Building on its commitment to developing sustainable laundry solutions, Tide is proud to announce its strategic partnership with international recycling leader TerraCycle. This will allow the new Tide Eco-Box packaging to be 100% recyclable from bag to box. The new Tide Eco-Box is designed to be environmentally friendly. Its new ultra-concentrated Tide formula is produced with 30% less water, and its package has 60% less plastic than the equivalent bottled size. The innovative boxed design doesn’t require wasteful secondary packaging and takes up less space than the equivalent bottle, which means fewer trucks needed to transport it to stores. “TerraCycle is the logical next step for us, because we want to ensure that not only is the product designed for more eco-friendly shipping and usage, but that every element of it is 100% recyclable, and recyclable through a very seamless process,” said P&G Brand Manager Isaac Hellemn. Through the Tide Eco-Box Recycling Program, consumers can recycle all of the packaging from the Eco-Box for free. Participants are invited to sign up on the program page at www.terracycle.com/en-US/brigades/tide-eco-box. Once finished with the Eco-Box, separate any plastic waste from the cardboard box and mail it in using a prepaid shipping label. Once collected, the plastic is cleaned and melted into hard plastic that can be remolded to make new recycled products. Additionally, for every pound of waste shipped to TerraCycle, collectors can earn $1 to donate to a non-profit, school or charitable organization of their choice. To recycle the corrugated cardboard box, participants can enter their address into the interactive map at teracycle.com and search for available recycling options, including TerraCycle drop-off locations and municipal recycling programs. “Each year, more than 79 percent of waste that ends up in landfills has the potential to be recycled,” said TerraCycle CEO Tom Szaky. “TerraCycle, in association with companies like Tide, works every day to reduce that number and integrate single-use packaging into new products.”

Pensando nas gerações futuras e nas questões socioambientais, o Núcleo de Sustentabilidade do Tribunal de Justiça de Mato Grosso encerrou nessa semana a primeira etapa do projeto “Reescreva a história do planeta”.

Building on its commitment to developing sustainable laundry solutions, Tide is proud to announce its strategic partnership with international recycling leader TerraCycle. This will allow the new Tide Eco-Box packaging to be 100% recyclable from bag to box. The new Tide Eco-Box is designed to be environmentally friendly. Its new ultra-concentrated Tide formula is produced with 30% less water, and its package has 60% less plastic than the equivalent bottled size. The innovative boxed design doesn’t require wasteful secondary packaging and takes up less space than the equivalent bottle, which means fewer trucks needed to transport it to stores. “TerraCycle is the logical next step for us, because we want to ensure that not only is the product designed for more eco-friendly shipping and usage, but that every element of it is 100% recyclable, and recyclable through a very seamless process,” said P&G Brand Manager Isaac Hellemn. Through the Tide Eco-Box Recycling Program, consumers can recycle all of the packaging from the Eco-Box for free. Participants are invited to sign up on the program page at https://www.terracycle.com/en-US/brigades/tide-eco-box. Once finished with the Eco-Box, separate any plastic waste from the cardboard box and mail it in using a prepaid shipping label. Once collected, the plastic is cleaned and melted into hard plastic that can be remolded to make new recycled products. Additionally, for every pound of waste shipped to TerraCycle, collectors can earn $1 to donate to a non-profit, school or charitable organization of their choice. To recycle the corrugated cardboard box, participants can enter their address into the interactive map at terracycle.com and search for available recycling options, including TerraCycle drop-off locations and municipal recycling programs. “Each year, more than 79 percent of waste that ends up in landfills has the potential to be recycled,” said TerraCycle CEO Tom Szaky. “TerraCycle, in association with companies like Tide, works every day to reduce that number and integrate single-use packaging into new products.” The Tide Eco-Box Recycling Program is open to any interested individual, school, office, or community organization. For more information on TerraCycle’s recycling program, visit www.terracycle.com. About Procter & Gamble P&G serves consumers around the world with one of the strongest portfolios of trusted, quality, leadership brands, including Always®, Ambi Pur®, Ariel®, Bounty®, Charmin®, Crest®, Dawn®, Downy®, Fairy®, Febreze®, Gain®, Gillette®, Head & Shoulders®, Lenor®, Olay®, Oral-B®, Pampers®, Pantene®, SK-II®, Tide®, Vicks®, and Whisper®. The P&G community includes operations in approximately 70 countries worldwide. Please visit http://www.pg.com for the latest news and information about P&G and its brands. About TerraCycle TerraCycle is an innovative waste management company with a mission to eliminate the idea of waste®. Operating nationally across 21 countries, TerraCycle partners with leading consumer product companies, retailers, cities, and facilities to recycle products and packages, from dirty diapers to cigarette butts, that would otherwise end up being landfilled or incinerated. In addition, TerraCycle works with leading consumer product companies to integrate hard to recycle waste streams, such as ocean plastic, into their products and packaging. TerraCycle has won over 200 awards for sustainability and has donated over $25 million to schools and charities since its founding 15 years ago. To learn more about TerraCycle or get involved in its recycling programs, please visit www.terracycle.com.

Diaper manufacturer Procter and Gamble is partnering with AEB, TerraCycleand FaterSMART to use innovative diaper recycling bins for the collection of used diapers in Amsterdam. The pilot  program, first of its kind worldwide, is facilitated by the Municipality of Amsterdam. to help the partners learn from families what works for them in separating diaper waste.  Recent research among Dutch parents shows that almost 70% of families would participate in a diaper recycling project and that 82% of Dutch parents would not mind separating their diaper waste from other waste. In addition, half of the Dutch parents say they feel that establishing a viable diaper recycling program is primarily the responsibility of diaper producers. The pilot program will involve about 200 and 10 diaper recycling bins in two neighborhoods in Amsterdam—Amsterdam Zuidoost and Amsterdam Oost. Parents can deposit diaper waste from all brands in the bins at locations they often visit, such as nurseries and drug stores. The bins, designed by TerraCycle and can be opened by parents with a special Pampers Recycling app. The app also shows the location of the nearest bin. The advanced diaper recycling technique that will be introduced in the Netherlands in the future was developed and patented by FaterSMART, a business unit of Fater, a joint venture of Procter & Gamble and Angelini Group (the manufacturer of Pampers in Italy). This machine uses high temperature and steam under pressure to separate human waste from the diaper materials. It sterilizes the products and neutralizes the odor. A specific mechanical system separates plastic, cellulose and super absorbent material from each other, and these raw materials are used to produce new materials. For example, cellulose is used for the production of fabric bags, the superabsorbent material is used in various moisture-absorbing products and plastic produces diaper pails or bottle caps.  The technology is currently already being used on an industrial scale in Italy and will be introduced in Amsterdam as the first city in the Netherlands and in the first place outside Italy, in collaboration with AEB.  

Building on its commitment to developing sustainable laundry solutions, Tide is proud to announce its strategic partnership with international recycler TerraCycle. This will allow the new Tide Eco-Box packaging to be 100 percent recyclable from bag to box, according to TerraCycle. The new Tide Eco-Box is designed to be environmentally friendly. Its new ultra-concentrated Tide formula is produced with 30% less water, and its package has 60% less plastic than the equivalent bottled size. The innovative boxed design doesn't require wasteful secondary packaging and takes up less space than the equivalent bottle, which means fewer trucks needed to transport it to stores. "TerraCycle is the logical next step for us, because we want to ensure that not only is the product designed for more eco-friendly shipping and usage, but that every element of it is 100% recyclable, and recyclable through a very seamless process," said P&G Brand Manager Isaac Hellemn. Through the Tide Eco-Box Recycling Program, consumers can recycle all of the packaging from the Eco-Box for free. Participants are invited to sign up on the program page at this LINK.  Once finished with the Eco-Box, users separate any plastic waste from the cardboard box and mail it in using a prepaid shipping label. Once collected, the plastic is cleaned and melted into hard plastic that can be remolded to make new recycled products. Additionally, for every pound of waste shipped to TerraCycle, collectors can earn $1 to donate to a non-profit, school or charitable organization of their choice. To recycle the corrugated cardboard box, participants can enter their address into the interactive map at teracycle.com and search for available recycling options, including TerraCycle drop-off locations and municipal recycling programs. "Each year, more than 79 percent of waste that ends up in landfills has the potential to be recycled," said TerraCycle CEO Tom Szaky. "TerraCycle, in association with companies like Tide, works every day to reduce that number and integrate single-use packaging into new products." The Tide Eco-Box Recycling Program is open to any interested individual, school, office, or community organization. For more information on TerraCycle's recycling program, visit www.terracycle.com. Procter & Gamble, which manufactures TIDE, is one of over a dozen brands which have partnered with TerraCycle on the recently launched Loop - a new packaging model launched in the U.S. and France. Loop, debuted at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland at the end of January, is a new shopping system and the first of its kind to offer hundreds of name brand products in reusable and refillable packaging. The pilot program is expected to launch this spring in the Paris metro area and the New York City area - including parts of New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

Looking for an eco-friendly alternative to traditional plastics — especially single-use items like bags, straws and picnic tableware — many supermarkets and vendors are offering an array of compostable alternatives made from plant fibers or starches. “The market for compostable products is growing at an incredible pace,” says Olga Kachook, sustainability manager for Petaluma, California-based World Centric, which makes ones geared mostly toward food services in stadiums, school cafeterias, hotels, restaurants and convention centers. Those facilities work with industrial composting facilities, which can cut their waste exponentially. Bioplastics, as the rapidly evolving products are also known, can be made from corn, potatoes, rice, tapioca, palm fiber, wood cellulose, wheat fiber, sugar, or sometimes even shrimp shells, seaweed or algae. Not all bioplastics are compostable, but those that are can go right into one big industrial-composting bin along with food waste. “Ultimately, all households will need to have a three-bin system, for industrial compost, recycling and waste. Consumers and companies are trying hard to identify more sustainable ways of doing things, and compostable products are an important part of the picture,” says Rhodes Yepsen, executive director of the New York-based Biodegradable Products Institute, which offers a certification ensuring that products claiming to be compostable actually are. Items must be thin enough to be compostable. Products that are certified compostable either carry BPI’s seal of approval or are listed on the organization’s website. The number of certified compostable products has increased by 80 percent in the past few years, according to BPI. Many of these products, like bags, cups and dishes, are increasingly available in grocery stores. But compostable technology is still new, and whether or not products are certified, it’s best to check with your local composting facility before adding them to the rest of your organic waste, experts agree. Melissa Ozawa, gardening and features editor at Martha Stewart Living magazine, says, “The best thing you can do is to use reusables. Keep your own utensils at work, your own tote bag for the grocery store, glass containers for home storage. And if you decide to use bioplastics and don’t have access to a composting facility, consider joining with others in your community to try to get one. They won’t biodegrade in your home garden or in a landfill.” Yepsen says over 5 million households already have three-bin systems. “We have a long way to go, but it’s encouraging to think about where recycling was in the ’80s and where it is now,” he says. “That’s what’s happening now with compostables. It will take some time, but I fully expect in the next 10 to 20 years, most communities will have curbside compost pickup.” But critics say bioplastics are no silver bullet. “They’re not as great as they seem at first glance,” says Brett Stevens, global vice president of material sales and procurement at the recycling company TerraCycle, based in Trenton, New Jersey. Most households have no access to the industrial composting facilities needed to quickly break down these products, he notes. If they are tossed in with other plastics for recycling, they pollute the recycling stream, and if tossed in the trash, they aren’t much better than traditional plastic. Compostable products “are renewable in the sense that they can be grown and regenerated again and again,” writes Tom Szaky, TerraCycle’s CEO, in his book “From Linear to Circular: The Future of Packaging” (2019, Berrett-Koehler Publishers). “What most consumers don’t realize is that biodegradable bioplastics will break down only under the right conditions — those of an industrial composting facility. And even if that happens, they won’t contribute value to the compost, unlike coffee grounds or leaves, which have a wide range of micro- and macronutrients as well as a living ecosystem of bacteria and other microbes,” Szaky says. If sent to an industrial-scale composting facility “with actively managed piles of compost under controlled conditions, and fed a diet of digest microbes,” compostable products will break down in less than two months, says Jeremy Kranowitz, a board member of the non-profit group Sustainable America. ” In someone’s backyard compost heap, it could easily take more than a year. If they are accidentally sent to a landfill and buried, it could take over a century. And if they go into a plastics recycling bin, they will contaminate the recycling process.” Those promoting compostable plastics counter that plastic recycling is already problematic, since only a small fraction of plastic products make it into the recycling stream, and the market for recycled plastics is limited. They also say that no matter where bioplastics end up, they are more sustainable to produce than traditional plastics, made from fossil fuels. And even detractors admit that if compostable products do end up in oceans, they break down more quickly than traditional plastics. “It’s complicated,” says Yepsen. “But the composting infrastructure is slowly being built up across the country, and there’s huge potential in this.”  

Did you get the memo? The milkman is back in style! Loop, a zero-waste, circular shopping platform that harkens back to the milkman model of delivered reusables, is set to launch this spring. Big brands such as Tide, Coca-Cola, Pampers, and Häagen-Dazs, among others, have joined the project and will offer their items on the platform. With more than 300 items available for purchase on the site, Loop will deliver your selected items packaged in refillable and reusable containers, made out of durable materials such as stainless steel or glass, and brought to your doorstep by UPS. The way it works is very similar to your average online shopping experience: create an account, add things to your basket, and purchase at checkout. There are no membership or subscription fees — the main difference from standard online shopping is that with Loop you are asked to pay a deposit. The deposit is fully refundable, and could be anywhere from $47 for a Pampers diaper bin or 25 cents for a Coca-Cola bottle. “The cost will vary per consumer based on what product they order, the deposit for the packaging and if they reach free shipping,” Loop told CleanTechnica. “We’ve had just shy of 50,000 people sign up to be notified when Loop launches so they can apply.” The company plans to launch in New York and Paris this May, with further plans to expand to London, Toronto, Tokyo and San Francisco within the next year. So now maybe you’ve thought about it a bit, heard the word ‘diapers’, and now you’re wondering about the practicality of handling hygiene items? They’ve thought of that. Engadget reports that Procter & Gamble, which has a 2% stake in Loop, has plans to use a durable bin for products such as diapers and menstrual pads, fitted with a carbon filter that will block odors until the bin is picked up for recycling and sanitized for reuse. The platform is run by the waste management company TerraCycle, and is making an effort to make recycling convenient and affordable. Because isn’t that really what’s holding the mainstream consumer back from recycling and reusing — convenience? Loop’s system makes it easy to be zero-waste, and for the small price of a refundable deposit fee. This concept isn’t entirely new, and many countries globally have some form of a deposit-refund system in place. This incentivizes and rewards recycling and deters people from throwing away or damaging the containers. However, Loop’s platform is exciting in that it is bringing together major brands and companies to take recycling to the people. We can’t wait to see Loop in action!

Buying toothpaste can raise all sorts of questions. Which brand? Do I want whitening? Are my teeth sensitive? Is plaque still a thing?   A question you may not ask yourself is why the toothpaste tube comes in a cardboard box. After all, the tube is what actually holds the toothpaste. It would be like putting shampoo or shaving cream into an additional package.   A Change.org petition is asking that same question while encouraging toothpaste manufacturers to ditch the cardboard box. The video above comes courtesy of Alan's Theory, a series of videos by a man named Alan who "thinks a lot," makes videos about his thoughts and puts them on Facebook and YouTube. Alan's only been doing these videos for a couple of months, but his toothpaste-box video is already his most-watched on Facebook with 4.8 million views. In it, he asks why in the world toothpaste comes in cardboard boxes that are only going to be thrown away or — at best — recycled.   He explains that 900 million boxes of toothpaste are produced a year — his sourcing for this information, which isn't supplied in the video, is likely this Quora post, and its answer is based on a 2007 blog post. He says that it just seems particularly wasteful to do this on such a large scale for a product that doesn't require additional packaging. Perhaps it's because the packaging looks good on the shelf.   The video cuts to Iceland, where 90 percent of toothpaste is sold without a box, Alan says, though he doesn't cite a source for that statistic. The video shows store shelves with toothpaste tubes standing upright, held secure by a plastic tray in a branded cardboard box. Alan says this presentation is driven by the environmental awareness of Icelandic consumers, and he films Icelanders giving reasons to the camera.   Alan then encourages consumers to reach out to people they know in the toothpaste industry, to share his video with them and to sign the Change.org petition aimed at toothpaste manufacturers and individual brands as well as organizations like the United Nations and the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation.

Recycling the tubes and toothpaste alternatives

Toothpaste boxes do look good on the shelf, and it's almost certainly easier to package, ship and stock toothpaste that way. In the 1995 book "Waste Age and Recycling Times: Recycling Handbook," the editor explains that toothpaste boxes provide information about the product, serve a marketing function, protect the tube and prevent theft. The book also says the boxes are "often made from recycled paperboard," providing a market for wastepaper in addition to packaging for a tube.   It still seems wasteful, however. If corporations have found ways to make it work for a relatively small market — Iceland's population is around 350,000, per Iceland Magazine — scaling up such a process wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility, with a slow rollout to help consumers adjust to the new packaging.   Tackling the packaging of toothpaste is the low-hanging fruit of the discussion, however. Eliminating the packaging doesn't solve the fact that, using Alan's number, 900 million plastic tubes are going into landfills. It's doubtful that eliminating the packaging would offset the damage done by the tubes themselves after we've squeezed as much as we can out of them.   You can recycle the tubes (and your toothbrushes, for that matter), but it's not easy. Since products have to be cleaned before they can be recycled — this is why you can't recycle a cheese-riddled pizza box — it's unlikely you can just toss the tube in your city's recycling bin with wastepaper and glass bottles. There's still toothpaste stuck inside the tube, after all. Plus, toothpaste tubes are often more than one type of material fused together, and that requires special machinery to separate them. https://youtu.be/ZzhS73t9VO8 For a number of years now, however, Colgate and TerraCycle have worked together, offering a recycling service for all toothpaste tubes — any brand! — and toothbrushes. The irony in all this, of course, is that you have to put the tubes back into a box or envelope and mail them to the recycling location. Packaging, like life, always finds a way.   So what can you do if you really want to clean your teeth and keep the environment clean, too? Well, you can make your own toothpaste — MNN has three recipes for DIY toothpastes that are easy to make — and cut out the tubes and the unnecessary packaging entirely. Alternatives like like baking soda, charcoal, types of clay and even cinnamon can help, but they also have downsides. https://youtu.be/RLBDwNQzBDs You could also try something like Bite, a toothpaste-pill delivery service focused on making toothpaste healthier and more sustainable. You bite down on a cube, then brush with a wet toothbrush. Foamy toothpaste goodness occurs. The pills come in a recyclable glass jar and all the mail packaging is recyclable as well.   Whatever you do to green your oral hygiene, please keep brushing your teeth.