#AmericaRecyclesDay event urges more action -- start with not stuffing recyclables in a plastic bag   Tossing a pizza box into the recycling bin seems like a guilt-free chaser to America's favorite dining shortcut. Yet a standard cardboard pizza box, with its greasy remnants, is large enough to contaminate other recyclables in the bin.   Pizza boxes are one of the biggest recycling sins among many committed by well-meaning consumers -- "wishcyclers" is one term to describe them.   The best chances for successful paper and plastic recycling comes with abiding by tossing only "empty, clean and dry" containers and avoiding hazardous and too-large materials all together (more engine blocks and bowling balls have found their way into curb-side bins than you'd care to think about). Recycling small items, such as shredded paper, hurts operations at the sorting facility as well.   "The ketchup bottle, soda can, any type of container that has residue can pose a real challenge and the majority of packaging material is fiber based, which means liquid or food can really soak in and thus that's contaminated if not washed and dried," said Pete Keller, vice president of recycling and sustainability at Republic Services(RSG) , the second-largest U.S. provider of non-hazardous solid waste and recycling handling, including sorting facilities.   (link)   Friday, Nov. 15 was declared America Recycles Day (link), an event to build recycling program awareness. Below, tips from recycling-industry operators on how to keep recyclable items from still hitting the landfill.   1. Trash audit. One the most effective ways to ease the recycling sorting challenge and lend an even bigger boost to habitat preservation and keeping plastic out of the world's waterways is to cut down on new plastic use. But small behavior changes may not achieve the depth of result you want. Instead, conduct a whole-house audit to see where you're accumulating the most single-use plastics, and work to eliminate them, suggests Curbed.com, in its "101 Ways to Live Sustainably" guide (link). One blogger, in her own audit (link), discovered she generated 65 pounds of measurable waste (no, not that kind) in one month, some recyclable, some not.   2. Try topless. Take an extra beat to think how a particular item may best be recycled, perhaps in part not whole. One way to recycle that used pizza box is to cut off its presumably cleaner lid and recycle that portion exclusively. That is, unless it too has the forensic trail left by the pepperoni and mushrooms. Box makers may increasingly do their part to use smarter materials that could cut down on waste. Yum Brands Inc.-owned Pizza Hut(YUM) is newly testing a round pizza box (link) that uses less overall packaging and is compostable, meaning it won't have to be tossed in with the recycables going to the sorting facility but can degrade on its own.   3. Major disqualification: recyclables in plastic bags. For household convenience and, presumably, because recyclers think it's easier for the collectors and sorters, too many Americans toss cans and bottles in plastic grocery bags and drop the whole lot in the recycling bin. Keller of Republic Services says his sorters are trained to avoid plunging their hands into bags packed with items for their own safety, because the belt moves along too quickly for overly detailed sorting and because contamination will be likely. Instead, consumers should take plastic bags directly back to retailers and the collection bins often found there. There are also programs throughout the U.S. that ban plastic bag use and encourage nondisposable cloth bags for carrying groceries and other shopping.   Related: With refillable deodorant and naked products, Unilever thinks it can halve virgin plastic use by 2025 (link)   4. No batteries, no exceptions. Car battery-disposing programs help keep this violator largely out of the recycling bin, but consumers seem all too comfortable dumping other types of batteries in regular curbside recycling programs, where they don't belong. Confusion may arise in part because batteries are marked with a "not-for-trash" icon that may be misunderstood as a greenlight to recycle them with other items. The ban extends to dry-cell batteries such as the AAA variety to the lithium-ion batteries commonly used for portable electronics. Consumers should try battery-specific recycling services such as the Call 2 Recycle program with receptacles at most home improvement stores. TerraCycle is another U.S.-based business that focuses on removal of hard-to-recycle items.   5. Recycling versus reuse. Experts say that too many clothing items and shoes find their way into the traditional container recycling programs operated by cities. Many of the sorting facilities are not equipped nor contracted to set these items aside and donate them to nonprofit reuse programs. The responsibility lies with consumers to donate clothing, including for instance to the jean programs that turn denim into building insulation.   6. Shredded paper is just trash, unfortunately. Electronic communication and file-keeping means there is less paper in circulation. But that physical paper trail -- much of which may be recyclable if not coated or may even be made from recyclable material already -- is an enemy of the sorting centers' mechanical machinery once it's shredded. Add plastic cutlery and straws to the no-list as their size and shape complicates the sorting process, too, and off they go to the trash heap.   7. Yard waste: Add a bin. Keller of Republic Services said some consumers are putting in the recycling bin the grass clippings, leaves, vegetable peelings and other biological waste than can break down via anaerobic digestion, just not alongside paper and metal. That means households should follow municipal rules for composting and keep this type of "recycling" in its own bin.   Read: MrBeast and PewDiePie will 'freaking do something about climate change' by planting 20 million trees (link)   8. Beware the tanglers. A material might be recyclable technically but the composition of the item excludes it. Keller called them "tanglers," hoses and ropes, for instance, that clog the machines at his sorting facilities. Diapers are another confusing culprit. Their inclusion in the color-coded bins might only be explained by the likelihood that too many households use the recycling bin simply as a second garbage can.   Read: Fast shipping isn't great for the environment-- 7 ways to cut the carbon footprint on your Amazon deliveries (link)   9. Flexible packaging not a panacea. Changing the way that products are wrapped, including cutting down on rigid containers, using, as an example, detergent pods or refillable bottles using concentrates, has gained traction. But recycling center experts say flex packaging, for instance if a smaller package still requires multiple layers of covering including a foil layer for safe shipping, are challenging for their facilities. On Friday, two members of Congress and a coalition of businesses and trade groups in plastics, waste management and other materials advanced a $500 million federal legislative proposal that they see funneling more money to upgrading the recycling infrastructure (link), such as upgrades to material recovery facilities to better handle flexible film and other new kinds of packaging.

Sarasota’s Ornata Jewelry partners with TerraCycle recycling program to help eliminate unnecessary waste.

Sarasota-based online retailer Ornata Jewelry is working with innovative recycling company TerraCycle to reduce harmful plastic waste. By participating in TerraCycle’s Zero Waste Box program, the jewelry company recycles the plastic packaging raw materials come shipped in. Disposables, such as plastic bags, that would otherwise be sent to a landfill are now placed in a receptacle box that once full can be shipped back to TerraCycle for repurposing. The Zero Waste Box program is remarkably straight-forward. First, businesses choose which box package and size works best for their waste disposal needs. Dozens of box options are available, including those for a variety of plastic products, worn down shoes, dead batteries, used coffee pods and even cigarette butts. After receiving the box, users fill it to the brim with appropriate debris before mailing it back to TerraCycle. (Return shipping is included in the initial box price.) Now, instead of spending a lifetime in a landfill or requiring incineration these byproducts will be up-cycled and given a second life as a park bench, bike rack or shipping pallet. This recent partnership is just one in a long line of steps Ornata Jewelry has taken to reduce the organization’s environmental impact. Since conception, company leadership has made great efforts to monitor the business’s carbon footprint and minimize waste. Ornata’s reduce, reuse and recycle efforts also include using eco-friendly paper in product packaging, shipping containers that meet Sustainable Forestry Initiative standards, sourcing supplies from ecologically-minded manufacturers and, whenever possible, recycling sterling silver or metal scraps. The leaders at Ornata hope that their efforts will inspire other small businesses to take action over their own environmental impact. The company issued a statement that read, “We believe in our world and understand that its future depends on our actions, both the big and the small. Consciously logging what we use and its effects on the earth heighten our awareness and naturally leads to positive changes in our behavior.” Through teaming with TerraCycle, Ornata is one step closer to achieving its dream of creating a waste-free world and a product customers can feel good about.

Fill and refill — it’s a simple concept. For Eagle County residents, Fill & Refill is a new business in Edwards, taking away the cost of packaging and plastic-waste contribution by offering refillable daily-use, organic products — from body washes, shampoos and conditioners to hand soap, body lotion, menstrual hygiene products, toothpaste tablets and more. With paper, glass and metal refillable packaging for organic, biodegradable products, Fill & Refill is a business cutting into the county’s carbon footprint. “They all work really well,” owner Allison Burgund said of the products vetted at her family of four’s home in Edwards. “They all smell really great and feel really great. Most importantly, they don’t have toxins for your body — or my kids — and the environment.” Brands in Fill & Refill include Bee’s Wrap, Smartliners, Dr. Bronner’s All-One, EO Products, Sapadilla, Wildland Organics and more. The cost of refills ranges from 30 cents per ounce to 70 cents per ounce. Burgund has refillable jars available for purchase, as well as rent. A starter kit features a tote bag, two glass bottles and pumps as well as fills on each bottle for $27. After 20 years in the business of graphic design, Burgund is starting a new chapter with Fill & Refill. “I found a new passion,” she said from her small shop in Edwards, where smells are free. “It’s a small space, but hopefully I’ll make an impact.” In addition to offering refillable daily-use products, Burgund is focused on educational outreach, including adding a box for snack wrappers at Edwards Elementary School, collaborating with Walking Mountains Science Center and working with Knapp Ranch and rental units to provide sustainable amenity kits.

‘I like the concept of refilling’

After a trip to the recycling center near Wolcott with her daughter’s second-grade class two years ago, Burgund decided to collect her family of four’s plastic trash for a month to see how they were contributing. “It was much bigger than I thought,” she said, adding that plastic recycling is essentially trash, citing National Geographic’s report that 91% doesn’t get recycled. She reached out to grocery stores in Eagle and Summit counties asking them to offer refillable products, with no luck. So she started researching and testing products herself, looking at other zero-waste stores that sell products used on a daily basis — hand soap, laundry soap, shampoo, deodorant, etc. One of the first products she tested with her two children was having them make their own bubble baths starting with unscented, organic essential oils and adding scents like lime, orange and grapefruit. Products at Fill & Refill are initially packaged in paper, glass and metal and can be re-used. “I really like local companies because that’s the best support of reducing a carbon footprint — less travel, less gas and less packaging,” she said. Just before Halloween, Burgund teamed up with recycling company TerraCycle to put a Zero Waste Box in Edwards Elementary School, where candy and snack wrappers will go. When the box is full, it gets shipped back to TerraCycle, which turns them into recycled new products, such as benches, bike racks, shipping pallets and more. The school’s Green Team is helping manage the box. “That’s a nice, tidy little way to handle some of that stuff, and I feel like it teaches kids that they can make a difference,” said Burgund, mother of a 7-year-old and 9-year-old herself. With Fill & Refill, Burgund is currently a team of one, but she is looking to expand — with both the product line as well as satellite locations in Vail and Eagle. “I like the concept of refilling,” Burgund said. “I think eventually it should not just be limited to the healthiest products, although that’s what I believe in.”

Bimbo Bakeries USA, the largest baking company in the United States, announced that it is committing to 100 percent sustainable packaging for its entire product portfolio by 2025. Through this commitment, the plastic bags, individual wrappers and cardboard boxes for more than 21 brands of bread, buns, bagels, English muffins, sweet baked goods and snacks will be recyclable, reusable or compostable by 2025. Bimbo Bakeries USA is the first commercial baking company in the U.S. to make this commitment.   “We take our responsibility to protect our planet very seriously,” said Fred Penny, president, Bimbo Bakeries USA. “For years, we have taken steps to reduce the plastic used in our packaging and we are now committing to ensuring that packaging we have in the market does not make it to landfill or our oceans.”   This sustainable packaging pledge is part of a greater global commitment by Grupo Bimbo, the company of which Bimbo Bakeries USA is a part. During last year’s RE100, Grupo Bimbo – the world’s largest baking company with operations in 32 countries – committed to sustainable packaging across its entire portfolio around the globe by 2025.   “To make immediate progress in this commitment, we are expanding our partnership with TerraCycle to make all bread, bun, bagel and English muffin packaging easily recyclable starting January 1, 2020,” said Penny. “We have already diverted more than 5 million Little Bites pouches from landfill through TerraCycle and look forward to including the rest of our portfolio in this important program.”   TerraCycle is an innovator that prides itself on recycling items not typically collected in municipal pickup of plastics, glass and paper – this includes most commercial bread packaging, which is currently recyclable as a “4.”   The recycling experts at TerraCycle are committed to their mission of eliminating waste and work with leading consumer product companies like Bimbo Bakeries USA, to recycle products and packaging and prevent it from being landfilled or incinerated. Through the TerraCycle program, individuals can save their Bimbo Bakeries USA product packaging, print out a free shipping label and send it to be recycled. 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 the non-profit, school or charitable organization of their choice.   Sustainability is built into Bimbo Bakeries USA’s Purpose – to build a sustainable, highly productive, and deeply humane company. Notable initiatives include:  

• Reducing company-wide plastic use by more than a million pounds since 2018
• Producing 100% renewable electrical energy for all U.S. operations as of July 2019, with energy created through a Wind Farm backed by a Virtual Power Purchase Agreement with Invenergy
• Named EPA ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year in 2018 and 2019 for superior leadership, innovation and commitment to environmental protection through energy efficiency
• 14 ENERGY STAR Certified facilities
• Manufacturing operations divert greater than 95% of waste from landfill
• 360 company-owned vehicles utilize alternative fuel – propane, compressed natural gas, and electric

  “For more than a decade, we have been executing a strategy internally and with suppliers to reduce our waste and resource consumption, recycle and find innovative ways to accelerate our sustainable practices,” said Penny. “Announcing our commitment to 100% sustainable packaging by 2025 on National Recycling Day is one more critical action.”   Bimbo Bakeries USA  has over 20,000 U.S. associates and operates more than 50 manufacturing locations in the United States including brands such as Arnold, Artesano, Ball Park, Bimbo, Boboli, Brownberry, Entenmann's, Little Bites, Marinela, Mrs Baird’s, Oroweat, Sara Lee, Stroehmann, and Thomas'. Bimbo Bakeries.  USA is part of Mexico’s Grupo Bimbo, S.A.B de C.V., the world's largest baking company with operations in 32 countries.  

#AmericaRecyclesDay event urges more action -- start with not stuffing recyclables in a plastic bag   Tossing a pizza box into the recycling bin seems like a guilt-free chaser to America's favorite dining shortcut. Yet a standard cardboard pizza box, with its greasy remnants, is large enough to contaminate other recyclables in the bin.   Pizza boxes are one of the biggest recycling sins among many committed by well-meaning consumers -- "wishcyclers" is one term to describe them.   The best chances for successful paper and plastic recycling comes with abiding by tossing only "empty, clean and dry" containers and avoiding hazardous and too-large materials all together (more engine blocks and bowling balls have found their way into curb-side bins than you'd care to think about). Recycling small items, such as shredded paper, hurts operations at the sorting facility as well.   "The ketchup bottle, soda can, any type of container that has residue can pose a real challenge and the majority of packaging material is fiber based, which means liquid or food can really soak in and thus that's contaminated if not washed and dried," said Pete Keller, vice president of recycling and sustainability at Republic Services(RSG) , the second-largest U.S. provider of non-hazardous solid waste and recycling handling, including sorting facilities.   (link)   Friday, Nov. 15 was declared America Recycles Day (link), an event to build recycling program awareness. Below, tips from recycling-industry operators on how to keep recyclable items from still hitting the landfill.   1. Trash audit. One the most effective ways to ease the recycling sorting challenge and lend an even bigger boost to habitat preservation and keeping plastic out of the world's waterways is to cut down on new plastic use. But small behavior changes may not achieve the depth of result you want. Instead, conduct a whole-house audit to see where you're accumulating the most single-use plastics, and work to eliminate them, suggests Curbed.com, in its "101 Ways to Live Sustainably" guide (link). One blogger, in her own audit (link), discovered she generated 65 pounds of measurable waste (no, not that kind) in one month, some recyclable, some not.   2. Try topless. Take an extra beat to think how a particular item may best be recycled, perhaps in part not whole. One way to recycle that used pizza box is to cut off its presumably cleaner lid and recycle that portion exclusively. That is, unless it too has the forensic trail left by the pepperoni and mushrooms. Box makers may increasingly do their part to use smarter materials that could cut down on waste. Yum Brands Inc.-owned Pizza Hut(YUM) is newly testing a round pizza box (link) that uses less overall packaging and is compostable, meaning it won't have to be tossed in with the recycables going to the sorting facility but can degrade on its own.   3. Major disqualification: recyclables in plastic bags. For household convenience and, presumably, because recyclers think it's easier for the collectors and sorters, too many Americans toss cans and bottles in plastic grocery bags and drop the whole lot in the recycling bin. Keller of Republic Services says his sorters are trained to avoid plunging their hands into bags packed with items for their own safety, because the belt moves along too quickly for overly detailed sorting and because contamination will be likely. Instead, consumers should take plastic bags directly back to retailers and the collection bins often found there. There are also programs throughout the U.S. that ban plastic bag use and encourage nondisposable cloth bags for carrying groceries and other shopping.   Related: With refillable deodorant and naked products, Unilever thinks it can halve virgin plastic use by 2025 (link)   4. No batteries, no exceptions. Car battery-disposing programs help keep this violator largely out of the recycling bin, but consumers seem all too comfortable dumping other types of batteries in regular curbside recycling programs, where they don't belong. Confusion may arise in part because batteries are marked with a "not-for-trash" icon that may be misunderstood as a greenlight to recycle them with other items. The ban extends to dry-cell batteries such as the AAA variety to the lithium-ion batteries commonly used for portable electronics. Consumers should try battery-specific recycling services such as the Call 2 Recycle program with receptacles at most home improvement stores. TerraCycle is another U.S.-based business that focuses on removal of hard-to-recycle items.   5. Recycling versus reuse. Experts say that too many clothing items and shoes find their way into the traditional container recycling programs operated by cities. Many of the sorting facilities are not equipped nor contracted to set these items aside and donate them to nonprofit reuse programs. The responsibility lies with consumers to donate clothing, including for instance to the jean programs that turn denim into building insulation.   6. Shredded paper is just trash, unfortunately. Electronic communication and file-keeping means there is less paper in circulation. But that physical paper trail -- much of which may be recyclable if not coated or may even be made from recyclable material already -- is an enemy of the sorting centers' mechanical machinery once it's shredded. Add plastic cutlery and straws to the no-list as their size and shape complicates the sorting process, too, and off they go to the trash heap.   7. Yard waste: Add a bin. Keller of Republic Services said some consumers are putting in the recycling bin the grass clippings, leaves, vegetable peelings and other biological waste than can break down via anaerobic digestion, just not alongside paper and metal. That means households should follow municipal rules for composting and keep this type of "recycling" in its own bin.   Read: MrBeast and PewDiePie will 'freaking do something about climate change' by planting 20 million trees (link)   8. Beware the tanglers. A material might be recyclable technically but the composition of the item excludes it. Keller called them "tanglers," hoses and ropes, for instance, that clog the machines at his sorting facilities. Diapers are another confusing culprit. Their inclusion in the color-coded bins might only be explained by the likelihood that too many households use the recycling bin simply as a second garbage can.   Read: Fast shipping isn't great for the environment-- 7 ways to cut the carbon footprint on your Amazon deliveries (link)   9. Flexible packaging not a panacea. Changing the way that products are wrapped, including cutting down on rigid containers, using, as an example, detergent pods or refillable bottles using concentrates, has gained traction. But recycling center experts say flex packaging, for instance if a smaller package still requires multiple layers of covering including a foil layer for safe shipping, are challenging for their facilities. On Friday, two members of Congress and a coalition of businesses and trade groups in plastics, waste management and other materials advanced a $500 million federal legislative proposal that they see funneling more money to upgrading the recycling infrastructure (link), such as upgrades to material recovery facilities to better handle flexible film and other new kinds of packaging.

Jaclyn Hill is relaunching her namesake makeup line Beauty influencer Jaclyn Hill announced this week that she is relaunching her namesake makeup line. Her holiday collection “Catch the Light” will be available for purchase on November 26, and includes three brushes, a luminous powder plus several highlighters. Earlier this week, Hill posted the reveal on Instagram captioned, “The future is bright.” This is coming after her original (and controversial) Jaclyn Cosmetics launch in May where she released a collection of 20 nude lipsticks, some of which had a lumpy formula and contained hair-like fibres. But rest assured—this time Hill is using a different laboratory than she did for her first round of beauty wares. She told WWD that “The first launch sucked, but everybody deserves a second chance … I’m gonna keep going and proving myself.”   BUXOM released a Toronto Raptors-inspired lipstick Beauty company BUXOM is celebrating We The North culture with the release of Full Force Plumping Lipstick in the colour “baller.” Made with beauty and basketball fans in mind, the satin shade of Raptors’ signature red will look amazing on anyone who supports the defending NBA champions. The Full Force Plumping Lipstick is said to visibly smooth and fill lips, while ingredients like avocado oil, jojoba esters and vitamin E condition your pout. We can’t decide what’s better: the long-wear formula, or the fact that it smells like vanilla. Regardless, it is definitely cuter than a jersey. The lipstick is finally available at Shoppers Drug Mart and Real Sports Apparel inside Scotiabank Arena, and will be on Sephora shelves in December.   Jennifer Lopez got a new asymmetrical lob-cut Jenny from the block knows where she came from, but isn’t afraid to evolve. Trying out new hairstyles is not uncommon for Jennifer Lopez, and this week we noticed she was wearing an asymmetrical lob. Celebrity hairstylist Chris Appleton cut Lopez’s locks, and included a deep side part with a few golden highlights to frame her face. This look deserves a *chef’s kiss*.   Deciem launched an empty-container recycling program This week, Deciem announced a new recycling program in an attempt to improve their sustainability efforts. This program allows people to drop off their clean empties from any beauty brand, which will then be sorted by material type before being recycled or repurposed. Partnering with TerraCycle, the brand has placed white cardboard boxes with the words “BEAUTY IS BEING HUMAN” at select Deciem locations in the U.K., U.S. and Canada, including the shop in Toronto’s Exchange Tower. Deciem claims this is a starter solution in their plan for efficient recycling. No complaints here.  

The whole point of giving over the holidays is to share the love with your favorite people. But if you’re looking for a double dose of good karma, why not opt for presents that are good for the environment—and fellow humans—too?   Whether you’re looking for sustainable gift ideas for the friend who lives a totally non-toxic lifestyle or you want to support the fair treatment of workers and artisans, we’ve got you covered from eco to friendly—with everything from Josie Maran’s clean skin-care sets to a beginner’s kit for ditching plastic.  

Once more, the leading American recycling company is expanding its innovative services. On January 1, 2020, TerrraCycle will begin accepting for recycling any and all retail hair care, color and styling products of Schwarzkopf, the large North American unit of Henkel, an international purveyor of adhesives and fine personal cosmetic lines.   And the really good news is that the consumer can earn points which can be redeemed for charitable gifts or converted to cash for donation to a non-profit, school or charitable organization of their choice. Win-win-win. Better yet, the Schwarzkopf-TerraCycle Program is available to any interested individual, school, office, or community organization.   TerraCycle, which uses the tagline Eliminate the Idea of Waste®, is known for its advanced technologies that can recycle many waste stream items that typical recycling facilities can’t handle. Consumers will be able to collect used packaging from their Schwarzkopf products, and when ready, download a shipping label from the TerraCycle website to mail them in for recycling. Once received at TerraCycle, the packaging will be cleaned and melted into hard plastic that can be remolded to make new products, which are also recyclable.   The Program is actually an expansion of their relationship, which began in 2016. Manuela Emmrich, Marketing Director, Hair US, Henkel Beauty Care, noted, “The program will not only increase the overall recyclability of products, but also inspire and empower consumers to champion the sustainability of products they’re purchasing”.   TerraCycle is an innovative waste management company with a mission to eliminate the idea of waste. Operating nationally across 21 countries, TerraCycle partners with leading consumer product companies, retailers and cities to recycle products and packages, from dirty diapers to cigarette butts, that would otherwise end up being landfilled or incinerated.   Henkel, in North America, operates across its three business units: Adhesive Technologies, Beauty Care, and Laundry & Home Care. Its portfolio of well-known consumer and industrial brands includes Schwarzkopf ® hair care, Dial ® soaps, Right Guard ® antiperspirants, Persil ®, Purex ® and all® laundry detergents, Snuggle ® fabric softeners, as well as Loctite ®, Technomelt ® and Bonderite ® adhesives.    

Gerber, the leader in early childhood nutrition, was associated with the international recycling company TerraCycle to help give new life to packaging food for babies difficult to recycle. This partnership is based on shared Gerber and TerraCycle around waste disposal and supports the recovery of packaging baby food difficult to recycle national values.   "Through this free recycling program, Gerber offers parents an easy way to divert waste from landfills to provide a responsible way to dispose of certain food packaging for babies difficult to recycle; to the collect and recycle these items, families can demonstrate their respect for the environment not only environment through the products they choose for their children, but also how they removed the packaging, "said CEO and founder of TerraCycle, tom Szaky.   Gerber believes the baby food industry should help create a world where babies thrive and this partnership is one of many steps towards its goal of achieving 100% recyclable packaging or reusable 2025.   As an added incentive, for every pound of packaging waste sent to TerraCycle through the Recycling Program Gerber, collectors can earn $ 1 to donate to a nonprofit, school or charity organization of their choice. "We are delighted to partner with TerraCycle as part of our broader efforts for sustainable packaging; we know that the top priority of every parent is to ensure a healthy and happy future for your baby. Our commitment to sustainability is based on helping parents make the future of your baby is much brighter, "said President and CEO of Gerber, Bill Partyka.

“This is to get people to see the trash,” she said, her fingers slick with grease. “We don’t want to be the invisible janitors.” With her distinctive appliqués, that was unlikely.   It was the last day of the Joshua Tree Music Festival, a family-friendly event of didgeridoo sound baths, yoga, crafts, electronica and other familiar fare held at a dusty desert campground for three days in October. Ms. Nielsen, a 25-year-old artist whose medium is trash, was one of 20-odd Trash Pirates working the event.   The Pirates are a loose collective of waste management specialists, to borrow a phrase from Tony Soprano, who make sure events are as sustainable as possible through recycling and composting. They also educate attendees about how to do both properly.   Garbage has long been the uncomfortable fallout of the festival world, and as these gatherings multiply like glow sticks at a Phish concert, stretching the season into a year-round party (hola, Costa Rica), its impact has roused young artists and activists like Ms. Nielsen.   Most Pirates start out as volunteers, helping with trash or performing other tasks so as to attend for free. Then they have their “trash moment,” as the Pirates put it, the epiphany that turns volunteer work into a career, and trash into a calling.   “Your first experience of the mass of it, whether it’s loading dumpsters onto a trailer or driving out to the event grounds when everyone is gone and it’s a sea of trash, is an existential crisis,” Ms. Nielsen said. “You are baptized into compost.”   “You’re either in or you’re out,” she added, echoing the rallying cry of a long-ago counterculture movement that involved a bus, “and it becomes a way of life.”   The events themselves — both community-minded and escapist — are morphing into trash camps: days-long immersions into the politics of waste, with lectures and workshops on developing your garbage-handling skills along with your yoga practice.   Some trash stats are in order. In 2017, according to an environmental impact report, Coachella, in Indio, Calif., was generating over 100 tons of trash each day. Many events are now committed to becoming zero-waste endeavors, or as close to it as possible. High “diversion” rates (the percentage of waste not sent to the landfill) are badges of honor. Last spring, the Trash Pirates brought the Joshua Tree Music Festival’s rate up to 77 percent.   In 2017, Coachella’s diversion rate was just 20 percent, apparently because attendees weren’t using the recycling bins. Veterans of Burning Man and other festivals learn acronyms like MOOP, for “Matter Out of Place,” an umbrella term for trash and anything else that doesn’t occur naturally on a site; cigarette butts, broken tents and human waste are some common examples.   Burning Man has a “Leave No Trace” ethos, but the messy camps of bad Burners are called out each year on the festival’s MOOP Map in the hope that public shaming will be a deterrent next time around.  

‘Shepherds of the “Away’’’

  While there are many waste organizations dedicated to mitigating the environmental impact of such gatherings, the Trash Pirates are distinguished by their zeal and their punk aplomb.       Take Moon Mandel, 24, a filmmaker and Trash Pirate who was managing the operations that weekend at Joshua Tree. Mx. Mandel is nonbinary, and with their bright orange jumpsuit emblazoned with patches stitched with trash graphics (the recycling whorl and other insignia) they looked like an indie Eagle Scout.   As Oscar the Grouch sang his gruff-voiced hymn “I Love Trash,” one of many trash-friendly songs on the Pirates’ playlist, Mx. Mandel said: “It’s very important for people to see the work we do and understand the human scope of it. We are trying to alter the cultural norms of a throwaway society. We teach them that there’s no ‘away.’ We are the shepherds of the ‘away’ and it's being buried inside the earth forever.”   And so Mx. Mandel performed trash collections, dancing with colleagues as Oscar warbled under a festive tent with gaily painted bins, and sorting garbage (earning $5 a bag) for those campers too busy or negligent to do it themselves.   To attendees who had dutifully separated their food scraps and recyclables and were tipping them into the appropriate bins, Mx. Mandel called out a hearty, “Yarg!” their preferred Pirate cheer.   “Thank you for composting!” Mx. Mandel praised a young woman scraping scrambled eggs out of a frying pan, and then recited some recycling basics: “You can’t compost paper with too much printing on it, or recycle greasy paper. Single-use bags can be taken to supermarkets in California for recycling, so we are collecting them. Make sure everything is clean. You don’t need to rinse your soda or beer cans. But if your stuff is covered in yogurt, it’s not going to be recycled.”   Mx. Mandel has a policy about not working festivals where organizers are charging for water. “The decommodification of water is one of my core beliefs,” they said.       Mx. Mandel was particularly proud of their cigarette-butt program. For the last two years, they have been collecting butts (200,000 and counting, they said) at festivals and sending them to TerraCycle, a company that teams with manufacturers and retailers to recycle or upcycle all manner of products and materials, including action-figure toys, backpacks and toothbrushes. Cigarette butts are turned into plastic pallets; the tobacco is composted.   Sarah Renner, the operations and site manager for the Joshua Tree Music Festival, wrote in an email that the Trash Pirates are “the down and dirty, real as can be, heroes of the event world.”   The Pirates have handled her festival’s waste for the last four years, sweeping, handing out bags and painting barrels with children. “They don’t just pull trash bags and sort recycling,” she said. “They are on a mission to change the way people think while getting everything to where it needs to go.””   The work is brutal. Heat stroke, sunburn, cuts and bruises are common hazards, as is a dousing with trash juice: the pungent slurry that pours from a trash can and into your armpits when you’re hoisting it over your head.   Close-toed boots are encouraged, but don’t always protect. Mx. Mandel’s foot was sliced open, they said, this past February at a festival in Costa Rica by a severed iguana hand that pierced their boot, but most dangers are what you’d think: nails, screws, shards of glass.   Tools of the trade include MOOP sticks, which are long claws for grabbing trash without having to bend over. These are light and rather delicate, with a nice action, and are precise enough to pick up a grain of rice.   Hand sanitizer and liquid soap are requirements; one Pirate, Moose Martinez, had a Purell bottle clipped to the strap of his over-the-shoulder water bag. Work gloves and thin blue food service gloves are part of the uniform, but many of the Pirates were working in their bare hands.   “We call that raw-dogging,” said Luke Dunn, 33, a musician and preschool teacher, as a colleague with clean hands fed him a chocolate-chip cookie. “You try not to touch your face, you wash a lot.”   On the Pirates’ Facebook page, “Trash Pirates and Waste Naughts,” with over 4,000 followers, they share job tips (a recent post was for waste management at McMurdo Station in Antarctica); inspiration (“It’s Called Garbage Can, Not Garbage Cannot”); and education (news clips on California’s recycling woes and posts reviewing the best trash bags or instructions on how to make compostable confetti out of leaves with a hole puncher).   One long thread discussed cleaning up glitter, a particular scourge of Gay Pride parades.    

‘The Lost Boys’

  The Trash Pirates formed six years ago when two friends, Caleb Robertson, now 26, and Kirk Kunihiro, 29, then living in the San Francisco Bay Area, wanted to go to festivals for free.   While volunteering for the green teams, as they are called, of these gatherings, Mr. Robertson said, "We came to realize that there was a way to express our zero-waste passions within the event industry.”   They learned their craft at Green Mary, a two-decades-old company dedicated to making events sustainable that was founded by Mary Munat, an environmental activist and former Army reservist.   “They are fast, hard-working, green-hearted people,” she said of the Pirates. “I love their energy and greenness, and I am so glad my age-old eco-passions gave birth to so many little green pirates.”   The Trash Pirates was a nickname they gave each other early on, when festivals were more haphazard, and it stuck. In the beginning, Mr. Robertson, said “It was more seat-of-the-pants. Many of us were living out of our vehicles. That’s the thing: Trash can attract people who don’t feel like they have a place to go, giving people purpose in a space where they had none. Kind of like the Lost Boys. People are interested in the party, but it becomes empty if you don’t have a purpose.”   Next year, they hope to work upward of 30 events. “The work isn’t going to stop, I’m almost scared of it,” Mr. Robertson said, adding that he and many of his colleagues are looking to expand beyond the festivals and tackle community projects in Los Angeles, where he now lives, and beyond.   Mx. Mandel is devoted to filmmaking; Ms. Nielsen to art and activism. “But we are all still united by trash,” Mr. Robertson said. “We recognize that festivals are a stage and a platform to reach people, but we also know that it’s just a Band-Aid and the best thing we can do is to concentrate on government policies and community work.” Mr. Kunihiro, who also lives in Los Angeles, started his own waste-consulting business, which includes a waste sampling service that analyzes the composition of waste streams — work that makes festival trash seem as clean and fresh, he said, as birthday cake.   He has led tours for fourth graders of recycling plants in the Bay Area; at Joshua Tree, his water bottle was a tiny blue toy recycling bin, a gift from his mother.   Another Pirate, Stephen Chun, talked about the awkward moment when he is asked what he does for a living. “A lot of people are like, ‘Huh, that’s nice. Good for you,” he said. “The feedback over time goes from being, ‘Oh, you’re the trash guy’ to, ‘Oh, you’re a hero.’ Now I say I’m a zero-waste events consultant.”   Ms. Munat said, “People see us going through the recycling and offer us their sandwiches. And we’re like, ‘No, it’s O.K., we’re getting paid.’”   Because trash is ascendant as a problem and a paradigm, it continues to grow as a métier. “In 1995, when I first starting teaching about waste, it was a boutique subject and not considered appropriate for academic study,” said Robin Nagle, a professor of anthropology and environmental studies at New York University who specializes joyfully in garbage.   She has been anthropologist-in-residence at the New York City Department of Sanitation for more than a decade; her book “Picking Up: On the Streets and Behind the Trucks With the Sanitation Workers of New York City” was published in 2013. Professor Nagle is a founder of what’s known as discard studies, a new interdisciplinary field of research examining waste politically, culturally and economically.       “You can take any piece of trash as an object in the world and track it from its raw materials though its journey into the marketplace as a commodity,” she said. “At any of those points it will connect not just to the proliferation of garbage as a form of pollution but a host of any other environmental crises including the big megillah that is climate change.”   Of the Trash Pirates she said, “They are pushing boundaries in wonderful ways. I would be curious to see what they’re doing in 20 years. Do they bounce from this ebullient, youthful thing to something more settled? And will the planet be even closer to the brink of destruction?”   We shall see, but in the meantime, as is their practice, the Pirates swept the Joshua Tree Music Festival campgrounds clean by forming a MOOP line, as it’s known, with each Pirate three to four feet apart and armed with a MOOP stick and a bucket, and moving from the perimeter to the center.   Mx. Mandel said, “Like one amoeba we slowly devour the MOOP.”   Penelope Green is a feature writer in the Style department. She has been a reporter for the Home section, editor of Styles of The Times, an early iteration of Style, and a story editor at The New York Times Magazine. She lives in Manhattan.