NORTH BRUNSWICK – Ten professionals from the community shared their career stories with second graders at Judd Elementary School during Community Helper Day.   As part of the Social Studies curriculum, students learned that the community is where people live, work and play, according to Eileen Glincman.   On Oct. 29, each class visited the station of each helper for six minutes, viewing equipment, asking questions and participating in activities. Many were parents of the children in attendance.   Mark Cafferty is the director of North Brunswick’s Office of Emergency Management. He spoke about first aid kits, whistles for rescues, the necessity of having a flashlight, and keeping a backpack with emergency supplies.   Justin Capezza is a lieutenant with North Brunswick Volunteer Fire Co. No. 2. He showed the students his gear, some equipment and an air tank.   “If you see somebody wearing all this stuff, you should come right to them. Don’t hide – we want to make sure you’re safe,” he said.   Arielle De Lain is a registered nurse at New York Presbyterian Hospital. She said she works with patients with head injuries, and demonstrated to the students how a light shone in the eye dilates the pupil.   Keith Rada is a banker at Brunswick Bank & Trust. He explained how a bank makes its money, detailing borrowing and lending, and charging interest. A popular question asked by several students was what happens when a bank gets robbed, to which Rada replied tellers push an emergency button and call police.   Michael Reggio has been a member of the U.S. Coast Guard for 12 years. He said he guards the coast while also helping ships that are in trouble on waterways. He also participates in search and rescue efforts, law enforcement and pollution response. He said, on average, Coast Guard members save 10 lives a day and assist about 190 people a day. He also mentioned that Coast Guard members are trained firefighters in case of an emergency while at sea.   Erin Dunne is a recycling expert with TerraCycle. She explained how recycling is turning waste into useable materials, while upcycling is creating a new product by creatively using an old product. She displayed a small table made out of chip bags that were turned into pellets, shoes made with toothpaste tubes, and a block of wood constructed from cigarette filters.   Frank Petrillo is retired from the North Brunswick Police Department, but now works as a Special Law Enforcement Officer Class III at Judd. He told the students that police officers train at the academy, save lives and sometimes go to court.   Jennifer Ponds is a local artist. She hand drew a mural for the Raritan Valley YMCA in East Brunswick, sent it for a computer rendering, and then had help painting it. She asked students where they see art: everywhere, not just on walls, in museums or in picture frames. She asked the students to look at their clothes, since a fashion designer is an artist who made their shirts and sneakers.   Hilal Tekin is an EMT with the North Brunswick First Aid & Rescue Squad. She showed the children an AED and gave a demonstration if someone is stung by a bee. She said when someone calls 911, she shows up in an ambulance with a partner to help the injured, takes blood pressure and listens to the heart rate with a stethoscope.   Irene Kanterakis is an interpreter. She said she helps families who are new to the country go to work, go to school, drive, buy a home, get money for food and fill out paperwork to become a citizen.   Contact Jennifer Amato at jamato@newspapermediagroup.com.

Salina’s nearly half-century-old music store is partnering with their long-time string suppler, D’Addario, to offer free instrument restringings to area musicians. And maybe help save the planet along the way. “I was talking to them about what we can do for our consumers, and they mentioned that they had started this recycling program,” said Rick Hanson, of S.M. Hanson Music. “I thought it was a great idea — I’m not a super ‘green’ kind of guy, but I don’t want to throw away stuff that could be used.” On Saturday, S.M Hanson Music will offer a free recycle and restring event 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the company’s east Salina location, 335 S. Clark St., Salina. Musicians can bring any old instrument strings for recycling and get their electric or acoustic guitars restrung with the Brand New D’Addario XT Electric or XT Phospher Bronze Acoustic strings, all at no cost. Old strings collected during the event will be recycled through “Playback,” D’Addario’s free, national recycling program. “The price of new strings is about $16 a set, and $10 is our normal charge to put them on and tune it, so it’s a $26 service for free,” Hanson said. Playback is the world’s first instrument string recycling program, launched through a partnership between D’Addario and recycling company TerraCycle, organizers said. “The normal metal recycling guys don’t want to deal with strings,” Hanson said. “They are different metals and alloys, usually brass or bronze wrapped around a steel core. So we’ll take any type of instrument strings — violin, viola, cello, guitar, banjo, bass — whatever, we will collect them in a box to send them off. “TerraCycle specializes in very niche areas — along with strings, they offer recycling for Tide laundry detergent bottles, which I guess are constructed of plastics which the other recycling companies don’t want.” Musicians have been receptive to the recycling program, even going out of their way to mail instruments to Salina. “I had a lady from Madison, Wisconsin, found out we were participating and mailed me her strings,” Hanson said. “We’ve had a lot of interest and phone calls. I’ll have two guys in here, and that is going to be their only job Saturday, is changing strings.” To learn more about TerraCycle or get involved in its recycling programs, visit www.terracycle.com.

What’s trending in the oral care category From flosses to paste formulations that tackle key issues and contain unique ingredients like hemp seed oil and cacao, oral care brands are pulling out all the stops to garner consumers’ attention in this category that straddles the line between health and beauty. It is the latter attribute, however, that has witnessed a dulling of late as consumers seem to be slowing down their use at-home products that promise whiter smiles without dentist intervention. According to data from Information Resources, sales of tooth bleaching and whitening products such as strips fell 4.2% to $282.2 million during the past year. In contrast, toothpaste sales overall rose 2.5%, and SKUs that offer brightening benefits fared well in the market too, an indication that having a bright white smile still matters. Pain relief appears to be another main issue, as shoppers spent more money on treatments to dull tooth pain than in the previous year. According to IRI, oral pain relief sales jumped 5.5%, and toothpaste products that addressed sensitivity posted gains as well. For example, several Sensodyne toothpaste SKUs recorded gains over the past year, which is one reason why GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) is the No. 3 manufacturer in the toothpaste category overall, trailing leader Procter & Gamble and Colgate (No. 2). The major players continue to up their game when it comes to toothpaste formulations that deliver multiple benefits. Last month, GSK rolled out Sensodyne Rapid Relief Whitening, a toothpaste that helps “beat” sensitivity in as little as three days with twice daily brushing, while also helping to whiten teeth by gently lifting stains and preventing new stains from forming. According to GSK, the formulation has been engineered to address sensitivity pain by quickly creating a protective barrier over the sensitive areas of teeth to keep outside triggers from reaching the nerves. According to GSK, sensitivity pain occurs when dentin, the softer inner layer of the tooth, becomes exposed revealing small canals known as tubules. Consuming hot or cold food and drinks can trigger the nerves inside the teeth when they reach the exposed dentin tubules, resulting in pain. Similar to  Sensodyne Rapid Relief, which launched in the US last year, this new whitening formula also includes stannous fluoride that starts to form a gel-like scaffold over exposed dentin tubules, according to the firm. “At GSK, we pride ourselves in creating multi-action products that hit on all consumers’ oral care needs,” Adam Sisson, head of oral health research and development at GSK Consumer Healthcare, said in a press statement. “With the success of Sensodyne Rapid Relief, the team worked to ensure sensitivity sufferers who need fast relief, but want to maintain a white smile, have a product that works for them.” Earlier this year, Procter & Gamble’s leading Crest brand expanded its line with Crest Gum and Sensitivity, which targets the gum line to provide healthier gums and provides fast sensitivity relief. This formulation, which hit retailers in June, also contains stannous fluoride and targets the gum line to help neutralize plaque bacteria. Competitive Spirit While the marketplace is dominated by big brands like Crest, Sensodyne and Colgate, smaller players also actively pursue periodontal consumers with their own formulations. For example, there’s New Orleans-based Theodent, which contends it has clinicals to prove its products provide relief better than market leaders thanks to Rennou, an active ingredient comprised of theobromine, calcium and phosphate. “The ratio of these three ingredients in our formulation is proprietary and only efficacious in a specific combination,” said Jantzen Hubbard, director of operations and media. According to Hubbard, with Rennou, the theobromine combines with calcium and phosphate to remineralize the surface of teeth. “Saliva naturally has calcium and phosphate in it, aiding in tooth remineralization. Introducing theobromine into the mix enhances enamel strength through natural remineralization,” he said. The brand, which has been on the market since 2012, offers two formulations, Theodent Classic and Theodent 300, the latter of which is a clinical strength, professional product with a much higher price point. The formulations have different concentrations of its proprietary ingredient, Rennou, which traces its origins back to the 1980s when Dr. Tetsuo Nakamoto and Dr. Malektaj Yazdani collaborated on research that analyzed the effect of caffeine on pre-natal bone growth. “Because of their research, we know now that pregnant women shouldn’t ingest caffeine because it stunts the bone development of the growing baby. As that research portfolio grew, variant molecules of caffeine were studied, namely theophylline (found in tea) and theobromine (found in chocolate). The original hypothesis proposed that all members of this molecular family, called methylxanthines, would have a similar effect, being harmful to pre-natal bone growth,” noted Hubbard. Further research, however, led to an unexpected discovery: theobromine did not have a shrinking effect on enamel crystals; instead it increased enamel crystal size. According to Hubbard, this previously unknown property in cacao “revealed an ironic truth: a component of chocolate actually enhances enamel strength.” In the mid 2000s, Dr. Arman Sadeghpour looked at Nakamoto’s research in a new light; he applied a neural network analysis of enamel hardness responses to both theobromine and fluoride. He found that the theobromine treatment produced harder enamel than a similar treatment of fluoride. Sadeghpour, Nakamoto and Joseph Fuselier together founded Theodent in 2007, and five years later launched its first toothpaste. Today, the brand can be found in places like Whole Foods, and Theodent’s true point of differentiation is the science that backs up its claims, according to Hubbard. “We have quite a lot of research dating back to the early 1980s. Our big clinical trial conducted at the University of Texas San Antonio Health Sciences Center was conducted using Theodent Classic, which out-performed prescription strength Sensodyne NuPro5000 and Colgate in remineralization and hypersensitivity reduction,” he told Happi. Ingredients and Ideas Elsewhere in the oral care category, the NPD pipeline is filled with new, more naturally-focused ingredients and flavor profiles designed to pique consumer’s fancy. Last month, indie oral care company Hello Products released its new collection with hemp seed oil. The on-trend range includes Hemp Seed Oil + Coconut Oil Extra Moisturizing Mouthwash, Hemp Seed Oil + Coconut Oil Extra Freshening Fluoride Free Toothpaste, Hemp Seed Oil + Coconut Oil Extra Freshening Fluoride toothpaste, and Hemp Seed Oil + Coconut Oil Infused floss, which is non-GMO, no PFAS, no shred and features natural vegan wax formulated with xylitol. Another naturals brand, Schmidt’s, has made a foray into child oral care. The company’s new Kids Tooth+Mouth Pastes are plant-powered, fluoride-free formulas that include vitamin E, aloe, coconut oil, and tea tree, and come in three flavor profiles—Watermelon+Strawberry, Mint+Berry and Coconut+Pineapple. While the latest news from market behemoth Colgate is a new partnership with Sarah Michelle Gellar who will pitch the Colgate Optic White line, the brand’s biggest endeavor is designed to have a more lasting and meaningful impact. Colgate’s “Save Water” Campaign, which commenced in 2016, has by some calculations, led to an estimated 99 billion gallons of water saved. This September during the UN’s Climate Change Week, Colgate convened leaders in sustainable water for a panel discussion on the cumulative impact that individual action has on water conservation and climate action. In addition, Colgate has been recognized as a “Lead” company by the UN Global Compact—a designation given to companies that represent the highest level of engagement with the compact. And just as this issue was heading to press, Colgate was set to promote “Imagine a Day Without Water” by partnering with the American Water Works Association and the Value of Water Campaign to further behavior change. Whether with formulation enhancements, familiar faces or forward-thinking initiatives, leading marketers make sure their oral care brands stay on the tip of consumers’ tongues.    Brushing Up According to IRI, sales of manual toothbrushes were $814.1 million (a decline of less than one percent) and power brushes were $569.2. million, a 5.4% gain, for the 52 weeks ended Aug. 11, 2019. In this category, brush makers are making advancements in both sustainability and design. For example, Tom’s of Maine, which is owned by Colgate-Palmolive, has released its new Whole Care Toothbrush, which has a handle made from 80% post-consumer recycled plastic. It is designed with cross-angled, multi-height bristles, is BPA-free and colored with food-grade mineral based pigments, to help remove plaque between teeth and gently clean down to the gum line. In addition, the brush is recyclable through the Tom’s of Maine collection program with TerraCycle. Also, pushing for less plastic is WooBamboo, a company that offers what it calls a selection of “environmentally- and panda-friendly” bamboo toothbrushes. The firm was recently named the “Official and Exclusive Eco Oral Care Brand” for the 2019 Forbes Travel Guide. (Formerly known as Mobil, this long-standing guide created the nation’s original star rating system for the luxury hospitality industry.) Each year, the guide provides a list of companies that provide luxury accommodations, wellness and health-related products or services; this was the first year it tapped any oral care product for the list. The designation is more than welcome by the six-year old Cape Coral, FL-based company, which has grown from startup phase to being stocked in more than 18,000 stores in more than 56 countries—and made a cameo in the 2018 Stella Artois-Matt Damon commercial during the Super Bowl. WooBamboo has also expanded its roster of products to include floss and a toothpaste formulated with bamboo and green tea extracts that is fluoride free and comes in flavor profiles like marshmallow and bubble berry and for kids and sweet cinnamon and for vanilla mint for adults. In the power brush area, a new option is Gleem, a sonic brush with a minimalistic design and a two-minute timer that pulses at 30-second intervals to help users track brushing progress so they know when to switch quadrants for a consistent clean. Powered by a single AAA battery (no plug-in needed), it has a suggested retail price of $25 and is exclusive to Walmart and gleem.com.  

  Gerber, Florham Park, New Jersey, has partnered with Trenton, New Jersey-based TerraCycle to help give hard-to-recycle baby food packaging a new life. This partnership is rooted in Gerber and TerraCycle’s shared values around eliminating waste and supports the recovery of hard-to-recycle baby food packaging on a national scale, according to a Gerber news release.   To participate, parents can sign up on the Gerber Recycling Program page and mail in packaging that is not municipally recyclable using a prepaid shipping label. Once collected, the packaging is cleaned and melted into hard plastic that can be remolded to make new recycled products.   “Through this free recycling program, Gerber is offering parents an easy way to divert waste from landfills by providing a responsible way to dispose of certain hard-to-recycle baby food packaging,” says TerraCycle CEO and Founder Tom Szaky. “By collecting and recycling these items, families can demonstrate their respect for the environment not only through the products that they choose for their children, but also with how they dispose of the packaging.”   As an added incentive, for every pound of recycled packaging sent to TerraCycle through the Gerber Recycling Program, collectors can earn $1 to donate to a nonprofit, school or charitable organization of their choice.   This partnership is one of many steps toward Gerber’s goal to achieve 100 percent recyclable or reusable packaging by 2025.   “We’re thrilled to partner with TerraCycle as part of our broader sustainable packaging efforts,” says Gerber President and CEO Bill Partyka. “We know every parent’s top priority is to ensure a healthy, happy future for their baby. Our commitment to sustainability is rooted in giving parents a hand in making their baby’s future that much brighter.”

Winter weather is coming. Make sure you give your skin the best skincare to replenish itself at night from the day’s damage and look renewed and refreshed in the morning.  

Gerber, Florham Park, New Jersey, has partnered with Trenton, New Jersey-based TerraCycle to help give hard-to-recycle baby food packaging a new life. This partnership is rooted in Gerber and TerraCycle’s shared values around eliminating waste and supports the recovery of hard-to-recycle baby food packaging on a national scale, according to a Gerber news release.   To participate, parents can sign up on the Gerber Recycling Program page and mail in packaging that is not municipally recyclable using a prepaid shipping label. Once collected, the packaging is cleaned and melted into hard plastic that can be remolded to make new recycled products.   “Through this free recycling program, Gerber is offering parents an easy way to divert waste from landfills by providing a responsible way to dispose of certain hard-to-recycle baby food packaging,” says TerraCycle CEO and Founder Tom Szaky. “By collecting and recycling these items, families can demonstrate their respect for the environment not only through the products that they choose for their children, but also with how they dispose of the packaging.”   As an added incentive, for every pound of recycled packaging sent to TerraCycle through the Gerber Recycling Program, collectors can earn $1 to donate to a nonprofit, school or charitable organization of their choice.   This partnership is one of many steps toward Gerber’s goal to achieve 100 percent recyclable or reusable packaging by 2025.   “We’re thrilled to partner with TerraCycle as part of our broader sustainable packaging efforts,” says Gerber President and CEO Bill Partyka. “We know every parent’s top priority is to ensure a healthy, happy future for their baby. Our commitment to sustainability is rooted in giving parents a hand in making their baby’s future that much brighter.”

ESCANABA, Mich. (WJMN)- Jessica Garber’s environmental club at Escanaba High School is new this year and with it being the Halloween season, the club is incorporating that into saving the planet.   “It was started by Rubicon Global,” said Garber. “They’re out of Atlanta, Georgia and basically they’re sending boxes that come from Terra Cycle to 450 schools across the nation in 49 states and kids can recycle their candy wrappers there.”   “There’s like millions of wrappers all over the world now an we need to like recycle it instead of just throwing it away because it builds up quickly,” said sophomore, Gabrielle Chouinard.   The group is also getting students at Lemmer Elementary involved by asking them to collect wrappers.   “So when they inherit this world too, they would know better about how to keep the environment safe from all of this pollution,” said junior, Alan Koszka.   People would like to recycle their candy wrappers can drop them off at Escanaba High School. The club is also asking for plastic bags for their next project. That collection is from November 15th to April 15th.   As the new organization continues to grow, they’ve also implemented recycling bins for bottles in the school.   “I always wanted to do something for the environment because there is climate change and stuff is changing so we need to do something about this and start recycling,” said Chouinard.

Gerber, the early childhood nutrition leader, has partnered with international recycling company TerraCycle® to help give hard-to-recycle baby food packaging a new life. The two companies share values around eliminating waste and support the recovery of hard-to-recycle baby food packaging on a national scale.   Participation in the program is easy – parents can simply sign up on the Gerber Recycling Program page at terracycle.com/en-US/brigades/gerber and mail in packaging that is not municipally recyclable using a prepaid shipping label. Once collected, the packaging is cleaned and melted into hard plastic that can be remolded to make new recycled products.   “Through this free recycling program, Gerber is offering parents an easy way to divert waste from landfills by providing a responsible way to dispose of certain hard-to-recycle baby food packaging,” said TerraCycle CEO and founder, Tom Szaky. “By collecting and recycling these items, families can demonstrate their respect for the environment not only through the products that they choose for their children, but also with how they dispose of the packaging.”   For every pound of packaging waste sent to TerraCycle through the Gerber Recycling Program, collectors can earn $1 to donate to a non-profit, school or charitable organization of their choice.   This partnership is one of many steps toward Gerber's goal to achieve 100% recyclable or reusable packaging by 2025. “We’re thrilled to partner with TerraCycle as part of our broader sustainable packaging efforts,” said Gerber president and CEO Bill Partyka. “We know every parent’s top priority is to ensure a healthy, happy future for their baby. Our commitment to sustainability is rooted in giving parents a hand in making their baby’s future that much brighter.”

As the recycling environment continues to change, municipalities across the U.S. are modifying their recycling initiatives – by decreasing, increasing, or changing their processes based on commodity pricing and consumer behavior.     According to Brett Stevens, global vice president, material sales and procurement at Terra Cycle, one of the main instigators causing the change in municipalities’ recycling program is commodity pricing on items such as plastic, clear glass and uncoated cardboard. These prices have been low for quite some time – mostly because the reprocessors and/or end-users of those materials have issues with product contamination.   “As packaging construction has gotten more complicated, the contamination levels in recycling streams have gone up,” Stevens said. “This has a ripple effect on the remainder of the supply chain and the end-markets for these materials suffer as a result. At a certain point, it stops making economic sense to sort out and process certain streams that were collected for recycling because the value retrieved on the back end does not cover the costs on the front end. “   Some municipalities, such as those in the state of Michigan, are ramping up their recycling programs. So why the discrepancy? As Stevens explained, some municipalities are using grant money or private funds to act as a subsidy to municipal recycling programs. This allows economic factors described above to have less of an impact on the operation, and allows for these recycling programs to continue as-is or even scale up in some capacity.   “Any changes to recycling programs are implemented to improve quality and consistency of the streams, improve the economics associated with performing sortation and processing work, or increase the possibility of a viable end market,” Stevens said.   Evolving Strategies   The City of Sierra Vista, Arizona ceased its mixed recyclables curbside collection on July 1, 2019 and started a staffed drop-off facility, which accepts recyclable materials from anyone, not just city residents. The facility is open six days a week, for six hours. Here, avid recyclers can drop off mixed or presorted glass, plastics #1 and #2, aluminum and steel cans, and corrugated cardboard, where staff and Department of Corrections Workers sort the recyclables into separate bins. The city also moved its glass recycling drop-off bins to the same location, so now they have a “one stop drop” facility for accepted recyclable materials.   “We offer a recycling service because it is the right thing to do from an environmental standpoint,” said Judy Hector, marketing and communications manager with the city of Sierra Vista, Arizona. “The buyer we work with can provide documentation that materials we provide to them are actually being recycled instead of dumped in a landfill.”   As Hector explained, Sierra Vista provides residential and commercial curbside trash collection, which is taken to a transfer station owned by Cochise County. The city pays a tipping fee to the county. The waste is then transferred to the county owned landfill.   “Before we started the curbside collection, city trucks picked up trash twice a week. After starting the curbside program, we launched a ‘1 and 1’ program, where the second weekly collection was reserved for picking up recyclables,” Hector said. “After ceasing the curbside collection, we reverted to a twice-weekly trash pickup.”   So what was the biggest instigator of the change for Sierra Vista? According to Hector, aside from the global collapse of the recycling market, the biggest instigator was contamination in the mixed recycling stream. In Sierra Vista, an aggressive education program early on helped prevent quite a lot of contamination, but the recyclables were mixed with other communities’ recyclables, where contamination was about 50 percent, so the overall contamination was significant.   “By hand sorting materials that are dropped off, we are able to achieve nearly zero percent contamination, which increased the value of each load,” Hector said.   Another instigator was the tipping fee. When the city of Sierra Vista started the curbside program, Cochise County was able to sell the recyclables. Once global demand dropped, the county began charging the city $64 a ton to dump recyclables. As Hector explained, by diverting some of the waste to the drop-off program, the city is able to reduce its overall tipping fee expense while recouping some of the drop-off facility expenses through the sale of clean recyclables.   “Once they understood that we’re not reducing service, homeowners have responded positively to the change overall,” Hector said. “Our most grateful, and largest volume recyclers are from outside of Sierra Vista, where recycling has not been offered in the past. Our challenge in gaining acceptance of the change was educating the public about the global supply of recyclable materials, what is actually being recycled by buyers, and the plummeting demand.”   Although the Sierra Vista has made an innovative attempt to continue recycling, they are still facing challenges. “I think any municipality, particularly ones removed from large markets, will face them as well,” Hector said. “Our greatest challenge with the drop-off facility is the operation cost versus the revenue from the sale of clean recyclables. While we’re able to keep our labor costs low with DOC workers, and there was really no infrastructure to build other than a shade shelter, we are faced with expensive hauling costs to transport recyclables to buyers 80 miles away in Tucson.”   The greatest volume of recyclables that Sierra Vista collects is plastic bottles. “We are overwhelmed with them,” Hector said. “Currently we are hauling two 40-yard roll offs of plastic a month, each of which contains about 32,200 single-use plastic containers. And, unfortunately, the market price for plastic is minimal.”   Another challenge Sierra Vista is facing is the volume of corrugated cardboard. As the home to the U.S. Army’s Fort Huachuca, Sierra Vista has a very transient population, which is resulting in a lot of cardboard waste. As such, the city is looking at setting up a free box service, where they would set aside the better moving boxes for people to pick up.   “Not only will this reduce the volume and weight of boxes, it emphasizes the ‘reuse’ part of the 3Rs,” Hector said. “We’re waiting for Public Works to work out the logistics for this.”   Jennifer McClintock, public information officer, City of Oklahoma City Utilities Department, also said Oklahoma City recently modified its recycling program.   “Our current program is one we transitioned to in July 2018, alongside our solid waste contractor Waste Management,” McClintock said. At that time, Oklahoma City converted from a weekly 18-gallon open bin program to a large cart single-stream program that is picked up every other week.   “This not only affords our 195,000 eligible households the opportunity to recycle more, but also adds cardboard and paper board cartons into the mix of items we accept, increasing our overall volume of items recycled,” McClintock said. “It’s also cut down on the potential for contractor employee injuries since carts are picked up using trucks with automated side arms, and has cut down significantly on neighborhood trash since the carts have lids, and the items are no longer susceptible to being blown around in Oklahoma winds.”   For some of Oklahoma City’s rural customers who are not eligible for curbside recycling pick-up, the city has built two new drop-off centers that are conveniently located near easy-to-access intersections.   “Fees for our recycling services are bundled in with our regular weekly trash pick-up and monthly bulky waste, so all customers pay the same flat monthly fee for solid waste services and there is no extra charge for our regular recycling service,” McClintock said.   Later this year, Oklahoma City intends to offer a second cart for its more enthusiastic recyclers upon demand. They will charge a minimal fee for this second cart, but the overall program and pick-up will remain the same.   So why the change on Oklahoma City’s part? Quite simply, they heard the need from their customers for some time that they were ready for a better program, but from a logistics standpoint, the city wanted to take a more pragmatic approach.   “We considered first the impact a larger program would have in extending the life of our landfills, in addition to the significant increase in the amount of cardboard we were collecting due to the popularity of online shopping,” McClintock said. “Those two factors, combined with the increased demand from our customers for enhanced services, led us to reconsider how to change our service delivery model to one that not only encouraged more people to recycle, but also divert more recyclable materials away from our limited landfill space.”   McClintock said that overall, the changes have been very positive. “We had a lot of eager recyclers and are now seeing people who were hesitant to recycle in the small bin program because of the wind now embrace recycling fully,” McClintock said. “We have about 40 percent participation overall, which we hope to improve upon with continued education and outreach.”   As for what the future holds, Stevens said we need better education among consumers regarding what goes into their collection bins, more infrastructure in the U.S. to improve economics, and an increased level of demand champions who are committed to using recycled materials in their products and packaging.   “This will help to stabilize the costs associated with recycling supply chains and provide a more predictable return on investment,” Stevens said. “This will then re-stabilize municipal programs.”  

Published in the November 2019 Edition

Thema Optical, an Italian manufacturer of custom made eyewear with a U.S. factory, has begun a new recycling program in partnership with international recycling leader TerraCycle®. Thema manufactures made-to-measure, bespoke eyewear through its patented 3D Acetate Technology, in which every design is “sculpted.”   Thema creates unique collections that reflect the consumer’s personality without compromising sustainability. During production, some acetate waste is leftover in the manufacturing process. With the help of TerraCycle, Thema will recycle the excess acetate so that it can be processed into sheets and used to make new acetate products.   TerraCycle specializes in collecting and re-purposing hard-to-recycle waste through a variety of platforms, including large-scale recycling, which helps manufacturing facilities like Thema recycle large volumes of waste.  

Published in the November 2019 Edition