TOLEDO, Ohio — Halloween candy is sweet, but a scary fact is that those wrappers are not recyclable in curbside containers or drop-off locations. To divert candy wrappers from local landfills and keep them from becoming litter, Keep Toledo/Lucas County Beautiful is kicking off an initiative to collect them.   In partnership with the Board of Lucas County Commissioners, the city of Toledo, and Civil & Environmental Consultants, Inc. Keep Toledo/Lucas County Beautiful will collect the wrappers this Halloween season. Once collected, the wrappers will go to TerraCycle, a company that specializes in recycling hard to recycle items.   Candy Wrapper Recycling Boxes are available from the agency and can be requested for specific events, like a neighborhood trick or treat or a trunk or treat event. Drop -off locations will be listed on the Keep Toledo/Lucas County Beautiful website and social media, and should stay on location until at least Nov. 15, which is America Recycles Day.

The world's largest consumer goods companies have a big problem: The plastic waste that piles up in landfills and oceans has their corporate logos all over it. To try to fix it, they're increasing recycling efforts, sponsoring beach cleanups and switching up packaging materials, among other things. The most radical effort, though, is also the hardest to pull off: Get consumers to switch from single-use to reusable packages.   It may seem impossible, but Procter & Gamble, Unilever, Nestlé, Clorox and PepsiCo are all trying it out, thanks to Tom Szaky.   Szaky is the founder and CEO of TerraCycle, a recycling company based in Trenton, New Jersey. He's also the driving force behind Loop, an innovative service he likens to a 21st century milk man. Launched in May, the service sells brand-name goods like Tide detergent, Pantene shampoo, Gillette razors and Häagen-Dazs ice cream all in reusable packages. Participants pay a refundable deposit for each package, use the products, throw the empty containers into a Loop tote and send them back to be cleaned and refilled. Tom Szaky, founder and CEO of TerraCycle, convinced Procter & Gamble, Unilever, Nestlé and other large consumer goods makers to launch a new shopping service using reusable packaging. (Mark Kauzlarich for CNN)   The stakes are high for all involved. For Szaky, failure could mean the loss of a significant investment and his reputation as a green business whiz. The companies, too, poured time and money into the project. For them, failure means one fewer solution to their plastic waste problem.   It's "the biggest risk we've ever done," Szaky told CNN Business's Rachel Crane. "It's in every way a massive gamble."   But Szaky is no stranger to risk.   Can one man bring back reusable packaging?    Durable packaging fell out of fashion decades ago, when cheap, disposable plastics replaced glass bottles and containers. Today, reintroducing the public to a system of reusable packaging is a tall order. Consumers have become accustomed to the ease of quickly tossing things away. Reusing items, however, requires them to take an extra step to preserve the packages. That's why, when Lisa McTigue Pierce, executive editor of Packaging Digest, heard about Loop, she was skeptical.   "When I first got the information, I thought to myself, 'Wow, this is never going to take off,'" she said. But then she had another thought. "This is Tom Szaky at TerraCycle ... one of the best marketers I have ever seen," she said. "If anybody could make this work, it's going to be Tom."   That's because Szaky has a history of pulling off the improbable. A number of Loop products, all of which are in reusable containers, are arranged before a Loop tote. (Mark Kauzlarich for CNN)   Eighteen years ago, as a freshman at Princeton, he came up with the idea to sell worm poop as a natural fertilizer. Szaky turned it into a business, and soon dropped out of college to make it grow.   He convinced Princeton undergraduates to work for free, and persuaded older friends to leave their steady jobs for leadership positions at the company. In its early years, leaning on paltry funds from investors and winnings from entrepreneurship competitions, TerraCycle teetered on the edge of collapse.   But then Szaky convinced big-box retailers like Home Depot and Walmart, which were already stocking established fertilizers like Miracle-Gro, to take a chance on his product. It's easy to see why they might have turned him down. TerraCycle's plant food was not only made from waste but packaged in waste, too: used soda bottles and discarded caps.   While Szaky was chasing meetings with major retailers, other eco-friendly companies and environmentalists were swearing to never work with the likes of Walmart. But Szaky has always believed that in order for his green products to make a difference, he would have to work with — not against — corporate America. He's taking that approach with Loop today.   "My goal consumer is someone in the middle of America who may still even not be convinced on climate change, because if I can get him to participate, then we can really change the world," he said. "This is why we're working with the largest manufacturers, the largest retailers. Because that is what America likes today."   Szaky has always been able to get people's attention.   In 2003, when he was just 23 years old, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation ran a short documentary about TerraCycle. In it, Szaky talks openly about his fears and the risk he's taken, revealing that he asked investors for money to build a facility that would help fill nonexistent orders, and that he was pushing a new product he wasn't sure worked. His openness is charming, as is his obvious commitment to the cause: Szaky lugs furniture left behind by Princeton students back to a dilapidated house dedicated to putting up staffers over the summer, and refuses to buy any new packaging — or do anything the "normal" way. Three years later, at age 26, Szaky had landed on the cover of Inc. Magazine, which lauded TerraCycle as "the Coolest Little Start-Up in America."   Since then, he's written four books and maintained his status as a media darling, even launching a TerraCycle reality show called "Human Resources" on the now defunct network Pivot. It lasted for three seasons. Szaky, left, speaks with a coworker in his office. Recycled plastic bottles form a curtain that walls off his office at the TerraCycle headquarters in Trenton, New Jersey. (Mark Kauzlarich for CNN)   Szaky, now in his late 30s, is still able to punch above his weight. Two years ago, at the ritzy World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, he landed a spot on stage with the CEOs of Walmart, Alibaba and Heineken to discuss the future of consumption. And he is still successful at enticing employees, some of which have taken major pay cuts, to work out of TerraCycle's modest headquarters in Trenton, New Jersey, which is decorated with trash.   Heather Crawford, vice president of marketing and eCommerce for Loop, left a managerial position at Johnson & Johnson to join TerraCycle in November. "Tom is a visionary who genuinely dreams about a waste-free world," she said. "He has these idealistic goals that he drives the whole team towards, and he asks people to do the impossible."   Over the years, TerraCycle evolved, moving on from fertilizer to transforming items that are difficult to recycle into something new. Today, TerraCycle repurposes used batteries, backpacks, coffee capsules, cooking oil and more. The company is doing well: In the first six months of 2019, TerraCycle reported net income of $1.8 million on revenue of $11.2 million. Sales were up 19% from the same period a year earlier, driven in part by new recycling partnerships with Gillette, Williams and Sonoma, Reebok and General Mills.   In September, TerraCycle also launched a car seat recycling event with Walmart. The event proved so popular, Walmart shut it down early, citing an "overwhelming response."   "We have a successful, profitable, growing business," Szaky said. The new venture could change that. With Loop, "we are sort of putting that on the line," Szaky noted.   "We've put close to 10 million of our own dollars into it. We're going to put even more," he added. "Any big idea requires that leap."   Convenience is key   In order for Loop to work, it has to be easy for consumers.   Today, consumers demand convenience, noted Pierce of Packaging Digest. "Without that — even with Tom and all of his strong partners, the consumer packaged goods companies — I don't know that it would work.   Especially when you think of the cost premium for this service," she said. "That convenience angle is everything."   Although Loop products are designed to cost about the same as their traditional counterparts, users do have to put down a deposit when they make a purchase online. The deposit can range from 25 cents to $10, depending on the item.   Consumers get it back unless they break, keep or lose the package. But some customers may be unwilling or unable to put down a deposit upfront. Individual deposits add up, and if people use the service for long periods of time, they won't get that money back for a while.   Szaky, who recognizes that the deposit could be a roadblock for some, aims to make Loop as convenient as possible. His hope is that customers will toss their empties into a used tote just as they would toss their empty containers into the trash. There's no need to wash them first: Loop handles the cleaning. And thanks to the rise of e-commerce, consumers see delivery as the most convenient option already.   Plus, in 2020, Loop products are slated to be available in major retailers like Walgreens and Kroger. That means, in addition to at-home pickup and delivery, consumers will be able to buy and drop off Loop products in person. Ultimately, Szaky wants to build a big enough network to allow customers to pop into one local store to buy a Loop product, and swing by another to drop a Loop package off.   For Szaky, ubiquity will be a marker of success.   "I would sit back and start feeling like we're doing it when I see Loop pop up unconsciously," he said. "I would feel we really got there where it's a common question of, 'Hey, would you like that in disposable or durable?'"   Szaky thinks things are moving in the right direction. Companies that committed to join the pilot with just a few products have added others, and more are in the pipeline. Loop currently includes 120 products and the service adds an average of two new products every week.   When new brands join, their competitors tend to hop on board, as well, afraid of being outdone. For example, Loop launched with reusable Häagen-Dazs ice cream containers, and soon "the biggest ice cream companies, their competitors, called us and said, 'How do we get involved? How do we go even bigger?'" Szaky recalled. This is "what competition is supposed to do, is keep making products better and pushing each other." Nestlé designed a reusable Häagen-Dazs container for Loop, sparking envy from its competitors. (Brinson + Banks for CNN)   Today, Loop operates in parts of France and the East Coast in the United States, and is used by more than 10,000 people. Orders are continuously increasing each week, and repeat order rates are strong, the company says. Next year, the service will launch in London, Toronto and Tokyo, as well as parts of Germany and California.   Scaling up so broadly and so quickly is risky, however.   "One of the things that keeps me up at night is building out the actual operational scale-up plan," said Crawford.   A lot had to happen just to get Loop to the pilot phase. Companies had to develop new durable containers that were easy to clean and use. It took Nestlé 15 tries to get that envy-inducing ice cream container right. Szaky and his corporate partners have to make sure that packages are delivered, collected, cleaned and reshipped in a timely manner — a complex logistical proposition, especially considering how many different companies are involved. Loop currently uses one cleaning facility in Southeast Pennsylvania to process its US-based orders. But as it continues to expand, TerraCycle says it will need to add more facilities in other parts of the country.   For now, the project is small, and the Loop team is taking careful notes on consumer behaviors, complaints and preferences. But if Loop gets as big as Szaky wants it to, the system will have to work, impeccably, on its own.   "All of the moving pieces, logistically, operationally, new facilities in all of these regions and all of the steps and pieces that need to happen in the expansion plan is something that's going to take a tremendous amount of time and attention from our team, and also support from partners," Crawford said.   If things go wrong — orders get held up, items are out of stock, or people feel burdened by yet another shopping platform — people could give up on the idea of reusables.   Historically, consumers have often valued convenience over the environment. Starbucks, for example, has tried for years to get consumers to use reusable cups, selling durable versions of their cup for a few dollars and offering discounts to customers who bring their own mugs. But the company has consistently found that despite its efforts, just a small fraction of consumers actually bring their own cup to the store. Can Loop finally crack the code, convincing consumers to switch to reusables?   Meanwhile, the clock is ticking: companies participating in Loop won't wait forever for the concept to prove out.   Eventually, "their primary concern is going to be return to shareholders," Crawford said. "At some point in this process it needs to become profitable."   Experts are optimistic that this time, things could be different.   With Loop, Szaky's "timing is impeccable," said Pierce. Consumers are looking for solutions to the plastic waste crisis, and Loop could be a good one. Ultimately, companies may go in a different direction, like biodegradable wrapping or package-free grocery aisles instead of reusable containers. Szaky's company TerraCycle transforms hard-to-recycle items, like batteries, backpacks and coffee capsules, into something new. (Mark Kauzlarich for CNN)   No matter what, big corporations will have to seriously reconsider the way their goods are being sold. Unilever said on Monday that it plans to cut its use of non-recycled plastic in half by 2025. To deliver on that promise, the company will have to collect over 660,000 tons of plastic per year, and continue to innovate its product line. In addition to reusable packages, Unilever has tried out soap-like shampoo bars, bamboo toothbrushes and cardboard deodorant sticks, among other things.   "The challenge around packaging is not going to go away," said Tensie Whelan, director of NYU Stern School of Business's Center for Sustainable Business. "Growing regulatory scrutiny of it is not going to go away. Growing consumer concern about it is not going to go away. And growing cost of waste disposal and the environmental impact is not going to go away."   Szaky knows that his partners are in desperate need of a solution. When he first approached companies about Loop, he targeted ones that were featured on a Greenpeace list of worst plastics polluters, because he knew they had a potential public relations crisis on their hands. He's hoping that the scope of the problem will inspire the type of changes needed to make Loop a success.   "Loop is a gargantuan ask," Szaky acknowledged. "We're going into a Procter & Gamble and saying, 'reinvent the packaging of these world-famous products completely, build production lines to fill this reinvented package, oh, and, by the way, I have no proof if anyone's going to buy it at all.'"   And Szaky knows that people are paying attention to what he's doing. Loop has "a very big responsibility," he said. "I think a lot of people are going to think about whether there's a future in reuse by whether we succeed or not."

Reducing landfill waste is the focus of the annual Keep Golden Isles Beautiful 2019 School Recycling Challenge and the public is invited to support local schools in this endeavor, which ends Oct. 18.   “This year’s challenge again focuses on three items not accepted in our local recycling programs: oral care products, pens/highlighters/markers and cereal bags,” said Keep Golden Isles Beautiful Executive Director Lea King-Badyna. “By recycling these used items that are normally tossed in the trash, we are able to make an immediate impact on waste reduction.”   Partners in Education, PTAs, businesses and members of the public are invited to take part in the challenge as well by collecting and donating used oral care products, pens/highlighters/markers and cereal bags to participating local public, private and home schools and institutions of higher education. Simply contact Keep Golden Isles Beautiful to verify a school’s Challenge participation and then arrange to drop collected items at schools no later than Oct. 18.   The collected items will be recycled via TerraCycle, an organization focusing on non-traditional recycling and eliminating the idea of waste.   “Again this year the streamlined process makes it easy for participating teachers and schools to concentrate their challenge efforts and contributions towards community stewardship,” said King-Badyna. “We hope schools will find the experience so easy and fun that they will continue recycling non-traditional items via TerraCycle or our office even after this year’s challenge is over.”   The challenge is made possible by a Hello GoodBuy community grant. For challenge information, to verify school participation or to register for the 2019 School Recycling Challenge, contact Keep Golden Isles Beautiful at info.kbgib@gmail.com or 912-279-1490.

TOLEDO, Ohio (WTVG) - 'Tis the season for screams, scares and sugar highs. The country is expected to spend around $2.6 billion on Halloween candy this year, and that means a lot of wrappers left behind that aren't exactly environmentally-friendly.     "They are not a recyclable material in your curbside recycling or at a county drop-off location," notes Adam Cassi, executive director for Keep Toledo/Lucas County Beautiful.   Your kid's Halloween haul is made better with variety, of course, but therein lies the main problem for most recycling plants.   "Your M&Ms are more of a paper, where your Smarties are more of a plastic," explains Cassi, "so you can't throw them all in a 'single-stream' recycling [program]."   Type is one factor, but size is another. Cassi says anything smaller than a credit card just tends to blow around the facility.   With city and council backing, Keep Toledo/Lucas County Beautiful is rolling out collection boxes to keep as many wrappers out of the landfill as possible. Those boxes will, in turn, be sent to "TerraCycle", a New Jersey-based company that specializes in hard-to-recycle items.   A few area locations have already signed on for this drive, including most area YMCAs, Girl Scout Trunk-or-Treat events, and even the National Museum of the Great Lakes.     Just for the record, you may want to rethink putting most food wrappers and containers in your curbside recycle bin, including pizza boxes.   "Anything that fiber absorbs is hard to get back out again," explains Cassi, "so once you've got a pizza box -- or any other cardboard product -- that has food waste or oil on it... it is contaminated. Throw it away."   The organization hopes the wrapper program will help remind Toledoans to properly sort their trash year-round. Drop-off locations will be available around the city until "America Recycles Day" on November 15th.   For more information -- or to request a box for your event -- visit KTLCB.org (Keep Toledo/Lucas County Beautiful).  

TOLEDO, Ohio (WTVG) - 'Tis the season for screams, scares and sugar highs. The country is expected to spend around $2.6 billion on Halloween candy this year, and that means a lot of wrappers left behind that aren't exactly environmentally-friendly. "They are not a recyclable material in your curbside recycling or at a county drop-off location," notes Adam Cassi, executive director for Keep Toledo/Lucas County Beautiful.   Your kid's Halloween haul is made better with variety, of course, but therein lies the main problem for most recycling plants.   "Your M&Ms are more of a paper, where your Smarties are more of a plastic," explains Cassi, "so you can't throw them all in a 'single-stream' recycling [program]."   Type is one factor, but size is another. Cassi says anything smaller than a credit card just tends to blow around the facility.   With city and council backing, Keep Toledo/Lucas County Beautiful is rolling out collection boxes to keep as many wrappers out of the landfill as possible. Those boxes will, in turn, be sent to "TerraCycle", a New Jersey-based company that specializes in hard-to-recycle items.   A few area locations have already signed on for this drive, including most area YMCAs, Girl Scout Trunk-or-Treat events, and even the National Museum of the Great Lakes.     Just for the record, you may want to rethink putting most food wrappers and containers in your curbside recycle bin, including pizza boxes.   "Anything that fiber absorbs is hard to get back out again," explains Cassi, "so once you've got a pizza box -- or any other cardboard product -- that has food waste or oil on it... it is contaminated. Throw it away."   The organization hopes the wrapper program will help remind Toledoans to properly sort their trash year-round. Drop-off locations will be available around the city until "America Recycles Day" on November 15th.   For more information -- or to request a box for your event -- visit KTLCB.org (Keep Toledo/Lucas County Beautiful).  

Stores like Aldi and Trader Joe’s are trying to decrease excess plastic, but experts say it’s not enough. Plastic packaging can be both a blessing and a curse. It’s usually deployed to protect food, preserve freshness, and prevent spoilage and waste, which are all good things. At the same time, supermarkets can’t seem to help themselves from overpackaging items to the point of perversion, like a single banana — which already comes in its own Mother Nature-approved wrapper — plated on a Styrofoam tray and shrink-wrapped in even more plastic. Other forms of plastic appear completely gratuitous. Do pasta boxes really need tiny film windows for previewing the noodles? Supermarkets aren’t the only source of packaging waste, but they’re a major contributor. They’re also where most people interact with brands like Nestlé, which sells more than 1 billion products a day, 98 percent of which come in throwaway formats. When the Break Free from Plastic initiative audited more than 187,000 pieces of trash from 42 countries across six continents last October, the names that reared their heads most frequently were Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, and — yes — Nestlé. Supermarkets have been promoting recycling as a way out of this morass, but it hasn’t been enough, according to environmentalists, who say that single-use plastic needs to be purged from the get-go. It’s a concept that a growing breed of “zero-waste” grocers are experimenting with, too. “If your bathtub was overflowing, you wouldn’t reach for a mop to clean it up; you would turn it off at the source,” says David Pinsky, an anti-plastics campaigner at Greenpeace. “And that’s what we need to do on plastics.” LESS THAN 14 PERCENT OF THE NEARLY 86 MILLION TONS OF PLASTIC PACKAGING PRODUCED GLOBALLY EACH YEAR IS RECYCLED The fact of the matter is we’re not doing a good enough job of recapturing plastics, which are made from nonrenewable resources such as crude oil and natural gas and contribute to climate change throughout their life cycle. Less than 14 percent of the nearly 86 million tons of plastic packaging produced globally each year is recycled, and of that, only 2 percent goes into high-value applications. The rest is landfilled, incinerated, or buffeted into the environment, where it clogs up the seas, the beaches, and the digestive tracts of sea life. Much of the trouble with recycling plastic is it’s “incredibly finicky,” says Darby Hoover, a senior resource specialist at the Natural Resources Defense Council. Different municipalities accept different types of plastic, and the little triangle with the number at the bottom of a plastic container — if you can even find it — refers to the type of resin and not if or how it can be recycled. Sometimes, despite a recycling facility’s best efforts, a plastics stream becomes contaminated, which impairs sellability. But even if a facility does get it right, there isn’t always a market to funnel all the different types of plastic. “What’s been happening with China, in particular, is that it was America’s No. 1 buyer of plastic and paper, but now it’s saying that the stuff we send to them needs a much lower contamination rate, and we can’t do that,” Hoover says. Complicating the matter is complex packaging such as Tetra Pak cartons — the type plant-based milks, soups, and broths come in — and Capri Sun-type juice pouches — which contain different layers of material fused together — are even more difficult to reclaim. “So they’ve got aluminum and different types of plastic, then a bunch of glue that holds it all together,” Hoover says. “It’s very, very hard to separate out all those materials and figure out how to recycle any of them.” THE GLOBAL PLASTIC PACKAGING MARKET IS EXPECTED TO SOAR TO $412 BILLION IN 2024 The problem isn’t going away anytime soon. Plastic packaging is a booming industry with a powerful lobbying presence that can block lawmakers from enacting bans on plastic bags, Styrofoam containers, and other landfill fodder. Fueled by growing demand for flexible and functional food and beverage packaging, the global plastic packaging market is expected to soar from a value of $344 billion today to $412 billion in 2024. We throw away most single-use plastics within minutes of use, yet they can persist in the environment for 1,000 years. “We do need to fundamentally rethink the way that we use plastics,” says Sara Wingstrand, project manager of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s New Plastics Economy initiative, which has rallied more than 350 businesses, governments, and other organizations, including Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Unilever, Walmart, and Target, in 2018 to support the elimination of unnecessary plastic packaging and transition the rest to reusable, recyclable, and compostable versions by 2025. “Recycling is a part of the solution, but it’s becoming evident that there is no way that we can recycle our way out of the plastic pollution crisis.” One key hurdle is that supermarkets are often blissfully unaware of how much plastic they’re employing. The material is relatively cheap and it makes up a fraction of a business’s operating expenses, Wingstrand says. And the thing is, you can’t reduce what you haven’t measured. Some supermarkets are trying, though. In South Africa, the supermarket chain Pick and Pay is trialing packaging-free “nude zones,” where customers can bring their own containers for fruits and vegetables that are laser-etched with the supplier code and sell-by date in lieu of plastic stickers. Similar “food in the nude” campaigns are taking place at grocers in New Zealand, which banned single-use plastic bags in July. This past April, Metro, a supermarket chain in Quebec, became Canada’s first major grocer to allow its customers to fill up their own reusable containers with meat, seafood, pastries, and ready-to-eat meals. Shoppers examine bags of salad at a PriceChopper supermarket. Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Images The United Kingdom, where a “polluter’s tax” on any single-use packaging that doesn’t contain at least 30 percent recycled materials is poised to debut in April 2022, is also making strides. Its major supermarkets have committed to a UK Plastics Pact to design out “problematic or unnecessary” single-use packaging by 2025. Waitrose is piloting refill stations at select stores for pasta, wine and beer, and detergent, and Sainsbury’s plans to introduce refillable packaging “at scale.” As part of its pledge to use only reusable, recyclable, or compostable packaging by 2025, Aldi has banned black plastic trays, which near-infrared sensors at recycling centers have trouble picking out from a sorting belt. Tesco, Britain’s largest supermarket, has convened with its suppliers to examine solutions that may require a design or materials overhaul. It’s even mulling banishing brands that use “excessive or inappropriate” packaging. It should come as no surprise that supermarkets in the US — bolstered by America’s corporate-friendly policies — have lagged behind. “Europe is probably more favorably predisposed to regulation and restrictions,” says Neil Saunders, managing director of retail at GlobalData, an international data-analytics consultancy. (Case in point? The European Union has a roadmap for making all plastic on the European market recyclable by 2030.) “Whereas the US is much more focused on freedoms of companies and individuals, and government is probably a lot more reluctant to legislate on certain things.” “THE [US] GOVERNMENT IS PROBABLY A LOT MORE RELUCTANT TO LEGISLATE ON CERTAIN THINGS” That isn’t to say there has been zero progress. Target is working on ditching expanded polystyrene foam packaging from its own-brand packaging by 2022. Select products in its Everspring line of home essentials are packaged in containers with up to 100 percent post-consumer recycled plastic. Costco has eschewed PVC clamshell packaging, which is not recyclable and can leach toxic chemicals when it degrades, for recyclable PET or recycled PET made from water bottles. Straws and Styrofoam meat trays are now verboten at Whole Foods, which is also replacing its hard plastic rotisserie chicken containers with bags that use roughly 70 percent less plastic, a spokesperson says. Walmart, the world’s No.1 brick-and-mortar retailer, aims by 2025 to incorporate at least 20 percent post-consumer recycled content in its own-brand packaging, which will also be 100 percent recyclable, reusable, or industrially compostable. In terms of general merchandise packaging, Walmart says it will work with suppliers to nix PVC by 2020. But a June report by Greenpeace, which rated 20 leading US supermarkets on their efforts to eliminate single-use plastic, found a universal failure to “adequately address the plastic pollution crisis they are contributing to.” In fact, no supermarket scored more than 35 out of a possible 100 points. Even the American iteration of Aldi, which rose to No. 1 for setting out a plastics reduction target and plan, needs to ramp up its ambitions, according to Pinsky. Since 90 percent of the products on its shelves are private label, rather than from name-brand suppliers, Aldi has a bigger say in its packaging decisions. “Aldi’s only committed by 2025 to reduce its plastic footprint by 15 percent,” he says. “So while some supermarkets are starting to take small steps in the right direction, none are acting with the urgency or the ambition that’s needed to truly tackle the plastic pollution crisis.” Transparency, Pinsky says, is a sticking issue. No supermarket, for instance, publicly reports its plastic footprint, which makes it difficult for the public to evaluate progress year over year. Time-bound, comprehensive plans are still few and far between. And some grocers are merely substituting one single-use material for another, as in the case of Trader Joe’s, which drew plaudits earlier this year for plans to strip its stores of 1 million pounds of plastic by removing plastic bags from its checkout counters, switching to compostable produce bags, and replacing Styrofoam trays with recyclable alternatives. But plant-based bioplastics, which stores increasingly favor, can still contribute to microplastic pollution if released into the environment, Pinksy notes, and molded fiberboard could harbor cancer-causing chemicals. “WE NEED TO SHIFT OUR CULTURE BACK TO MORE REUSE SYSTEMS” “It’s clear that recycling or substituting materials is not going to solve this problem; we need to see a focused reduction of plastic production in the first place,” he adds. “We need to shift our culture back to more reuse systems.” One result of the plastics backlash is the idea of the zero-waste supermarket. Brianne Miller, a marine biologist, was so sickened by the swaths of plastic that greeted her in different dive sites around the world — even the remote ones — that she left academia to co-found Nada, a zero-waste grocer that is not only the first of its kind in downtown Vancouver but in all of Canada. At Nada, everything, including fruits, vegetables, meats, grains, cheeses, nut butters, and sauces, is sold loose. Customers can load up their own jars, containers, and drawstring bags, or pick up cleaned and sanitized ones that are available for sale. Depending on what they need, they can pick up a barrel of crackers or just a handful. But customers are just one piece of Nada’s master plan; the store also works with its suppliers to deliver their products free of disposable packaging. “In many instances, suppliers are dropping off products every couple days or every week, so it’s quite easy, for example, to have things like coffee beans dropped off in a reusable Rubbermaid tote,” Miller says. “And then when the next shipment comes in, the container goes back to the supplier, and then it’s refilled and reused again, so we have this circular loop of containers that are coming and going from our store.” Nada sources as close to the store as possible, which helps with the minimalist approach, since products don’t have to be coddled across vast distances. “Instead of shipping cucumbers from across the country, we have the local farm, so that packaging isn’t necessary in the first place,” she says. Zero-waste supermarkets, especially full-service ones like Nada, may seem like an answer to our plastic packaging problem, except they’re still a rarity. In.gredients, an East Austin business that billed itself as America’s first zero-waste grocery store, shuttered permanently in 2018. There is a smattering of others in London, Berlin, Amsterdam, Stockholm, and Hong Kong, but they are largely boutique outfits with narrow aisles and more hipster appeal than options. For the vast majority of people, single-use plastics are still an inescapable aspect of their shopping reality. One other solution is a return to the old “milkman delivery” model of yore. The brainchild of TerraCycle, a New Jersey-based “waste solution development” firm, Loop offers popular products — think Häagen-Dazs ice cream, Hidden Valley ranch dressing, Tropicana orange juice, and Quaker Oats oatmeal — in durable glass and aluminum tubs designed to be returned, cleaned, and refilled. Nestlé, Procter & Gamble, Unilever, PepsiCo, Coca-Cola, and Danone are just some of the marquee names that have thrown in their support. Loop has also roped in a number of retail partners, including Kroger and Walgreens in the United States, Tesco in the United Kingdom, and Carrefour in France. “It’s super important to us to meet consumers where they’re already shopping,” says Heather Crawford, Loop’s vice president of marketing and e-commerce. Unlike with bulk or zero-waste supermarkets, customers don’t have to sling their own containers or wash them, which could help adoption. “People want a better, more sustainable option with less waste, but they’re not always willing to change their behaviors to get there,” she says. “Loop removes all of the friction from the systems that exist in the current zero-waste solution.” Tory Gundelach, vice president of retail insights at the consulting agency Kantar, sees a growing desire from customers for forward-thinking efforts such as Loop. “Younger shoppers, particularly, are becoming more attuned to the effect of their actions on the environment or society as a whole,” she says. “Shoppers increasingly want to see the retailers and brands they engage reflect their own personal values.” Nearly two-thirds of millennials and Gen Z-ers say they prefer “brands that have a point of view and stand for something,” Kantar’s research has found. And therein lies supermarkets’ business proposition. Reducing packaging through resource-efficient design or losing it altogether can save money on raw materials and shipping costs — always a plus for the bottom line — but it can also win over a demographic that is only going to grow into its spending power. “Shoppers are telling us, ‘I’m putting my dollars against the retailers and the brands that feel like they have values that line up with my values,’” Gundelach says. “And to do that, of course, brands and retailers have to put out what their values are that they stand for.”

Don't be fooled by their squishy outsides. Eve Lom Cleansing Oil Capsules. Photo: Courtesy There is a revolution happening in skin care, and it's occurring inside tiny, squishy spheres. Beauty "capsules" — oils, serums and powders housed in self-contained, monodose pods — are popping up everywhere in the beauty market, it seems, from high-tech treatment systems to cleansers. They might not look like much, but inside those rubbery orbs are unique formulas and textures, not to mention of host of eco-friendly possibilities. They’re not a completely new idea, per se — witness Elizabeth Arden's iconic Ceramide Capsules, born in the ancient times of 1990 A.D. Since then, however, we've mostly realized the folly of dumping small plastic beads into waterways and capsules have been largely viewed as a relic of the past. But that view has shifted of late. "Encapsulated beauty products could be more or less sustainable than comparable products that are not encapsulated," explains Mia Davis, Director of Mission for Credo Beauty, "providing they are made of naturally-derived, biodegradable casings." And as consumers become increasingly diligent about supporting brands with sustainable practices, that's exactly where beauty companies are headed. Elizabeth Arden Vitamin C Ceramide Capsules. Photo: Courtesy Take, for example, the aforementioned Elizabeth Arden. These past few years, the brand doubled down on its capsule-based heritage, launching the Advanced Ceramide Capsules in 2017 and a retinol version in 2018. In September of this year, it launched a new Vitamin C Ceramide Capsules Radiance Renewal Serum. The main selling point for these single-serving capsules is that they take an already potent ingredient, and remove the need for things like fillers or stabilizers that would minimize their strength. As New York City-based dermatologist Dr. Dendy Engleman explains, "[Elizabeth Arden Vitamin C Ceramide Capsules] are formulated in an oil base, so it is much better absorbed [by skin], and up to 178 times more potent than vitamin C in an aqueous base. Because the formula is encapsulated, it is not degraded by light and air." Interestingly enough, the brand claims that its capsules have been biodegradable since day one — a practice it is continuing to improve upon as green tech advances. "The Vitamin C Ceramide Capsules Radiance Renewal Serum are vegetable- and mineral-based," explains Kelly Quinn, Arden's Senior Marketing Manager. "They also meet industry standard guidelines for biodegradability — drop it in water and watch it dissolve." Pubic-grooming brand Fur went the extra biodegradable mile by introducing a casing for its new Bath Drops, which debuted in October, that is also certified vegan. It's made from red seaweed, a material the brand claims is an environmentally friendly version of the gelatin used to encase bath beads from days of yore. Drop it in the tub and it dissolves, releasing its blend of conditioning oils and the brand's signature clary sage oil to moisturize skin and soothe post-shaving irritation. Fur Bath Drops. Photo: Courtesy Another benefit of biodegradability as it pertains to these types of products is that it forces formulators to come up with ways to make products anhydrous (a.k.a. water-free), mostly removing the need for preservatives; no water means no threat of mold. And, being monodose (as in, one application per capsule) means no worries about degradation or bacteria growth from exposure to air, and therefore less product waste in general. Luxury skin-care brand Eve Lom is no stranger to anhydrous products — its cult-classic Cleanser is water-free — so the recent introduction of Cleansing Oil Capsules takes that bestselling balm and translates it into a liquid encapsulated form. The casing is made from a vegetable-based material that's fully biodegradable, says Eve Lom Master Esthetician Erica Maccallum, and features the brand's signature blend of essential oils from chamomile, eucalyptus, hops and clove. Each tiny bead has enough product to completely remove dirt, oil and makeup from the skin. That single-dose ideology is also a less obvious green move: Brands tout it as convenient for travel and making application dummy-proof (my words, not theirs) because each capsule is one use. And that's all true. But what's less often discussed is the fact that this method can prevent the impulse for overdoing it on a product, cutting down on waste and enabling consumers to be more conservative in their use. However, as Davis warns, everything isn't sunshine and rainbows in capsule world. "In theory, capsules could reduce waste, but it is also likely to lead to more packaging, not less," she asserts. "In all likelihood, the beads will go into a jar or bottle, and most of those will go into a box." One alternative that does, indeed, cut down on packaging and reduce waste is present in Unilever's Signal oral-care line. As part of TerraCycle's Loop initiative (TL;DR version: The modern-day milkman scenario where you order products, use them, then have the service pick up the used containers to be cleaned, sterilized and put back in the supply cycle to be used all over again. It's a pretty cool concept worth reading up on.), the company created a unique chewable toothpaste tab. Simply pop one of the Signal 8 Integral Tooth Tabs in your mouth, then start brushing — no water needed. The container itself is made up of a glass jar with a plastic cap with ceramic printing, which gives it added durability to stand up to repeated sterilization and washing by Loop facilities. Sadly, it's currently only available through Loop's Paris program, but here's hoping Unilever eventually adapts it for the U.S. market. As Davis says, in theory capsules have a lot of potential, but it's up to brands to go that extra mile if they really want to make this category a sustainable alternative for the future. With the ability to increase potency, prevent product degradation, decrease reliance on plastics, and reduce product waste, capsules are a great first step toward a different kind of environmental responsibility. "A bio-based casing that could biodegrade in the environment over time is the right start," says Davis. "A clean formula with reduced reliance on preservatives, which can be done because the product is protected from natural breakdown and contamination, is great. And, ingredients like vitamin C could be kept more active and potent. But, brands using this format [need to] prioritize one exterior package, not two, since breakage and leakage is not nearly as much of a concern with this type of product. There is huge potential if this is done right."

As I write this, the words of Greta Thunberg are reverberating around the world.   Wherever you stand on climate change, I hope everyone can agree hers is a powerful story. A 16-year-old, still a minor, getting up in front of the leaders of the world and clearly giving them a performance review: “You are failing us.” And she did it in English — not her native language.   I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t have been able to do that when I was 16. And certainly not in Swedish.   I am not trying to convince you about whether she is right or wrong. I am simply trying to tell you that she is. She exists. That just happened. And she illustrates the power and purpose of marketing — to get a conversion.  

People Are Lazy and Selfish

  And it’s not necessarily bad. I am. You are. We’re lazy, because it’s an evolutionary trait to conserve energy. And when I say we’re selfish, we’re simply hardwired to act in our best interest.   But …   These human characteristics make the job of saving the world really hard.  

Most People Don’t Want to Save the World, They Want to Save Themselves

  Climate change is a maddeningly complex topic. We’re literally talking about a combination of …   scientific study of the entire planet for thousands of years + an entrenched economic system — hardwired for brilliant, innovative change; yet, challenged by factoring in externalities + change on an such an epic scale that individual impact is difficult to feel x politics   And … oh look, a Kardashian just did something shocking on social media!   Where were we … oh, yes. How do you get humans to focus intently on such a deep problem that you change behavior when there are so many shiny and more fun options out there?   Well, you tell a better story. Thunberg is what Apple was talking about in its legendary “Think Different” campaign. As the ad states, you can “glorify or vilify them.” The most recent AP story about Thunberg talks about how she was both praised and criticized.   Will Thunberg be the one who helps bend that hockey stick of climate change somewhat downward? It’s unfair to even speculate.   But I can tell you her role. It’s marketing. Marketing has a bad rap sometimes, but that shouldn’t come across in a bad way.  

As a Marketer, You Can Save the World

  Or destroy it. But let’s stay positive.   Marketing has that all encompassing power to affect human behavior. Thunberg is a person, of course. Let’s respect that. But she’s grown to be something far greater.   She’s become a narrative. A way for people to comprehend climate change and how they can impact it. An easy-to-understand personification of a complex issue. In other words, marketing. From sailing across the ocean to reduce carbon emissions instead of flying to that speech in front of the UN, she has created a compelling brand. Something for people to pull for and choose to act due to her actions.   Marketing can save the world, because it is the marketers who create these stories. The stories that get people to change behavior. To wear Nikes instead of generic shoes. To spend more for an iPhone. To take their valuable time to attend a webinar.   No matter what engineers create or researchers discover or politicians utter, products, services, and ideas only succeed because people choose them.   So marketing has the power to save the world. To make the world a better place. To have more people choose good.   Marketing is ultimately the optimization of perceived value to help influence that choice. Some examples:  

Example No. 1: Chilean Sea Bass

  I got the idea for this article in a discussion with Flint McGlaughlin, Managing Director and CEO, MECLABS Institute, while he was preparing this YouTube Live session filled with conversion optimization ideas for viewer-submitted landing pages.   In it, he discusses how marketing essentially created the Chilean Sea Bass.   Marketing can help with environmental issues by making eco-friendly, but previously unpopular, options more popular in the marketplace (although, that can cause other issues).   For example, as Alexander Mayyasi states in the article "The Invention of the Chilean Sea Bass," “Far from unique, the story of the Chilean sea bass represents something of a formula in today’s climate of overfishing: Choose a previously ignored fish, give it a more appealing name, and market it. With a little luck, a fish once tossed back as bycatch will become part of trendy $50 dinners.”

Example No. 2: Strong Passwords

  In this Wall Street Journal article, "People Need an Incentive to Use Strong Passwords. We Gave Them One," professor Karen Renaud provides a great example of creating a process-level value proposition for creating a strong password (instead of just telling people they should create one)— the stronger the password is, the longer they can keep it before having to change the password again.

Example No. 3: Brushing Teeth

  Why did you brush your teeth this morning?   Let me stop you right there and tell you that you’re wrong. Whatever reason you gave is an attempt to logically explain a societally ingrained habit.   And that habit came into being thanks to headlines and body copy in advertising for Pepsodent made by advertising pioneer Claude Hopkins.   He didn’t just tell consumers they should brush their teeth because it’s the good or right thing to do. He created a value proposition for it by advertising the need to brush teeth to remove a film that builds up on them and “robs teeth of their whiteness.”

Example No. 4: Tesla

  Electric cars did not gain much traction until Elon Musk came along. Public perception was that electric vehicles — or EVs, for short — were akin to wearing a hair shirt. Yes, they kept the air we breathe cleaner, but it was a subpar experience.   Elon Musk changed that by leveraging the inherent quickness of EVs and created objects of desire with Tesla. These weren’t three-wheeled, two-seater econoboxes. These were high-end sportscars to be lusted after.   He did it by cultivating an innovative (and larger than life) persona on social media. By creating cars with tech-savvy features, like a car that turns off and door handles that retract when you simply walk away from the car. He also did it with smart branding — you can buy a Tesla Model X with “Insane Mode” or “Ludicrous Mode” acceleration.   In other words, marketing.   And in so doing, he changed the entire arc of the car industry from a group of companies that simply couldn’t get off fossil fuels to an industry that has invested billions in electrification and sees EVs as the auto propulsion of the future.

Example No. 5: Tom Szaky

  This story is still in progress, but I flag it up to you as an example that is going on right now. Tom Szaky founded TerraCycle with the idea of increasing recycling — especially for hard-to-recycle items that you couldn’t just set out on the curb.   But he didn’t do it by running ads telling you that recycling is good. He partnered with major brands from Bausch + Lomb to Colgate to Tide to leverage their brands and marketing muscle (i.e. co-op marketing) to get the message out to schools and non-profits, encouraging them to recycle in groups in exchange for donations. (And there is your process-level value prop … in addition to making the world a better place, of course).   Now he’s launching Loop, an e-commerce platform in which you can buy your favorite brands in reusable containers by, again, leveraging what is essentially co-op marketing. This small company is trading on some of the biggest and most valuable brands in the world.

'With Great Power There Must Also Come — Great Responsibility'

  The Peter Parker principle. If you are a marketing leader, you have a super power. The power to influence human behavior.   To heal … or to destroy … the world.   Use it wisely.

 

A cross-team collaboration successfully created new packaging for the Bear Naked granola brand, designed for recyclability and sustainable-barrier packaging.

 

Presenting at the Innovation Stage at PACK EXPO Las Vegas, Ashley Leidolf and Holly Dinnill of Dow, Shannon Moore of Kashi, and Paul Wolak of Berry Global explained how a cross-team collaboration between brand and suppliers made Bear Naked’s packaging more recyclable and sustainable.

 

When the brand was launched in 2002, Bear Naked chose not to use bag-in-box, becoming the first granola brand to be offered in a pouch. Sustainability was important to the brand owners, so the packaging changed from 2008 to 2018 and was offered in a Terracycle pouch – it was the #1 selling brand with 500,000 units recycled.

 

Shannon Moore, Lead Packaging Engineer at Kashi, said that a few years ago the brand owner came to her and asked what it would take to “go beyond” Terracycle and get to curbside or store-drop recycling. Because recycling is also important to the brand’s consumers (most of whom are under the age of 40), Moore said that the number one customer comment has been “How do I recycle this bag?”

 

When the decision was made to change to a more sustainable packaging, Moore said the brand wanted to keep the same look for the consumers, so it was important to maintain the production speed and clarity of the package to keep the print enhancements such as surface matte. The brand was having trouble finding a good solution for a hermetically sealed bag, which is necessary due to the number of whole nuts and dried fruit in the product. Kellogg and Dow already had a partnership in place, so Moore engaged the internal team to find a solution by working with Dow, and she said the project was able to move forward more quickly by working together as a team. “The first thing we did as a team,” said Moore, is walk them through our entire manufacturing network, to see how we operated, so that each supplier could work together.”

 

Paul Wolak, Senior Technical Director at Berry Global said that when working on the project and taking shelf life into consideration – “we focused on how to deliver a better moisture barrier and better oxygen barrier as a starting place.” The team landed on a mono-material recycle-ready 9-layer structure that satisfied all of the necessary properties.

 

Said Holly Dinnill, Marketing Director at Dow and the moderator of the presentation, “What we’ve created here as a team is really a multi value-chain effort to create a package that can be fully recyclable and be used with cases that need barrier.”

 

The brand is on a mission from the top down to comply with 2025 recyclability goals and is now 6 years ahead of schedule to comply. To learn more about the How2Recycle program, click here. To see a previous Show Daily article about this packaging, click here.

 

Make plans to visit PACK EXPO East in Philadelphia, March 3-5, to see on-trend packaging machinery and materials, and sustainable solutions.

A cross-team collaboration successfully created new packaging for the Bear Naked granola brand, designed for recyclability and sustainable-barrier packaging.

 

Presenting at the Innovation Stage at PACK EXPO Las Vegas, Ashley Leidolf and Holly Dinnill of Dow, Shannon Moore of Kashi, and Paul Wolak of Berry Global explained how a cross-team collaboration between brand and suppliers made Bear Naked’s packaging more recyclable and sustainable.

 

When the brand was launched in 2002, Bear Naked chose not to use bag-in-box, becoming the first granola brand to be offered in a pouch. Sustainability was important to the brand owners, so the packaging changed from 2008 to 2018 and was offered in a Terracycle pouch – it was the #1 selling brand with 500,000 units recycled.

 

Shannon Moore, Lead Packaging Engineer at Kashi, said that a few years ago the brand owner came to her and asked what it would take to “go beyond” Terracycle and get to curbside or store-drop recycling. Because recycling is also important to the brand’s consumers (most of whom are under the age of 40), Moore said that the number one customer comment has been “How do I recycle this bag?”

 

When the decision was made to change to a more sustainable packaging, Moore said the brand wanted to keep the same look for the consumers, so it was important to maintain the production speed and clarity of the package to keep the print enhancements such as surface matte. The brand was having trouble finding a good solution for a hermetically sealed bag, which is necessary due to the number of whole nuts and dried fruit in the product. Kellogg and Dow already had a partnership in place, so Moore engaged the internal team to find a solution by working with Dow, and she said the project was able to move forward more quickly by working together as a team. “The first thing we did as a team,” said Moore, is walk them through our entire manufacturing network, to see how we operated, so that each supplier could work together.”

 

Paul Wolak, Senior Technical Director at Berry Global said that when working on the project and taking shelf life into consideration – “we focused on how to deliver a better moisture barrier and better oxygen barrier as a starting place.” The team landed on a mono-material recycle-ready 9-layer structure that satisfied all of the necessary properties.

 

Said Holly Dinnill, Marketing Director at Dow and the moderator of the presentation, “What we’ve created here as a team is really a multi value-chain effort to create a package that can be fully recyclable and be used with cases that need barrier.”

 

The brand is on a mission from the top down to comply with 2025 recyclability goals and is now 6 years ahead of schedule to comply. To learn more about the How2Recycle program, click here. To see a previous Show Daily article about this packaging, click here.

 

Make plans to visit PACK EXPO East in Philadelphia, March 3-5, to see on-trend packaging machinery and materials, and sustainable solutions.

KAILUA-KONA, Hawai`i (Wednesday, October 10) – Race week for the 2019 Vega IRONMAN World Championship continued today in Kailua-Kona, Hawai`i and with it, the plethora of activities and events that countdown to the world’s most iconic single-day endurance event taking place on Saturday, Oct. 12. Here is the daily Pau Hana, a Hawaiian phrase meaning “end of the workday,” recapping highlights from the last 24 hours.   Thanks to IRONMAN’s partners, world championship athletes as well as their friends and families will have the opportunity to try out world class products leading up to race day. With nearly a dozen premier partners represented on the island, athletes are encouraged to see the variety of products and amenities available, ranging from nutritional supplements to training materials. In their first year as a title partner at the IRONMAN World Championship, Vega will be front and center for athletes throughout the week. They will have sampling throughout IRONMAN Village, and their “Vegamobile” will be located at different spots for spectators to try out their recovery smoothies. Below are a few other sponsors and the benefits they will be bringing:  

• Addaday will debut their new co-branded IRONMAN massage chair and provide the “Best Seats in Kona”, right across from the Courtyard by Marriott King Kamehameha’s Kona Beach Hotel. Throughout the week, spectators will have the opportunity to test the chairs and enter a raffle to win a seat in the chair on race day for up to an hour.
• HOKA ONE ONE, in partnership with the IRONMAN merchandise team, will be selling their co-branded IRONMAN KONA MACH 2 shoe along with their Kona inspired Carbon X shoes. They will also have demo runs at their pop-up shop throughout the week to test the all-new Carbon X released earlier this fall.
• Gatorade Endurance will be performing sweat testing all week long at their IRONMAN Village location, and have had mobile hydration stations set up around Kona to help athletes on their training efforts. They will also be presenting sponsor of “IRONMAN: Quest for Kona fueled by Gatorade Endurance”
• GU Energy will be promoting their TerraCycle initiative that collects used single serve nutrition wrappers and send them back to the U.S. for recycling, and in-turn, all proceeds will be donated to the IRONMAN Foundation for their recycling efforts.
• Master Spas will be demonstrating their new swim spa located in the IRONMAN Village. Three-time IRONMAN World Champion Mirinda Carfrae and 2014 IRONMAN World Championship runner-up Ben Hoffman will be making appearances throughout the week.
• Red Bull will host an exclusive branded aid station in The Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority; providing energy when athletes need it most. The finish line area will feature two members of the Red Bull Wings Team.
• ROKA, the official swim partner of IRONMAN, has been demonstrating their goggles and swimskins all week, and will award the fastest swimmer of each age group with a $50 discount on their products.
• Santini, the official cycling and triathlon apparel, will be providing Italian coffee in expo to anyone who buys Santini gear in the merch store. They will also host a short fashion show during IRONMAN Village stage time.
• Ventum, the official global bike partner of IRONMAN, hosted its Annual Ventum Group Ride in partnership with Vega. The group rolled out early Wednesday morning heading eight miles out to the Kona airport where riders had the option to turn around and head back to the expo or continue their ride down for a pre-race ride down a portion of the IRONMAN World Championship Ventum bike course on Queen Ka’ahumanu..

  IRONMAN `Ohana Hour on IRONMAN Now   IRONMAN `Ohana Hour, a daily update show on IRONMAN Now brings the viewer to the shores of Kailua-Kona, Hawai`i leading into the 2019 Vega IRONMAN World Championship. Beginning at 8:00 a.m. on IRONMAN Now Facebook page, hosts Greg Welch, Michael Lovato and Matt Lieto will bring live interviews with professional and age-group triathletes prior the big race on Saturday.   Take a trip out to the The Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority and see what the athletes will be experiencing on race day or take walk down famous Ali`i Drive showing the race week atmosphere in Kailua-Kona.   Each daily show is available on the IRONMAN Now page for viewers to re-watch any episode throughout the week.   HOKA ONE ONE Women For Tri Athlete Panel   One of IRONMAN’s premier partners, HOKA ONE ONE – the Official Running Shoe of the IRONMAN North America and IRONMAN Europe Series – hosted an athlete panel at noon on Wednesday to celebrate Women Who Fly in conjunction with the Women For Tri initiative, a program of the IRONMAN Foundation. Launched in 2015, Women For Tri works to increase female participation at all levels of triathlon. The initiative seeks to identify and lessen any barriers female athletes may cross when engaging triathlons and encouraging them across all platforms of athletics. Since its inception in 2015, Women For Tri has awarded over $300,000 in grants to triathlon clubs supporting female participation initiatives. Wednesday’s panel included three powerful women from around endurance sports industry: Wendy Yang, President of HOKA ONE ONE; Sika Henry, a two-time IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship finisher and proponent for diversity in triathlon; Julie Moss, IRONMAN Hall of Famer and 1982 IRONMAN World Championship runner-up who famously crawled the final 15 feet of the race after collapsing. Prior to the panel, there was a Women For Tri meet-up from 11:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. at the IRONMAN Foundation Booth. Athletes gathered, took photos and the first 50 females in attendance received special gifts.   Looking Ahead to Tomorrows Pau Hana   The Vega IRONMAN World Championship’s week of events continued tonight with the induction of the 2019 IRONMAN Hall of Fame class, featuring IRONMAN World Champion’s Tim DeBoom and Michellie Jones, along with IRONMAN contributors Kenneth Gasque and Jan War. Tomorrow, the day kicks off at 7:30 a.m. HST with the Kona Underpants Run, a tradition to help raise money for various local charities. Following that, media are invited to attend the professional athlete press conference at 11:00 a.m., featuring over a dozen of the top professional athletes who will be competing on Saturday. Shortly thereafter, IRONMAN will host a follow up press conference at 2:00 p.m. at the IRONMAN Village that will include some of this year’s incredible athletes and their stories to the start line – mother-daughter duo Beth and Liza James, after two decades of trying, Dai Masui will finally start the IRONMAN World Championship, music manager and Chairman of MusiCares Michael McDonald, double amputee Roderick Sewell, IRONMĀORI co-founder Wayne Skipworth, as well as breast cancer survivor and business executive Lisa Tecklenburg. The Vega IRONMAN World Championship Media Center reopens Thursday, Oct. 10 at 9 a.m. in King Kamehameha Hotel Ballroom 1. Media can check in until 4 p.m.