Recycling company TerraCycle has launched a new recycling programme for plastic air and homecare products.

The Air and Home Care Brigade, launched in partnership with Procter and Gamble’s Febreze brand, is a free recycling fundraising scheme that enables individual or organisation in the UK to recycle plastic air fresheners, plug-in refills, trigger head sprays, pumps, caps, and home cleaning wipe packs of any brand (such as those pictured right).

The brigade was launched after Febreze approached TerraCycle about recycling their products. Currently, air and homecare products are difficult to recycle, due to a lack of processing technology and high costs. As such, the material is often disposed of at landfill or energy generation facilities.

However, TerraCycle will now accept these products for processing into new products such as watering cans, garden benches and waste bins.

How the brigade works

Those wishing to recycle their air fresheners or homecare products can do so by signing up to the Air and Home Care Brigade online, downloading freepost Royal Mail labels, printing them off, sticking them to a parcel, and sending the products and packaging (of any bran) in to TerraCycle for recycling.

Once received, the company will reward the participant with two TerraCycle points for the weight of every piece of air and home care waste sent in, with each point redeemable for a one pence contribution to the school, charity or non-profit of the senders’ choice.

Febreze Freshness Rewards Contest

To celebrate the launch of the Air and Home Care Brigade, TerraCycle has launched its biggest competition to date.

The Febreze Freshness Rewards Contest offers the top four collectors the chance to win prizes of £1,000, £750, £450, and £250 respectively for their chosen school, charity or non-profit of choice. Those ranking fifth to 10th will receive a contribution of £100 each, and the 11th to 20th contributors will receive a charity contribution of £50.

In addition, all shipments received on the Air and Home Care Brigade during the contest dates will be entered into a sweepstake. At the end of the contest three shipments will be randomly selected as the winners of a £500 prize contribution to their chosen school, charity or non-profit. Throughout the contest, TerraCycle will provide a regular leaderboards and Facebook updates to allow all participating collectors to keep track of their progress.

The collection contest runs from 3 November 2014 to 30 April 2015.

Launched in the UK in 2009, TerraCycle Brigades offer nationwide collection programmes for waste streams that are not currently widely available from local authority kerbside collections.

TerraCycle already has a range of brigades already in place, including those for biscuit wrappers, crisp bags, toothbrushes, and coffee refill packaging.

Last year, the company reached the landmark of recycling its 10 millionth piece of packaging in the UK.

Find out more about the Air and Home Care Brigade and the Febreze Freshness Rewards Contest.