Did you know that 91% of plastics don’t actually get recycled? Or that your feel-goodrecycling program doesn’t necessarily (or most likely) recycle the items you set out to your curb each month? As efforts for plastic free July ramped up, I took a hard look at what we used in our household, and what waste we were personally contributing to the environment. The results were nauseating - so I dedicated the month to trying more sustainable products and reducing plastic waste from our household. We all know that using reusable grocery bags instead of plastic ones, eliminating plastic straws, and using glass or aluminum water bottles instead of their single-use counterparts can make a big difference, but it can get trickier to sort through other ways to be more sustainable and use less plastic. That's why I’m so excited to share the results - some of which really surprised me. Along the way, I found some products that worked, some that didn’t, and (sadly) moved away from purchasing one of our previously-favorite brands because they don’t appear to have any intentions of recognizing the moral imperative that brands have when it comes to social good.

My favorite find: Getting clean while not dirtying the earth

By far, the find I’m wildest about is Plaine Products. Between myself and my daughters, we were using *a lot* of hair care and bath products - all of them in plastic. After some copious searching to replace our beloved tried-and-true products in the bathroom, I’m here to tell you that Plaine knocks it out of the park when it comes to sustainability, elimination of plastic waste, AND products that are incredible. The concept is simple, but brilliant: You select the shampoo, conditioner, body wash, face wash, etc. that you’d like, and they mail them to you, along with a pump for each, in aluminum bottles. Once you’re running low, you let them know (or subscribe), and they’ll mail you out a replacement, along with a label for you to send your used bottle back in, and you keep the pump and reuse it. Not kidding: The Rosemary-mint-vanilla line is amazing, and the conditioner leaves your hair feeling like silk. If you decide to purchase from them, you can use the code: SAPForbes and receive 20% off on your order.

Household cleaning reimagined

With the personal care items off the list, household cleaning was next up. I discovered an incredible company making a big difference in reducing plastic waste: Blueland. Their site points out some of the most troubling aspects of plastic use: We’re eating and drinking plastic: 90% of the water we drink, and 75% of the fish we eat contains microplastics. We’re harming animals and sea creatures: Plastic has been found in 100% of marine turtles, 59% of whales, 36% of seals, and 40% of seabird species examined. We’re polluting our oceans: By 2050, scientists predict that our oceans will contain more plastic than fish. Blueland has created a nearly indestructible bottle, and - this is the amazing part - the cleaning solution is actually contained within a tablet. You add the tablet to water, and viola - you have cleaning solutions for each area of your home. The cleaning tablets are sent in compostable, biodegradable packaging, and they work great. The products smell great and they have three solutions: multi-surface, bathroom, and glass + mirror. Tip: Leave the nozzles off the bottles until the tablets are completely dissolved, and plan to use a couple of extra wipes on the glass surfaces. It cleans very well - it just seems like it’s a few seconds slower to dry than what we were used to.

Oral care: Every toothbrush you've ever used is still on this earth

Recognizing that each toothbrush that's ever touched any of the teeth in our family is still sitting in a landfill or heap somewhere is unnerving. Clearly, brushing our teeth is important, so how can we do it in a way that doesn't leave waste behind? First, Moso bamboo toothbrushes are a great alternative, and they break down naturally in a composter within 4-6 months, and if you just throw them out, they take about 5-10 years to biodegrade, which is still better than never breaking down at all. (We tried these toothbrushes at our house, and everyone loved them.) Next up, toothpaste. This proved really difficult for us. Essentially, trying to balance the thought of our kids using toothpaste tablets with knowing them didn't sit well, so I researched oral care products that offered recycling. In theory, Terracycle is a fantastic site to find recycling programs with brands. What I found, though, was that I was wait-listed for nearly every item I wanted to recycle in my area. I ordered a zero-waste box, but really wanted to figure out how to go plastic-free with toothpaste. After some sleuthing, I discovered that Burt's Bees Oral Care will send you a pre-paid mailing label so that you can mail them back your used toothpaste products. They'll recycle them, or work with organizations that will.

The Twitters: Accounts with great advice on going plastic-free

When I started really going down the checklist to go plastic-free, Twitter proved to be a great asset. Thanks to the SAP4Good account, I discovered a co-worker who offered fantastic personal insights into going plastic-free. She helped me find the following products that we're now using in our kitchen to replace single use plastics: Beeswax food wraps to replace traditional plastic wraps. The warmth from your hands creates a great seal on these re-usable wraps, and after a year or so, you can compost them when it's time for a replacement. These silicone storage bags to replace single-use plastic bags. In our household, I had a subscription for plastic bags - not anymore. These are durable, BPA-free, and the company ethos is in line with the values of my family. The Plaine Products Twitter feed offers tons of ways to go plastic-free, as does PlasticFreeJuly. Sadly, Twitter was also where one of my favorite brands lost me as a consumer. I'd tweeted out, asking about using less plastic, and the brand ignored me, but engaged with all of the replies telling me to repurpose the containers. Indeed, I've repurposed the containers, but it's rather crazy to hope that everyone else does, and at some point, how many plastic containers do you need? (Narrator: No more plastic containers were needed). We're living in a time where brand purpose and ethics drive sales and loyalty more than prices do, and it's time for brands to act as responsible stewards of our environment, which is why I'm so proud to work where I do.

Szaky is founder and CEO of TerraCycle, in Trenton, N.J. He says the throwaway culture in the U.S. took shape in the mid-20th century. "There were advertisements in 1950 that talk about, 'You don't have to wash the dishes anymore, simply take the whole thing, — the cutlery, the dishes, the tablecloth itself — and throw it all out,' " he says. That disposability was made possible in large part by the invention of cheap plastic.

In addition to moisturizing and protecting your hair from external aggressions, such as hours of sun at the seashore, this shampoo has a side that helps reduce the production of new plastic. And, Herbal Essences has collaborated with the TerraCycle recycling company to rescue tons of plastic bottles from the beaches. Shampoo Love Your Shore Coconut Milk Collection in plastic bottles rescued from the beaches, by Herbal Essences. $ 5.99.

“GRAYL is committed to designing and manufacturing with a sustainable mindset and in the coming months will implement a zero waste cartridge recycling program in partnership with TerraCycle®. This program will empower customers to trade-in their Purifier Cartridges at end of life and be rewarded with a discount for replacement Purifier Cartridges. The program will be supported online and by many participating retailers.”

Last but certainly not least, my favourite part of my skincare routine: oils! While I have experimented with different oils in the past, I’m currently using The Ordinary’s 100% Cold-Pressed Virgin Marula Oil which is packaged in cardboard and glass with a plastic dropper. It’s super hydrating and leaves my face glowing! In terms of the minimal plastic packaging that some of the products I use do contain, I will be recycling through L’Occitane en Provence’s TerraCycle program to recycle my hard-to-recycle plastics.

“GRAYL is committed to designing and manufacturing with a sustainable mindset and in the coming months will implement a zero waste cartridge recycling program in partnership with TerraCycle®. This program will empower customers to trade-in their Purifier Cartridges at end of life and be rewarded with a discount for replacement Purifier Cartridges. The program will be supported online and by many participating retailers.”

Now, her campaign’s focus shifts to education. Champion said it takes six to 10 months to teach people to throw their cigarette butts into a container, rather than tossing them on the sand. Right now, she’s cleaning out each container by herself, then sending the cigarette butts back to their manufacturers through a program called “Terracycle.”

O Campus Fiocruz Mata Atlântica (CFMA) ganhou este mês dois pontos de coleta de instrumentos de escrita. Um fica no Pavilhão Olympio da Fonseca e o outro, no Horto-Escola. A ideia é que funcionários e visitantes coloquem nesses locais materias usados, como lápis, lápis de cor, lapiseira, canetas, hidrocor, borracha, apontador e outros.

From mouthwash to kitchen cleaner, environmentally friendly dehydrated products are coming to your home.   Just-add-water cleaning products from Blueland. Blueland My first lesson in savvy consumerism came in elementary school from my best friend’s mother, who sat us down and handed us a bottle of fancy grown-up shampoo. “Let’s read the ingredients,” she said. We started: “Aqua …” She cut us off there. “What do you think aqua is?” “Water?” “Yes! It’s just a fancy name for water!” I now know that brands who call water “aqua” are simply abiding by the International Nomenclature of Cosmetic Ingredients (and by “now know,” I mean I just looked it up), but at the time, the fancy vocabulary struck me as a mild consumer scam designed to hide how much of our fanciest consumer products are simply water. It also spawned in me a lifelong interest in reading ingredient labels. MORE THAN 90 PERCENT OF A TYPICAL BOTTLE OF CLEANING PRODUCT IS SIMPLY WATER So 25 years later, when brands started shipping normally waterlogged products to consumers with all or most of the water removed, I was intrigued. According to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, more than 90 percent of a typical bottle of cleaning product is simply water. Drying out these cleaning and personal care products does several environmentally friendly things: It reduces their volume, thus reducing the number of boats and trucks needed to transport them. It reduces their weight, thus further reducing fuel and carbon emissions associated with shipping them. And it reduces the plastic packaging by requiring a smaller container to hold the refillable concentrate, or by precluding the need for any disposable plastic at all. An estimated 20 percent or more of global disposable plastic packaging by weight could be replaced by reusable packaging if we only shipped active ingredients. The time is ripe for a low-plastic, just-add-water revolution. Only 5 percent of plastic produced globally is ever recycled, a number that has likely dropped since China stopped accepting our recyclables in 2017. You’ve probably heard this, but there’s a lot of plastic swirling around in our oceans, and in developing countries, single-serve product sachets are a scourge on the rivers and beaches. Almost all at once, waterless products have arrived to save the day. By Humankind (emphasis theirs) launched in February. The startup makes a “forever” refillable container for its mouthwash tablets, packages its shampoo bars in paper boxes, and provides refills for its deodorant. It’s all in the design scheme du jour: gender-neutral, with minimalist font swimming in pastel color schemes. Truman’s, which also launched in February, says shopping for cleaning products is too confusing and onerous, offering as an alternative four concentrated cleaning products for glass, floors, bathrooms, and all-purpose, shipped in small recyclable plastic refill cartridges that fit in the neck of its reusable plastic spray bottles. In 2018, Seventh Generation introduced an “ultra-concentrated” laundry detergent, which the company says uses 50 percent less water and 60 percent less plastic and is 75 percent lighter than the standard detergent bottle. The bottle automatically doses the right amount of detergent with one squeeze. It’s only sold online, or else I would absolutely get that to carry home instead of the standard 100-ounce detergent bottle. By Humankind’s mouthwash tablets. By Humankind In March, Amazon launched an in-house product line called Clean Revolution. You screw a bottle of concentrate with the equivalent of six refills to the bottom of the spray bottle or soap dispenser, and pour water into the top. The product has 3.9 stars online; the complaints that the refill pod can sometimes leak are far outweighed by praise for how eco-friendly it is. The system is by a packaging company called Replenish, which has its own line, CleanPath. It’s a subscription refill service for five cleaning products that lets you choose your scent, your bottle and baseplate color, and — for an additional $7.95 fee that strikes me as patently ridiculous — a customizable label. Buying a six-time-use refill is certainly less wasteful than the alternative, but the drawback is that, like a fancy Gillette razor, you’re now wedded to that particular refill and at the mercy of CleanPath’s redesign process. “We regret that previous versions of CleanPath reusable bottles and refill pods have been discontinued and are not compatible with the all new CleanPath,” it says in tiny font on the website. All of the above products promise to be nontoxic, of course. We’re talking about a target market of eco-minded consumers here. The European brand Cif doesn’t make that promise. (It might not have to, as Europe has banned a much longer list of potentially toxic ingredients, so Europeans tend to be a little more relaxed than we are.) That hasn’t stopped Unilever from launching the Cif ecorefill in July, a 10-times-concentrated liquid refill for the normal Cif spray bottle, which Unilever now markets as a lifetime piece. If the spray trigger breaks, it will even deliver a new one for free. And once you remove the plastic sleeves, the ecorefill tube can be thrown the recycling bin. According to Unilever, asking consumers to dilute the product at home means 97 percent less water being transported, 87 percent fewer trucks on the road, and less greenhouse gas emissions. ASKING CONSUMERS TO DILUTE THE PRODUCT AT HOME MEANS 97 PERCENT LESS WATER BEING TRANSPORTED That all sounds great, but in actuality, distribution of Unilever’s products, which range from Dove to Axe, Hellmann’s to Bertolli, Suave to Tresemmé, only accounts for 3 percent of Unilever’s greenhouse gas emissions. (The company says 25 percent is in raw materials and blames 65 percent on how consumers use the products. Our bad?) But this isn’t about carbon emissions. Unilever, cognizant of the growing resentment against single-use plastic, has vowed to reduce the weight of its packaging by one-third, halve the waste associated with the disposal of its products by 2020, and use only reusable, recyclable, or compostable packing by 2025. Its efforts in this direction have been tentative. In 2018, it launched a 3-liter bottle of a Brazilian laundry detergent brand with a formula six times the concentration of the original. Unilever says it’s reduced the volume of plastic used for the detergent by 75 percent. Unilever is one of the consumer product behemoths in Loop, an ambitious cross-brand pilot project that ships reusable containers of everything from Degree deodorant to Häagen-Dazs ice cream to your door and then picks up the empties when you’re done. For that, Unilever redesigned Signal toothpaste to come in tablet form in a recyclable and refillable jar. You just chew one, brush your teeth, then rinse. I can’t tell you how Signal tabs work — I signed up for Loop’s pilot in New York City the day it was announced in January and haven’t yet gotten off the waitlist. But I have tried out ChewTab by Weldental, which was relaunched this year in a glass bottle with a metal lid to appeal to the zero-waste market. The sickly sweet minty xylitol is an acquired taste ... but the bottle sure looks good on my medicine cabinet shelf. If I’m honest, aesthetics are also why I selected Blueland, launched on Earth Day in April 2019, to test out this whole just-add-water fad for myself. That, and out of all the cleaners described above, it had no one-use plastic in its refill system and the most certifications, including the reputable Cradle to Cradle certification, which covers not only how the product is made and disposed of but also its toxicity — or lack thereof. I asked Blueland to send me a kit, and a few days later, a simple cardboard box arrived at my apartment. Inside, I found three shatterproof acrylic spray bottles accented in pink, yellow, and Caribbean blue and labeled in tiny font: Bathroom, Multi-Surface, Glass + Mirror. I filled the bottles with aqua de tap, unwrapped three tablets in corresponding colors, put the postmodernist wrappers in the compost bin, and dropped the tablets in the bottles, where they fizzed just like antacids. An hour later, I used the resulting lightly scented cleaners to wipe down my countertop and mirror and, with the help of a scrubby brush, break apart the soap scum in my bathtub. Before I put them away, I Instagrammed my zero-waste, nontoxic cleaning supplies and received a barrage of questions from my friends eager to try for themselves what might be the most attractive cleaning system ever made. If I sound like I’m in the Blueland cult, I apologize. I really did try to find something wrong with the products, and I couldn’t. While a lot of these supposedly more sustainable consumer products are rightly criticized for feeding our ever-expanding appetite for more stuff, you can’t quibble with making cleaning products — a necessary component of doing life — more sustainable. Blueland could only steal market share, not create a whole new purchasing category. I’ve DIYed my cleaners before, and found myself with shards of glass in my foot after my cat shoved the pretty brown glass spray bottle off the counter. And you can call it the placebo effect or clever marketing, but I honestly don’t believe plain white vinegar works as well as formulated cleaning products. Also, jugs of vinegar are mostly water. I guess my only quibble with this wave of just-add-water products is this: Shipping dry ingredients in compostable packaging and adding water to them ourselves is not a new concept. In fact, we’ve been doing it for thousands of years. Hello, tea, coffee, and soap. It’s only in the past few decades that we’ve taken these formerly eco-friendly items, added in water pumped out of water-scarce areas; thrown in aspartame, flavoring, parfum, and various other synthetic ingredients; put them in plastic bottles with cool logos and ridiculous health promises; and shipped them around the world. The fact is, even if every glass and multi-surface cleaner on the market came in tabs and refill cartridges, it would be BB shot compared to the warships of “functional” beverages that exist for no other reason than getting us to buy more stuff. According to Blueland’s research, the average American home will go through 30 single-use plastic bottles of cleaner in a year. Reducing this to zero is a good thing, sure. But in 2017, America’s per capita consumption of bottled water rose yet again to 42 gallons. That’s equivalent to more than 300 bottles of water. In Europe, plastic drink bottles are the most prevalent form of plastic found in waterways, now that plastic bags have been tackled. Yes, I’m definitely signing up for a Blueland subscription because I’m a sucker for pretty stuff that makes me feel less personally guilty about being an American consumption monster. But I’m under no illusion that this will save the world. It will merely save me a few trips downstairs to the recycling bin.

Packaging and products made from plastic ocean debris are likely the industry’s ultimate example of lemonade made from lemons. A nearly perfect circular economy model is made real when plastic bottles, for example, made from recovered ocean plastics are turned back into plastic packaging. Whether it’s seen as a glass half full (good, more debris removed!) or half empty (it’s a drop in an endless sea of debris!) proposition, it seems we’re inundated with a growing amount of plastic-products-from-marine pollution, a sampling of which you'll find on the following pages. These appear in essentially chronological order as a kind of chronicle of durable ocean debris recovered and remade into usable plastic products. These are found primarily published by PlasticsToday along with—pardon the expression—current examples from other sources such as sister publications and press releases; sources are PlasticsToday unless otherwise noted.   This market was launched in 2012 when eco-minded, forward-thinking cleaners company Method (San Francisco) entered what were then virgin waters in pioneering packaging from marine pollution.   Appropriately enough, the eureka moment for the company to consider doing such a ground-breaking thing was sparked by a Method executive’s visit to the unexpectedly not-so-pristine beaches of Hawaii.   The company decided to do something about the litter, and literally deployed employees’ boots on the sandy shores in coordinating efforts with local organizations. Volunteers hand-collected several tons of the type of rigid, opaque plastic needed to make this packaging that are most abundant. The debris was shipped to California after sorting. Method had partnered with recycler Envision Plastics to develop a new recycling process to make the bottles. The rest is history because it marked the birth of a brand-new-age, environmentally minded cottage industry. For more on Method’s landmark effort, see Ocean Plastic: Method turns pollution into packaging, published November 2012.