presented by or contained on any independent website, including, but not limited to, any advertising claims or marketing practices. Please note that while TC will protect your information on TC owned and operated websites, we cannot control and will not be responsible for the privacy policies of third party websites, including websites owned or controlled by independent franchisees, third party owners of hotel, resort, interval ownership, or residence properties that may use the name of a TC brand, or websites not controlled or authorized by TC. Third party websites that are accessed through links on our websites have separate privacy and data collection practices, and security measures. We have no responsibility or liability for the practices, policies and security measures implemented by third parties on their websites. We encourage you to contact them to ask questions about their privacy practices, policies and security measures before disclosing any PII. We recommend that you review the privacy statements and policies of linked websites to understand how those websites collect, use and store information.

Minors:

TC does not seek to obtain nor does it wish to receive PII directly from minors; for this reason, when requesting PII, we seek to determine a respondent’s age. We cannot always determine the age of persons who access and use our websites. If a minor (as defined by applicable law) provides us with his/her data without parental or guardian consent, we encourage the parent or guardian to contact us to have this information removed and to unsubscribe the minor from future TC marketing communications.

Additional Terms and Conditions applicable to the shipment of Medical and Lab Garments and Gloves

By agreeing to these Additional Terms & Conditions in Respect of Apparel Shipments, you hereby agree to ship only such apparel as conforms with the following provisions Any apparel shipped in contravention of these Terms may be rejected and subject to additional shipping and handling charges. In addition, your ability to make future shipments could be affected.

All apparel must be reviewed during de-gowning to ensure compliance, safety and proper disposal.

Step 1: Identifying Biological Contamination

  • Apparel that has the presence or the reasonably anticipated presence of blood or other potentially infectious materials (see, e.g., 29 CFR 1910.1030 (b)) is considered contaminated and may not be shipped to TerraCycle.
  • Apparel with liquid or semi-liquid blood or other potentially infectious materials; contaminated items that would release blood or other potentially infectious materials in a liquid or semi-liquid state if compressed; items that are caked with dried blood or other potentially infectious materials and are capable of releasing these materials during handling; pathological and microbiological wastes containing blood or other potentially infectious materials (see, e.g., 29 CFR 1910.1030 (b)) may not be shipped to TerraCycle.

Step 2: Identifying other contaminants

  • You may not ship garments with excessive amounts of other contaminants, which may include but are not limited to chemicals, potent compounds, flammable, acidic, poisonous, toxic or other hazardous materials.
  • Some garments with acceptable amounts of such hazardous materials may be shipped to TerraCycle (see, e.g., 49 CFR 172.101: hazardous materials special provisions and quantity limitations).
  • To identify the acceptable quantity for potential contaminants, refer to the MSDS sheet for each material (transportation section and/or hazard classification).
  • Refer to 49 CFR 172.101 (hazardous materials special provisions and quantity limitations)
  • For assistance in identifying quantity limitations or hazard classifications please contact TerraCycle.

Step 3: Identifying Acceptable Apparel

  • Apparel that does not have the presence of blood or other potentially infectious materials
  • Apparel that has not come in contact with blood or other potentially infectious materials
  • Apparels used in chemical labs (in accordance with limited quantity exemptions as defined in FR 49)
  • Garments used in manufacturing

EHS Coordinator: For more information on acceptable apparel and CFR regulations contact TerraCycle at 0800 0470 984.

Account transfers:

If a transfer of Account to a third party is requested, please contact the Account holder to authorise such transfer and get the Account holder to edit all information on his or her Account with your details. If the Account to be transferred was created with a professional email address of a company or organisation and you cannot reach the initial Account holder, a legal representative of this company or organisation can also request transfer of this Account with valid proof of representation to be provided. In that event, you shall request and complete the Account Transfer Request Form for us to authorise such transfer. Such form can be obtained by email through customer.support@terracycle.co.uk.

Complaints policy:

If you have a concern regarding our service, please contact our Customer Service Team. Our Customer Service Team will try to resolve your query without undue delay. You can contact us in the following ways:

TerraCycle Help Centre https://help.uk.terracycle.com/hc/en-gb

Email us - customersupport@terracycle.co.uk

Call us -  01465 915018 (Monday to Friday 9am until 5pm excluding Bank Holidays)

Fill in our contact form - https://www.terracycle.com/en-GB/contact-us

If our Customer Service team isn't able to resolve your concern, we can then register your concern as a complaint. If we have made a mistake, we endeavour to learn from it, to avoid making the same mistake in the future.

What happens with my complaint?

When a complaint is received it should be passed on to the Customer Service team who will record it in the complaints log. The complaints manager will be the named person who deals with the complaint through the process.

You will receive an acknowledgement of your complaint within 5 working days. You may be contacted to make sure that we have understood your complaint properly or for further information regarding your complaint.

Once the investigation is complete the customer service manager will email you with a full response within 21 working days, or will send an update on the progress with the investigation and a new proposed deadline for their response.

We monitor and review the effectiveness of our complaints handling process to ensure that this continuously improves and learnings from complaints handling are carried through into the wider organisation. Complaints are reviewed quarterly to identify any trends which may indicate a need to take further action.