As shoppers weigh the environmental impact of their purchases, companies are realizing the ancillary benefits of going green. It wasn't too hard to make the Package Free store in Brooklyn, New York, an environmentally friendly space. Lauren Singer, Package Free's CEO, opened the store in 2017, which sells various health, beauty and lifestyle products aimed at reducing waste.   To shape the store with the environment in mind, she worked with a friend to find the materials needed, including woodwork from sustainable wood, milk paint and energy-efficient light bulbs with fixtures from a vintage lighting store.   The store tests vendor's products before selling them to shoppers and seeks out products that replace single-use items and don't have plastic packaging. The store has partnered with recycling firm TerraCycle to introduce recycling bins into the store where shoppers can recycle electronics, personal care, oral care and other waste, per the company's website.   The idea behind founding the store, Singer said in an interview with Retail Dive, was "to provide products and solutions for people who are wanting to reduce their waste and make it easier for them to do it."   While up-and-coming retailers like Package Free can be nimble in their sustainability efforts, research from U.S. Green Building Council suggests larger retailers are creating environmentally-responsible brick-and-mortar stores, too. Beyond wanting to do their part to safeguard the planet, retailers also see environmentally-responsible storefronts as both a cost-savings tool and a marketing opportunity to reach savvy shoppers, multiple sources told Retail Dive.   LEED, short for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is a voluntary rating criteria for assessing the environmental health and performance of new structures, existing buildings and add-ons, according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency. According to the "LEED in Motion" report from USGBC, America drives the top 10 countries and territories with LEED certified retail projects, followed by Canada, Mainland China, Thailand and Brazil. In the U.S., California is the top state for LEED certified retail spaces, followed by New York, Florida and Texas, per the report.   Generally, retailers can improve on a range of areas including energy-efficient lighting and equipment, better waste management and overall location, said Stefanie Young, vice president of technical solutions at the USGBC. Consumers, whether for environmental or political reasons, are becoming more conscious about the way they shop and are evaluating their purchase decision, she said in an interview with Retail Dive.   Retailers could, for example, locate their stores in public transit-adjacent locations so that shoppers and employees can easily access them without a car, according to Young. Doing so could reduce vehicle air pollution, she said, adding that the organization has noticed retailers focusing on their proximity to transit.   Anthony Abate, vice president of operations and chief technology officer at AtmosAir Solutions, said his firm has worked with retailers for their air purification systems in their brick-and-mortar locations. The company provides clients with air purification systems that clean up and recirculate existing indoor air rather than bringing in and distilling air from outside, a technique that not only saves on energy but also can keep employees and shoppers healthier, Abate said.   Aside from wanting to obtain LEED certification and becoming more sustainable, retailers have come to the company for air filtration systems for various reasons, Abate said. For retailers in the supermarket sector, for example, they need to reduce bacteria and molds to minimize food waste and prevent employee or customer illness.   "It comes [back] to those LEED Green Building certifications … That's something that retailers are using to really talk to their customers and say, 'We're environmentally-conscious and building sustainable sites,'" Abate said.   The organization has seen an uptick in high-end retailers with an international footprint looking to make their stores more sustainable in the U.S. and abroad, particularly in regions like Asia where the effects of climate change are more acutely felt, Young said.   Just as consumers are paying attention to retailers who are building sustainable spaces, retailers are looking for landlords who provide environmentally friendly spaces, too. Finding landlords who align with their water, energy, green-cleaning and other sustainability goals requires retailers to coordinate across their legal, sustainability and tenant coordination teams, Young said.   "We're seeing a bit more efforts from the top down versus waiting for consumers to make their decisions on where they're spending their pocketbook," Young said.   Package Free's physical store started as a pop-up shop, Singer said. Given New York City's tight real estate market, Singer said she didn't have much of a choice in selecting a physical location with built-in eco-friendly features. However, she was free to customize the interior with environmentally-mindful materials.   When it comes to brands building sustainable storefronts, "it's a lot easier to start from scratch," Singer said. "I think what has contributed to our success so much is that our values and our mission were very clear from the beginning."   Showcasing sustainability efforts varies from retailer to the next, Young said. While many retailers want to focus more on their products and services rather than the environment, they recognize that they have to demonstrate to discerning shoppers what role they're playing in preserving the planet, she remarked. Those efforts seem to be paying off, because Package Free recently revealed that it raised $4.5 million in funding, which Singer said will go toward boost the company's marketing efforts and develop their own products.   When Singer started Package Free, customers typically sought out the retailer for a way to reduce their waste, but she now notices customers who happen to come across the store and appreciate its mission. While she thinks everyone should take part in leading an environmentally-conscious lifestyle, Singer said retailers hold a great deal of power to influence their vendors to consider the planet in manufacturing and shipping processes.   "I believe the burden of waste should never fall on the consumer; it should always fall first on the manufacturer and then, too, on the reseller or the retailer," Singer said. For vendors that don't meet its packaging criteria, she said, "it's doing a disservice to your own brand, because the way that we dictate that our vendors ship to us will only help them in the future."

Kids In Need Foundation partnered with Tom’s of Maine to give 10,000 backpacks of goodness across the country.

MINNEAPOLIS, MN – September 26, 2019 – Last week the Kids In Need Foundation partnered with Tom’s of Maine to celebrate teachers across the country. Ten of our National Network Affiliate locations held special teacher shopping events to distribute a total of 10,000 backpacks. Generously donated by Tom’s of Maine, these backpacks were filled with essential school supplies for teachers to give to their students. During back to school time and throughout the year, our resource centers provide free shopping opportunities for teachers at high need schools. This back to school season, Tom’s was there to delightfully surprise and bring a little extra goodness into our teachers’ day.   “It’s great. It helps with what we’re teaching in the class and having extra supplies helps the students learn. It’s a great feeling that people want to give back to us and back to the students who may be less fortunate.” ~ Laura Newman, 1st grade teacher, Charlotte Park Elementary at LP Pencil Box, Nashville, TN   Tom’s of Maine knows the value of giving kids goodness in their lives and that every child deserves to have a happy and productive school year. They have shown their commitment to communities throughout the country through giving programs like this one. KINF was thrilled to have the opportunity to partner with them for the second year in a row to help bring that commitment to life.   “I think it’s a really great opportunity because I see a lot of our teachers spending their own money, so it’s a sigh of relief to be able to give our students supplies on site versus telling them to wait until tomorrow because we have to go out and buy it. Now we have it ready and available on hand. It puts a smile on our kids’ faces that they’re prepared and don’t have to be judged because they don’t have school supplies. We appreciate this opportunity for our kids.” ~ Allison Simpson, Community and School Site Coordinator, Amqui Elementary at LP Pencil Box, Nashville, TN   The backpacks were donated in bundles of 1,000 and sent to each selected KINF Affiliate resource center and will be shared with teachers throughout the the semester. Each backpack of goodness was filled with school supplies like notebooks, pencils, rulers, glue sticks, markers, and crayons. Tom’s of Maine also threw in a special extra touch of a card of encouragement for each student who would receive a backpack. “We love this annual event and how it helps to connect teachers at different locations nation-wide. This special day gives them a sense of solidarity, knowing that a brand like Tom’s of Maine and KINF supports them,”  said Kristine Cohn, sr. director of development & corporate partnerships at KINF. “It’s all part of helping get students what they need so they can be ready for a bright start to their school year.” Backpack distribution and teacher celebration events were held at each of these locations:   East Coast  

• A Gift for Teaching – Orlando, FL
• Ruth’s Reusable Resources – Portland, ME
• Pencils & Paper – Rochester, NY
• Teaching Tools for Hillsborough Schools -Tampa, FL West Coast

• Teacher EXCHANGE – Las Vegas, NV

Midwest  

• Teacher Resource Center – Chicago, IL
• Crayons 2 Computers – Cincinnati, OH
• Kids In Need Minnesota – Minneapolis, MN
• LP Pencil Box – Nashville, TN

South  

• Houston Food Bank – Houston, TX
• 

Ruth’s Reusable Resources A Gift for Teaching Crayons 2 Computers LP Pencil Box A Tom’s of Maine notecard Pencils & Paper Houston Food Bank Kids In Need Minnesota  

At every link in the supply chain, improving the sustainability of the coffee trade has become an urgent task. But all too often, we focus only on the farm and the coffee shop, and forget about the roasting.   Coffee roasting can be quite efficient compared to other stages, but it still uses a lot of energy and generates large amounts of solid waste. According to one study , roasting, packaging and distribution of coffee represent about 15% of the total carbon footprint of coffee on its journey from seed to cup.   Improving the environmental sustainability of your coffee roasting operations does not have to be difficult. Let's review some practical ways for roasters to deal with energy consumption and solid waste, with information provided by coffee professionals.

Reduce Energy Consumption

  The obvious starting point for any toaster that wants to use less energy is its machine. While overloading it could lead to quality control problems, think twice before loading it too little. Make sure you reach an optimal lot size for your toaster and the sales volume of your toaster.   With luck, you are already keeping your machine in good condition and clean ; This will help it work optimally. For larger roasting operations, it is worth considering a regenerative thermal oxidizer (RTO). While a typical auxiliary burner incinerates pollutants in the toaster air before releasing them into the atmosphere, an RTO reuses heat from this stage in the toaster, lowering energy costs.   For smaller toasters, this type of recirculation technology is available in toasters such as Loring, while Diedrich infrared burners are famous for their cleaner exhaust pipes, compared to traditional gas burners.   Peter Mark, owner of Kuma Coffee in Seattle, tells me that he used to roast in a 12 kg machine that was heated with flame before moving on to a 35 kg Loring. He says: “Now, we use only 25% of the amount of gas we used to use, although the machine is three times larger. It is considerably more efficient. ”   After all, your business needs will determine what you can do immediately with the toaster you have. You can operate it as efficiently as possible until the time comes when you have to move to a new machine. When it's time to update, then you can turn energy efficiency into one of your requirements.

Reduce Monouse Objects

  Although you recycle the monouso products you use, they still leave a great environmental footprint. From manufacturing and transportation to recycling, all this requires energy. The best thing you can do is try to find replacements for all your monouso products. Consider the internal headphones: replace them with headbands and you will reduce your annual waste considerably.   That said, sometimes there are monouso elements that we simply cannot replace. The best we can do is limit their quantity and then recycle them. Companies like TerraCycle receive items that would be difficult to recycle in another way, such as nitrile gloves.

Reuse Jute and Cascarilla

  The two types of solid waste that roasters cannot avoid are husks and jute sacks. However, they can find a second life in agriculture.   The husk is a good addition to compost piles, since they provide fluffiness and texture, and also nitrogen. Be sure to turn it well. If you do not, it tends to form lumps on the surface when it is moistened with water, which creates a hard shell that then does not allow water to penetrate the ground in the future.   Jute bags are also ideal for farms. They are tough, versatile and perfect for transporting various things.   The real problem of eliminating the husk and jute sacks from waste streams is not so much about their lack of value, but that many roasters simply produce too many to handle the waste themselves. But the solution could be in the community. Contact farmers and gardeners in your area to find out if they are served. You may find it useful to set a specific date for public collections.

Recycle GrainPro Bags

  Another stream of waste that roasters can face are used GrainPro bags. Unfortunately, the LDPE # 4 plastic that makes them perfect for coffee storage is being accepted in less and less at municipal recycling centers.   Ron Hitztaler, operations manager at the The Green Room special coffee distribution center in Seattle, Washington, tells me: “A lot of the plants will not accept it… It must be handled and decomposed in a very special way, only by the compounds that are added. "   Even when they accept them, GrainPro president Jordan Dey tells me that "the minimum requirement for LDPE # 4 [is] significant." This has always been a problem for special coffee roasters.   However, GrainPro has recently partnered with The Green Room to find a solution. Toasters found in the US UU. They can now send their used bags from GrainPro to The Green Room, which stores the used bags until they have enough to send them to the recycling plant. Ron says: "You can [send] amounts as small as FedEx or huge amounts, in what we call Gaylord Boxes, on pallets." And he adds that large roasters can send their bags several times a week, if necessary.   Jordan says: “I simply thank you so much for your generosity in offering your storage space and staff time to help collect GrainPro bags . In addition, they are adding a logistics solution. There is the opportunity to send the bags of GrainPro or the van of The Green Room, which happens to collect them, if you are in the Greater Seattle area. ” In addition, GrainPro introduced an option to recycle with TerraCycle , which will accept 280–300 bags at a time. Alfonso Carmona, marketing director of Sustainable Harvest , tells me that Sustainable Harvest collects used bags from GrainPro from its customers and then sends them to TerraCycle to process them.   “Jute bags and GrainPro have always been a source of waste for our customers. We are excited to offer a viable solution for coffee roasters in Portland. While the climate crisis continues to accelerate, every step we take to improve the sustainability of the supply chain counts, and this will be a necessary step in the right direction. ” Many of the systems and products used by roasters are designed with ease of use in place of waste reduction. This means that toasting thinking about sustainability can sometimes seem like swimming against the current.   But, luckily, the industry is slowly realizing the need to reduce waste and emissions, and this means that more and more initiatives are being launched. Then, sign up for recycling programs like TerraCycle and The Green Room. Reduce the use of single elements as much as possible. And work with your community to find new ways to use solid waste.    

JUNO BEACH, Fla. (CBS12) — Loggerhead Marinelife Center's "Unwrap the Waves" program is back for this Halloween season.   The center and several other organizations in the area will be collecting candy wrappers to 100 percent recycle.   According to the Environmental Protection Agency, plastic packaging accounts for 30 percent of the U.S.’s solid waste every year.   The center will collect candy wrappers and send them to TerraCycle, who will recycle the wrappers since a majority of recycling centers don't accept candy wrappers.   Last year, the "Unwrap the Waves" program collected 19,000 wrappers.   Wrappers can be dropped off at Loggerhead Marinelife Center, Manatee Lagoon, FAU Pine Jog Environmental Education Center, Gumbo Limbo Nature Center, Inc., and Sandoway Discovery Center.   Twenty-nine Palm Beach County schools are also collecting wrappers   Candy wrappers are being collected now through November 11.

Tom has been named to the 2019 list CNN’s Risk Takers. He’s in good company, as you’ll see if you click on the link.  The air date for Tom’s feature has yet to be determined. In the meantime, you can click on Tom’s picture for a summary of what his full piece will be about.

BRISTOL – The students of Mountain View Elementary School got to enjoy the new playscape they won in an online contest for the first time at recess Thursday.   Principal Mary Hawk said she appreciated everything Mayor Ellen Zoppo-Sassu and Superintendent Catherine Carbone did to help Mountain View get the word out and get the contest votes.   “It really was a team effort with a lot of people in the community voting,” Hawk said. “The police department, City Hall, everybody was emailing us and saying ‘we’re voting,’ so it’s really everybody’s playscape.”   Mountain View’s 30-year-old, rusting playscape was damaged by vandals and what was left had to be demolished in 2018, leaving mostly just a pile of dirt behind the school. The PTO had raised money six or seven years ago to put in a new balance beam, a seesaw and a small climbing wall nearby, she said.   The pre-kindergarten and kindergarten students had their own separate playscape that school installed four years ago through a grant, the principal said.   “So we had been trying to do fundraising but playscapes are incredibly expensive,” Hawk said. “We collected about $19,000 in the past three years that we’re going to use for additional pieces for our playground, either a climbing piece or some swings, but we did get the main piece by winning the contest.”   Volunteers from ESPN came to the school this past summer and painted a number of colorful game areas on the blacktop, to supplement the hopscotch and basketball hoops, she added. “That was really nice of them.”   Zoey Rupert, a fifth grader, said she was very excited when she first heard about the contest and even more excited when her school won. She said her mother got about 100 people to vote in the contest daily.   When Zoey started at Mountain View back in second grade the old playscape was already gone. She said she would mostly spend recess just walking around, because she didn’t know many other kids. “It was a little sad not having a playground, it was just empty space,” she said.   Zoey participated in the ribbon cutting ceremony for the new playscape, giving a short speech she had written with her mother, but she held back from joining in the crowd of kids having fun the first day it was open – preferring to wait until it’s not so crowded.   However, she admitted she had already unofficially tried it out. “It was really nice,” she commented. “I liked it.”   Rebecca Bougie, a Mountain View paraeducator who has a daughter in fourth grade there, said it gives the kids more recess options. “It’s something different. My daughter said ‘you don’t always know what to play, so with the playscape it’s more stuff to do.’”   Gina Martineau, fifth grade teacher who has two children at the school, said “they are super excited.”   “We’re so grateful for everyone in Bristol and elsewhere that took the time to vote for us,” she said. “We so blessed to have our new playscape.”   Colgate, ShopRite, and TerraCycle, a recycling company that specializes in hard-to-recycle waste, ran the online contest last spring, with the grand prize of a colorful new playscape made from recycled materials, with a retail value of $55,000.   People helped out by voting for the school on the contest website, and bringing their used dental products to Mountain View to recycle. The recyclable products included toothbrushes, empty toothpaste containers, floss containers, and dental packaging materials.   Each vote and each unit (defined as 0.02 lbs.) of recyclable waste counted as one Playground Credit. So the school with the most Playground Credits was the winner.   The recycled materials are used to make the playscapes, according to the contest website. These consist of toothpaste tubes and caps, toothbrushes, toothpaste cartons, toothbrush outer packaging, and floss containers, which are shredded and melted into hard plastic that can be remolded into new products.   Susan Corica can be reached at 860-973-1802 or scorica@bristolpress.com.

PORTLAND, Ore. — Environmental and public health groups say cigarette butts are the most littered item on earth, making up nearly 40% of all collected litter.   Worldwide, that adds up to four and a half trillion cigarette butts disposed of on the ground and in our oceans.   Today's Everyday Hero has found a way to reduce the number of butts on Portland streets, helping the environment and Portland’s homeless.   -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------   For the past three weeks, Chelle Hammer has been paying cash for discarded cigarette butts, to the tune of about $2 an ounce, or two bucks for each one hundred collected.   “One day Chelle came up with her cart, put out her little table and her scale, put up a little sign that said she was buying cigarette bucks,” said Tyrone Grove.   Grove figured he'd try it himself.   “Found out it was pretty lucrative,” Grove said. “I mean, I could go out in a couple hours and make 30, 40, 50 bucks. Easy.”   Hammer, who worked for Amazon from 1998 through 2011 before starting her own company (and subsequently getting laid off this past summer), has been helping the homeless near her house at McCormick Pier under the west end of the Steel Bridge for decades.   “These guys are my neighbors, and it’s important to me to help my neighbors,” she said. “And so, that’s what I do.”   Her support came in the form of grilled cheese sandwiches, cookies and soft drinks.   But with the help of her church, a GoFundMe site, PDX Butts4Butts, and her own money, she hit on the idea of paying people for cigarette butts, which are made of a cellulose acetate, a form of plastic that’s slow to decompose.   “I was thinking, what can we do because there’s a lot of trash but not a lot of cans and bottles because of the redemption program. So I thought, what would be the next logical thing, and I came up with cigarette butts,” she said.   In just three short weeks, she has collected, paid for and recycled more than 45 pounds -- or about 72,000 discarded cigarette butts.   “I collected a whole bunch of them,” said Dan Whitehouse. “I wanted to make sure the lady was serious, and she’s really serious.”   Whitehouse is a believer in the program.   And he's developed a strategy.   “I go to places where people gather, like bars, restaurants or waiting near train stops, because they don’t allow you to smoke on their stops,” Whitehouse said.   Hammer said the effort pairs with her and her church's philosophy.   They’re excited about it, yeah,” she said. “The two values that we have at the church and one of them is helping the homeless and helping other people, and the other is helping and cleaning the environment.”   The butts collected by Chelle Hammer are recycled by a company called TerraCycle and made into shipping pallets, plastic lumber and decking and, yes, ashtrays.

One company is working with giants like Tide and Häagen-Dazs to re-fill, reuse and deliver household staples right to your door.   Household products, toiletries, food, and more currently utilize single-use plastic containers and wrappers that end up in the trash. One company is changing that with reusable, refillable packaging.   Tom Szaky is the CEO and Founder of TerraCycle, based in New Jersey, and he says his mission is to make recycling a convenient and streamlined part of everyday life. For nearly 20 years, Szaky has been working with some of the biggest companies in the country to create recycling-friendly packaging for their products, and now, he has a new division called Loop, which “feels like disposability as much as absolutely possible,” explains Szaky.   While the service, in some ways, is a mimicry of people’s existing bad habits, Szaky says that minimal effort on the part of consumers is key in making a big change. “The more we ask a consumer to do, the less likely they are going to take part,” he adds.   “A few years ago we started thinking about, ‘how do we solve waste at the root cause?’” - Tom Szaky, TerraCycle   Loop will refill everything from your laundry detergent, to your favorite ice cream in reusable packages that are easy to ship out. As of now, they’ve partnered with Kroger and Walgreens, and the service will soon be coming to Detroit locations.   “A few years ago we started thinking about, ‘how do we solve waste at the root cause?’ and we believe the root cause of waste is using something once and throwing it out. From that question came a new division called Loop which is all about shifting packaging from single use and disposable to multi-use and reusable, without feeling like a reusable system,” says Szaky.

Click on the player to hear TerraCycle’s Tom Szaky talk about the challenges of single-use packaging.

Research institutions need to reflect on their attitudes toward plastic waste and make sustainability a priority in laboratories. Whether it’s encouraging the use of reusable cups, banning plastic straws, or charging customers for plastic bags in grocery stores, it’s clear that some companies and policymakers are beginning to take measures against the growing issue of plastic waste. It’s easy to imagine science as an answer to our current sustainability crisis, as it offers the development of new environment-friendly materials, low emission technologies, and the production of discoveries and evidence that can help us fight climate change. But could those working on the solution also be contributing to the problem?   According to an audit at the University of Washington, disposable gloves, made from nitrile or latex, are a laboratory’s main contribution to landfill waste, making up around a quarter of the waste sent to the trash by scientists. Gloves contaminated with chemicals are considered hazardous waste and must be disposed of accordingly to ensure public and environmental safety. Some researchers choose to reuse gloves that are still clean after one use, but this is not always possible — gloves can get sweaty, tear, and are sometimes tricky to put on once they’ve come off. Importantly, gloves are mainly a prevention measure and do not always become contaminated, so they are thrown in the trash rather than the hazardous waste bin, ending up in a landfill. Instead, gloves could be recycled. In the last five years, the University of Edinburgh’s School of Chemistry has diverted one million gloves — 15 metric tons of plastic — from landfill waste. The department was the first in Europe to sign up to the KIMTECH Nitrile Glove Recycling Program, also known as RightCycle, run by Kimberly Clarke Professional, a multinational consumer goods corporation, and TerraCycle, a company that specialises in recycling unconventional items. The scheme is operated not only in the United Kingdom, but also in the United States, with laboratories at the University of California Santa Cruz, the University of Illinois, University of Texas Austin, and Purdue University signed up to the program. Between 2011 and 2017, more than 360 metric tons of waste — about 24 million gloves — were diverted from landfill because of the program. The nitrile gloves are turned into plastic granules that, after blending with other recycled plastics or being milled into a powder, form composite raw materials that can later be processed and turned into bins, garden equipment, furniture, or even rubber flooring and ground covering for sports facilities.   Tim Calder, Waste Management Officer for the University of Edinburgh’s School of Chemistry, came across the scheme when talking to a Fisher Scientific representative who mentioned the nitrile glove recycling program. Calder bought 200 collection boxes in February 2014 and notified laboratory staff that they could take one to their lab on request. Since then, when the boxes are full, they are taken down to a larger collection point in the school’s stores facilities, which are emptied every six to eight weeks by TerraCycle. “I was involved with sustainability at the university and looking for new opportunities,” says Calder. He believes the initiative has been successful because “the staff and students here have been happy to do their bit.”   According to a 2015 estimate, around 5.5 million tons of plastic are produced in bioscience research facilities alone every year — so why aren’t recycling programs more popular? The reason why many single-use plastic products, including laboratory gloves, are not conventionally recycled, is that doing so is not usually economically viable. Collecting and processing them through regular streams costs more than the value of the material left at the end. However, this particular recycling scheme works because TerraCycle collects a range of hard-to-replace plastics, from a variety of institutions, which are processed and then combined to make composite materials that can be processed into useful products. Participating laboratories only have to pay for the transport of the gloves to their nearest collection warehouse location. The School of Chemistry is currently the only department at the University of Edinburgh to take part in the RightCycle program, despite sharing a campus with other science facilities. Even when individuals have the initiative to adopt more sustainable practices in their labs, it is difficult to know where to start, or how to design programs that can be upheld in the long-term and will be embraced by students and staff. Each university or research institution has different protocols for how laboratory waste streams are handled, so a collective effort between building managers, laboratory staff, and department heads is crucial for the success of such initiatives. The implementation of the glove recycling scheme in current universities has often relied on the initiative of staff or students, which is often rare as researchers are often already too busy to spend their time developing sustainable policies for their departments. Institutions should instead fund a position dedicated to supervising the management of waste, someone who can liaise between their institution and recycling companies, as well as looking at how to make sustainability a priority in the department’s policies.   In fact, there are other laboratory materials that recycling programs could target: researchers go through plenty of other single-use plastic items daily, such as pipette tips, petri dishes, and vials. Currently, chemical contamination limits the amount of material that can be recycled, but future efforts should focus on finding ways to neutralise equipment contaminated with common solvents to enable their recycling. To reduce plastic waste, facilities could also look at replacing plastic equipment with reusable glassware where possible, or recycling the plastic packaging in which chemicals are purchased.   The question of sustainability in the lab goes beyond plastic waste, with increasing efforts to adopt a “circular economy” approach by recovering used solvents for reuse, sharing leftover chemicals between departments, and creating chemical management systems to ensure efficient distribution of resources. As these lab practices become more widespread, they will serve to not only minimise waste but also save funds and materials.  

Think about how much plastic you have in your home. There’s packaging from the Amazon Prime order you got yesterday, plastic shopping bags from the grocery store, yogurt tubs, ketchup bottles — and the list goes on. There’s also plenty of plastic in your body. Citing research published in Environmental Science and Technology, National Geographic reports the average person consumes 39,000 to 52,000 microplastic particles each year. It’s still unknown how consuming this much plastic affects our health. The world is experiencing a crisis of excess plastic waste, which the International Energy Agency estimates will double by 2030 and quadruple by 2050, according to PRI. Yes, some of it gets recycled, but a large percentage ends up in developing countries, burned, or dumped. Increasingly, we’re running out of places to put it, and the most impoverished nations are shouldering the burden of First-World countries’ excess. The good news is there are many ways to reduce our impact and use less plastic. It starts by better understanding how much plastic we actually consume and where it all goes when we’re done with it.

Plastic, Plastic Everywhere

The United States leads the world in plastic consumption. According to an investigative report by The Guardian funded by The Ford Foundation, the U.S. generates 34.5 million tons of plastic each year. That’s enough to fill the Houston Astrodome 1,000 times. And National Geographic reports that each year, 18 billion pounds of this plastic flows into our oceans from coastal regions. If the trend continues, UN Environment estimates that by 2050, our ocean will contain more plastic than fish. Globally, it’s even worse. UN Environment also notes that worldwide, we produce 300 million tons of plastic waste. That’s almost the equivalent of the entire human population’s weight. It’s hard to wrap your mind around such numbers. And alarmingly, the United States is about to start producing even more plastic. According to S&P Global Platts research, also cited by PRI, plastic production is set to increase by 40% by 2028. Companies are building many of these production facilities close to the oil refineries along the U.S. Gulf Coast of Texas and Louisiana.

The Problem With Recycling

But plastic is easily recycled. As long as we put it in the recycle bin each week, it’s OK. It’s not like it’s ending up in a landfill — right? On the surface, this sounds like a somewhat reasonable excuse. But when you dig down just a little bit, the truth is much more sobering. The Guardian’s report found that each year, the U.S. ships hundreds of thousands of tons of plastic to developing countries for recycling. But 70% of these countries mismanage the plastic waste. The recycling process is dirty, time-consuming, and performed by locals paid a few dollars a day to hand-strip plastic waste into what’s usable and what isn’t. These countries — which include Bangladesh, Laos, Ethiopia, Vietnam, and Senegal — have very few environmental regulations or worker protections. That means workers “recycle” our plastic in increasingly hazardous conditions. One plastic sorter The Guardian interviewed in Vietnam admits she’s afraid of breathing the air. And no one will dare drink the water there. Environmental group Gaia released a comprehensive study in April 2019. It found the people living in the countries that import our plastics are experiencing adverse effects like skyrocketing respiratory illnesses and contaminated water supplies. The photographs in The Guardian and Gaia reports are horrifying and illustrate the stark truth: The United States uses more plastic than any other country on Earth. And this excess consumption is literally ruining the lives of people in developing nations all over the world.

How to Use Less Plastic

The plastic crisis is a grim and depressing reality that affects us all. Making small changes in how we eat, shop, and live will help slow our consumption of plastic and make a big difference over time.

1. Recycle Intelligently

One big problem with recycling is what Gaia calls “aspirational recycling.” Aspirational recycling is throwing all sorts of things into the recycling bin hoping somewhere down the line someone will find a way to recycle it. These items include dirty plastic bottles and packaging, broken toys, plastic grocery bags, dirty to-go food containers, and even used diapers. Plastics labeled No. 1 and No. 2 are in highest demand for recycling. But you need to rinse the containers out before putting them in the recycle bin. And those aren’t necessarily the only plastic codes you can recycle. Make sure you know what your local municipality will accept for recycling and what they won’t. One item you can’t put in the recycle bin is plastic shopping bags. While these can be recycled, they can’t go through a typical facility’s single-stream sorter because they clog the machines. Take these bags directly to retailers for recycling. Walmart and many other large grocery store chains have collection bins at the entrance to recycle plastic shopping bags. Last, check TerraCycle to see which companies they’ve teamed up with to reuse hard-to-recycle items, like juice pouches, guitar strings, and toothpaste tubes. You can send used packaging to TerraCycle for free, and they turn it into new products like backpacks. 2. Avoid Bottled Water Bottled water is an expensive convenience, and the U.S. consumes a lot of it. Beverage Daily.com, an industry trade publication, reports we consumed 13.7 billion gallons of bottled water in 2017, a 7% increase from the year before. But CBS News reports that 7 out of every 10 plastic water bottles wind up in a landfill or incinerator. Plastic water bottles also leach microplastics, which we ingest every time we take a sip. Research from the study published in Environmental Science and Technology found that people who drink only bottled water consumed 90,000 microplastics per year, while people who drink only tap water consumed 4,000 microplastics per year. Get out of this cycle by using a reusable water bottle, ideally one made from glass or stainless steel. It’s not always easy to remember to bring water with you, especially when you’re wrangling kids or rushing off to work. Leave some extra empty water bottles in the car to fill up at a restaurant, convenience store, or water fountain. Or leave a note near the door to remind yourself to grab your water bottle.

3. Remember Your Reusable Grocery Bags

In the United States, we consume one single-use plastic shopping bag per person per day on average. That’s 365 bags per person per year. Compare that to Denmark, which consumes an average of four bags per person per year, according to National Geographic. As of 2019, only two states, California and Hawaii, have a statewide plastic shopping bag ban in place. But the movement to ban single-use bags nationwide is growing. Some cities — such as Coral Gables, Florida; Anchorage, Alaska; and Greenwich, Connecticut — have citywide bans on plastic bags. Others, such as Chicago, impose a tax of anywhere from 5 to 10 cents on each bag to discourage use. You can see a full list of which cities have banned plastic bags on Forbes. Switching to reusable bags makes a big difference in your plastic consumption. Reusable shopping bags are inexpensive, especially if you get them on Amazon, and come in a dizzying array of colors and designs. Keep them in your car or purse, and make it a habit to return them to your car or purse as soon as you’re done using them so they’re ready for next time. Or let your kids help you remember to bring reusable bags to the store. Let’s face it: Their memories are often a lot better than ours.

4. Bring Reusable Cutlery

A visit to any fast-food or fast-casual restaurant often means lots of plastic and paper waste, from plates to cutlery. Reduce this waste by bringing your own reusable items, like stainless-steel drinking straws, bamboo cutlery, and a reusable cup. Or bring a set of cutlery you already have at home. Keep your dinnerware in a small bag in your car, purse, or backpack so they’re with you when you need them most.

5. Rethink Oral Care & Beauty Products

Oral care products are hard to recycle because they’re often made from a variety of plastics. Toothpaste tubes in particular can’t be cleaned and often contain an aluminum coating. Bamboo toothbrushes have a bamboo handle, which is compostable, and nylon bristles, which aren’t. However, most plastic toothbrushes aren’t recyclable at all — unless you use Colgate brushes, which you can recycle through TerraCycle’s program. Another option is to use a Preserve toothbrush. They’re made with 100% recycled materials and come with a mailer to send your used toothbrush back to the company for recycling. Many people also use disposable razors, which are mostly plastic. However, an increasing number of companies — like Parker and Vikings — make high-quality safety razors. They’re designed to be used for years and eliminate the need for plastic razors. And that’s just a sampling of the green alternatives to disposable beauty products.

6. Try to Avoid Plastic Clamshells

Some fruits and vegetables come in plastic clamshells. These are hard to recycle because they’re made with different types of plastics. Thus, they end up in a landfill or shipped off to another country. But avoiding plastic clamshells is sometimes easier said than done. So much fresh food comes in these packages, making a visit to the produce section of the grocery store a frustrating experience. But food at farmers markets doesn’t come in clamshells. Use LocalHarvest to find one near you. You can also make different choices at the market, like buying loose fruits and veggies instead of those wrapped or bagged in plastic.

7. Use Reusable Produce Bags & Wraps

Grocery stores keep a ready supply of plastic produce bags for people to carry fresh fruits and vegetables. But why do we need them? Produce won’t get that dirty on the way home, and it gets washed before we eat it, anyway. Skip the produce bags and put fruits and vegetables right into your shopping cart. If that’s inconvenient, bring reusable produce bags, which you can buy inexpensively on Amazon. At home, try reusable food wraps made of cloth and beeswax instead of plastic wrap to store a variety of foods, from fruits and vegetables to sandwiches. They typically last a year under normal use. Read the product reviews carefully, though. There are plenty of options, but the less expensive wraps don’t always hold up well over time. Look into established brands like Bee’s Wrap.

8. Buy From Bulk Bins

Bulk bins make it easy to reduce your plastic consumption. Just bring a jar or bag and have it weighed at checkout. There are plenty of bulk grocery stores in big cities like San Francisco and New York, so finding food in bulk there is usually pretty easy. But if you live in a smaller town or rural area, finding a store with bulk bins is almost impossible. To make it easier, use the free app created by Zero Waste Home to find one near you.

9. Make Your Own Cleaning Products

Walk down the cleaning aisle at the grocery store, and you’ll see a sea of plastic. Unless you find a specialty brand that packages their product in glass bottles, avoiding plastic here is almost impossible. But it’s easy, inexpensive, and healthier to make your own cleaning products using ingredients like baking soda, vinegar, and lemons. There’s even a way to make DIY laundry detergent, which is more effective and safer than commercial brands. Store your products in glass jars — large Mason jars work well — or a reusable plastic spray bottle. And instead of using a plastic scrub brush to wash dishes, opt for cloth dish rags instead. Plastic scrub pads harbor a ridiculous amount of bacteria. Researchers found an average of 362 different varieties on the average plastic scrubby, according to a 2017 study published in Scientific Reports, and a total of over 5 trillion bugs per sponge. Cloth rags are much cleaner as long as you use a fresh one every day. If you need something with scrubbing power, opt for a cotton and wood pulp Skoy pad, which is completely biodegradable. Another easy way to reduce your plastic consumption is to use bar soap for handwashing rather than single-use liquid soap pumps. Bar soap is less expensive, and if you opt for locally made or natural soaps, they’re plastic-free.

10. Rethink Feminine Hygiene

Feminine hygiene products like pads and tampons contain a lot of plastic that can’t be recycled. However, there are now plenty of options to reduce your environmental impact dramatically. Try using reusable menstrual cups, such as the Diva Cup or Lena Cup. They last five to 10 years and save you $1,000 or more compared to buying disposable pads or tampons over the same timeframe. Make sure you find the right size for your body, though. It’s tricky if you’ve never used one before. The website Menstrual Cup Advice does nothing but reviews on menstrual cups, and they have an extensive Q&A section if you need advice on sizing. Washable reusable pads are also an option for those who don’t feel comfortable with a menstrual cup.

Final Word

Trying to reduce your plastic consumption may feel like a futile endeavor. After all, plastic is everywhere. How much of a difference can one person possibly make when it’s so prevalent in modern society? Yes, it feels overwhelming, especially when you walk into the grocery store and see plastic everywhere you look. But no change, however small, is ever wasted. And when you multiply a single change by thousands or millions of people, it really does begin to make a difference. The key is to avoid the throwaway culture that’s become so prevalent in our society. Simple steps might feel insignificant in light of the mountainous environmental problems we’re facing, but they’re not. If you need some inspiration, check out Beth Terry’s blog My Plastic Free Life. Since 2007, Terry has been blogging about her mission to avoid using plastic in her life. Her website is full of tips to avoid plastics and clever products to help you reduce your consumption. What tips can you share on how to cut down on plastic consumption?