It’s that time of year when many of us want to be starting something new—whether it’s a job, workout routine, or getting rid of some household items and making space for bright beginnings. While I’m all for freshening up a living room with a newly acquired rug or standing lamp, there’s never been a more urgent time to conscientiously consider how we buy our goods and what we do with them once their lives are over. That’s why we’ve rounded up New York City’s best options to recycle and dispose of common household goods.   “Keep in mind the waste hierarchy: refuse, reduce, reuse, recycle,” says Nicole Grossberg, co-founder of the Zero Waste NYC Workshop Series, held monthly on various topics, all focused on how we can better shift our daily practices to produce less waste. “If you’re going to recycle an item, make sure that you’re recycling properly and not ‘wish cycling’. It counts to go the extra mile to make sure you are disposing of something properly.”   There’s another reason to be proactive about our waste: New York City’s residential recycling rate is just 18%, an abysmal number for a major city. (Seattle and San Francisco’s rates are three times ours.) Until New York does its part to mandate certain recycling programs like food waste, it’s up to us to pick up and recycle the slack.   Organic waste, both food and yard scraps, makes up a third of our city’s waste stream. When left in the trash that’s sent to landfills, the rotting rubbish emits methane, a more noxious greenhouse gas than carbon monoxide.   GrowNYC and their compost drop-off sites are hoping to change that. With over 150 residential food scrap drop-off sites, this is one of the easiest changes you can make in your life when it comes to living greener and disposing of your household waste in a meaningful way.   There’s also a curbside compost collection option if you live in one of these districts where you may have noticed small brown bins next to your regular trash and recycling ones. But the city has yet to make good on its promise to mandate composting, so GrowNYC is the foolproof way to get your compost into the right hands, regardless of where you live in the city. “There’s a gap in the education piece of the brown bins,” says Grossberg, “but the dropoff program is amazing. That’s what I utilize, I make it part of my routine.”   GrowNYC has another great drop-off component, for textiles! They note that “NYC residents discard nearly 200,000 tons of textiles every year, at a cost to taxpayers and our environment.” (One of the reasons why we should only purchase 3 new items of clothing a year.) So while there aren’t as many as drop-off locations for textiles as there are for compost, you’ll find one at each Greenmarket across New York, currently totaling 30 sites. There’s even an option to get a refashionNYC collection bin placed in your office or apartment building (as long as it has ten or more units).   Another local option for getting rid of your clothing, shoes, and accessories is to donate or sell them to second-hand shops like Buffalo Exchange, Housing Works, Beacon’s Closet, or smaller ones in your neighborhood. One important thing to find out before dropping your clothes at these locations is if your items aren’t sold, will they be properly donated to be recycled as textile waste?     The Freecycle Network is a grassroots movement run by volunteers in communities all over the globe, based on the idea that people want to give and receive things for free (from clothing to electronics to art supplies to furniture). There’s a large Brooklyn community that all are welcome to join for free. As you let go of furniture on this site, you may even find your next item here too! “We often forget about the upstream and how things are produced,” says Grosberg. “The production of that item (a couch, for example) is probably using coal and oil in the factory to produce it. You’re affecting the supply chain when you choose to buy used items.”   Other organizations that may provide free pick-up service in your neighborhood are Habitat for Humanity, Housing Works, and The Salvation Army.     Unfortunately, unlike other textiles such as clothing, towels, and linens, most rugs and carpets contain materials that aren’t recyclable or are made of multiple materials that can’t be pulled apart. New York doesn’t have a simple solution for properly recycling rugs yet, but there are a few places to do research if you have a large area rug or wall-to-wall carpet.   Carpet Cycle in New Jersey is finding uses for post-consumer carpets and may be able to pick up your residential carpets. And Earth911 provides more insight into the types of recycling centers that may take carpets or carpet pads.     DonateNYC is my favorite New York City-based tool when it comes to finding places to drop off more miscellaneous items in close proximity to my apartment. Especially for so many of us who don’t have cars, it’s the perfect solution to skipping the movers or renting a truck yourself. They have a directory based on an address you type in of where you can donate or receive pretty much anything from automotive supplies to home appliances to books.   One of its partners, Big Reuse in Brooklyn, will accept donations of appliances and home renovation supplies, and offer a “deconstruction” service whereby professionals will come and dismantle a kitchen or bathroom slated for renovation, often at no or low cost to resell at the shop.   There are also many of DonateNYC’s bins set up in residential and retail buildings. They even host classes multiple times a day all over the city on topics such as mending clothes, write helpful resources, host drop-off days for specialty items, and have developed a new event, ReFashion Week NYC 2020, coming up in February that I’m excited to attend.   For all your old toothpaste tubes and personal care items like toothbrushes, haul them to the Package Free Shop in Williamsburg and Chelsea Market, which use uses TerraCycle. The Park Slope Food Coop accepts a few random items too, like toothpaste and Brita water filters.     There are a couple of easy and responsible ways to get rid of those pesky dead batteries or overused electronics that have probably been hanging around your apartment for some time.   To get rid of batteries and other hazardous waste like paint, hold on to your dead AAs until the city hosts one of its biannual SAFE Disposal events, hosted by NYC’s Department of Sanitation, which happen in the spring and fall. These events accept electronics too.   For electronics recycling year round, a few options include Staples, which accepts all those extra cords, chargers, and cracked tablets you don’t know what to do with. The Package Free Shop in Williamsburg and Chelsea Market uses TerraCycle to collect electronics, too.   You can also ask your employer to sponsor electronics recycling through TerraCycle, so you could bring in home electronics on your morning commute.   While the options for recycling and repurposing goods is expanding, it’s key to keep zero waste as a goal, even if it’s just about making micro improvements to your daily routine. “In general, it’s becoming more of a conversation, even trendy, if you will,” says Grossberg. “That gets me excited. As much as I think we have a long way to go, I’m seeing so much interest. It gives me a lot of hope.”   You can attend the next Zero Waste NYC Workshop on Wednesday, January 22nd at LMHQ in Downtown Manhattan. Click here for tickets.

We were just as surprised as you are when we noticed the luxury beauty brand being sold at everyone’s favorite down-home store. So immediately after adding to cart, we went on the hunt to see what other cool brands were lurking on the dot com. Behold, that very Gucci perfume, plus 12 other beauty favorites we can’t wait to get our hands on (for less, no doubt).

Take a look at your desk. What do you see? Some pens and a few document files? A calculator, chocolate bar or a letter tray? Sticky notes, an index box, a tube of handcream? Are you seeing what we’re seeing? Plastic – a veritable sea of the stuff.

Last year started out poorly for recycling in Philadelphia as the city sent half its recycling to incinerators while it brokered a deal with Waste Management that took effect last June. This year, widespread incineration has stopped, but taxpayers will be coughing up millions more to handle the waste few haulers want to deal with anymore.   In fact, the city is now paying about $106 a ton to dispose of its recycling, up from $78 a ton this time last year, said Scott McGrath, the city’s environmental planner. Two years ago, the city was paying only $5 a ton, still far from the days when recycling was actually a money maker.   In all, taxpayers will pony up $9 million this fiscal year for Waste Management to haul their throwaway plastics, glass bottles, and paper — almost double what the city was paying just a few years ago.     But McGrath said Philadelphia has pledged to continue recycling, and residents say they want it.   “We want to remind everybody, yes we are recycling," McGrath said. "There still seems to be a little confusion about that.”  

How you can help

  McGrath and other industry experts say consumers can play a big role by placing non-recyclable or dirty items in the trash, rather than the blue recycling bins. Indeed, so much of the city’s recycling stream is contaminated by non-recycling items and plastic or paper ruined by food waste or water, that at least a fifth goes to a landfill or is incinerated at a waste-to-energy facility.   McGrath said there is some indication the recycling market could improve by spring, but that’s no sure thing.   The country’s recycling crisis has hit Philadelphia hard, starting in 2018 when China, then the U.S.'s biggest buyer of recyclables, shut off the faucet by demanding loads be nearly pure. Philadelphia, and most U.S. cities, can’t come close to producing pure loads even now. Other countries, such as Vietnam and India, started taking recyclables, but now they too are demanding the same kind of purity.   So American haulers and recycling processors such as West Management have increased rates to make the economics of recycling work.   McGrath said it can be cheaper to produce new plastic, which is made from fossil fuels, than recycle old. That’s because energy prices are so low from a glut of fossil fuel being produced.   The amount of plastics people are tossing in their recycling bins continues to grow, especially plastic takeout bags, McGrath said. The ubiquitous bags handed out by retailers for every purchase no matter how small are not recycled in Philadelphia and most municipalities because of their low value. And they jam recycling machinery.   Philadelphia passed a ban on single-use plastic bags in 2019, but it takes effect in July.   The city is under a five-year contract with Waste Management to provide recycling services at the company’s plant on Bleigh Avenue, where plastics, cardboard, glass, paper and metals are sorted and baled for resale or reuse.   “In general, the markets are not strong for most of those materials,” said John Hambrose, a spokesperson for Waste Management.   McGrath said he believes the city’s recycling stream is getting cleaner, thanks to more aware residents. But the contamination level is still way too high.  

The plastic bag problem

  Brett Stevens, a vice president at TerraCycle, said he agrees with McGrath that markets could see an uptick in demand. TerraCycle, based in Trenton, specializes in recycling products that aren’t typically included in curbside residential pickups, such as plastic bags. The company turns the plastic into pellets used to make new plastic products.   In the past several years, he said, the cost of collecting plastic, sorting it and converting it into pellets outweighed the value. Now, however, he said, entrepreneurs are finding new markets, and new machines that clean and process recyclables are being built.   Among the many ways the company makes money is to pick up plastic bags from retail outlets that provide a recycling bin for consumers.   But some retailers, such as MOM’S Organic Market, which has a store in Center City, are stopping the practice because the cost is too high, or the containers get contaminated. MOM’s had been using TerraCycle to recycle the bags.   MOM’S announced on its website it “will no longer accept plastic bags, snack bags, foil-lined energy bar wrappers, personal health and beauty packaging, Brita/water filters, baby food squeeze packages, and drink packages starting Jan. 1.”   The news was disheartening for residents such as Lisa Wagner, who wrote to Curious Philly, asking about the new MOM’s policy, and saying she is trying to curb use of plastic bags at home. Curious Philly is the Inquirer’s portal that allows readers to ask our reporters questions, and then we hunt down the answers.   “I’ve been hoping to get our building to be more proactive about this but there needs to be someplace to take all of the plastic that we generate,” Wagner wrote. She said the meal delivery services she uses still bring the food in bags.   “My big concern is that other stores ... will follow suit,” Wagner said, calling the plastic bag situation, “a nightmare.”   MOM’s said it was stopping the practice because it could no longer comply with TerraCycle guidelines.   Stevens said contamination levels in collection bins is often high because passersby mistake the bins for trash receptacles.   It now costs retailers money to operate such programs, where once they got industry rebates, he said.   A TerraCycle spokesperson said the company “strives to manage each of our recycling programs within the budget allocated by the program sponsor” but the volume of waste MOM’s was collecting was more than the recycler could support.   Still, Stevens said there’s a growing demand for plastics to make products like engineered outdoor decking. He said the U.S. domestic recycling industry is building more infrastructure but it takes time.   “There is a small recovery coming,” Stevens said. “Recycling has gotten a bit of a bad name because of the China ban. But recycling is not going anywhere."   For a complete list of what’s recyclable curbside in Philadelphia, go to www.philadelphiastreets.com.

It’s that time of year when many of us want to be starting something new—whether it’s a job, workout routine, or getting rid of some household items and making space for bright beginnings. While I’m all for freshening up a living room with a newly acquired rug or standing lamp, there’s never been a more urgent time to conscientiously consider how we buy our goods and what we do with them once their lives are over. That’s why we’ve rounded up New York City’s best options to recycle and dispose of common household goods.   “Keep in mind the waste hierarchy: refuse, reduce, reuse, recycle,” says Nicole Grossberg, co-founder of the Zero Waste NYC Workshop Series, held monthly on various topics, all focused on how we can better shift our daily practices to produce less waste. “If you’re going to recycle an item, make sure that you’re recycling properly and not ‘wish cycling’. It counts to go the extra mile to make sure you are disposing of something properly.”   There’s another reason to be proactive about our waste: New York City’s residential recycling rate is just 18%, an abysmal number for a major city. (Seattle and San Francisco’s rates are three times ours.) Until New York does its part to mandate certain recycling programs like food waste, it’s up to us to pick up and recycle the slack.   Organic waste, both food and yard scraps, makes up a third of our city’s waste stream. When left in the trash that’s sent to landfills, the rotting rubbish emits methane, a more noxious greenhouse gas than carbon monoxide.   GrowNYC and their compost drop-off sites are hoping to change that. With over 150 residential food scrap drop-off sites, this is one of the easiest changes you can make in your life when it comes to living greener and disposing of your household waste in a meaningful way.   There’s also a curbside compost collection option if you live in one of these districts where you may have noticed small brown bins next to your regular trash and recycling ones. But the city has yet to make good on its promise to mandate composting, so GrowNYC is the foolproof way to get your compost into the right hands, regardless of where you live in the city. “There’s a gap in the education piece of the brown bins,” says Grossberg, “but the dropoff program is amazing. That’s what I utilize, I make it part of my routine.”   GrowNYC has another great drop-off component, for textiles! They note that “NYC residents discard nearly 200,000 tons of textiles every year, at a cost to taxpayers and our environment.” (One of the reasons why we should only purchase 3 new items of clothing a year.) So while there aren’t as many as drop-off locations for textiles as there are for compost, you’ll find one at each Greenmarket across New York, currently totaling 30 sites. There’s even an option to get a refashionNYC collection bin placed in your office or apartment building (as long as it has ten or more units).   Another local option for getting rid of your clothing, shoes, and accessories is to donate or sell them to second-hand shops like Buffalo Exchange, Housing Works, Beacon’s Closet, or smaller ones in your neighborhood. One important thing to find out before dropping your clothes at these locations is if your items aren’t sold, will they be properly donated to be recycled as textile waste?     The Freecycle Network is a grassroots movement run by volunteers in communities all over the globe, based on the idea that people want to give and receive things for free (from clothing to electronics to art supplies to furniture). There’s a large Brooklyn community that all are welcome to join for free. As you let go of furniture on this site, you may even find your next item here too! “We often forget about the upstream and how things are produced,” says Grosberg. “The production of that item (a couch, for example) is probably using coal and oil in the factory to produce it. You’re affecting the supply chain when you choose to buy used items.”   Other organizations that may provide free pick-up service in your neighborhood are Habitat for Humanity, Housing Works, and The Salvation Army.     Unfortunately, unlike other textiles such as clothing, towels, and linens, most rugs and carpets contain materials that aren’t recyclable or are made of multiple materials that can’t be pulled apart. New York doesn’t have a simple solution for properly recycling rugs yet, but there are a few places to do research if you have a large area rug or wall-to-wall carpet.   Carpet Cycle in New Jersey is finding uses for post-consumer carpets and may be able to pick up your residential carpets. And Earth911 provides more insight into the types of recycling centers that may take carpets or carpet pads.     DonateNYC is my favorite New York City-based tool when it comes to finding places to drop off more miscellaneous items in close proximity to my apartment. Especially for so many of us who don’t have cars, it’s the perfect solution to skipping the movers or renting a truck yourself. They have a directory based on an address you type in of where you can donate or receive pretty much anything from automotive supplies to home appliances to books.   One of its partners, Big Reuse in Brooklyn, will accept donations of appliances and home renovation supplies, and offer a “deconstruction” service whereby professionals will come and dismantle a kitchen or bathroom slated for renovation, often at no or low cost to resell at the shop.   There are also many of DonateNYC’s bins set up in residential and retail buildings. They even host classes multiple times a day all over the city on topics such as mending clothes, write helpful resources, host drop-off days for specialty items, and have developed a new event, ReFashion Week NYC 2020, coming up in February that I’m excited to attend.   For all your old toothpaste tubes and personal care items like toothbrushes, haul them to the Package Free Shop in Williamsburg and Chelsea Market, which use uses TerraCycle. The Park Slope Food Coop accepts a few random items too, like toothpaste and Brita water filters.     There are a couple of easy and responsible ways to get rid of those pesky dead batteries or overused electronics that have probably been hanging around your apartment for some time.   To get rid of batteries and other hazardous waste like paint, hold on to your dead AAs until the city hosts one of its biannual SAFE Disposal events, hosted by NYC’s Department of Sanitation, which happen in the spring and fall. These events accept electronics too.   For electronics recycling year round, a few options include Staples, which accepts all those extra cords, chargers, and cracked tablets you don’t know what to do with. The Package Free Shop in Williamsburg and Chelsea Market uses TerraCycle to collect electronics, too.   You can also ask your employer to sponsor electronics recycling through TerraCycle, so you could bring in home electronics on your morning commute.   While the options for recycling and repurposing goods is expanding, it’s key to keep zero waste as a goal, even if it’s just about making micro improvements to your daily routine. “In general, it’s becoming more of a conversation, even trendy, if you will,” says Grossberg. “That gets me excited. As much as I think we have a long way to go, I’m seeing so much interest. It gives me a lot of hope.”   You can attend the next Zero Waste NYC Workshop on Wednesday, January 22nd at LMHQ in Downtown Manhattan. Click here for tickets.

Last year started out poorly for recycling in Philadelphia as the city sent half its recycling to incinerators while it brokered a deal with Waste Management that took effect last June. This year, widespread incineration has stopped, but taxpayers will be coughing up millions more to handle the waste few haulers want to deal with anymore.   In fact, the city is now paying about $106 a ton to dispose of its recycling, up from $78 a ton this time last year, said Scott McGrath, the city’s environmental planner. Two years ago, the city was paying only $5 a ton, still far from the days when recycling was actually a money maker.   In all, taxpayers will pony up $9 million this fiscal year for Waste Management to haul their throwaway plastics, glass bottles, and paper — almost double what the city was paying just a few years ago.     But McGrath said Philadelphia has pledged to continue recycling, and residents say they want it.   “We want to remind everybody, yes we are recycling," McGrath said. "There still seems to be a little confusion about that.”  

How you can help

  McGrath and other industry experts say consumers can play a big role by placing non-recyclable or dirty items in the trash, rather than the blue recycling bins. Indeed, so much of the city’s recycling stream is contaminated by non-recycling items and plastic or paper ruined by food waste or water, that at least a fifth goes to a landfill or is incinerated at a waste-to-energy facility.   McGrath said there is some indication the recycling market could improve by spring, but that’s no sure thing.   The country’s recycling crisis has hit Philadelphia hard, starting in 2018 when China, then the U.S.'s biggest buyer of recyclables, shut off the faucet by demanding loads be nearly pure. Philadelphia, and most U.S. cities, can’t come close to producing pure loads even now. Other countries, such as Vietnam and India, started taking recyclables, but now they too are demanding the same kind of purity.   So American haulers and recycling processors such as West Management have increased rates to make the economics of recycling work.   McGrath said it can be cheaper to produce new plastic, which is made from fossil fuels, than recycle old. That’s because energy prices are so low from a glut of fossil fuel being produced.   The amount of plastics people are tossing in their recycling bins continues to grow, especially plastic takeout bags, McGrath said. The ubiquitous bags handed out by retailers for every purchase no matter how small are not recycled in Philadelphia and most municipalities because of their low value. And they jam recycling machinery.   Philadelphia passed a ban on single-use plastic bags in 2019, but it takes effect in July.   The city is under a five-year contract with Waste Management to provide recycling services at the company’s plant on Bleigh Avenue, where plastics, cardboard, glass, paper and metals are sorted and baled for resale or reuse.   “In general, the markets are not strong for most of those materials,” said John Hambrose, a spokesperson for Waste Management.   McGrath said he believes the city’s recycling stream is getting cleaner, thanks to more aware residents. But the contamination level is still way too high.  

The plastic bag problem

  Brett Stevens, a vice president at TerraCycle, said he agrees with McGrath that markets could see an uptick in demand. TerraCycle, based in Trenton, specializes in recycling products that aren’t typically included in curbside residential pickups, such as plastic bags. The company turns the plastic into pellets used to make new plastic products.   In the past several years, he said, the cost of collecting plastic, sorting it and converting it into pellets outweighed the value. Now, however, he said, entrepreneurs are finding new markets, and new machines that clean and process recyclables are being built.   Among the many ways the company makes money is to pick up plastic bags from retail outlets that provide a recycling bin for consumers.   But some retailers, such as MOM’S Organic Market, which has a store in Center City, are stopping the practice because the cost is too high, or the containers get contaminated. MOM’s had been using TerraCycle to recycle the bags.   MOM’S announced on its website it “will no longer accept plastic bags, snack bags, foil-lined energy bar wrappers, personal health and beauty packaging, Brita/water filters, baby food squeeze packages, and drink packages starting Jan. 1.”   The news was disheartening for residents such as Lisa Wagner, who wrote to Curious Philly, asking about the new MOM’s policy, and saying she is trying to curb use of plastic bags at home. Curious Philly is the Inquirer’s portal that allows readers to ask our reporters questions, and then we hunt down the answers.   “I’ve been hoping to get our building to be more proactive about this but there needs to be someplace to take all of the plastic that we generate,” Wagner wrote. She said the meal delivery services she uses still bring the food in bags.   “My big concern is that other stores ... will follow suit,” Wagner said, calling the plastic bag situation, “a nightmare.”   MOM’s said it was stopping the practice because it could no longer comply with TerraCycle guidelines.   Stevens said contamination levels in collection bins is often high because passersby mistake the bins for trash receptacles.   It now costs retailers money to operate such programs, where once they got industry rebates, he said.   A TerraCycle spokesperson said the company “strives to manage each of our recycling programs within the budget allocated by the program sponsor” but the volume of waste MOM’s was collecting was more than the recycler could support.   Still, Stevens said there’s a growing demand for plastics to make products like engineered outdoor decking. He said the U.S. domestic recycling industry is building more infrastructure but it takes time.   “There is a small recovery coming,” Stevens said. “Recycling has gotten a bit of a bad name because of the China ban. But recycling is not going anywhere."   For a complete list of what’s recyclable curbside in Philadelphia, go to www.philadelphiastreets.com.

Lillian and Pearl Lassen are chipping in to make their corner of the world a greener place — one potato chip bag at a time.   The mother/daughter duo last year started a grassroots effort in Sandpoint to recycle certain products that are not accepted as part of the curbside blue bin recycling programs seen in towns across the country.   “This is not your traditional recycling program,” Lillian says.   Those who participate in the program can drop certain materials at Winter Ridge Market, 703 Lake Street.   Lillian and her daughter Pearl, 7, made boxes listing the items that are to be placed in the designated containers. They used biodegradable tape and recycled paper to decorate the boxes which are marked for Late July brand potato chips, as well as personal hygiene products made by Toms of Main and Burt’s Bees.   When the boxes are full, the Lassens ship them to TerraCycle, a New Jersey-based firm that collects non-recyclable consumer waste, and then partners with corporate donors or municipalities to turn it into raw material to be used in new products.   TerraCycle recycles virtually anything, from cigarette butts, to used chewing gum to certain plastics that cannot be put in the blue recycling bins, Lassen said.   “I wanted to share activities with her daughter to help benefit others in need and the environment,” she said. “Pearl wanted to cut back on buying products in bags that could not be recycled. The idea is to reduce, recycle and reuse.”   The environmentally conscious duo aims to reduce waste that is thrown out.   “There is just so much was waste in packaging,” Lassen said. “This is an effort to take baby steps to increase awareness and create memories with my daughter.”   Lassen said the program has been a success and she plans to eventually expand the materials that are accepted at Winter Ridge Market.   “The boxes in the store have done really well,” she said. “People are really thankful for the opportunity to recycle (materials) that would otherwise end up in the dump.”

Two Harbors, MN — January 6, 2020 — New year, same mission. Granite Gear rings in 2020 with its fourth class of Grounds Keepers leading the charge in leaving our trails, parks and waterways better. Since 2017, Grounds Keeper members have removed over 10,000 pounds (and counting) of trash from our public lands. In 2020, Granite Gear introduces the Grounds Keepers “Legacy Team” including 11 rockstars from previous Grounds Keeper teams, alongside 19 new team members. This year’s diverse crew of 30 Grounds Keepers will be supported by the following sponsors: Astral , Big Agnes, Food for the Sole, Klean Kanteen, Kula Cloth, Public Lands Coffee, Recover Brand and UCO . Granite Gear is thrilled to see the growing coalition of brands supporting this initiative.   Out of hundreds of applicants, the Grounds Keepers were chosen based on their passion for the outdoors, cleanup goals and outdoor experience. With the collective mission to leave our planet better, the new 2020 team includes: Ari Leach, Ashley Bredemus, Ben Vaughan, Cat Curtis, Cliford Mervil, Daniel White, Danny Murphy, Devin Holmes, Hannah Edstrom, Hatie Parmeter, Jen Potts, Kelsey Semrod, Marlee Jennings, Paul Katz, Reece Thompson, Sarah Wilson, Suzanne Hassanein, Todd Lee and Tyler Lau. The 2020 Legacy Team includes: Alex Wehrle, Andrew Forestell, Britany Freeman, Jenny Bruso, Jen Thiesen, Julie Hukriede, Leland Kolson, Paul Twedt, Seth Orme, Steven Snyder, Sunshine State Seekers.       “Granite Gear is proud and honored to assemble another amazing Grounds Keepers team. The 2020 Grounds Keepers are a diverse group of arse-kickers who are matched only by our kick-arse new and returning sponsors. Trash, get ready to have your arse-kicked (and picked...up),” says Granite Gear’s General Manager, Rob Coughlin.   New for 2020, Grounds Keepers will be encouraged to go a step further in their Leave No Trace efforts and recycle their collected waste streams via TerraCycle 's services. TerraCycle supports the Grounds Keeper passions, goals and mission fully and looks forward to being a resource for Leave No Trace practices.   Visit www.thegroundskeepers.org to learn more about the team and follow along at #TheGroundsKeepers and the Grounds Keepers Instagram . Granite Gear and all brand partners share stories from the Grounds Keepers often. For more information on the Grounds Keepers program, please email Julie Bacon at jbacon@granitegear.com.

When you think of what can be recycled, aluminum cans and newspapers probably come to mind first. But don’t forget about granola bar wrappers, plastic cups, and chip bags.   That garbage can find a second life too, thanks to a group of Bloomington-Normal volunteers who sort, box up, and ship hard-to-recycle items to TerraCycle. They’ve diverted around 100,000 items from the landfill over the past two years—a track record that recently earned those volunteers the Ecology Action Center’s 2019 McLean County Recycling and Waste Reduction Award.   “I found (the award) very surprising,” said TerraCycle volunteer Amie Keeton. “It was nice to have our efforts recognized. And it’s nice to have our name out there and what we’re doing a little bit more.”   You might be surprised at what Bloomington-Normal’s TerraCycle team can accept:  

• Plastic hairspray bottles
• Burt’s Bee products
• Chip or snack bags
• Toothpaste tubes and caps
• Brita or PUR pitches and filters

    See a full list of what they accept. Items can be dropped off 24/7 at St. Luke Union Church in Bloomington (garbage in the back) or at Common Ground Grocery. TerraCycle, a New Jersey-based company with $31.8 million in revenue last year, is one answer to the flood of plastic that comes into our homes but can’t necessarily go out with our weekly curbside single-stream recycling. For years, the U.S. sent much of that plastic trash to China. But China in 2018 cut back almost all imports of trash. A huge market dried up.   TerraCycle, founded in 2001, takes in sorted plastic junk from individuals and volunteer teams (like Bloomington’s) from all over the country. It can turn that plastic into new products, like recycled plastic resin or plastic lumber. Those sending in plastic can earn TerraCycle “points” which are redeemable for charitable gifts, TerraCycle products, or a donation to a school or nonprofit.   St. Luke’s missions committee decides where to donate the local TerraCycle proceeds, Keeton said. So far, the beneficiaries have included the Community Health Care Clinic, Project Oz, and Big Brothers, Big Sisters, and other nonprofits.   TerraCycle has partnered with several big brands that fund its free recycling programs. The company that owns the Solo plastic cup brand, for example, supports a free recycling program for rigid #6 plastic cups. (That’s one of the items that Bloomington-Normal’s group collects.)   “That’s where TerraCycle fits in,” said Melanie Ziomek, another Bloomington volunteer. “Maybe it’s making the businesses more responsible for what they create. Because there’s more to it than putting a stamp on it that says it’s recyclable. Because in certain communities, you can’t.”   It’s not easy work. Janet Guaderrama is the local TerraCycle sorter-in-chief, putting in at least four or five hours a week. The goal is to label and store everything until they “make weight” and have enough of a given item—like granola bar wrappers or plastic cups—to ship off to TerraCycle.   “Our struggles are always trying to find big enough boxes,” Ziomek said. “We’ve gotten really creative. We’ll put four boxes on top of each other and tape them all together, just so we can fit 40 pounds of chip bags in there."   Ziomek started recycling like this in 2011 out of her garage, later expanding and teaming up with the other TerraCycle volunteers. Her inspiration: She was troubled by how much garbage her family was throwing out at home, and she felt there had to be something they could do to reduce their waste.   “I started to research online, and I found TerraCycle. And I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, all these things my home ends up throwing away, I can do this,’” Ziomek said.