TERRACYCLE NEWS

ELIMINATING THE IDEA OF WASTE®

‘Plastic recycling is a myth': what really happens to your rubbish?

TerraCycle coca cola Nestle Unilever Include UK Include USA Procter & Gamble Walgreens Tesco Head & Shoulders bottle Loop Tropicana Häagen-Dazs Pantene

An alarm sounds, the blockage is cleared, and the line at Green Recycling in Maldon, Essex, rumbles back into life. A momentous river of garbage rolls down the conveyor: cardboard boxes, splintered skirting board, plastic bottles, crisp packets, DVD cases, printer cartridges, countless newspapers, including this one. Odd bits of junk catch the eye, conjuring little vignettes: a single discarded glove. A crushed Tupperware container, the meal inside uneaten. A photograph of a smiling child on an adult’s shoulders. But they are gone in a moment. The line at Green Recycling handles up to 12 tonnes of waste an hour. “We produce 200 to 300 tonnes a day,” says Jamie Smith, Green Recycling’s general manager, above the din. We are standing three storeys up on the green health-and-safety gangway, looking down the line. On the tipping floor, an excavator is grabbing clawfuls of trash from heaps and piling it into a spinning drum, which spreads it evenly across the conveyor. Along the belt, human workers pick and channel what is valuable (bottles, cardboard, aluminium cans) into sorting chutes. “Our main products are paper, cardboard, plastic bottles, mixed plastics, and wood,” says Smith, 40. “We’re seeing a significant rise in boxes, thanks to Amazon.” By the end of the line, the torrent has become a trickle. The waste stands stacked neatly in bales, ready to be loaded on to trucks. From there, it will go – well, that is when it gets complicated. You drink a Coca-Cola, throw the bottle into the recycling, put the bins out on collection day and forget about it. But it doesn’t disappear. Everything you own will one day become the property of this, the waste industry, a £250bn global enterprise determined to extract every last penny of value from what remains. It starts with materials recovery facilities (MRFs) such as this one, which sort waste into its constituent parts. From there, the materials enter a labyrinthine network of brokers and traders. Some of that happens in the UK, but much of it – about half of all paper and cardboard, and two-thirds of plastics – will be loaded on to container ships to be sent to Europe or Asia for recycling. Paper and cardboard goes to mills; glass is washed and re-used or smashed and melted, like metal and plastic. Food, and anything else, is burned or sent to landfill. Or, at least, that’s how it used to work. Then, on the first day of 2018, China, the world’s largest market for recycled waste, essentially shut its doors. Under its National Sword policy, China prohibited 24 types of waste from entering the country, arguing that what was coming in was too contaminated. The policy shift was partly attributed to the impact of a documentary, Plastic China, which went viral before censors erased it from China’s internet. The film follows a family working in the country’s recycling industry, where humans pick through vast dunes of western waste, shredding and melting salvageable plastic into pellets that can be sold to manufacturers. It is filthy, polluting work – and badly paid. The remainder is often burned in the open air. The family lives alongside the sorting machine, their 11-year-old daughter playing with a Barbie pulled from the rubbish. Westminster council sent 82% of all household waste – including that put in recycling bins – for incineration in 2017/18 For recyclers such as Smith, National Sword was a huge blow. “The price of cardboard has probably halved in the last 12 months,” he says. “The price of plastics has plummeted to the extent that it isn’t worth recycling. If China doesn’t take plastic, we can’t sell it.” Still, that waste has to go somewhere. The UK, like most developed nations, produces more waste than it can process at home: 230m tonnes a year – about 1.1kg per person per day. (The US, the world’s most wasteful nation, produces 2kg per person per day.) Quickly, the market began flooding any country that would take the trash: Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, countries with some of the world’s highest rates of what researchers call “waste mismanagement” – rubbish left or burned in open landfills, illegal sites or facilities with inadequate reporting, making its final fate difficult to trace. The present dumping ground of choice is Malaysia. In October last year, a Greenpeace Unearthed investigation found mountains of British and European waste in illegal dumps there: Tesco crisp packets, Flora tubs and recycling collection bags from three London councils. As in China, the waste is often burned or abandoned, eventually finding its way into rivers and oceans. In May, the Malaysian government began turning back container ships, citing public health concerns. Thailand and India have announced bans on the import of foreign plastic waste. But still the rubbish flows.

Plastic waste ready for inspection before being sent to Malaysia; the UK produces more refuse than it can process at home â about 1.1kg per person per day.

Plastic waste ready for inspection before being sent to Malaysia; the UK produces more refuse than it can process at home – about 1.1kg per person per day. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images We want our waste hidden. Green Recycling is tucked away at the end of an industrial estate, surrounded by sound-deflecting metal boards. Outside, a machine called an Air Spectrum masks the acrid odour with the smell of cotton bedsheets. But, all of a sudden, the industry is under intense scrutiny. In the UK, recycling rates have stagnated in recent years, while National Sword and funding cuts have led to more waste being burned in incinerators and energy-from-waste plants. (Incineration, while often criticised for being polluting and an inefficient source of energy, is today preferred to landfill, which emits methane and can leach toxic chemicals.) Westminster council sent 82% of all household waste – including that put in recycling bins – for incineration in 2017/18. Some councils have debated giving up recycling altogether. And yet the UK is a successful recycling nation: 45.7% of all household waste is classed as recycled (although that number indicates only that it is sent for recycling, not where it ends up.) In the US, that figure is 25.8%. One of the UK’s largest waste companies, attempted to ship used nappies abroad in consignments marked as waste paper If you look at plastics, the picture is even bleaker. Of the 8.3bn tonnes of virgin plastic produced worldwide, only 9% has been recycled, according to a 2017 Science Advances paper entitled Production, Use And Fate Of All Plastics Ever Made. “I think the best global estimate is maybe we’re at 20% [per year] globally right now,” says Roland Geyer, its lead author, a professor of industrial ecology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Academics and NGOs doubt those numbers, due to the uncertain fate of our waste exports. In June, one of the UK’s largest waste companies, Biffa, was found guilty of attempting to ship used nappies, sanitary towels and clothing abroad in consignments marked as waste paper. “I think there’s a lot of creative accounting going on to push the numbers up,” Geyer says. “It’s really a complete myth when people say that we’re recycling our plastics,” says Jim Puckett, the executive director of the Seattle-based Basel Action Network, which campaigns against the illegal waste trade. “It all sounded good. ‘It’s going to be recycled in China!’ I hate to break it to everyone, but these places are routinely dumping massive amounts of [that] plastic and burning it on open fires.” *** Recycling is as old as thrift. The Japanese were recycling paper in the 11th century; medieval blacksmiths made armour from scrap metal. During the second world war, scrap metal was made into tanks and women’s nylons into parachutes. “The trouble started when, in the late 70s, we began trying to recycle household waste,” says Geyer. This was contaminated with all sorts of undesirables: non-recyclable materials, food waste, oils and liquids that rot and spoil the bales. At the same time, the packaging industry flooded our homes with cheap plastic: tubs, films, bottles, individually shrink-wrapped vegetables. Plastic is where recycling gets most controversial. Recycling aluminium, say, is straightforward, profitable and environmentally sound: making a can from recycled aluminium reduces its carbon footprint by up to 95%. But with plastic, it is not that simple. While virtually all plastics can be recycled, many aren’t because the process is expensive, complicated and the resulting product is of lower quality than what you put in. The carbon-reduction benefits are also less clear. “You ship it around, then you have to wash it, then you have to chop it up, then you have to re-melt it, so the collection and recycling itself has its own environmental impact,” says Geyer.

A materials recovery facility in Milton Keynes where waste is sorted. In the UK, there are 28 different recycling labels that can appear on packaging. Photograph: Alamy Household recycling requires sorting at a vast scale. This is why most developed countries have colour-coded bins: to keep the end product as pure as possible. In the UK, Recycle Now lists 28 different recycling labels that can appear on packaging. There is the mobius loop (three twisted arrows), which indicates a product can technically be recycled; sometimes that symbol contains a number between one and seven, indicating the plastic resin from which the object is made. There is the green dot (two green arrows embracing), which indicates that the producer has contributed to a European recycling scheme. There are labels that say “Widely Recycled” (acceptable by 75% of local councils) and “Check Local Recycling” (between 20% and 75% of councils). Since National Sword, sorting has become even more crucial, as overseas markets demand higher-quality material. “They don’t want to be the world’s dumping ground, quite rightly,” Smith says, as we walk along the Green Recycling line. About halfway, four women in hi-vis and caps pull out large chunks of cardboard and plastic films, which machines struggle with. There is a low rumble in the air and a thick layer of dust on the gangway. Green Recycling is a commercial MRF: it takes waste from schools, colleges and local businesses. That means lower volume, but better margins, as the company can charge clients directly and maintain control over what it collects. “The business is all about turning straw into gold,” says Smith, referencing Rumpelstiltskin. “But it’s hard – and it’s become a lot harder.” Towards the end of the line is the machine that Smith hopes will change that. Last year, Green Recycling became the first MRF in the UK to invest in Max, a US-made, artificially intelligent sorting machine. Inside a large clear box over the conveyor, a robotic suction arm marked FlexPickerTM is zipping back and forth over the belt, picking tirelessly. “He’s looking for plastic bottles first,” Smith says. “He does 60 picks a minute. Humans will pick between 20 and 40, on a good day.” A camera system identifies the waste rolling by, displaying a detailed breakdown on a nearby screen. The machine is intended not to replace humans, but to augment them. “He’s picking three tonnes of waste a day that otherwise our human guys would have to leave,” Smith says. In fact, the robot has created a new human job to maintain it: this is done by Danielle, whom the crew refer to as “Max’s mum”. The benefits of automation, Smith says, are twofold: more material to sell and less waste that the company needs to pay to have burned afterwards. Margins are thin and landfill tax is £91 a tonne. *** Smith is not alone in putting his faith in technology. With consumers and the government outraged at the plastics crisis, the waste industry is scrambling to solve the problem. One great hope is chemical recycling: turning problem plastics into oil or gas through industrial processes. “It recycles the kind of plastics that mechanical recycling can’t look at: the pouches, the sachets, the black plastics,” says Adrian Griffiths, the founder of Swindon-based Recycling Technologies. The idea found its way to Griffiths, a former management consultant, by accident, after a mistake in a Warwick University press release. “They said they could turn any old plastic back into a monomer. At the time, they couldn’t,” Griffiths says. Intrigued, Griffiths got in touch. He ended up partnering with the researchers to launch a company that could do this. By moving from disposable to reusable, you unlock epic design opportunities At Recycling Technologies’ pilot plant in Swindon, plastic (Griffiths says it can process any type) is fed into a towering steel cracking chamber, where it is separated at extremely high temperatures into gas and an oil, plaxx, which can be used as a fuel or feedstock for new plastic. While the global mood has turned against plastic, Griffiths is a rare defender of it. “Plastic packaging has actually done an incredible service for the world, because it has reduced the amount of glass, metal and paper that we were using,” he says. “The thing that worries me more than the plastic problem is global warming. If you use more glass, more metal, those materials have a much higher carbon footprint.” The company recently launched a trial scheme with Tesco and is already working on a second facility, in Scotland. Eventually, Griffiths hopes to sell the machines to recycling facilities worldwide. “We need to stop shipping recycling abroad,” he says. “No civilised society should be getting rid of its waste to a developing country.” There is cause for optimism: in December 2018, the UK government published a comprehensive new waste strategy, partly in response to National Sword. Among its proposals: a tax on plastic packaging containing less than 30% recycled material; a simplified labelling system; and means to force companies to take responsibility for the plastic packaging they produce. They hope to force the industry to invest in recycling infrastructure at home. Meanwhile, the industry is being forced to adapt: in May, 186 countries passed measures to track and control the export of plastic waste to developing countries, while more than 350 companies have signed a global commitment to eliminate the use of single-use plastics by 2025. Yet such is the torrent of humanity’s refuse that these efforts may not be enough. Recycling rates in the west are stalling and packaging use is set to soar in developing countries, where recycling rates are low. If National Sword has shown us anything, it is that recycling – while needed – simply isn’t enough to solve our waste crisis. *** Perhaps there is an alternative. Since Blue Planet II brought the plastic crisis to our attention, a dying trade is having a resurgence in Britain: the milkman. More of us are choosing to have milk bottles delivered, collected and re-used. Similar models are springing up: zero-waste shops that require you to bring your own containers; the boom in refillable cups and bottles. It is as if we have remembered that the old environmental slogan “Reduce, re-use, recycle” wasn’t only catchy, but listed in order of preference. Tom Szaky wants to apply the milkman model to almost everything you buy. The bearded, shaggy-haired Hungarian-Canadian is a veteran of the waste industry: he founded his first recycling startup as a student at Princeton, selling worm-based fertiliser out of re-used bottles. That company, TerraCycle, is now a recycling giant, with operations in 21 countries. In 2017, TerraCycle worked with Head & Shoulders on a shampoo bottle made from recycled ocean plastics. The product launched at the World Economic Forum in Davos and was an immediate hit. Proctor & Gamble, which makes Head & Shoulders, was keen to know what was next, so Szaky pitched something far more ambitious. The result is Loop, which launched trials in France and the US this spring and will arrive in Britain this winter. It offers a variety of household products – from manufacturers including P&G, Unilever, Nestlé and Coca-Cola – in reusable packaging. The items are available online or through exclusive retailers. Customers pay a small deposit, and the used containers are eventually collected by a courier or dropped off in store (Walgreens in the US, Tesco in the UK), washed, and sent back to the producer to be refilled. “Loop is a not a product company; it’s a waste management company,” says Szaky. “We’re just looking at waste before it begins.” Many of the Loop designs are familiar: refillable glass bottles of Coca-Cola and Tropicana; aluminium bottles of Pantene. But others are being rethought entirely. “By moving from disposable to reusable, you unlock epic design opportunities,” says Szaky. For example: Unilever is working on toothpaste tablets that dissolve into paste under running water; Häagen-Dazs ice-cream comes in a stainless steel tub that stays cold long enough for picnics. Even the deliveries come in a specially designed insulated bag, to cut down on cardboard.

At Recycling Technologies in Swindon, nearly all plastics can be turned into plaxx, an oil that can be used to make new plastic. Photograph: Recycling Technologies Ltd Tina Hill, a Paris-based copywriter, signed up to Loop soon after its launch in France. “It’s super-easy,” she says. “It’s a small deposit, €3 [per container]. What I like about it is that they have things I already use: olive oil, washing pods.” Hill describes herself as “pretty green: we recycle anything that can be recycled, we buy organic”. By combining Loop with shopping at local zero-waste stores, Hills has helped her family radically reduce its reliance on single-use packaging. “The only downside is that the prices can be a little high. We don’t mind spending a little bit more to support the things that you believe in, but on some things, like pasta, it’s prohibitive.” A major advantage to Loop’s business model, Szaky says, is that it forces packaging designers to prioritise durability over disposability. In future, Szaky anticipates that Loop will be able to email users warnings for expiry dates and other advice to reduce their waste footprint. The milkman model is about more than just the bottle: it makes us think about what we consume and what we throw away. “Garbage is something that we want out of sight and mind – it’s dirty, it’s gross, it smells bad,” says Szaky. That is what needs to change. It is tempting to see plastic piled up in Malaysian landfills and assume recycling is a waste of time, but that isn’t true. In the UK, recycling is largely a success story, and the alternatives – burning our waste or burying it – are worse. Instead of giving up on recycling, Szaky says, we should all use less, re-use what we can and treat our waste like the waste industry sees it: as a resource. Not the ending of something, but the beginning of something else. “We don’t call it waste; we call it materials,” says Green Recycling’s Smith, back in Maldon. Down in the yard, a haulage truck is being loaded with 35 bales of sorted cardboard. From here, Smith will send it to a mill in Kent for pulping. It will be new cardboard boxes within the fortnight – and someone else’s rubbish soon after.

LANDISH: A MONTREAL STARTUP invests in a better balance and well-being at work

TerraCycle Include Canada (English) Landish

A young Montreal company is dedicated to the nutritional health and better fitness of people swept away by the whirlwind of long working hours, where poor nutrition, lack of energy and good nutrients are slipping into the agenda. This startup is called Landish, a word that comes from outlandish (strange, unknown) and which, unlike the latter, would mean "familiar, not so strange." This name perfectly describes the brand new Landish products coming to the market, namely protein bars and powders, a range of natural products, nutrient dense and containing beneficial ingredients such as insects, algae and certain varieties of mushrooms. as many high-performance foods that have been consumed for ages in many parts of the world. That's how six bars and five protein powders are offered to meet the needs of people in a hurry and overworked, whether for a quick breakfast, the small cravings in the middle of the day when the energy is on the decline, when traveling between two appointments, and even before or after training. In fact, all the reasons are good to eat with a Landish product, especially when the snack is both good for the taste and for health! A question of balance and well-being at work ... The Landish team is made up of dynamic and dedicated people, who are very aware of the importance of maintaining a good balance between a healthy and varied diet and physical exercise, despite the heavy workload in the office. With this in mind, they organize a series of outdoor activities every month that they offer to various businesses in downtown Montreal with the goal of getting their employees moving. These outings have already started in May and continue throughout the year, even in winter. Already, Mistplay, GoMaterials, Building Stack, Heyday and Life House companies have agreed to participate, knowing that moving in a group is always more stimulating and fun. Transportation is provided by Landish, not to mention the snack with protein bars during a well-deserved break! ... and a question of environment Landish is also sensitive to the future of our planet and is constantly looking for solutions to reduce its environmental impacts. The young company relies heavily on responsible food and sustainable development. And it makes it a priority! It has therefore decided to tackle two problems: food packaging waste and deforestation.

11 NEW PRODUCTS FOR THE LOAN WORK WEEK

Busy days are often synonymous with a diet on the go that provides no nutritional benefit. The Quebec company Landish has created several products with high nutritional density, in order to meet the daily reality of people in a hurry and to revolutionize the world of snacks. Its products stand out in nutritional and environmental terms. These are energizing foods (10 grams of protein for a single bar), perfect at work, at home or in any physical activity, whether in the gym or outdoors! The 11 new Landish products - 6 bars and 5 protein powders - are all easy to consume when time is of the essence and are also known for their high levels of protein, vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and other essential nutrients. With three distinctive components - reishi mushroom powder, spirulina powder and cricket powder - these products bring countless benefits.

These functional protein bars and powders are composed of:

• Reishi mushroom, nicknamed the mushroom of immortality and recognized for thousands of years in oriental medicine, especially for its support for the immune system. Traditional Chinese medicine gives her many powers, including strengthening the whole body and helping her maintain optimal health and balance. The bars come in two flavors, vanilla chai and espresso chocolate, while powders are chai or chocolate-flavored. • Spirulina, a blue-green microalga containing an abundance of nutrients in a very small volume. Spirulina is indeed a powerful antioxidant and offers a significant dose of vitamin B, iron, magnesium, iodine and beta-carotene, giving it a reputation as an energizer. The bars come in two flavors, vanilla coconut and double chocolate, and the powder is vanilla flavored. • Cricket powder, known for its complete protein intake with the nine essential amino acids and vitamin B12, a profile that gives it a nutritional replacement for meat. Cricket powder also contains chitin, a prebiotic fiber that provides benefits for digestive health. This cricket powder comes from Canadian sources. The bars come in two new flavors, chocolate mint and cinnamon apple, while the powder is offered in chocolate and vanilla flavors. Landish functional protein bars contain very little sugar (three times less than conventional bars), are gluten-free, dairy-free, nuts and peanuts. Landish protein powders have no added sugar. Bars can be stored for up to nine months in a cool, dry place or in a refrigerator. The different powders are quickly added to a smoothie or yogurt, and even in hot chocolate, herbal tea, a mix of pancakes or homemade muffins! All Landish products are sold on the company's website, as well as in the eight Avril markets located in Quebec and at Lufa Farms. The company spares no effort to reduce the impact of its bar wraps, which are made of rolled aluminum to maximize the freshness of the product, like most of these products on the market. Recycling of this type of packaging is not offered by municipalities. Landish has partnered with TerraCycle, a company specializing in the recycling of "non-recyclable". The latter transforms difficult to recycle materials and makes them park benches, garbage cans, chairs, etc. To find out how to participate in this eco-responsible movement, simply register here. In addition, for each online order made on the Landish site from Quebec, the company planted a tree in the province, in partnership with the organization One Tree Planted. According to this organization, since 2001, Quebec has seen a decrease of seven million hectares of forest land.

Young Matane discouraged by butts after picking up a ton of garbage Garbage collection chores in the region of Matane

TerraCycle Include Canada (English) Cigarette Butt Recycling Program

During the garbage collection supervised by the Carrefour jeunesse-emploi (CJE) in the Matane region during the summer, allowing some twenty young people between the ages of 18 and 29 to harvest 2,358 pounds on the banks. The river and the Matane River, during six chores, a waste particularly discouraged the participants, unable to overcome and surprised by the extent of this invisible pollution: cigarette butts.

"It's a type of garbage they've found everywhere, and they have not been able to fully pick it up, so much so that some of the smokers in the group have begun to reduce their cigarette consumption and think about a way to to pick them up, for example in a pocket ashtray, "said Sylvie Dubé, of the CJE Matane region, in charge of the waste collection activity organized during the summer in collaboration with the Mission 100 tons. The latter, born last year in the province, encourages this kind of chores throughout Quebec, especially to reduce the amount of plastics encountered in the oceans, which could exceed the number of fish by 2050, according to information transmitted by the biologist Lyne Morissette, specialized in the conservation of marine ecosystems.

several solutions could be considered. In Europe, for example, states are considering how to push the tobacco industry to cover some of the costs of managing and cleaning up this waste, as well as the costs of raising awareness. For its part, the City of Montreal has entered into a partnership with TerraCycle, a company specializing in recycling. On the spot, the program Mégot Zéro, defended by the Society for Action, Education and Environmental Awareness of Montreal (SAESEM), consisted in installing several ashtrays recuperators in the public space, attached for example to the electric poles. In the metropolis, 74,000 cigarette butts were collected on May 3, 2019 during a chore. During the summer, councilor Matane Annie Veillette had recalled that the City was interested in receiving citizen projects as part of its green fund, which could finance for example the installation of cigarette ashtrays in the center. city, to prevent them from ending up in the pipes and the environment.

Is Canada's Cannabis Packaging Excessive?

TerraCycle Include Canada (English) Canopy Growth

Have you ever ordered a gram of legal cannabis online in Canada only to have it arrive in a huge box that holds only a small plastic container? Are you weary of a sea of plain packaging that features a stop sign-like red hexagon that signals the inclusion of THC (tetrahydrocannabinol), the psychoactive component of cannabis? After more than six months of legalized cannabis in Canada, the way in which legal cannabis is packaged is definitely a far cry from the dime bag packaging of illegal cannabis. While the government is making safety their number one priority, there has been some not-too positive feedback about cannabis packaging, saying it is excessive and expressing concerns over its environmental impact. So is Canada’s cannabis packaging excessive? Let’s take a look. Requirements galore Ordering a gram of cannabis myself from the Ontario Cannabis Store (OCS), I was surprised when the package arrived in a large box that contained a bulky plastic jar for the small amount of cannabis that was inside. It turns out I’m not the only one who has shown concern over the excessive packaging, with other consumers taking to Twitter and Reddit to voice their opinions.

Users have called the packaging “excessive” and “overkill.” One customer weighed the packaging and found it was nearly 40 times heavier than the cannabis she bought — 38 grams to one gram. “Once you open it, it’s just such overkill,” Candace MacDonald told the Growth Op. “There’s one itty-bitty bud in it, and I could probably pack half an ounce in there.” The Cannabis Act, which legalized cannabis in Canada, included many packaging requirements that aim to create as safe a legal environment as possible. Requirements include labels that must feature a yellow health warning and a red THC symbol, and packaging that must keep the cannabis dry, be in a plain uniform solid colour, be either opaque or translucent, and tamper-evident. “We have arguably more regulations than more controlled substances,” Canopy Growth’s Community Engagement Specialist Courtney Langille said. “Some of this includes being waterproof, airtight, child-resistant, suitable for food-grade materials, [as well as] extensive labelling requirements that are definitely unique to the cannabis companies, [such as] font size, placement.” These requirements do influence how producers design their packaging, according to Langille. “Our packaging has to be larger to accommodate all that information,” she said.

Environmental concern

A big environmental concern with cannabis packaging is their use of plastic. Most plastics don’t biodegrade, which causes it to accumulate and end up in places such as landfills or the ocean. Washington state’s cannabis industry produced so much plastic waste that it clogged gutters, sewers, and landfills, the Washington Post reported the summer of 2018. Plastic seems to be top of mind for Canadians. A 2018 EcoAnalytics report found that 65 percent of respondents feel governments should work quickly to ban single-use plastics such as plastic bags, straws, and bottles, and 32 percent said plastics in the ocean were the top three environmental issues they worry about the most. While there is no regulatory requirement for cannabis producers to use plastic, according to Health Canada, many have turned to it to meet the child-proof requirement given its affordability. According to Aphria’s Vice President of Marketing, Megan McCrae, during the legalization period last October, many Liquor Boards required non-glass packaging solutions, which lead many LPs facing tight deadlines to adopt “off-the-shelf” child-proof packaging. Most cannabis packages are recyclable, but some municipalities have trouble accepting them due to their mix of materials and because they house cannabis, which is considered a sensitive material, Langille said.

Edibles could make things worse

Things might get worse before they get better with cannabis packaging. Edibles are set to hit Canadian stores by mid-December, and with the new wave of legalization come their own regulations on packaging that do not seem to take excessiveness into account. “From an environmental standpoint, it’s going to get much worse,” said Michael Garbuz, founder of cannabis companies Materia Ventures and High 12 Brands. “It’s going to be a hugely excessive amount of packaging [for edibles].” The Health Canada regulations for edibles include a limit of 10 mg of THC per edible package, which is essentially a single serving size per package. Garbuz says that with dried flowers you can at least get multiple doses in one package, but that won’t be the case with edibles, which will also have to be child-proof. “[It will] take so many packages to satiate a group of people or even an individual with heavy consumption,” he said. The edibles packaging regulations could also raise the price for consumers. Doug Vidic, the founder of cannabis edibles company Dank D’Lights says that limiting each package to 10 mg, which he finds a “little low,” adds to the cost of packaging that is carried over to the customer. “We don’t want to spend half of your product on packaging distribution versus the actual product,” he said, mentioning that if individual packaging wasn’t required, there could be economies of scale that could reduce the overall price. “If you have to package every 10 mg piece, it does add to your cost.” In Colorado and Washington, edibles packages can contain mult iple servings and have less strict dosage limits.

Workarounds

While the situation may seem bleak concerning excessive cannabis packaging, some companies are making efforts to make it more environmentally friendly. Canopy Growth has partnered with a recycling company TerraCycle to help recycle cannabis packaging properly. Langille said that Canopy Growth subsidiary Tweed has recycling bins in its stores in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Newfoundland where customers can drop off their cannabis packaging, regardless of whether it is a Canopy Growth product or not. If you don’t have access to a Tweed location, you can also send your package by mail free of charge by setting up a TerraCycle account and requesting a label. Langille says that the packaging is ground into plastic pellets in Canadian facilities and given new life instead of ending up in landfills or incinerators. So far, over 350,000 pieces — weighing over 7,000 pounds — have been collected, according to the company. “TerraCycle is world-renowned for recycling hard-to-recycle materials,” Langille said, mentioning the company has also partnered with Febreeze and Nespresso for their coffee pods. “[They work] with packing that falls outside of the comfort zone for a lot of municipal recycling programs.” Langille expressed hope that as the industry evolves, new packaging formats will be introduced that are more environmentally conscious, such as ones that are lighter or biodegradable. Health Canada has already amended its regulations to allow for “accordion or peel back-type labels” that should allow smaller packages and “reduce the amount of waste created by cannabis product packaging,” according to the agency. Other companies are exploring more environmentally-friendly packaging for cannabis. Sana Packaging is packaging its cannabis in… cannabis, go figure, by using hemp. Hemp is biodegradable, but also more expensive than petroleum-based plastic. Tweed uses a mixture of tin, which is recyclable, and a plastic child-proof cap for its packaging. Cannabis services company Kushco announced in March an agreement with IEKO Corp. to produce compostable and biodegradable packaging for the cannabis and CBD industries.

Marketing impact

Health Canada’s cannabis packaging regulations not only make it tricky to create environmentally-friendly packaging, but also have an impact on companies’ ability to market their products. The regulations outline that packaging cannot be appealing to young people, depict a person, character or animal, or associate with a “way of life” that includes “glamour, recreation, excitement, vitality, risk or daring.” “The biggest challenge of packaging to date has been around the labels [guidelines],” Garbuz said. “We’re still at a stage where the brand isn’t given as much freedom as I think it should be to express to the customer what the product is and how it is differentiated.” Currently only one “brand element” is allowed on cannabis packaging, such as a logo. If looking into a legal dispensary, you’ll often find a sea of plain white packages. “If the package is covered with warning labels, it’s really hard for the company to quickly distill down to the end consumer the key points about the product that they need to know before consuming it,” Garbuz said. “It turns off a lot of consumers and keeps them within the black market.” McCrae agrees that the regulations do hamper competitiveness with the black market. “Without the ability to build brands and offer consumers a compelling reason to purchase from legitimate channels, we will always be challenged in swaying users away from illegal products,” she said. McCrae notes the limitations are “way beyond what is required by alcohol companies.” Garbuz says that while the industry has begun with regulations more in line with tobacco than alcohol, he thinks over time the industry will move more towards “alcohol-style marketing” as people find cannabis is even more benign than alcohol. Garbuz says that cannabis may even go beyond alcohol in certain ways, such as distribution, given that non-psychoactive products can be made from it that make use of its cannabinoids, such as cannabidiol, or CBD. Right now those products, such as topicals, have the same warnings and plain packaging as cannabis flower, but McCrae says this is “just plain excessive.” “To have a bottle of face cream in a health-warning laden child-proof container is just plain excessive,” she said, mentioning these products carry “virtually no risks.” For now, though, Garbuz says the government is taking a “go slow” approach to see the potential drawbacks of cannabis legalization. “They don’t want to introduce the other end of the spectrum, which is full-blown marketing, before taking a look at true legalization and what actually has played out compared to hypotheses,” he said.

The Wrap

Since Canada is the first major world economy to legalize recreational cannabis, it is a leader in the industry and has decided to play it safe with regulations that may be much more strict than we’ll see years down the line. While plastic containers are a quick and cheap option for companies, customer feedback could make them change their tune soon. As for marketing, time will tell as well if the labelling restrictions will change, and the uniform white cannabis packaging will be replaced with a rainbow of different brands.

FREE 12 PAGE RECYCLE ACTIVITY PACK FOR KIDS WITH RECYCLING TIPS FOR PARENTS

TerraCycle Honest Kids Include USA

So now you can teach kids about recycling, let them munch on healthy treats like apples, grapes, strawberries, and oranges, and let them color while they eat and drink tasty treats.

Fun Coloring Activity for Kids - 12 Page Recycle Activity Pack for Kids with Recycling Tips for Parents

In this particular activity pack, I’ve included 8 fun coloring sheets. Specifically with children caring for the planet by recycling and offering parents and teachers talking points to help kids think about the positive impact recycling has on our planet Earth.

FREE 12 Page Recycle Activity Pack for Kids

And not only are there coloring sheets, there is a step-by-step explanation on how kids and parents can recycle juice bags. How cool is that?

Make Recycling a Fun Kid Activity with this 12 Page Recycle Activity Pack for Kids with Recycling Tips for Parents

My boys love that we can print out the recycle sign and put it on a container so we can remember to recycle.

DOWNLOAD YOUR FREE 12 PAGE RECYCLE ACTIVITY PACK FOR KIDS

If your child enjoys coloring, cutting, matching, painting, and other fun activities, you’ll love this FREE 12 Page Recycle Activity Pack for Kids. Just click the yellow download now button to download your FREE copy. If you enjoy free printables, please PIN this post on Pinterest!

FREE 12 Page Recycle Activity Pack for Kids with Coloring Sheets and Fun Learning Activities

Don’t forget to PIN and share this post with friends. When we spread the word about recycling, we help everyone pitch in to do good things for the planet.

WHERE TO PURCHASE HONEST KIDS® JUICE POUCHES

You can find everything you need to recreate this yummy snack and activity for kids at Walmart. You can find Honest Kids® Juice Pouches on the juice aisle. Pick Up Honest Kids at Walmart

HAVE ANY TIPS TO SHARE TO HELP TEACH KIDS ABOUT RECYCLING?

Have any tips to share to help teach kids about Recycling? How does your family or classroom reuse, recycle and reduce? Have you stopped by HonestKidsRecycle.com to get signed up to recycle juice pouches through TerraCycle®? Please leave a comment below and join the conversation. I love hearing from my readers!

Cigarette butt recycling boxes to be introduced in Ypsilanti

TerraCycle Include USA Cigarette Butt Recycling Program

YPSILANTI, MI -- Smokers in downtown Ypsilanti will have a new place to dispose of their cigarette butts -- recycling containers. The Ypsilanti Downtown Development Authority is piloting 12 cigarette butt disposal containers throughout the commercial districts in the coming weeks, Director Christopher Jacobs said. The containers created by TerraCycle have a bag within them. When the bag is full, the city will ship it to a warehouse where the company separates the tobacco and paper for composting. The filter and synthetic fiber is cleaned and turned into pellets, which can then be used for a variety of products from shipping pallets to park benches, Jacobs said. Fertilizer created from the compost is not used in food production, TerraCycle spokesperson Alex Payne said. “For example, the fertilizer is commonly utilized for growing large trees that do not produce anything edible,” Payne said. Each disposal container is about $100, Jacobs said. Businesses in the DDA can apply for a container on their private property and the DDA will share the price. “It’s a step beyond and in a progressive place like Ypsi. Smoking is falling out of fashion, but for the few of us that smoke, it’s a great option,” Jacobs said. No timeline has been set for installation, Jacobs said, but the disposal containers will be ordered this week. Downtown Grand Rapids also has TerraCycle recycling containers, according to the company. The city has recycled 1.2 million cigarette butts to date, Payne said.

No-Waste Shopping Service 'Loop' Comes To Rhode Island

TerraCycle Include USA UPS Loop Clorox Häagen-Dazs Cascade

Bristol resident Parker Kotuby is one of the first Rhode Islanders to use the service.

A zero-waste shopping service is now available to Rhode Island residents. (Loop) BRISTOL, RI — Next time you go shopping, pay attention to the amount of plastic packaging in your bags. Produce wrappers, bags of powdered sugar, bottles of soda, even the bags themselves — all plastic. Loop, a fledgling company that recently began serving Rhode Island residents, is on a mission to change that. "There was never another option available to me before Loop," said Parker Kotuby, a 29-year-old Bristol resident and flagship Rhode Island Loop user. "So much junk is thrown away." Loop takes a new approach to shopping, delivering totes full of household goods, food and other supplies to user's doors, all in reusable packing. Well-known brands from Cascade to Clorox to Häagen-Dazs are packaged in durable materials like stainless steel that users return once the product has been used up. Here's how it works: users pick out their desired products and are charged for the products themselves as well as a refundable deposit to encourage returning the packaging. Once users send the empty containers back, the deposit is returned to them. "[The price] can seem crazy on the face of it," Kotuby said. "It's definitely not bargain pricing ... but I'm willing to pay a slightly higher price to feel like I'm making a difference." Several days later, a large, study black tote emblazoned with the Loop logo arrives via UPS. Virtually everything in that tote from the containers themselves to the little plastic lock that keeps the zippers closed in transit can be placed back inside the bag for reuse or recycling. Even the Clorox wipes, usually a one-and-done item, are sent with a canvas bag for collection to be sent back to Loop headquarters. "So far, the only things I've been able to find that are disposable are the thin plastic sealants that keep the lids on the stainless-steel cans of snacks during transit," Kotuby said. "It's pretty impressive." So far, Kotuby said he hasn't seen a major decrease in the amount of trash he and his wife produce in a week, which he said is likely due to the unavailability of certain items and that he is still a new user of the service. Over time, he believes services like Loop will help keep plastic out of landfills and oceans. The biggest drawback, he said, is most likely the price. Initial costs can be high, though over time he believes it will be most cost-effective. For those who are unsure if Loop would work for them, he encourages taking the leap. "It's very low-risk to try. If you don't like it, you can get your deposit back and just not place any more orders," Kotuby said. "It's worth it to give it a shot. It's easier than going to the grocery store!"

Rethinking Food Packaging May Address the Plastic Crisis

TerraCycle pepsico Nestle Unilever Include USA Mondelez International Procter & Gamble Loop

As society comes to terms with its plastics problem, companies and individuals are finding alternative ways to package their food.

Looking at the contents of the average grocery cart, it is no surprise that the World Economic Forum warns that there will be more plastic than fish by weight in oceans by 2050. From coffee bags to cheese wrappers—food and beverage packaging is a major contributor to plastic pollution. Scientists warn that the proliferation of plastics in the environment is creating a variety of health and ecological problems. Some companies are starting to recognize the need to act. Nestlé estimates that it produced about 1.5 million tons of plastic in 2018. In April 2018, Nestlé committed to make 100 percent of their packaging reusable or recyclable by 2025. Nestlé CEO Mark Schneider said in the announcement, “Plastic waste is one of the biggest sustainability issues the world is facing today. Tackling it requires a collective approach. We are committed to finding improved solutions to reduce, re-use, and recycle.” From 2020–2025, Nestlé will phase-out all plastics that are not recyclable or are hard to recycle. And Nestlé will significantly raise the percentage of recycled plastics used in its water bottle lines by 2025. Starting in 2019, the company will begin to eliminate all plastic straws in their products. The newly created Nestlé Institute of Packaging Sciences will lead the development and evaluation of new sustainable packaging. Nestlé also joined Loop, a subscription home delivery service for foods and household goods with reusable packaging. Spearheaded by TerraCycle, the project will deliver items to the consumer’s front door in customized, durable packaging that is then collected, cleaned, refilled, and re-used. Nestlé will participate in the project through its brand Häagen-Dazs Ice Cream in New York City, thereby joining other consumer goods producers like Procter & Gamble, PepsiCo, and Mondelēz International. Mondelēz International joins the platform with its Milka brand of biscuits, cakes, and sweet snacks as part of its commitment to making all packaging recyclable by 2025. The commitment also includes eliminating 65 million kilograms of packaging material worldwide and sustainably sourcing all paper-based packaging by 2020. Acknowledging the role consumers play in a complete recycling system, Mondelēz also aims to provide better recycling information to consumers by 2025 with clear instructions for their packaging. “Plastic waste and its impact on the planet is a broad, systemic issue that our consumers care deeply about, and which requires a holistic response. Together with partners from across the industry, as well as public and private entities, we can help to develop practical solutions that result in a positive environmental impact,” says Rob Hargrove, Executive Vice President, Research, Development, Quality, and Innovation at Mondelēz. Unilever—the owner of brands such as Ben & Jerry’s, Lipton, and Dove—purchases over 2 million tons of plastic a year. The company committed to meeting various packaging goals by 2025: making all their packaging recyclable, compostable, or reusable; using 25 percent recycled plastic in their plastic packing, and halving the waste associated with the disposal of their products. Unilever plans to achieve their goals by developing new processes and technologies such as CreaSolv, which recycles high-value polymers from used tea sachets to make recyclable plastic packaging. The commitments from these companies come amid growing public outcry over the proliferation of plastics in the environment. After an exposition finding plastics from Nestlé, Unilever, and Colgate in a popular diving spot in the Coral Triangle, Abigail Aguilar, campaigner for Greenpeace Philippines, says, “If big companies such as Nestlé and Unilever don’t respond to our calls for reduction in single-use plastic production, these places of ‘paradise’ like Verde Island Passage, will be lost.” A 2018 report from the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives found Nestlé and Unilever were the brands most responsible for plastic pollution in the Philippines. Several public laws are taking steps to reduce plastic waste. Most notably, in October of 2018, the European Parliament voted for a ban of 10 different single-use plastics by 2020. By 2025, the proposition mandates a 25 percent reduction of plastics for which there is no current practical alternative and that 90 percent of beverage bottles will be recycled. One option companies have for reducing plastic moving forward is plant-based biodegradable packaging. NatureWorks uses corn to produce a biodegradable industrial resin or polymer in the form of polylactic acid (PLA). The polymer, called Ingeo, can be used to make products such as compostable coffee capsules and yogurt cups. However, waste administers and experts have found that products made with Ingeo are often not fully compostable or recyclable. It is important to note that biodegradable materials will not break down in landfills. An increase in the use of biodegradable packaging must be accompanied by more composting infrastructure. Another company, TIPA, has created a new packaging technology that is fully biodegradable in both industrial and home composting. They promote their technology as an alternative to conventional flexible packaging, such as candy bar wrappers and coffee bean bags. Flexible packaging is generally not recyclable. TIPA asserts their packaging is as good as conventional flexible packaging in terms of shelf life, durability, sealing strength, printability, and flexibility. Some smaller food and beverage companies have already paved the way for sustainable packaging. For example, Alter Eco’s quinoa packaging is compostable and made by Gone4Good. B.O.S.S. Food’s snack bars use compostable wrappers made by TIPA. It may be possible to avoid packaging altogether. Zero-waste stores popping up in places from Brooklyn to Malaysia allow customers to take home bulk products in reusable containers. While fruits and vegetables often come in bulk, many companies also package these foods to extend shelf life. Apeel Sciences has found another solution. Their product is a thin edible and tasteless coating made from plant material that can be applied to fruits and veggies to significantly improve shelf-life. Founder and CEO James Rogers says, “our [mission] at its core is looking at natural ecosystems to determine and identify what materials it’s using to solve problems and how we might be able to extract and isolate those materials to solve other problems for humanity.” People are also reducing their use of food packaging at home. Homemade or purchased bees wrap wax is a sustainable alternative to plastic wraps and plastic snack or sandwich bags. Not only is beeswax reusable, but it is also compostable, and it requires a lot less energy and greenhouse gasses to produce than aluminum foil. The homemade wraps are made from nothing but beeswax and cotton. Pre-made beeswax wraps are available for purchase from companies like Bee’s Wrap, who also uses tree resin and jojoba oil, a natural antibacterial.

Coffee and conversation with Ethical Bean

TerraCycle Include Canada (English) ZWB

Walking up to the Ethical Bean head office in Vancouver, you would never imagine that their roastery is in the same building. You’re greeted by their awesome cafe, and tucked away behind that is their bright office space. Emily, the Marketing Specialist at Ethical Bean, showed me around; the boardroom that displays pictures of the students that Ethical Bean supported through school was definitely a highlight for me. We then donned our smocks and hairnets and walked into the very aromatic roastery. As we walked through the production facility, we were greeted by staff busy packaging the beans. It was great to see everything being completed in the warehouse with such care. After I got the full tour of the roastery, complete with checking out the raw coffee beans, admiring their fuel-efficient roaster, and staring in awe at the sheer amount of coffee beans housed there, Emily and I enjoyed lattes in the onsite cafe and talked about all things Ethical Bean. Bullfrog: The phrase “just.better.” is very important to Ethical Bean. It’s a simple phrase, but there’s a lot of nuance there—what does it mean to you? Emily: I love this question, because I think that when people really understand what “just.better.” means to Ethical Bean, they get this spark to learn more and spread the word. To us, “just.” means justice, and “better.” means quality. It’s kind of like the Fedex logo; once you see the arrow in between the “E” and the “x”, you really can’tunsee it. Similarly, once you know that our purpose is justice for coffee farmers and their families, you really can’t read “just.better.” any other way. I think knowing the story of how Ethical Bean started adds so much colour and context to what we’re doing here. In 1999, our co-founders Lloyd and Kim travelled to Guatemala to adopt their daughter. During their stay, they noticed a large gap between the premium price of coffee at home, and the less-than-desirable reality of the coffee industry in front of them. Believing that there had to be a more equitable way to honor these coffee farmers, they came back to Vancouver and started Ethical Bean Coffee in 2003. You know, it’s easy to sip a cup of coffee and not think about how it travelled all the way to you—from the grower, to the importer, to the processor, to the exporter, to the roaster, to the retailer, and then into your cool coffee mug with a hilarious coffee pun (just brew it!). I love those mugs, by the way. I mean, for most of us, coffee is a part of our daily routine. Wake up, coffee, work, second cup of coffee, head home, think about working out, watch a show, brush your teeth, go to bed, repeat. At Ethical Bean, we do whatever we can to create pause in this routine—to shed light on the volatility and complexity of the coffee industry. That’s why we’re just. And that’s why we’re better. Bullfrog: I love the layers of meaning behind what you do, and especially when it comes to the environment. Can you walk us through your sustainability efforts? Emily: With “ethical” in our name, you can imagine that we filter all of our decisions through the lens of sustainability, doing whatever we can to make the right choice for all parties involved—one of those parties being the planet. Here are a few highlights from our environmental sustainability program:

We only buy Fairtrade Certified coffee. And to be a Fairtrade Certified co-op, you have to uphold certain environmental standards like biodiversity protection, waste management, and the prohibition of GMOs. Fairtrade co-ops can also choose to invest their Fairtrade Premium into environmental programs, such as reforestation projects or water treatment systems.
We only buy 100% Organic certified coffee. No harmful chemicals = no negative impact on local water quality, ecosystems, and liveability.
We partner with Bullfrog Power: Since 2009, we’ve been working with Bullfrog Power to reduce our emissions footprint by purchasing 100% renewable natural gas and green fuel for our head roastery and vehicle fleet. To date, we’ve displaced 938 tonnes of carbon.
We have a bag return program: We hear it all the time, and rightfully so: “why aren’t your bags recyclable?” Long story short: we’ve yet to find a recyclable or compostable bag that meets our standards of freshness and food safety—and trust me, we’re looking! The good news is that we have a bag return program, so people can send in or drop off their empty bags and we’ll send the bags to Terracycle, a company that specializes in difficult-to-recycle waste streams. They clean, shred, and pelletize the plastic, and then find ways to integrate it into products already in production, like park benches. Plus, when customers send us 12 empty bags, they get a free bag of fresh coffee in return.
We have 100% certified compostable pods: A couple of years ago we partnered with Purpod to launch K-Cup compatible single-serve coffee pods. Made of 100% renewable, bio-based materials, including coffee chaff (skin of coffee bean), the pods break down in as little as five weeks in commercial composting systems.

Ethical Bean’s 100% compostable pods are K-Cup compatible. Bullfrog: We’re so happy to be a part of all the good you’re doing on the daily! Speaking of which, what does a day in the life look like at Ethical Bean? Emily: For me: Arrive at work. Check emails while sipping on an almond milk americano misto prepared by one of our cafe’s talented baristas (yes, we have a cafe attached to our head office and roastery). Get a pulse on what’s happening on social. Respond to questions and feedback. Take some photos for future collaborations (we’re always looking for ethical companies to partner with). Coffee round 2. Find new ways to optimize our online store experience. Start a new blog post. Head home and smell like a bag of coffee beans for the rest of the night… Bullfrog: There are worse things to smell like! So I hear Ethical Bean has an app—why does a coffee company need one of those? Emily: When I think about our app, I think about that episode of Portlandia where they go to lunch and probe their server for more information about the chicken they want to order—“So, how big is the area where the chickens are able to roam free?” “Is that USDA Organic, or Oregon Organic, or Portland Organic?” Image source. As funny as this episode was, it touched on something pretty serious. That is, the significance of traceability, and the role evidence plays when working towards equality. Our app serves to answer any and all questions someone could have about the specific bag of beans they’re holding. Where was it roasted? Like… exactly where? Can I see the co-op’s Fairtrade and Organic certificates? When was my coffee roasted? For how many minutes? At what temperature? Who roasted it? How long have they worked with Ethical Bean? What do they like to do in their spare time? What’s my coffee’s cupping score? How sweet is the cup? Is there a strong aftertaste? Screenshots from Ethical Bean’s iPhone app In a sea of claims and certifications, it allows our consumers to make an informed decision and feel confident knowing that we’re doing what we say we’re doing. Also, on your next coffee break, you should probably watch this 2-minute Portlandia clip about the local chicken. Bullfrog: That’s a great clip. It’s so outrageous, but it still gets to the heart of the matter: if a company is really doing the right thing, they should be able to prove it. We’ve already talked about Ethical Bean’s story and about the impact you’re making now. What do you have in store for the future? Emily: It’s an exciting time at Ethical Bean. As many people know, we’ve recently joined a much larger family—the Kraft Heinz Canada family. With this transition comes many new opportunities to deliver impact at some serious scale. For example, our change in ownership allows us to substantially increase the funds we’re giving to the Fairtrade movement and Fairtrade coffee farmers, which was the reason we started in the first place. Bullfrog: I’m so glad that you’re able to scale up your positive impact. I have one final question for you: what’s your favourite Ethical Bean roast? Emily: Ooh, hard question. I have a few. I tend to enjoy a more chocolatey finish, so I’ve obviously fallen in love with our lush medium dark roast. Here’s a description of lush from our Aaron, our Director of Coffee: A coffee for all seasons. Most popular for a reason. Fruit, smoke, and earth tones. If you drink coffee, you’ll like this. Bullfrog: Hold up—what’s a Director of Coffee? Emily: Pretty awesome thing to be a director of, eh? As our Director of Coffee, Aaron manages all things coffee—from sourcing, to buying, to roasting to quality control. He has over 20 years of experience, and is one of Canada’s first Q Graders (think sommelier but for coffee), meaning his sense of smell and taste are top notch. Ethical Bean’s Director of Coffee, Aaron De Lazzer I like to say that once you know Aaron, you know Ethical Bean. His passion for our eight different roasts, ethical coffee production, and just coffee in general is truly contagious.

Tennesse Group Tackles the Issue of Cigarette Butts at Marinas

TerraCycle Include USA Cigarette Butt Recycling Program

Cigarette butts are a pervasive problem at marinas, but a new program is helping facilities along the Tennessee River keep the butts out of the water. Last summer, German scientist Andres Fath spent 34 days swimming the Tennessee River from Knoxville Tennessee to Paducah Kentucky, and with his team collected samples to determine the state of the river. His findings were not good. Three of the 12 samples the team collected found close to 18,000 microplastic particles per cubic meter of water in the Tennessee River. That rate is one of the highest in the world. With that knowledge the executive director of Keep the Tennessee River Beautiful (KTNRB), Kathleen Gibi, decided it was time to tackle the issue of dropped cigarette butts. They often find their way to area waters and are a prime contributor of microplastics, which are found in their filters. Through Keep America Beautiful, Gibi could provide free cigarette disposal receptacles, which became the spark that lit a 5-state movement to keep marinas stocked in these receptacles. Keep America Beautiful is a national non-profit that through national programs and initiatives works to end littering, improve recycling and beautify communities across America. Gibi happened to talk to Melinda Watson who previously managed the Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA) Tennessee Clean Marina Program and is now program manager for the TVA’s Partnerships and Strategic Planning. Gibi shared that she had the receptacles but wasn’t sure how to spread the word and get them placed. Part of the workplan for TVA is marina education and outreach, so Watson knew from years of visiting marinas that their parking lots and shorelines were often littered with butts. Marinas seemed a good place to distribute the receptacles and with Watson’s history of working with them, she was able to reach out and get marinas onboard with installing the units. The Program Takes Off Within days, 24 marinas had signed on to take the receptacles. But it wasn’t just the marinas that embraced the idea. To further the education regarding the damaging effects of cigarette waste, TVA provided funding and the Tennessee Department of Transportation provided a special litter grant to have the receptacles wrapped with educational art. “I had seen art wraps for a history project in Knoxville, and I thought KTNRB could pay to have those done since the receptacles were free. They’d be pretty but would also build awareness of the problems with cigarettes. Our goal isn’t to shame smokers but to shame the littering and help people understand what happens to a butt thrown on the ground,” Gibi said. Keep Tennessee Beautiful contributed funds to have the receptacles delivered to the participating marinas in Tennessee. According to Gibi the response from marinas has been overwhelming. She anticipates an additional 300 receptacles will be installed with help from a $5,000 Cigarette Litter Prevention Program from Keep America Beautiful. The Jackson County Park Marina in Scottsboro, Alabama, was one of the first marinas to order the receptacles. Within just one week of installation, manager Carl Barns said they are already being used. “I’ve had several people say they liked them. We ordered them to try to keep butts off the ground and from going into the water. We want to have a clean site.” The receptacles are scattered around the property, which accommodates boat slips, a boat ramp, boat rentals and sites for camping as well as cabin rentals. While Keep America Beautiful will keep providing the free receptacles as long as supplies last, the art wrap takes money, and the art is one of the reasons marinas want the receptacles. “Now that people see what they look like, marina owners keep following up asking how to get them and then when they will arrive. At first they thought it would just be boxes with some facts and not as pretty as they are. The graphic designer who is making them used to do graphic design for HGTV so the boxes are really nice and people are pleasantly surprised,” Gibi said. Butt Recycling While the cigarettes are being collected instead of tossed on the ground, there was still the issue of them landing in landfills and contributing to the overall trash problem. However, along with receiving receptacles, participating marinas can ship the waste to TerraCycle, a New Jersey-based company that recycles hard-to-recycle materials. TerraCycle partnered with Keep America Beautiful in a nationwide effort to recycle plastic cigarette filters. The company not only does the recycling but Keep America Beautiful provides the shipping packaging and TerraCycle covers the shipping costs. “We all know that there’s a lot of urgent need to care for our waterways. It’s important to alarm the public to urgent needs but not right to do so without offering solutions. So that’s what we’re working to do. Inspire everyone to care for the river and understand how deeply rooted we are in the water,” Gibi said. Gibi said the river generates $12 billion in economic impact from recreational use alone and provides more impact from the power it generates from dams and from industry that transports products via barges. The next phase will be to provide the receptacles for boat ramps. Gibi said she thinks the group can produce just 24 units because these units must be larger, standing at 4 feet tall, to accommodate more users. The other factor to consider with the ramps is that there isn’t staff on-site to empty the butts, but Gibi said she’s already been approached by a Power Squadron member who wants to line up volunteers to empty receptacles at boat ramps. Marinas located within the Tennessee River watershed can request the cigarette waste receptacles by visiting www.KeepTNRiverBeautiful.org/cigarettelitter.