A big component in working toward a circular economy involves brand owners—a topic we will look more closely at this year.   RB, maker of consumer brands including Mucinex and Enfamil, is partnering with international recycling provider TerraCycle. The launch of the free recycling program comes at an especially relevant time—as the weather gets colder, we find ourselves in peak cold and flu season. About 79% of all households in the U.S. buy cold, cough or flu products at least once a year, and the plastic packaging for these products leaves the planet with approximately 55 million pounds of non-recyclable plastic every year, the companies stated.   Brett Stevens, TerraCycle global VP, material sales & procurement, told Plastics Technology that cold, cough and flu products’ packaging are designed, first and foremost, with performance in mind. These are medicine-related products and so the packaging must be constructed in such a way that the content inside stays fresh and viable, he said.   “Unfortunately, this often renders the packaging to be non-municipally recyclable. Further, municipal recycling programs are incredibly picky on what they can accept, and so most packaging (not just this industry) is not traditionally recyclable,” he said. “That’s why TerraCycle operates these private collection and recycling programs to help these packages see a second life.”   As part of the initiative, the RB Health & Nutrition Recycling Program will accept packaging waste not only from RB products, but from any brand of vitamins and supplements, upper respiratory, sexual health & well-being, as well as infant formula & child nutrition, personal care and foot care.   Consumers sign up for the RB Health & Nutrition Recycling Program at terracycle.com/rb-health and mail in the packaging waste using the prepaid shipping label. Once received, TerraCycle will clean and melt the collected product packaging into hard plastic that can be remolded to make new recycled products. As an added incentive, for every shipment of packaging waste sent to TerraCycle, collectors earn points that can be used for charity gifts or converted to cash and donated to a non-profit, school or charitable organization of their choice.   “Collection rates in our programs are a factor of multiple things: from client budget, to the amount of collection locations, all the way to the weight of the products and packaging that we collect,” Stevens said. “Every single piece of compliant post-consumer waste that is sent in through the RB Health & Nutrition Recycling Program will be recycled into a format where it can be used to make a new product.”   TerraCycle is known for its innovative approach to help increase recycling. They do this by offering a range of national recycling programs that allow everyone interested in making the earth a cleaner place to recycle numerous waste streams that are traditionally non-recyclable.  

RB’s Sustainable Initiatives

  Lynn Kenney, head of corporate communications for RB, said this program with TerraCyle is part of RB’s ongoing commitment to creating a circular economy, which also includes making 100 percent of its packaging recyclable or reusable, while using at least 25 percent recycled plastic content in its packaging by 2025.   Kenney says that the company already uses material in its plastics packaging in order to deliver its 2018 plastics pledge which is about using at least 25% recycled plastic in plastic packaging globally, alongside reducing the plastics they use in packaging overall and progressively making sure it is all recyclable and can also be reused.   Design changes include its trigger spray design that can be fully recycled and the development of refill pouches in some markets so that consumers can reuse the spray bottles. They’ve also developed recyclable pouches.     Here are some examples of its work so far:  

• In 2018-2019, RB launched the first metal free trigger for improved recyclability, starting with Dettol, Sagrotan & Lysol brands. Its lightweight design reduced the amount of plastic by 500 tons on an annual basis.

 

• Since January 2019, Finish has used non-carbon black technology to produce recyclable black plastic for some of its tubs. On August 19, RB moved from black to grey plastic, again improving its recyclability and including 30% recycled plastic.

 

• In 2019, RB launched its first recyclable flexible pouch in Germany with Finish. Traditional pouches have used a type of plastic laminate which isn’t commonly recyclable. RB worked with its suppliers to produce a new type of plastic pouch, which is recyclable.

 

• In 2019, RB launched Veo Surface Cleaner in the U.S., which uses a removable sleeve that helps consumers properly recycle the bottle. The bottle is made from 95% recycled plastic.

  “We are continuing to develop new packaging designs and working with packaging material suppliers to help use deliver our plastics pledge,” Kenney said. “Innovative design, new materials and working with our partners including retailers and, of course, listening to our consumers are critical to our success and enabling us to reduce, recycle and reuse plastics to reduce the impact it can have on the environment while also helping to deliver safe and secure packaging for our products.”

“This session is probably the one I am most excited about. In every conversation, the word sustainability comes up,” said PSFK Founder Piers Fawkes. “We hear it on the stages, we hear it in the corridors, we hear it on the floor. But I don’t think many of us really know how to leverage it, how to really use it. What do we do with all these products? How do we return these products? What happens then?”   Everything can be recycled, it’s just a question of whether it’s profitable to do so.   TerraCycle CEO Tom Szaky has the answers. TerraCycle’s new Loop initiative is a circular shopping platform that lets consumers shop online for household goods in durable, reusable packaging that can later be picked up, refilled and redelivered. Loop has allowed leading CPG brands including Tide, Häagen-Dazs and Clorox to eliminate single-use packaging, replacing it with reusable, recycled materials such as stainless steel and reengineered plastic. In addition, stores such as Carrefour in France and Kroger and Walgreens in the United States are stocking Loop packaged items.   “Everything can be recycled, it’s just a question of whether it’s profitable to do so,” Szaky said. “An infinitely durable item is infinitely profitable.”   Accommodating the desires of eco-minded consumers has also presented exciting new business opportunities for brands like Patagonia. “Historically these circular supply chains and business models used to be a competitive edge for brands like Patagonia, but going forward, I firmly believe that they are going to be a means for companies, brands and retailers to survive,” said Patagonia’s Head of Corporate Development Phil Graves. Repairing, reselling, upcycling and recycling has been part of the outdoor retailer’s business model since the 1970s; Patagonia has 70 global repair centers that fix more than 100,000 items every year.   In 2017, Patagonia went all in on re-commerce and launched the Worn Wear resell business unit. Customers can take Patagonia items to a store or mail it in and receive a gift card for the item. The item is then handed off to logistics and technology startup Yerdle, where it is inspected, cleaned, photographed, stocked in inventory and posted for sale online. “Since 2017, we have kept more than 130,000 used items in play and given them a second life,” Graves said. “As a brand, we love that we get to control the entire customer experience and ensure that it is top notch.” That brand control is an important component in re-commerce, noted Yerdle CEO Andy Ruben. “Because third-party marketplaces buy these products back from all of us, we’re in a moment where there is no longer brand control of how the products are showing up in the world,” Ruben said. “It’s why I’m increasingly convinced that brands and retailers must own their re-commerce. They must have control of their experience.”   Branded re-commerce is certainly working for Patagonia: The Worn Wear business unit has had 40 percent growth in revenue and profitability since it launched, Graves said, and has attracted customers that are on average 10 years younger than the typical Patagonia customer. To build on that momentum, Patagonia launched its first Worn Wear pop-up store in Boulder, Colo., in November and created a new line of products made from clothing that was beyond repair, the ReCrafted Collection. “Buying used is in,” Graves concluded.

The Pen Centre is challenging local artistic talent to build a team to create a masterpiece using recycled gift cards with a chance to win big money.   Artists in Niagara schools are invited to get creative to plan and design a one of a kind art piece using mostly recycled gift cards and a few recycled items. This is the first time The Pen Centre (TPC) has offered this exciting opportunity called The Pen Centre Gift Card Cycle Challenge for students in hopes of raising awareness around recycling and sustainability. According to Helen Edwards, marketing director for TPC, the idea began a few years ago when a Fonthill group called the Fonthill Nurdles approached the administration about the number of gift cards that end up in landfills. As they inquired further into the issue they found out that even though the card may be made of recycled materials not all municipalities can recycle the gift cards.   “[The gift cards] were still just being tossed out. If you think about how many billions of gift cards are out there, it broke our hearts. Shopping centres, as a whole, are a big producer of those so we thought we are going to turn this around and find a way they can be recycled properly,” said Edwards.   This started the gift card collection program. The community can bring old gift cards to customer service at TPC where they are then sent to a third party.   “We ensure they go to a company called Terracycle. They turn them into things like lawn furniture and other outdoor products and they are repurposed,” said Edwards.   Now with this challenge they are hoping to recycle and reuse even more gift cards. The participants are encouraged to start their own gift cards collection from family and friends to make their artwork.   “We really figured if we could inspire them to go out and get a collection as well, whether it be in their school or from their friends and family, we figure everybody benefits from that,” said Edwards.   To participate in the challenge, classrooms and/or school teams will fill out an application and provide a design sketch when the site goes live on Thursday January 16, 2020. The applications and design sketches are due by March 1, 2020. The Pen Centre will then notify the design teams that they can start to create their art using their collected gift cards from the community and observing the rules of the challenge. Then they will go on display at TPC to be judged and voted on by the community.   There will be three categories: elementary, secondary and post-secondary. The final judging will be done in May. The team that wins in each category will receive $1,000 for the team and $1,000 for their school.   This challenge is a great opportunity for classrooms or groups of artists to create something spectacular.   “We are hoping that teachers use it as an opportunity that if they know they have some students that are really strong when it comes to arts, they can inspire them to pull a team together.  This is a great way for a classroom to do a project to unite everybody for a common goal,” said Edwards.   Not only is this challenge keeping gift cards out of landfills, it is promoting creativity and bringing the community together through art and environmental awareness.   “For the community really the biggest hope is that it is going to highlight the amazing talent we have in the community ranging from a six year old to a university student that could be 40 to 50 years old because I think that is a strong part of who we are in St. Catharines,” said Edwards. “For the mall it is really getting the message across that we are trying to do our part to help the planet and the environment to get these gift cards out of [landfills] and if it inspires other people to think that way as well that’s the icing on the cake for us.”   Edwards and TPC have issued the challenge. Now it is time for Niagara students to put their best artistic skills to the test.

You’ve finally decided to part ways with your old Samsonite. Over the years, it’s accrued stains, scuff marks, and tears of all kinds; an upgrade is long overdue. But before you dump that luggage in the garbage, you should know that even a used suitcase has plenty of recyclable value.   As Recycle Bank writes, suitcases are made of several valuable materials that are recyclable, including the zippers, plastic handles, and rubber wheels. The problem, however, is that your local curbside recycling program likely won’t accept the bag as is—you’d have to disassemble it on your own and then research whether the individual components can be recycled via your curbside program. You’re probably not going to do that.   Instead, contact your local recycler to see if they have a bulk pickup program that will offer to recycle your suitcase on your behalf. If that fails, TerraCycle, a consumer-waste recycle program, has its own luggage and travel bag recycling program. To participate, you’ll have to pay for a TerraCycle box to ship it (which won’t come cheap, as small boxes start at roughly $89). According to their website, however, they’ll separate the metals, fibers, plastics, and fabrics and recycle them for you, saving you from the effort of having to disassemble it on your own.   If these options don’t work, you do have plenty of other easy (and cheaper) solutions to the problem of your leftover suitcases—that might even do some good. Ebags, an online suitcase retailer, recently partnered with GoodWill to accept suitcases for donation. The process is free; just print out a free shipping label on their website and ship it in a box of your choosing. (You’ll also receive $25 off toward a purchase of a suitcase on their website.) For your bag to be eligible, all wheels, handles, and zippers must be in working condition to be donated, so it can’t be totally ruined by the time you need to offload it.   Here’s another tip, courtesy of a recent Reddit thread: If your bag’s still in good condition, do an online search for nearby foster care agencies, in addition to local emergency shelters. “Guests often need luggage to transport the belongings they’ve accumulated during their stay,” u/tradingthoughts writes. “They also end up using garbage bags to carry their essentials around.” Be sure to contact them in advance and ask whether they need suitcases before making the trip. While you’re at it, you might also check local Facebook groups for other organizations and non-profits that could benefit from your used suitcase.

You’ve finally decided to part ways with your old Samsonite. Over the years, it’s accrued stains, scuff marks, and tears of all kinds; an upgrade is long overdue. But before you dump that luggage in the garbage, you should know that even a used suitcase has plenty of recyclable value.   As Recycle Bank writes, suitcases are made of several valuable materials that are recyclable, including the zippers, plastic handles, and rubber wheels. The problem, however, is that your local curbside recycling program likely won’t accept the bag as is—you’d have to disassemble it on your own and then research whether the individual components can be recycled via your curbside program. You’re probably not going to do that.   Instead, contact your local recycler to see if they have a bulk pickup program that will offer to recycle your suitcase on your behalf. If that fails, TerraCycle, a consumer-waste recycle program, has its own luggage and travel bag recycling program. To participate, you’ll have to pay for a TerraCycle box to ship it (which won’t come cheap, as small boxes start at roughly $89). According to their website, however, they’ll separate the metals, fibers, plastics, and fabrics and recycle them for you, saving you from the effort of having to disassemble it on your own.   If these options don’t work, you do have plenty of other easy (and cheaper) solutions to the problem of your leftover suitcases—that might even do some good. Ebags, an online suitcase retailer, recently partnered with GoodWill to accept suitcases for donation. The process is free; just print out a free shipping label on their website and ship it in a box of your choosing. (You’ll also receive $25 off toward a purchase of a suitcase on their website.) For your bag to be eligible, all wheels, handles, and zippers must be in working condition to be donated, so it can’t be totally ruined by the time you need to offload it.   Here’s another tip, courtesy of a recent Reddit thread: If your bag’s still in good condition, do an online search for nearby foster care agencies, in addition to local emergency shelters. “Guests often need luggage to transport the belongings they’ve accumulated during their stay,” u/tradingthoughts writes. “They also end up using garbage bags to carry their essentials around.” Be sure to contact them in advance and ask whether they need suitcases before making the trip. While you’re at it, you might also check local Facebook groups for other organizations and non-profits that could benefit from your used suitcase.

  If you know Reddit, you know that the SkincareAddiction subreddit is the place to go when you need advice on beauty products — and that's apparently true of when you need advice on what to do with your beauty products when they're empty. On Sunday, January 12, a redditor who goes by the username SunflowersOrDaisies asked, "Any ideas on reusing empty TO bottles?" referring to The Ordinary's little glass dropper bottles. "My boyfriend is giving me a hard time because I don’t want to throw them out... but they’re so cute."   Fellow Redditors were ready to jump in with suggestions, and the post has since gained nearly 200 comments, many of which include ways to reuse the bottles for additional beauty purposes.   "Use them to decant larger skincare products for travel," one person wrote — an idea that numerous other commenters agreed with. Others recommended using the bottles for DIY skin care, with one person saying, "I use my empty glass bottles for facial oils." One especially savvy skin-care lover had a brilliant use, writing, "I'm planning on using mine to hold excess liquid from sheet masks." But there were plenty of non-facial beauty suggestions, too, like, "Put a little bit of (castor/olive/jojoba/baobab etc) oil in and use them to drop oil into your cuticles on your nails to keep them healthy," and, "I also think it could be a good bobby pin holder!"   The creativity new uses for The Ordinary's bottles didn't stop there. A number of Redditors with green thumbs have ideas for putting them to use with plants. "I take the labels off and use them to propagate small plant cuttings," one person wrote, with another echoing the idea: "If you’re into plants they’re actually a great size for propping a lot of leaves! I just helped a succulent regain roots with one of these!" Yet another found a way to work some botanical beauty into their decor, suggesting, "Save a bunch, then use a piece of string to hang 3 or 4 vertically. Put an individual flower in each hanging bottle. Repeat across a curtain rod and have a cute window display!"   The bottles are apparently fantastic for the artistic among us, as well. "Use them as water droppers to thin your acrylic paints," one person recommended, while another said, "I reuse mine for specifically mixed watercolors that I know I'd have a hard time remixing." Another fan of The Ordinary says her significant other has been repurposing her bottles, saying, "My boyfriend uses them to store fountain pen ink!"   And yes, some folks are even reusing The Ordinary's bottles for culinary purposes. "If you're into baking/cooking, you could make your own vanilla extract and store it in those," one person wrote, with another agreeing: "Vanilla extract, no more spilling or accidentally putting in too much vanilla in your coffee." Someone channels their inner mixologist, writing, "We use droppers for putting bitters in for cocktails." One person even suggested, "Tiny bottles of hot sauce."   If finding new uses for skin-care packaging isn't your forte but you don't want to feel wasteful, one Redditor in this ingenious thread had great news: "Deciem actually announced a little while back that they have opened recycling points in different parts of the country for you to return your empty bottles so that they can then reuse them again for another person," they wrote of The Ordinary's parent company. Another person chimed in to say, "For anyone who has a brick and mortar Deciem store near you, they have bins where you can return your skincare empties to be recycled (and not just the company's products, any empties)."   You can find out more about Deciem's recycling program with TerraCycle at terracycle.com.

Cross-team collaboration behind Bear Naked Presenting at the Innovation Stage at PACK EXPO Las Vegas, Ashley Leidolf and Holly Dunnill of Dow, Shannon Moore of Kashi, and Paul Wolak of Berry Global explained how a cross-team collaboration between brand and suppliers made Bear Naked’s packaging more recyclable and sustainable.   When the brand was launched in 2002, Kashi chose not to use bag-in-box, becoming the first granola brand to be offered in a pouch. Sustainability was important to the brand owners, so the packaging changed from 2008 to 2018 and was offered in a pouch that could be upcycled by TerraCycle—it was the number-one selling brand with 500,000 units recycled. Shannon Moore, Lead Packaging Engineer at Kashi, said that a few years ago the brand owner started asking what would it take to “go beyond” TerraCycle and get to curbside or store drop-off recycling.   Because recycling is also important to the brand’s consumers (most of whom are under the age of 40), Moore said that the number one customer comment has been, “How do I recycle this bag?” When the decision was made to change to a more sustainable package, Moore said the brand wanted to keep the same look for the consumers, so it was important to maintain the production speed and clarity of the package to keep the print enhancements such as matte coating on the surface.   The brand was having trouble finding a good solution for a hermetically sealed bag, which is necessary due to the number of whole nuts and dried fruit in the product. Kellogg and Dow already had a partnership in place, so Moore engaged the internal team to find a solution by working with Dow.   “The first thing we did as a team,” said Moore, “is walk them through our entire manufacturing network to see how we operated, so that each supplier could work together.”   Paul Wolak, Senior Technical Director at Berry Global, said that when working on the project and taking shelf life into consideration, they “focused on how to deliver a better moisture barrier and better oxygen barrier as a starting place.” The team landed on a recycle-ready nine-layer structure that satisfied all of the necessary properties.   Said Holly Dunnill, Marketing Director at Dow and the moderator of the presentation, “What we’ve created here as a team is really a multi value-chain effort to create a package that can be fully recyclable and be used in applications that need barrier.”

While Illinois State University students have access to basic recycling services, they may not be aware of the next step in reducing landfill waste: terracycling.   According to ISU Director of Sustainability Elisabeth Reed, TerraCycle is an organization that accepts unconventional recyclables like chip bags and granola bar wrappers.   “Depending on the products, these items are broken down and recycled into numerous ‘new’ products,” Reed said.   ISU students can drop off accepted items at designated locations in Bloomington-Normal.   In order to accept a particular product at a drop-off location, Reed said volunteers must open a “brigade” for the product by registering for the program through TerraCycle.   Though many top-selling brands offer brigades, Reed said access is limited.   “Unfortunately, the majority of the brigades for these popular products are not open, so we are unable to start a new brigade here at ISU,” Reed said.   St. Luke Church and Common Ground Grocery in Bloomington accept donations anytime.   Reed said ISU Office of Sustainability interns collected red solo cups for TerraCycle at football games last semester.   “This semester, we are working to create various drop-off locations across campus for markers and highlighters as well,” Reed said.   Students can learn more about terracycling by visiting the TerraCycling website, joining the Student Environmental Action Coalition on campus or following @sustainisu on Facebook and Instagram.

While Illinois State University students have access to basic recycling services, they may not be aware of the next step in reducing landfill waste: terracycling.   According to ISU Director of Sustainability Elisabeth Reed, TerraCycle is an organization that accepts unconventional recyclables like chip bags and granola bar wrappers.   “Depending on the products, these items are broken down and recycled into numerous ‘new’ products,” Reed said.   ISU students can drop off accepted items at designated locations in Bloomington-Normal.   In order to accept a particular product at a drop-off location, Reed said volunteers must open a “brigade” for the product by registering for the program through TerraCycle.   Though many top-selling brands offer brigades, Reed said access is limited.   “Unfortunately, the majority of the brigades for these popular products are not open, so we are unable to start a new brigade here at ISU,” Reed said.   St. Luke Church and Common Ground Grocery in Bloomington accept donations anytime.   Reed said ISU Office of Sustainability interns collected red solo cups for TerraCycle at football games last semester.   “This semester, we are working to create various drop-off locations across campus for markers and highlighters as well,” Reed said.   Students can learn more about terracycling by visiting the TerraCycling website, joining the Student Environmental Action Coalition on campus or following @sustainisu on Facebook and Instagram.