At TerraCycle’s new Aurora, Ill., facility, conveyors move boxes filled with items that most recycling programs do not accept: snack wrappers, coffee pods, mascara wands, and cigarette butts, to name just a few. These are among the hard-to-recycle materials that the company collects, sorts, and sends for processing into new materials.
The 100,000-sq-ft operations center is located in a renovated building that once housed the Henry Pratt Company, a long-standing industrial site in Aurora. On Oct. 30, TerraCycle celebrated the official opening of the facility with a ribbon-cutting ceremony attended by city officials, community members, and company leadership.
“This building carries deep meaning within this community,” said Jen Eichorst, vice president of business operations at TerraCycle. “The Henry Pratt Company operated here for over a century, a true piece of Aurora’s identity. Today as we cut this ribbon, we’re not just opening a new facility, we’re opening the door to possibility, to innovation, to collaboration, and to progress towards a more sustainable future.”
The restored facility maintains the original structure of the former factory while adding modern systems to handle TerraCycle’s growing recycling programs across North America.
Inside the sorting and fulfillment operations
At the event, Tom Szaky, founder and CEO of TerraCycle, reflected on the company’s beginnings. “TerraCycle started 25 years ago as a tiny idea out of a dorm room on how we foundationally solve for the idea of waste,” he said. “Our mission is to eliminate the very idea of waste, not just here in Chicago and in the Midwest, but globally.”
TerraCycle offers a range of Zero Waste Boxes for purchase online by individuals and groups that can be used to collect hard-to-recycle materials such as coffee capsules and flexible packaging.PMMI Media Group
Inside the Aurora facility, TerraCycle operates both a fulfillment center and a sorting area. The fulfillment center ships approximately 200 Zero Waste Boxes per day, increasing to 500 during peak times such as Black Friday. The boxes, available for purchase online, can be used by individuals or organizations to collect specific categories of hard-to-recycle materials. Some examples include pet food packaging, beauty product containers, Styrofoam, and coffee bags. There are 234 box options in all.
According to Krista Johnson, MRF operations manager, who led a tour during the event, “The price of the box includes shipping, labor, processing, and the actual cost of sorting and recycling the contents.”
Once consumers have filled the box, they ship it back to TerraCycle. The Aurora facility receives 500 to 1,000 boxes per day, depending on the season. These parcels include both Zero Waste Boxes and shipments from brand-sponsored recycling programs. As Johnson explained, TerraCycle works with more than 80 brand partners, including Colgate, Swiffer, Murad, and Entenmann’s, which cover the cost for customers to return their empty packaging for recycling.
The facility receives from 500 to 1,000 parcels per day that are each weighed, scanned, and grouped into material categories before the contents of the boxes are sorted.PMMI Media Group
In addition to consumer waste, TerraCycle receives pallet loads of materials from commercial and industrial clients. One large and ongoing category includes personal protective equipment.
After the boxes arrive from UPS, each is weighed and scanned to record its contents. They are then divided into high- and low-volume categories. Lower-volume items are stored until enough material accumulates for processing. Every box is manually sorted to remove contamination, ensuring that each waste stream remains suitable for reprocessing.
During the grand opening, employees were sorting four material streams: contact lens packaging, markers, beauty packaging, and flexible packaging.
During the grand opening, TerraCycle operators were sorting through beauty product packaging to ensure the shipments included no contaminants that could damage a reprocessor’s equipment.PMMI Media Group
After sortation, the materials are staged in the dock area until there is enough for a full truckload. The shipments then go to reprocessors that convert the waste into usable raw materials for manufacturing. TerraCycle partners with recycling companies to help them adapt their systems to handle complex materials and to expand their recycling capabilities. The Aurora site also includes a small machine shop where equipment used for these processes is maintained and adjusted before being deployed to partner facilities.
Partnership with the City of Aurora
TerraCycle selected Aurora for its new operations center in part due to its central U.S. location. The facility represents both a local economic investment and a step toward expanding TerraCycle’s national logistics network.
At the grand opening, Aurora Mayor John Laesch spoke about the significance of the company’s arrival. “This is the exact kind of business that I want to see during my administration,” he said. “I’m a climate activist and an environmentalist, and this is the future. We have to protect the planet for future generations and leave the world better than it is today.”
The city has worked to attract businesses focused on sustainability and adaptive reuse of industrial properties. TerraCycle’s renovation of the historic Henry Pratt building aligns with those goals, creating new jobs and reactivating a landmark site for modern use.
As Eichorst told attendees before the ribbon was cut, “The best part of our story is still ahead.” PW
