The new academic year is set to begin very soon here in Eugene, and one of my goals for the year ahead is to be more environmentally conscious. As musicians, especially string players, it’s hard to ignore the environmental impacts of our instruments. I’m not saying that we should be exceedingly guilty or completely stop playing the violin or anything, but I think it’s worth considering ways that we can alter our habits in order to better the condition of the earth (in addition to creating beautiful music). 1) Take good care of your instrument and replace/rehair only when necessary. This is fairly obvious. However, this is effective especially from an environmentally friendly perspective, not to mention a financial standpoint. Of course, you need everything working in the best condition possible, but if you can get another few weeks out of your strings or can wait an extra couple of months to get your bow rehaired, why not wait a little longer? As a grad student on a tight budget, I am a master of this philosophy. It will save you money and will also help to reduce waste. When it is necessary to change out your strings, look into options to recycle your strings in order to avoid throwing the old ones into the trash; TerraCycle and D'Addario recently partnered up to create their own free and easy string recycling program.   2) Consider electronic over paper sheet music. Before I elaborate on this point, I should tell you that I definitely prefer pencil and paper over an electronic medium for sheet music. But, I find my iPad super convenient when traveling, and it’s great to store all of my big technique books (you never know when you might need to refer to Sevcik Op. 8 #24 when you’re teaching a lesson!) An iPad can be great for new music purposes as well; I did a piece a couple of years ago in San Francisco for violin and prepared piano that required an iPad/foot pedal combination because I had to play off of a score. I definitely do not use an iPad for everything, but if you’re open to trying an electronic version for some things that you practice, it’s a great way to save a few trees. If you do use paper copies, assuming you don’t need the music again (I don’t mean your heavily annotated book of the Bach sonatas and partitas!) recycle them when you’re finished.   3) Keep track of your instrument accessories. It’s really hard to keep track of every pencil you’ve ever brought into a rehearsal or practice room (believe me, I understand). But, try your best to hang onto everything; it eliminates waste, and again, helps you financially. Be mindful of where you keep your mute, rosin, shoulder rest, peg goop, pencils, tuner, metronome, cleaning cloth, and/or whatever else you keep in your case. When my cleaning cloth gets dirty, I just throw it in the wash with my other towels. I find this method of using a reusable cloth to clean my instrument more effective and environmentally sound than using a disposable towel or cloth every time I want to clean my violin.       4) Think about the products you use. There are some environmentally friendly products, like all natural rosin, that string players can use if they are interested in going green. There are several options online if you hunt a little bit; it’s a subtle but effective way to make a difference. 5) Donate > throw away As with anything, donating to someone in need rather than throwing away is a much better option all around if you decide you can't use something anymore. Is your shoulder rest just not right for your set-up anymore? Ask someone if they want to try it out, or donate it to Goodwill. Finding an alternative to the trash whenever possible is good for everyone, not to mention the environment.

Em sua versão online, a revista IstoÉ Dinheiro publicou uma reportagem sobre os benefícios gerados com a parceria entre a RCRambiental e a TerraCycle.

Online thrift store ThredUp is set to join companies including Patagonia, H&M and Calvin Klein at this year’s Decoded Future summit in New York. The one-day summit, which held its inaugural event in NewYork last year, will take place at Convene at 117 W 46th Street on October 18. Founded by trend intelligence service Stylus, the summit will discuss contemporary trends and their effect on brands, with a focus on sustainability and social good. The event will commence with a presentation from Stylus’ chief creative officer, Tess Mansfield, who will discuss Stylus’ key trend predictions for 2020 across the industries of fashion, beauty, marketing, retail, food, travel and more. The summit will then continue with an opening panel featuring brands like Ben & Jerry’s, Airbnb, Patagonia and Vita Coco, where the companies will discuss their thoughts on creating sustainable and social change and the value of placing purpose at the heart of brand and business strategy, Stylus said. The event will feature leaders from a wide range of additional brands and companies, including H&M, ThredUp, Marriott International, Pinterest, Calvin Klein, Harvard University, Fitbit, Gossamer, By Chloe, Butterfly.ai, Women’s Health, Farmtrue, TerraCycle and more. According to Stylus, the rest of the day’s content will be split into three categories: ‘Adapting to Changing Attitudes,’ a category dedicated to addressing sustainable, health and wellness-driven travel, the anti-fast fashion movement, and future consumer insights looking forward to 2035; ‘New Rules of Engagement,’ discussing mental health and wellness in the digital age, technology and the future of medical, and omni-intelligent retail; and ‘Addressing the Not-So-Niches,’ a beauty-focused category that will discuss the future of packaging, the maturing marijuana market, and building a successful plant-based brand. “Decoded Future brings together, and aims to empower, industry change-makers and influencers – the people that are in a position to influence our future,” said Marc Worth, CEO of Stylus. “It aims to reveal the positive impacts of technology, what a sustainable future looks like, and the opportunities that arise from it. It’s a must-attend for anyone wanting to drive change and get ahead on tomorrow.” The day will close with a final keynote from Christian Ward, Stylus’ head of media and marketing, followed by a discussion on algorithms, artificial intelligence and brands.

It’s no secret that eating out produces a ton of waste. The restaurant industry loses around $162 billion annually in food waste costs, and that’s just for the edible stuff. Add onto that containers the food comes in, packaging for delivery orders, and paper for receipts, and there’s a whole lot of trash being generated every day by millions of restaurants around the country.   We’ve seen various efforts put towards fighting this growing mountain of trash — bans on plastic straws and disposable cutlery, for example — but one New York restaurant is taking the battle to a new extreme. Mettā, in Brooklyn’s Fort Greene neighborhood, is reopening in the fall as New York’s first zero-waste restaurant, and it could provide an important road map for restaurants in the future.   Grubstreet profiled the restaurant earlier this week and found that zero waste in this context applies to everything about the business. The restaurant, which was already carbon-neutral, sources ingredients that come in compostable or reusable packaging, uses electrolyzed water that “eliminates” the need for dish soap, and composts any food scraps left on customers’ plates. Even the cheese rinds are upcycled.   Mettā is one of a handful of restaurants around the world pushing the zero-waste, trash-free business model. Silo, in the UK, is another notable example. Meanwhile, in Sweden, a project called Restauranglabbet is using a combination of tech, science, academic research, and design to create a waste-free restaurant of the future. Other establishments here and abroad are experimenting with ways to do zero-waste cooking, using all parts of the plant and sourcing ingredients locally.   If it all sounds terribly expensive, it is. For example, Mettā works with a New Jersey-based company called TerraCycle, who does curbside pickup for hard-to-recycle items like cooking oil and batteries. According to the Grubstreet article, Mettā will have two boxes for TerraCycle — each at $800 a pop.   It’s also terribly necessary that restaurants like these exist. While the concept might today be unattainable for most businesses, this wildly expensive and rather inconvenient model for a restaurant could actually pave the way for more affordable solutions in the future — ones that other restaurants could incorporate into their own operations.   It’s not unlike Tesla. The company’s high-performance, all-electric cars have historically come with a price tag that’s out of the question for most buyers, due in part to the vehicles’ high-tech design and expensive components like batteries. But by getting those who could afford the cars to cough up the cash, Tesla created a demand for this sort of vehicle that’s having a ripple effect on the auto industry. Automakers once reluctant to dabble in the world of all-electric vehicles are now coming to market with their own offerings. Meanwhile, the demand Tesla created eventually enabled the company make a more affordable (albeit still expensive) model whose components could be easier cheaper for other carmakers to iterate on.   When it comes to restaurants, your average mom-and-pop joint will probably not be able to pay $800 to recycle its cooking oil, but the mere fact that such an option exists for restaurants could lead to some company eventually coming to market with a cheaper solution. In the meantime, Mettā, Silo, and others also have more-affordable components of their operations that could be implemented by others now, like digital receipts and compostable packaging.   We’re not going to see restaurants like Mettā opening en masse any time soon. But the hope is that we’ll see some of the elements they introduce make their way into other restaurants and help move the industry towards a more sustainable way of doing business.

by Shawn Binder on 09/19/2019 | 3 Minute Read   To launch a skincare line in today’s oversaturated beauty market, you need to be confident that your target demographic will be on board. With the launch of Plenaire, a new UK-based brand, they’ve gone to the source, working closely with a Gen-Z focus-group that likely helped shaped HBO’s Euphoria as well?   The goal was to create a direct-to-consumer brand that spoke to a younger audience seeking out accessible luxury.     The packaging for the line they developed with the help of design firm Pentagram skews minimal, with the tubes light, pastel-pink and signature lilac (named ‘Cresyl’ after the purple histological stain cresyl violet) with small particles to add a layer of texture. Minimalist, yet striking enough to work into your “shelfies,” the design of Plenaire comes elevated without being overly flashy. Their online presence is also minimalist and inclusive, as any brand speaking to Gen Z should be.   “Plenaire’s typeface is a custom version of La Nord," Pentagram wrote of the project. "The sans serif was named after a beach on the coast of southern France, which is known, ‘both for its relentless surge as well as its fragile nature,’ and the typeface captures this through the contrasting weight of its strokes.”   In terms of the line of products and the particles that appear on each package to give a sense of rawness, they said “each product is associated with one of three essential skincare routines; that cleanse, relax and energize. These three functions are represented by a pattern of particle densities.”     Plenaire, whose name comes from the French phrase “open-air,” was developed by Namrata Nayyar-Kamdar; who is veteran in the cosmetics industry with over 16 years of experience in managing and developing personal care and beauty brands with global cosmetics giant Unilever. Plenaire hopes to help redefine how we see “clean beauty.”   The current lineup includes eight products: Rose Jelly makeup remover, a 3-in-1 exfoliating clay dubbed Tripler, hydrating mask Skin Frosting, and moisturizing gel and Violet Paste blemish treatment Droplet, all of which are available to purchase online now. Daily Airy foaming cleanser, exfoliating skin tonic Brightening Elixir, and Vapour, a mist, will release shortly, so everyone get their credit cards ready.     When Plenaire approached Pentagram, they turned to a Gen-Z focus group to zero in on how their product would stand out from other brands who promote clean skincare. They noted that what brands were doing wrong was that they lacked sustainability components. Plenaire doubled-down, and as a result, the products arrive in packaging that’s recyclable, biodegradable, and BPA-free. This includes everything from the bottle caps to the cardboard cartons.   To go the extra mile, Plenaire is working closely with recycling juggernaut TerraCycle to roll out a Closed Loop Recycling partnership in the UK. This means that anyone who purchases Plenaire will eventually have the option to recycle in stores or at a designated drop-off location.   With Plenaire joining the ranks of sustainable beauty brands, and focus-group founded research proving that Gen-Z cares about the brand’s level of environmental impact, the writing is on the wall. If beauty brands want to survive the rise of competition, they’ll need to adapt or get left behind.

(Sept. 20, 2019) The following took place during the Coastal Resources Legislative Committee (Green Team) meeting, Sept. 11.   Mitigation fees   Blazer also presented a Power Point that she will bring to the City Council to request a transfer of $30,000 from various deferred revenue accounts to the city’s stormwater program.   Sustainable Maryland   City Environmental Engineer Gail Blazer said a Sustainable Maryland application was submitted in June. To be certified, the committee only needs 150 points, but it has applied for 380 points.   Awards will be given out during the Maryland Municipal League’s Fall Conference, which begins Oct. 13 and ends Oct. 15.   Butt huts and recycling   Although Public Works Director Hal Adkins was not present, he sent an email to the members describing the cigarette butt container, located on the west side.   In his email, he said the containers located on the west side were a hit and were consistently full.   Adkins said he would need to replace those containers with larger ones to accommodate the high-volume usage.   In addition, he said delays in dumping the containers were caused by a manpower shortage. Following the end of the season, the maintenance department lost around 12 employees.   There was a problem with private efforts to install the containers, Sandi Smith of Maryland Coastal Bays Program said.   Smith said she had distributed 50 of the containers to businesses, but the businesses have been slow to put them out.   She plans on following up with the businesses to pinpoint the issue.   The program sends the cigarette butts to TerraCycle and the company uses the butts to make benches.   TerraCycle had benches ready for Ocean City, but Smith wanted the company to add a large message on the bench and brand it.   In total, the program has recycled 150 pounds of cigarette butts, and currently has another 55-gallon barrel ready to be sent.

Until recently, recreational cannabis users didn't have any way of disposing of the packaging other than throwing it in the trash As the legalization of edible cannabis approaches in Canada, the industry has yet to solve one of its greatest challenges: packaging.   Since October 17, cannabis companies have been plagued with problems associated with packaging.   Apart from the fact that cannabis packages are really boring (thanks, Health Canada), they are also an environmental disaster.     One customer reported receiving two plastic containers, two cardboard boxes, a brown paper bag and a plastic casing, all for just four grams of weed.   And much of that packaging couldn’t be recycled until Tweed and TerraCycle teamed up to create a national recycling program earlier this year. But until then, recreational cannabis users didn’t really have any way of disposing of the packaging other than throwing it in the trash. And, in the very early days of legalization, there just wasn’t enough compliant packaging to satisfy Canadians’ hunger for legal weed. That led to valuable product sitting in warehouses as provincial governments capped retail licenses and cut operating hours of publically run dispensaries.   But some innovative companies are offering solutions to this packaging disaster. Among them, Noah Shopsowitz, son of the late Sam Shopsowitz of the Toronto-based Shopsy’s Delicatessen empire.   Shopsowitz is currently shopping his child-resistant, smell-proof and 100 percent recyclable containers around to angel investors under the company name Weedlocka.   “Because the federal government had an express timeline in terms of the rollout, companies went with low-hanging-fruit-type solutions,” he says.   “Nobody really gave much thought in terms of innovation, in terms of the full capability of packaging.”   Shopsowitz, who has a history of innovation, including a U.S. patent for a “human free-flight launcher”, says his products would be made out of high-density polyethylene, which is easily recyclable. That material is partly what would give his containers their smell-proof trait, he says.   While he has yet to produce an inventory, Shopsowitz says he is piloting a non-child-resistant product at shops in Toronto. Meanwhile, PharmaSystems subsidiary CannaSupplies has been in the cannabis container business for more than five years and it is already supplying Canadian producers with child-resistant, Health Canada-compliant products.   Nearly all of its containers can be made using 25 to 100 percent recycled materials, and it’s set to come out with a plant-based plastic container with child-resistant lid — made out of hemp, of course.   CannaSystems is also preparing for the edibles market and an expected enthusiasm among consumers for cannabis-infused drinks. It’s “Can’t Top”, a cap for beverage cans, promises to be child-resistant.

Online thrift store ThredUp is set to join companies including Patagonia, H&M and Calvin Klein at this year’s Decoded Future summit in New York. The one-day summit, which held its inaugural event in NewYork last year, will take place at Convene at 117 W 46th Street on October 18. Founded by trend intelligence service Stylus, the summit will discuss contemporary trends and their effect on brands, with a focus on sustainability and social good. The event will commence with a presentation from Stylus’ chief creative officer, Tess Mansfield, who will discuss Stylus’ key trend predictions for 2020 across the industries of fashion, beauty, marketing, retail, food, travel and more. The summit will then continue with an opening panel featuring brands like Ben & Jerry’s, Airbnb, Patagonia and Vita Coco, where the companies will discuss their thoughts on creating sustainable and social change and the value of placing purpose at the heart of brand and business strategy, Stylus said. The event will feature leaders from a wide range of additional brands and companies, including H&M, ThredUp, Marriott International, Pinterest, Calvin Klein, Harvard University, Fitbit, Gossamer, By Chloe, Butterfly.ai, Women’s Health, Farmtrue, TerraCycle and more. According to Stylus, the rest of the day’s content will be split into three categories: ‘Adapting to Changing Attitudes,’ a category dedicated to addressing sustainable, health and wellness-driven travel, the anti-fast fashion movement, and future consumer insights looking forward to 2035; ‘New Rules of Engagement,’ discussing mental health and wellness in the digital age, technology and the future of medical, and omni-intelligent retail; and ‘Addressing the Not-So-Niches,’ a beauty-focused category that will discuss the future of packaging, the maturing marijuana market, and building a successful plant-based brand. “Decoded Future brings together, and aims to empower, industry change-makers and influencers – the people that are in a position to influence our future,” said Marc Worth, CEO of Stylus. “It aims to reveal the positive impacts of technology, what a sustainable future looks like, and the opportunities that arise from it. It’s a must-attend for anyone wanting to drive change and get ahead on tomorrow.” The day will close with a final keynote from Christian Ward, Stylus’ head of media and marketing, followed by a discussion on algorithms, artificial intelligence and brands.   By Gabriella Lacombe

Today’s manufacturers are challenged to package their products both cheaply and effectively. This is why so many food products now come in hard-to-recycle composite packages. A composite material contains layers of plastics, paper, and metals joined together with resins or wax. Due to the properties of each material, the package is thinner, more cost effective, and more durable than a single-material package.   However, composite materials are virtually impossible to recycle profitably, because the paper, plastic, and other materials cannot be separated into pulp and plastic resin without substantial contaimination — the materials pollute one another, making recovery expensive, so costly that most composites end up in landfills where they stay for centuries.  

How Are Composite Packages Used?

  Composite packages are popular for food and beverages, industrial goods, healthcare, and more. An example of composite packaging is a chip bag.   A typical chip bag consists of multiple layers of polymers, including biaxially oriented polypropylene (BOPP), low-density polyethylene (LDPE), and Surlyn, according to Polymer Solutions Incorporated. “Each layer performs a specific function,” the company explained. For example, different materials keep moisture away from chips, keep the chip grease inside the bag, and make the bag “strong and flexible but not unbreakable” so it transports well, and the consumer can easily access the contents.   Companies have invested and will continue to invest a lot of time and money into composites because they work so well. This type of packaging is unlikely to go away anytime soon.  

Why Is it Difficult to Recycle Composite Packages?

  Because each composite package consists of a variety of materials, it can’t be immediately recycled when it reaches a recycling facility. Mixing materials will contaminate all of the materials in that recycling batch, causing useful material to be wasted.   The materials in a composite package must first be separated so that they can be recycled in the appropriate facility. Because the current U.S. recycling infrastructure is underequipped to handle composite packaging, this type of package is rarely accepted in curbside recycling, and often ends up in the trash.   Composite packages require innovative solutions to separate and reclaim the materials for recycling.  

Exploring Ways to Recycle Composite Packaging

  Since there are so many different ways to make a composite package, there will not be one way to recycle all types of composite packages. Research will lead to many different solutions. The key is finding a sustainable solution that doesn’t harm the environment.   Saperatec, a company in Germany, has developed a solution for recycling composites. Their process will separate the layers of paper, plastic, and metal in a composite. Once the layers are separated, each material can be sent to the proper facility for recycling. The process separates the materials through a chemical reaction that breaks down the glues and resins used to keep the layers together. Saperatec’s chemical process has yet to be tested in a large facility, but their process is heading in the right direction for composite recycling.   You may already be familiar with TerraCycle because of their mail-in recycling programs. TerraCycle provides a recycling program for snack bags, a type of composite packaging that normally ends up in the trash. Their process melts the layers of plastics together to create a different composite plastic material. The new material can be molded into different consumer products, giving the composite a longer life cycle. This process works for plastic-only composites but does solve the problem of paper-plastic-metal composites.   To recycle snack bags with TerraCycle, individuals and organizations simply set up an account, collect clean, empty snack bags, and ship a full box back to TerraCycle. TerraCycle also offers recycling programs for other hard-to-recycle packaging.  

Close the Recycling Loop

  Composite packaging is very appealing for manufactures because of  its low cost and durability. But when this type of packaging was developed, no thought was put into how it would be recycled once it was used. And so, most of the composite packaging used ends up in a landfill after its first use.   Thanks to companies like Saperatec and TerraCycle, some of these composite packages can be reclaimed so that the materials can be used in new products. And for manufacturers that want to improve the sustainability of their packaging, guidance is available from the Sustainable Packaging Coalition.   As consumers, you can hold companies accountable to use packaging that can be easily recycled. If you consume products whose packaging cannot be recycled by your local recycler, consider shopping for products that are more sustainably packaged. Or, look for alternative recycling programs such as those offered by TerraCycle. And when you’re shopping, look for products and packaging made from recycled material.    

Just as every beauty enthusiast knows the sweet feeling of satisfaction that comes with finishing up a well-loved product, we are just as familiar with the ensuing conundrum of not knowing exactly what comes next. Sustainability is at the forefront of everyone’s minds these days and the beauty industry as a whole has begun to make the shift toward more eco-friendly practices. But as a consumer — standing at our bathroom counter holding a freshly-emptied bottle, jar or compact — we are left with a lot of question marks. When it comes to recycling beauty products, rules aren’t consistent across the board and doing the right thing isn’t as clear as black and white.   One major issue that is hurting our collective recycling efforts is something known as “wishcycling.” Our overzealous nature to minimize our waste by recycling as much as possible (without doing our research) is proving to be a setback because of contamination. When nonrecyclables make their way into the mix, this can result in surrounding recyclable items not being properly sorted and processed, meaning the whole batch could end up in the landfill.   So, how can we be certain that the beauty products we are putting into our recycling bins are actually recyclable? With paper packaging and glass jars, things are relatively straightforward. But the reality is that most of our beauty lineup is housed in plastic containers of assorted shapes and sizes, replete with pumps, tubes, and mixed-material caps to complicate the matter further and add to the confusion. To provide some clarity, we reached out to Gina Herrera, the U.S. director of brand partnerships at TerraCycle, to educate us on how to recycle our beauty products.  

Remember that sustainability begins with your purchase

  While properly recycling your empty beauty products might be the most salient step in making your beauty routine more sustainable, it is important to remember that it really begins with what you buy. “As a first step when considering best practices for a minimal impact on the planet, consumers should be mindful when making purchases for beauty products,” says Herrera.   With brands like Sunday Riley exploring initiatives such as reusable jars and removing foam from packaging, it is possible to have a headstart in minimizing your waste. “Look for brands that offer end-of-life solutions for their packaging either through a take-back program or a recycling program,” suggests Herrera. By being more intentional about our initial choice of what we “add to cart,” we can significantly reduce our impact down the line.  

Start small and stick with it

  “Recycling can often feel daunting, or dare I say, difficult, especially for folks who want to have a big impact on the planet,” admits Herrera. Still, she reminds us not to be discouraged by all of the information out there and rather, start with small changes to our daily routine. Stepping up requires added effort, but by becoming more conscious consumers — from deciding what to buy to disposing of it — we can minimize our negative impact and support something truly beautiful.  

Know your numbers

  A common misconception is that the symbol of three arrows creating a triangle (known as the Mobius loop) is an indicator that something is recyclable or made from recycled materials. In actuality, the number (one through seven) within the loop indicates what type of resin is used to create the plastic — and thereby whether or not it is recyclable. Most recyclable plastics have a 1 or 2 recycling code, number 3 is PVC and should be tossed, not recycled, and numbers 4 through 7 depend on the restrictions in your area. Once you have checked with your municipality to learn what numbers are accepted, you can determine exactly what products feature plastic that is allowed by your curbside recycling program.    

Do your research 

  Before even eyeing the recycling bin, the very first thing anyone should do is to learn the most updated recycling rules in their region. “Like many waste streams, a common mistake when recycling is making an assumption about what can be tossed in a curbside bin prior to checking with their local municipality,” notes Herrera. “What may look to be recyclable in their blue bin may not be accepted where they live.”   Herrera explains that in general, common items that can be collected curbside include glass, basic number 1 and number 2 plastics, and aluminum, but restrictions vary from city to city. What can and can’t be recycled is very much dependent on where someone lives as their local facilities will dictate what can be recycled in their area. “Each municipality has different recycling requirements and consumers should check with their town to find out what can be put in their curbside bin,” she advises.  

Rinse out any residue

  Just like with food items, it is essential that you clean out any container you plan on recycling. “A simple yet common mistake is tossing beauty products for recycling without removing residue or leftover product,” warns Herrera. “Excess product can render an item that otherwise would have been recycled non-recyclable as it can contaminate the recycling stream.” It is also advised to remove any adhesives, like labels, when possible. Some, like paper labels, can be recycled separately.  

Steer clear of common culprits

  While you should always check the labels and cross-reference with your local municipality’s rules, there are certain items that are almost always nonrecyclable. “A variety of complex beauty packaging cannot often be curbside recycled,” states Herrera, who gave us a list of usual suspects by category.   For skincare, she names soap dispensers and tubes, lotion dispensers and tubes, body wash caps, and lip balm tubes on the “no” list. For hair care, shampoo and conditioner caps, as well as hairspray triggers and hair gel tubes, don’t make the cut. For cosmetics, the nonrecyclable list is surprisingly long: lipstick cases, lip gloss tubes, mascara tubes, eye shadow cases, bronzer cases, foundation packaging, powder cases, eyeliner cases, eyeliner pencils, eye shadow tubes, concealer tubes, and lip liner pencils. Though these lists seem to run the gamut, don’t be discouraged. There are ways to recycle hard-to-recycle items, which brings us to our last tip.  

Find an alternative recycling program

  Once you have determined that an item is not recyclable in your municipality, that doesn’t mean you necessarily have to toss it into the waste bin. “For non-recyclable items, we would recommend checking out terracycle.com, which offers information, resources and access to both free and paid recycling programs for hard-to-recycle waste streams,” says Herrera.