Recycling Toothbrushes On Long Island Could Help Sick Kids Play

Giving children who are battling serious illnesses a chance to just be kids on the playground again is as easy as recycling old toothbrushes, empty toothpaste tubes and floss containers through CVS.

The drug-store chain is partnering with the waste management company TerraCycle, Starlight Children’s Foundation and Colgate-Palmolive in the nationwide recycling effort. The state that collects the most waste will win a new playground, made from recycled oral waste, at a Starlight Children’s Foundation member hospital.

The collection effort ends June 22. For every 0.02 pounds of recycled oral waste shipped to TerraCycle, states will receive one “playground credit.” The playground equipment will be built from oral waste materials that have been recycled, cleaned, processed and remolded.

If the most oral waste is collected in New York, hospitals in your area could be the recipient of the new playground equipment.

Hospitals that are partners with the Starlight Children’s Foundation on Long Island include the following:

• Good Samaritan Hospital Medical Center, West Islip
• Good Shepherd Hospice, Port Jefferson
• Kids Need More, Central Islip
• Nassau University Medical Center, East Meadow
• North Shore University Hospital, Manhasset
• Ronald McDonald House of Long Island, New Hyde Park
• School Intervention & Re-entry Program at Stony Brook Children’s Hospital, Stony Brook
• South Nassau Communities Hospital, Hewlett
• Steve and Alexandra Cohen Children’s Medical Center of New York, New Hyde Park
• Stony Brook Children’s Hospital, Stony Brook
• The Children’s Medical Center at Winthrop University Hospital, Mineola
• United Cerebral Palsy Association of Nassau County, Inc., Roosevelt

Switching out toothbrushes every three months is recommended by dentists. After replacing your toothbrush, visit the CVS promotion website and download a free shipping label and ship your old toothbrush, toothpaste tubes and floss containers to TerraCycle.

TerraCycle CEO Tom Szaky said the initiative helps consumers divert oral-care waste from landfills, and also educates communities about a free, easy recycling solution for common items.

“We are proud to partner with these forward thinking companies to offer consumers a way to give back to the communities they live in and bring joy to its youngest citizens,” he said in a news release.

More information is found here.