These Plastics Are Hated More Than the Ones in 'Mean Girls'—Here's How to Recycle Them

We all think we know how to recycle because we can toss an aluminum can in its appropriate bin, but how is it actually done? Get a glimpse of the real science that goes down alongside TerraCycle’s company happy hours and team yoga activities in our new video series, On the Ball With Dan Harris. Harris is the director of zero waste boxes at TerraCycle, as featured on Participant Media's Human Resources on Pivot, so he knows a thing or two about not wasting time (get it?).

Americans throw away 33 million tons of plastic every year, but only 6.5 percent of that gets recycled. In this week's episode, Rick "the Brain Behind the Waste" Zultner gives us a science lesson on analyzing plastic at molecular levels and how that can result in brand-new items made from the seemingly unrecyclable material.

Human Resources is an unconventional, comedic, behind-the-scenes look at TerraCycle, an innovative recycling company whose mission is to eliminate the idea of waste. TerraCycle takes anything and everything that is landfill bound—from potato chip bags to cigarette butts—and recycles, upcycles, reuses, or otherwise transforms these objects into something else. Using science, creativity, and a little DIY attitude, it's changing the way we think about trash.