How to donate your TerraCycle Recycling Rewards points

Turn your trash into cash

For most of our free recycling programs, for each qualifying shipment you send, you’ll earn TerraCycle Recycling Rewards points. These points can be redeemed as cash donations to your favorite schools, charities, and nonprofit organizations. Our international community of TerraCyclers has raised millions of dollars for amazing causes—all by recycling!

How it works

For most participating programs, you’ll earn 100 TerraCycle points per pound of trash that you send in—plus, you can join as many participating programs as you want! TerraCycle points can be redeemed for a donation of $0.01 per point (2,500 points = $25). Once you’ve earned enough points, you’re ready to redeem them!

How to redeem your points

  1. Sign in to your TerraCycle account and click on the ‘My Points’ drop-down.
  2. Click ‘Redeem my points,’ select the organization you wish to donate to, and enter how many points you’d like to redeem.
  3. You’ll receive an email to confirm it was a success.

Redeem your points →

Donate your points to any of our featured charity partner organizations, or search for your preferred charity here. 

You can redeem your points at any time; however, we only have two payment periods per year, in January and June. Any points redeemed by the end of October will be paid out in January, and any points redeemed by the end of April will be paid out in June.

Rules to know

  • You can only earn TerraCycle points if you collect through the “recycle from anywhere” option or if you run a public drop-off point.
  • If you recycle at a public drop-off point, the administrator of the drop-off point will receive the points for your trash.
  • You must donate at least 2,500 TerraCycle points ($25) at a time.
  • Some brand-sponsored free recycling programs require that shipments reach a minimum weight to qualify for rewards.

Adding a new charity 

If you can’t find your school, charity, or nonprofit using our search tool on the Rewards page, add it to our charity database! Follow these steps to add your organization: 

  1. Go to the Rewards page on our website. 
  2. Click “Add new charity.”
  3. Fill out the new charity request form with your organization’s Tax ID number and the address and contact information for the organization you would like to add. 
  4. Please note that the address and phone number must be for the organization you are fundraising for, not your home address or personal phone number.
  5. Click “Submit.”

You will be notified when your new charity request has been accepted. If your information is filled out incorrectly, your request may be rejected.

Bonus points

We love your charities as much as you do; that’s why we frequently offer the opportunity to earn bonus points! Check out our Contests page or follow us on social media to make sure you don’t miss an update.