Did you know you can recycle ALL of the packaging that comes with L.O.L. Surprise Dolls? No, me neither - until now.
I have four girls, three of whom are massive L.O.L. fans. We have suitcases of the brightly coloured and super trendy figurines, 80% of which were not purchased by me. Silly little dolls wrapped in about ten layers of crap and a big plastic ball. But I've now found a way to recycle L.O.L. packaging in a really simple way.
I get it - it's all the rage. YouTube unboxing videos are a thing, and kids love them, but let's face it, it's doing our beautiful world no favours, and I mean it when I say that. We use cloth nappies, we compost, we recycle, we buy second hand, and we try to cut out plastic in most aspects of our life. So as you can imagine, my girls' love for these dolls really grinds my gears.
That's why when I came across the newly launched L.O.L. recycling programme with TerraCycle, I had to share. It's rather brilliant and will make parents like myself less guilty of the layers of plastic leftover once the box is ripped to shreds.
TerraCycle is primarily an international volunteer-led recycling platform which allows consumers to collect non-recyclable waste to turn it into raw material to be used again on new products. They recycle things like coffee capsules, pens, baby food pouches, crisp packets and now, L.O.L. Surprise products, packaging and accessories.
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Once collected, the plastic waste is shredded, cleaned and then pelletised, and used on several new products like the picnic tables you see in Dublin Zoo, benches and most recently, playgrounds.
Recycling L.O.L. packaging is pretty straightforward:
- Simply sign up and make an account with TerraCycle for free. Once a member, you will be directed to a map to find your nearest public drop-off location where you can leave your waste.
- If there are none near you, there is an option to set up your own. All you need to do is secure a public place, usually a shop with prior consent, to host your collection.
- Alternatively, you can box up your plastic waste, download a free shipping label from your account, and post it to TerraCycle.
And that's not all. For each kilogram sent to TerraCycle, you will be rewarded 100 points. For every 1000 points you clock up, this equals €10, which you can then turn into a financial donation to a charity or school of your choice.
So if you think about it, over Christmas that could clock up pretty quickly if a school got involved with the programme. It’s something to think about. Maybe consider getting in touch with your parent's association or your child’s school and see if they would get involved and raise much-needed funds to help with upgrades or more.
