In many parts of the country warm weather has finally arrived, which means cookout season is upon us, ushering in a summer’s worth of charcoal-scented air, laid back afternoons that extend into evening, and al fresco feasts with (now, socially distanced) friends or family.   While it doesn’t take much more than a grill and a package of hot dogs to create a worthy celebration, a few simple, inexpensive upgrades — think next-level condiments, stylish outdoor dishware and elevated lawn games — can make any backyard BBQ that much more special.         When it comes to light, easy-to-clean, outdoor-friendly dishware, melamine is king. It can also be downright stylish. Lay your table with these white, ruffle-edged dishes that mimic paper plates (minus the soggy mess that usually comes along with them), or evoke your favorite country quilt with a set of colorful, prairie inspired plates. Both designs are dishwasher friendly, making cleanup almost as easy as disposables.         Ketchup, mustard, mayo, relish — if you’re firing up burgers or hot dogs, these four condiments are non-negotiables. But why stop there? Designate one corner of the table as a toppings bar, and stock it with spreads like NY Shuk’s Signature Harissa, Stonewall Kitchen’s Roasted Garlic Onion Jam, Brooklyn Delhi’s Sweet Mango Chutney or Fly by Jing’s fiery Sichuan Chili Crisp       Grilling novices and pros alike can learn a thing or two from The Outdoor Kitchen (Ten Speed Press, 2020), Chef Eric Werner’s homage to all things cooked over the fire. His flame-centric philosophy — not to mention his recipes for Hartwood spiced spareribs, grilled tomato gazpacho and burnt strawberry ice cream — will inspire you to expand your barbecue repertoire.   And while burgers and dogs are typically the stars of the show, Shelly Westerhausen’s book Platters and Boards will teach you how to create photo-worthy spreads of cheese, veggies and other snacks (like crème fraîche deviled eggs and quick rose-pickled grapes) to beautifully round out the meal.     Chicken and sausages are easy enough for any newbie to grill with success, but for ‘cue lovers who are hesitant to try the more complicated stuff (or don’t own a smoker), it’s mail order BBQ to the rescue. Online purveyors like Porter Road have great cuts to cook up yourself, while Texas’ famous Black’s Barbecue and Corky’s BBQ in Memphis ship their perfectly made meats — tender beef brisket, smoky ribs and pulled pork — right to your door, ready to be reheated.     Bocce, badminton and corn hole are never out of place at a backyard barbecue. But adding in a few tabletop classics made life-size, like Tumbling Timbers or Four in a Row, will make the occasion ten times more fun.   Meanwhile, keep the little ones entertained with Stomp Rocket, a kid-powered rocket launcher; a running leap onto the launch pad sends the rocket (safely) soaring. Or with Zuru’s Bunch O Balloons, which uses a garden hose to fill 100 water balloons in 60 seconds. The self-tying system means you spend less time knotting balloons and kids spend more time splashing. (Plus Zuru partners with the global recycling company Terracycle, which lets you ship the spent balloons to be upcycled into new products).     Switch off your patio lights and instead string up a few rows of elegant outdoor bulbs to keep your barbecue twinkling after the sun sets. These soft-glowing globe lights with corrosion-resistant, nickel-plated bases will last the whole grilling season and beyond. For an eco-friendly option, opt for solar powered string lights that gather energy while the sun is up and shine long after it goes down.     There is arguably no more refreshing way to end a barbecue than with an ice pop, especially when they are homemade. Whether you’re making Smitten Kitchen’s sunset-colored peach melba popsicles or Fany Gerson’s creamy rice pudding paletas, Zoku’s Mod Pops mold has a cute retro look and is easy to clean and store. And for pint-size portions, freeze up a few pops with Zoku’s adorable mini molds.

Em 2017, por meio de iniciativa do presidente do SEACMS, Daniel Felício, em implementar um projeto de responsabilidade socioambiental, nasceu o Projeto Brigada de Esponjas em parceria com a Terracycle. O objetivo é atender a situação de responsabilidade socioambiental no sentido de criar uma logística reversa para aqueles resíduos que são gerados na Limpeza Profissional.

“My message is that we'll be watching you” is how Greta Thunberg, the 17-year-old founder of the School Strike for Climate movement, began her speech to the United Nations last September. Her generation, she said, will no longer accept business as usual to solve the climate crisis.   Thunberg’s generation—who are all home from school and watching—now sees that when we said ambitious change wasn’t possible, that we couldn’t upend global systems, that it would require too much, too fast—we were wrong. While the long-term environmental benefits of the coronavirus will be minimal, the mere fact that the entire world has slowed down in three months—that individuals and businesses have stopped on a dime—means that “not possible” or “not yet” will no longer be viable responses when Gen Z demands change.   None of this is surprising. COVID-19 has accelerated the trends we saw in its lead-up: the decline of retail, the growth of direct-to-consumer channels, wellness as a movement and values-driven consumerism. That sustainability will be a foundation of the economy that comes out of this pandemic is a reaffirmation of what Gen-Z has already told us. The Gen-Z generation is already aging into the workforce and becoming the largest consumer group. Studies show that millennials will spend more for sustainable products, but Gen-Z is willing to pay an even higher premium. They’re also more likely to boycott and “cancel” brands that aren’t moving toward sustainability fast enough. And they process digital media faster than ever before which has, over time, honed their BS detectors. Beyond consumer sentiment, sustainability is proving itself as one of the most reliable brand differentiators. A recent New York University Stern Center for Sustainable Business study found that since 2013, sustainable products grew 5.6 times faster than conventionally marketed products, and 3.3 times faster than the CPG market as a whole. For brands to survive and compete, sustainability can no longer be an afterthought. Here’s how brands are beginning to embrace sustainability:  

Starting with low-hanging fruit

As first steps to sustainability, we’re seeing brands improve packaging recycling, create emissions offsets and partner with nonprofits–finding ROI when these efforts are paired with smart marketing tactics. This means taking the consumer on the path with them, creating educational messaging to have a more positive impact. Credo, the clean beauty retailer, for example, has created a packaging recycling program with TerraCycle that gives consumers loyalty points for returning empty beauty products—even non-Credo products–turning a competitor’s customers into their own loyalty members. For brands looking for those “easy wins,” SMAKK’s Mission Plan pairs these types of tactics with marketing strategies, and the Slow Factory Foundation offers a primer on sustainable literacy as well as a sustainability crash course.  

Creating circular product experiences

Recycling is broken and single-use packaging is a massive problem. Circular product experiences are moving to fill the gap with countless new challenger brands rising up to disrupt the CPG marketplace and reduce waste. Brands including Bite, by Humankind and Clean Cult use innovative refill programs to convert one-time purchases to subscription models. A refill model turns a single purchase into a repeat with very little friction, often passing savings on to the consumer. In the case of the whole-food supplements brand STAMBA, the durability and design of the packaging adds to shelf presence in retail, while the refill program brings the consumer data into the brand’s digital ecosystem.  

Turning trash into a cult object

Nonprofits like 4 Ocean and Parley are using products created from the problems they are trying to solve to shine a light on the issues themselves. In the case of Parley’s collaboration with Adidas, the covet-worthy shoes made from ocean plastic becomes a tool to spread awareness, with consumers retelling the story of their purchase. Other brands like Everlane, Girlfriend Collective and Rothy’s have developed campaigns that highlight recycled materials in their products to quantify the impact of their purchase for shoppers.  

Going beyond zero

The most ambitious companies are going beyond carbon neutral to truly offer reparative solutions. Microsoft has set aggressive emissions reductions goals including going carbon negative by 2030. By 2050, its goal is to remove all the carbon the company has emitted since it was founded in 1975. As awareness in understanding businesses’ historical impacts grows, simply making incremental changes to reduce emissions or add recycled content to new packaging won’t be enough. Brands that have invested billions in their shelf presence will have to think about the inadvertent consumer touchpoints their trash is creating and invest there as well. It’s likely we’ll see more pressure for legacy brands to step up. Coming out of Covid-19, we now have an opportunity to rebuild a better economy where the bottom line includes sustainability. As Greta said, “The world is waking up and change is coming, whether you like it or not.”

No oceano tem plástico o suficiente para dar 400 voltas na Terra. O que você faz para contribuir com aumento desta quantidade?

Summer will be here before you know it, and while I would not exactly consider myself a warm-weather person, there is one reason I love the season: frozen cocktails!   While popping some ice cubes into your favorite spirit is always refreshing on a hot summer day, there’s something special about mixing it all together in a slushie-like drink that always signals (to me, anyway) that summer is officially underway. And this year, you’ll have two new choices you can buy right at the grocery store from Martini & Rossi: Frosé and Frosecco — aka frozen rose wine and frozen prosecco! The Frosé and Frosecco pouches are ready-to-drink, so there’s no blender needed. Just freeze, then sip straight from the recyclable pouch or pour them in your favorite cocktail glass. According to Martini & Rossi, the Frosecco pouch is the first-ever packaged frozen prosecco.   The new cocktails have an alcohol by volume (ABV) of 6.5% and are made with Italian wine and all-natural fruit flavors. The come without artificial sweeteners, high fructose corn syrup or artificial coloring. They are available nationwide for $3.99 a pouch.   Don’t forget to recycle the pouch! The company has teamed up with TerraCycle to make responsible disposal of their containers an easy task.   If rosé and prosecco aren’t your favorites, the brand Daily’s makes more than a dozen frozen cocktail flavors, including margarita, mai tai, strawberry daiquiri and more. They also make a frosé if you change your mind and want to try theirs too.   Just like the Martini & Rossi pouches, you simply keep these in the freezer and drink right from the pouch. They all have around 5% ABV.   You can also try making your own at home, as all you’ll need is your favorite spirit, some ice, a blender and whatever other ingredients you use for your favorite cocktail.   If wine is your go-to drink, try mixing your favorite with frozen fruit for a wine slushie. Or, if vodka is your thing instead, check out this watermelon vodka prosecco slushie or this blue vodka lemonade slushie.   Will you be adding some frozen adult slushies to your list of summer treats?

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought the safety of reuse into question. But Tom Szaky, CEO of TerraCycle, thinks when the crisis is over there will be even more opportunity for reusable packaging and containers to become more commonplace, if done right. "Recycling is going to take a real punch to the face, to be quite fair," Szaky said during GreenBiz Group’s Circularity 20 Digital event this week, pointing to the continued decrease in oil prices and the pressure that's putting on the economics of using recycled plastics. "That’s disastrous for the recycling industry, which creates its revenue by selling recycled plastics, which are hedged against, in many ways, the price of oil." Many recycling activities have been paused as the pandemic has raised health and safety concerns, which could lead to a waste crisis post-pandemic, he said. Recycling centers have closed temporarily or indefinitely, across California and in parts of Ohio, Oregon and Alabama. "That, I think, will benefit waste innovations," said Szaky, whose company is in the business of recycling and eliminating waste. "It will especially benefit the reuse movement because that is sort of the next step up in waste innovation." Szaky acknowledged that reuse is not a silver bullet solution to addressing the waste problem, but if life cycle assessment is considered, he said that reuse can be better than single-use options in a significant number of cases. It plays a role in reducing waste and TerraCycle's e-commerce program Loop — which features items in reusable containers — plans to be part of that, while being affordable and convenient. We’re still very focused on trying to create a reusable system that has the same convenience as disposability ... "We’re still very focused on trying to create a reusable system that has the same convenience as disposability because [while] disposability has a lot of negatives, it is the gold standard, by far, for convenience," he said. "That is our holy grail, to get to the exact same convenience you get when you throw something in the garbage, with no thinking, no thought and off you go." While Loop is still working toward the convenience factor, it’s also working toward building trust with consumers outside of its core following. As Szaky wrote in a piece for GreenBiz recently, "Reusable packaging is faced with proving its trustworthiness alongside disposables in a world that is standing six feet apart in the grocery aisle." In the time that comes after COVID-19, TerraCycle’s Loop and other companies that are working on launching or improving their reuse models must do it right. That means consumers need to be able to know that the reusable packaging they are using was thoroughly cleaned and doesn’t pose a health risk to them. During the Circularity 20 Digital conversation, Szaky described the cleaning process for the packaging in the Loop program, between when it leaves one consumer’s possession and ends up with another. First, the customer either will drop off their Loop tote at a retailer or have it picked up and shipped. (TerraCycle recently announced that it would expand its reuse platform Loop across the contiguous United States including in physical retail stores.) Earlier this year, the company announced partnerships with Walgreens and Kroger that would allow consumers to drop off totes in bins within their stores, starting this fall. Once the tote reaches a Loop distribution center, it is checked in and the packages inside it are sorted based on the contents and type of packaging material. Then each type of packages is stored until there are enough to start cleaning, which takes place in a proper cleanroom where people are in full gear. "The process to clean — which is what chemistry is used, dwell times both in drying and washing and temperatures, and all those different types of knobs and dials on the cleaning protocol — are set to be specific to that content and the type of material that content was in," said Szaky, noting that both factors have meaningful effects on the cleaning process. Once the packages are cleaned, it is immediately shipped to the manufacturer, which has protocols for maintaining cleanliness for the packaging. Szaky noted that each time the cleanroom is used it is reset — pipes flushed for potential allergens and air vented — for the next batch of cleaning. Lauren Phipps, GreenBiz Group’s director and senior analyst for the circular economy, who led the conversation with Szaky, asked if there was an opportunity for retailers and restaurants to implement similar practices for their reusable items and how they could communicate their practices with consumers. Szaky responded by sharing that he’s been working with the group Consumers Beyond Disposability — which is housed under the World Economic Forum and includes the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, City of Paris and PepsiCo — to develop guidelines for companies that want to put reuse in play. The group plans to share those guidelines during the Davos gathering in January. But for now, Szaky gave an example of how safe reuse could work in a coffee shop. "I would recommend that there’s some process that when you give your cup to the barista, maybe the barista looks at the cup and only accepts certain types of cups … then has some process that is consumer-facing, that you can see and that you can be proud that that process is strong and you can trust it," he said. "Trust is a critical commodity that we have to build with individuals right now, or in fact almost re-earn."

The sky is clearer these days, as mountain views come into full focus. Air traffic has dropped significantly, production of some industries has ceased and people around the world have been sticking close to home. With that, global greenhouse gas emissions fell as much as 17% by April, according to new research published in the journal Nature Climate Change. While that’s good news in many regards, the coronavirus pandemic has also increased household and plastic waste, and disrupted the recycling industry.   “The pandemic has given way to a curious phenomenon. With some industries pausing activities and fewer cars clogging roads, we’ve seen a drop in greenhouse gas emissions and a subsequent improvement in air quality,” writes Tom Szaky, CEO and founder of TerraCycle, a national sustainability company that focuses on recycling difficult-to-recycle packaging and products, in an email. “But even as the environment heals, we’ll be waking up to a waste crisis that’s worse than where we left it.”   There’s been an influx of single-use plastics and disposable plastic bags going to landfills, Szaky says, as reusables have been banned over health concerns. The use of personal protective equipment (PPE) such as masks and gloves, many of which contain plastic, have also significantly increased, adding significantly to the waste stream.   Before the start of the pandemic, approximately 40% of U.S. household waste was packaging and paper products such as plastic containers, aluminum cans, glass bottles and jars, newspaper and cardboard, according to the Product Stewardship Institute. Since the start of the pandemic, however, there’s 20-30% more trash and recycling coming out of households nationally, says Kate Bailey, policy and research director at Eco-Cycle based in Boulder.   At Eco-Cycle, the amount of single-use plastics such as take-out containers and bags hasn’t changed significantly, Bailey says. Although, there has been a larger-than-normal uptick in single-use beverage containers as summer approaches. Plus, smaller cardboard boxes associated with at-home delivery have increased as well.   TerraCycle, Szaky says, has seen a spike in both Zero Waste Boxes, which allow folks to mail in hard-to-recycle items (including PPE), and use of the company’s Loop e-commerce site, which sells packaged goods in durable, sanitized and reused containers.   While household recycling may be increasing, plastic and glass from businesses have significantly decreased, causing potential disruptions in the supply chains across the country.   “We have a lot of manufacturing companies in this country that make toilet paper, that make cardboard boxes, that make glass bottles that depend on recycling,” Bailey says. “So we’re seeing this call from manufacturers to say, ‘We need you to please keep recycling because we need these raw materials.’”   And the industry has had to shift gears toward more household pick-up to keep up with demand, as some commercial recycling companies have had to close.   “Since this increase in collections has been largely limited to residential locations as most businesses remain closed, many recycling haulers who exclusively operate in the commercial waste market have been forced to layoff employees,” Szaky says.   The pandemic comes at a time when the recycling industry was already struggling with historically low virgin plastic prices, made worse by the significant drop in oil and gas prices, and stymied international trading markets, as China banned recycling imports in 2018. There have been policy setbacks as well.   In Colorado, two separate bills banning single-use plastics like straws, bags and coffee stirrers and polystyrene (Styrofoam) take-out packaging by 2022 were making their way (successfully) through the state legislature before the pandemic hit. Now, neither one is expected to move forward this year.   “This feels a lot like getting kicked while you’re down,” Bailey says.   But, Bailey says, the pandemic has also presented an opportunity to rebuild recycling programs and make them more resilient, and she expects the global momentum around reducing plastics and waste to continue beyond this pandemic.   “The short of it is the problems with plastic production — the fossil fuel consumption, the climate emissions, and then the problems with plastics waste in the ocean, in our bodies — those are not going away,” Bailey says. “We don’t see this as a long-term victory for plastic. I see this as a short-term trend and then an adjustment period for all of us.”   Szaky isn’t quite so optimistic, however, saying it’s hard to project the long-term impacts of the present challenges.   “This perfect storm of issues has been brewing for a while and the COVID-19 crisis seems to have tipped the industry over the edge,” he writes. “While only time will tell if the industry can bounce back, it will certainly not be returning to ‘business as usual’ as soon as lockdowns are lifted.”

American baby food and baby products company Gerber is preparing to start selling organic banana mango purée in a 100% recyclable pouch this May as part of a broader effort around sustainable packaging.   The single-material pouch will be accepted for recycling through a national program with TerraCycle, according to the company, which became a Nestlé subsidiary in 2007.   Although the Gerber brand has existed for more than 90 years, it recently went through a transformation, explained the company’s brand manager and sustainability lead Sina Hilbert. That meant establishing a cross-functional sustainability team to work on responsible agriculture, supply chain, and packaging.   “Our big rally cry is moving our entire portfolio to 100% recyclable or reusable by 2025,” Hilbert said.   Environment + Energy Leader caught up with Hilbert to find out how the company is pursuing recyclable packaging in the United States.   Why is Gerber focused on recyclability for packaging?   Everything from the ingredients to the packaging that we’re putting products in can affect the world. Our sustainability initiatives and strategies focus on creating a world that babies can thrive in. Packaging is a huge piece of that.   Consumers tell us what they’re looking for. Today’s consumers are adamant about a more sustainable option.   What are your plans for making Gerber’s packaging more sustainable?   One of the pieces is having a clear roadmap of different projects, from a packaging standpoint, that help us get to our 2025 goal. The launch of our new single-material pouches is a reflection of that.   We partnered with a supplier that was trying to help develop new technology in the flexible plastic space. One of the issues with multi-laminate pouches, the material we use, is how complex it is. It’s virtually impossible to recycle using traditional means.   Developing this single material actually creates value. It’s a bit easier to recycle and has value in a secondary market.   How did Gerber identify this single material for packaging?   This was driven by the identification of the supplier. Working through the trials needed to make a transition of this scale was largely done by our packaging leads across the globe. They brought the technology to us.   We have rigorous standards for any packaging structure we’re using. There was an extensive process to ensure that this was the right material, that our consumers would be able use it as they would any pouch, and that it could hold puréed baby food.   Where does the material go at the end of its life?   We are continuing our partnership with TerraCycle to get these pouches recycled. Our longer-term goal is to help create a stream so they can be recycled curbside.   One of the partnerships we have is with the Materials Recovery for the Future (MRFF) project being piloted in Pennsylvania. They’re developing a stream for single materials such as these pouches. It’s small in scale now, but we’re pushing for change, particularly in the US market, so materials like this can be recycled through traditional streams.   What has been the biggest challenge with the recyclable packaging process so far?   The biggest challenge is accessibility. I’ve spent some time in Europe and done research on where the US market is relative to other places in terms of education on what can be recycled, what can’t be, and people’s access to recycling things they think should be recycled.   There are still a lot of hurdles to jump: How do we get municipalities on board? How can we structure our recycling program in this country to be more seamless, and easier for consumers to use and understand. That’s something we still need to figure out.   Has the covid-19 pandemic affected your approach to packaging?   Fortunately, no. We still have our same strategy and goals. In times like this you take a brief pause to reassess, but nothing has strayed off course.   Do you have advice for fellow industry leaders around recyclable packaging?   I’ve learned so much about packaging structures in general. My advice would be to not get discouraged about the current market. Stay true to your ambitions for sustainable packaging, and find ways to achieve them.   Navigating difficulties — whether it’s that the technology doesn’t exist or municipalities don’t take this — we definitely wouldn’t be at the point where we are if we allowed any of those hurdles to stop us. Know that it can be done if we continue to push the industry and CPG in that direction.

TerraCycle’s division that handles a variety of regulated materials saw decreased revenue and profits last year, but a marketing push late in the year helped reverse the trend.   That’s according to an earnings report from TerraCycle US, a Trenton, N.J.-based company specializing in collecting and recycling difficult-to-recycle materials. The document covers TerraCycle US, not the financial results for parent company TerraCycle LLC, which operates in 20 countries.   The company’s Regulated Waste division manages the collection and recycling of fluorescent lamps, bulbs, batteries, scrap electronics, organic waste, medical waste and other materials. The division was formed in November 2017, after TerraCycle’s acquisition of Air Cycle Corporation, which brokered recycling services for fluorescent bulbs and batteries.   According to an earnings report, the Regulated Waste division brought in $6.79 million in sales and $58,000 in earnings in 2019. That was down from $7.11 million in revenue and $166,000 in earnings during the prior year.   In the filing, the company noted the division “began to show signs of recovery in the last quarter of that year.” Starting last summer, the division’s major priority was to expand marketing and lead generation, according to TerraCycle. As a result, during the fourth quarter, revenue exceeded fourth-quarter revenue from the prior three years by about 6%.   The division also experienced a management change last year. In May 2019, Kevin Flynn was appointed general manager of the division with a focus on improving the overall strength of the business, according to the filing. Flynn, who previously led global operations for TerraCycle, replaced Bobby Farris, an e-scrap industry veteran who oversaw the Air Cycle integration and led the Regulated Waste division for two years. Farris in September 2019 was hired as CEO of Total Reclaim.   The Regulated Waste division is just one of four at TerraCycle US. The others are Sponsored Waste Programs, through which brand owners pay the company to run collection and recycling programs for their products and/or packaging; Zero Waste Boxes, where consumers buy prepaid shipping boxes and mail in items for recycling; and Material Sales, which sells recovered commodities, mostly plastics.   In 2019, the Regulated Waste Division brought in 25% of the company’s revenue. Overall last year, TerraCycle US saw net sales of $27.12 million, up 35% from 2018. Its net income was $3.24 million, up from $1.15 million in 2018.   The filing also discussed the impacts this year of the COVID-19 pandemic on the company. As is the case with others in the industry, TerraCycle US experienced a decrease in collections in March and April. The company applied for and received a Paycheck Protection Program loan, one of the U.S. Small Business Administration programs intended to help businesses survive the economic shutdown from the pandemic. About $750,000 of the loan will be used to cover payroll, in addition to rent on the Illinois office and various warehouses, interest on the Trenton building mortgage, and utilities.

Rachel Garcia spends her days surrounded by neatly labeled acrylic boxes and glass jars full of grains, pasta, spices, beans and other food staples. It’s not some sort of dream pantry. It’s Dry Goods Refillery, her 200-square-foot shop located inside the General Store Cooperative in Maplewood, where the former fashion buyer has taken her passion for reducing waste to the community.   The idea to open a package-free food market came to Garcia when, a few years ago, the Morristown native and her husband Daniel, a director at a business consulting firm, took stock of the amount of waste they were producing as a family. From water bottles to plastic baggies to pantry staples gone stale, they wanted to change their lifestyle and set a greener example for their two young sons, Tyler and Ellis.   They started small, toting reusable coffee cups and swapping paper towels for cloth napkins. But low-waste grocery shopping at supermarkets and big-box stores proved to be a challenge, with plastic-wrapped vegetables and cardboard containers galore.   A different way of shopping, Garcia knew, was possible. From the fresh pasta shops she had frequented while living in Argentina to the spice and farmers’ markets she had wandered through on trips to places like Japan and Italy, Garcia had long admired other cultures’ shopping habits. “They were so much simpler and less about convenience.” She wondered, why couldn’t we take our own containers to fill up on dinner or refill spice bottles here?   In February, just six months after putting pen to paper for the idea for a place where shoppers could do just that, the Garcias opened up Dry Goods Refillery, a package-free food market.   The community, Garcia explains, quickly embraced the concept of bringing their own containers. To fill up on organic lentils, pastas, nuts and honey, locals brought everything from vintage metal tins, to a Portuguese honey pot, to regular old empty peanut butter jars and plastic takeout containers (cotton bags and jars are available to purchase, too). It may have helped that the co-op, a community of other local makers and independent businesses, was already home to Good Bottle Refill Co., a similar concept for household cleaners and beauty products.   Also helpful, Garcia decided to list the shop’s offerings online, allowing people to come in with a refill game plan. Plus, the list of organic beans and legumes, pastas, oils and syrup, baking supplies and more, she says, were priced competitively with supermarkets, and come from businesses the couple has hand-picked. Supporting these like-minded vendors is key, says Garcia, who quickly decided it wouldn’t be enough to offer flour, olive oil and oats package-free to shoppers if they still came from suppliers who use heaps of packaging. Instead, she searched for wholesalers and small food businesses—such as Polit Farms for organic brown rice, Pete’s Sweets in upstate New York for maple syrup and Frontier Co-op for spices and teas—who would be “willing to sell 25 pounds of pasta or beans in one paper bag” and even some who use hybrid vehicles. (Any plastic packaging that’s unavoidable gets sent to TerraCycle, a New Jersey-based company that collects and gives new life to hard-to-recycle materials.)   These close vendor relationships have proved to be essential during the coronavirus pandemic. Food shopping and dining, of course, have changed completely, with many restaurants closing and big-box stores experiencing shortages. But Garcia says they’ve been able to stay stocked on yeast, flour, pasta and more, as well as add boxes of fresh produce to their offerings, without raising their prices. They’ve quickly created new relationships, linking up with restaurant wholesalers and other distributors who have lost many outlets for their goods with so many eateries closed. The weaknesses and fragility of the food supply chain, Garcia says, have been exposed during this crisis, but “we’re doing our small, small part to redirect the bottlenecks.”   The pandemic also required a quick pivot in their business model. In March, as the seriousness of the pandemic sank in, Dry Goods took a 10-day break to turn its website to an e-commerce platform and figure out the logistics of a safe pick-up system. Currently, they are accepting online orders only and packing food up in recyclable paper bags, recyclable tape and glass jars for once-a-week curbside pickup. Though “it’s not the bring your own container model we started out to do,” Garcia says she’s proud Dry Goods is still able to offer a low-waste option for food shopping to the community—especially as the use of online shopping and takeout orders sheathed in plastic soar in the name of safety and distancing.   Garcia is busier than ever now that she’s keeping up with demand for orders from loyal shoppers and new customers alike, plus caring for her two children (like many working parents and business owners). But she’s buoyed by support from the community, which she says is “not just talk when it comes to supporting small businesses.” Or when it comes to supporting neighbors: Dry Goods shoppers have taken advantage of the option to add a donation to MEND, a network of local food pantries, to their online grocery orders. “The response has been really amazing,” she says.   When Garcia started Dry Goods Refillery, she hoped to revive a “throwback concept,” creating a place that harked back to a simpler lifestyle and allowed people to lessen their impact on the planet. Now, during this crisis, she’s noticed others looking backwards for comfort and out of necessity, baking bread, planting gardens and making foods from scratch. People are “starting to evaluate what they truly need and what they want,” she says, “and part of the cycle of reducing waste is reducing consumption.” Despite it being a dark and scary time, “I hope what sticks around are some of these habits.”   Garcia herself has also made some changes, such as starting to get dairy delivered to her porch by a milkman—in reusable glass bottles, of course.   Dry Goods Refillery, 1875 Springfield Avenue, Maplewood, 973-250-6160.