Pittsfield, Maine has the Central Maine Egg Festival, replete with the world's largest frying pan. Gilroy, Calif., has the Gilroy Garlic Festival, featuring a Garlic Showdown. And Lafayette offers the Oatmeal Festival, which on Saturday celebrated its 23rd year.   But the long-lived tradition that began as a heart healthy study for Quaker Oats Co. was almost cut down in its prime in September, when star sponsor Quaker said it was pulling funding due to "tightening budgets and shifting priorities."   After a couple weeks of negotiations, the Lafayette Chamber of Commerce announced that the festival was back on with a blessing (and money) from Quaker.   "We're very excited that they came back," said Pat Vero, director of events and marketing for the chamber. "Obviously it was the outcry from the community that convinced them."   Vero said that many oatmeal devotees called and emailed the company after hearing about the kerfluffle with Quaker.   "Everybody was sad," Vero said. "A lot of people that come to this come every year."   In a statement from its media team, Quaker said it "is thrilled to continue to sponsor the Lafayette Oatmeal Festival, and we appreciated everyone's patience as we worked with the Lafayette Chamber of Commerce to evolve Quaker's presence at the festival.   "For 22 years the festival has been a vibrant celebration of all things oats, and as the leader in oats for more than 140 years, we are honored that you continue to welcome us into your community."   Despite being held the day after the first snow of 2019, the revived festival was still going strong, with more than 700 people signed up for the 5K run/walk. By 10 a.m., more than 1,000 people had walked through the doors of Pioneer Elementary for some of the 160 gallons of oatmeal served by local high school volunteers.   A new volunteer joined the crowd of teenagers this year. Rep. Jonathan Singer, D-11, came at 7:30 a.m. to help pass out ladled bowls of oats.   "I feel like it's a good way to meet the community," Singer said.   After receiving bowls of oatmeal, the crowd would into the topping room, where mother-daughter team Sue Dubach and Emma Donahue of Sage and Savor Catering in Boulder maintain order.   This year, Dubach said that some candy items were eliminated while basil and sundried tomatoes were added to the list of about 100 toppings. The basil, Donahue said, was a suggestion from Quaker.   Before she started working at the event 12 years ago, when she was still in high school, Donahue said she "didn't realize there was so many things you could put on oatmeal."   After so many years working the festival, she now prefers the pancakes.   Two surprising hits have been jalapenos and bacon. Dubach said they cooked 30 pounds of bacon this year — up from the 5 pounds when it was first introduced and went like hotcakes.   Hotcakes in the form of oatcakes were also served at the Oatmeal Festival, attracting many of the 5K runners after the race.   While waiting in line for an oatmeal muffin and oatcakes, Christine Roberts said it was her second time taking part in the 5K. She was worried when it was canceled earlier this year, she said, and excited when it came back.   "It's a great time to educate kids and families on clean eating," she said. Her kids also like oatmeal, she said.   Three-year-old Leo chowed down on his oatmeal this morning with his parents, JT and Katie Daiker. He topped his bowl off with fresh fruit and said his favorite topping was raspberries.   Katie Daiker said she thought an Oatmeal Festival was "a little unusual, but it sounded pretty fun."   Her family likes unusual festivals, she said, and participates in the annual Frozen Dead Guy Days in Nederland as well as the Lafayette Peach Festival. The amount of toppings at the Oatmeal Festival was most impressive to her.   "It's like froyo places, with all the toppings, but it's better than that," she said.   Once oat aficionados were down with their cakes and muffins and bowls, the Lafayette Waste Reduction Advisory Committee, in true Boulder County fashion, was waiting to take and sort their trash. Committee member Becky O'Brien said the program reached a 98 percent diversion rate last year and was on track to reach 98 or 99 percent this year.   Plastic is separated and taken to TerraCycle, a recycling company, and food is composted. The committee is also donating some leftover food to the residents of Josephine Commons, an affordable housing development for seniors.   Some food will also be fed to the pigs at 63rd St. Farm in Boulder, which are reportedly watching their cholesterol.   Madeline St. Amour: 303-684-5212, mstamour@prairiemountainmedia.com  

Lush is taking it all off with its newest Naked, a packaging-free store that teaches customers to use their phones to get all the information that used to come on labels.   The new store is opening in Manchester, U.K., later this month, and follows the launch of Naked stores in Milan and Berlin.   As consumers have become increasingly aware of just how ugly the beauty business can be environmentally, Lush is leveraging its pioneering status in the war against excess packaging. Some 50% of its products are already sold packaging-free, from bar shampoos to bath bombs to body butter.   But the Naked shops take the concept even further, introducing people to the #LushLabs app, which allows them to scan the product with the Lush Lens, giving them detailed ingredient information and directions digitally.   “We work in an industry where the packaging costs the customer more than the product,” says Mark Constantine, the company’s co-founder and managing director, in its announcement.   “Now, the customer needs to worry about how to recycle something they didn’t want to buy in the first place. This seems like a raw deal to us. If we can cut out all the plastic packaging, we can give our customers better value for money.”   Lush, which is based in Poole in the U.K., says its digital work is backed by the same ethical approach it brings to products like “Honey, I washed the kids” and “Cheer me up, Buttercup.” It says it is releasing work-in-progress experiments through the app, inviting the public to try and give open feedback on its development process through #LushLabs.   Other brands have also been intensifying efforts to lessen the impact of an industry that continues to crank out millions of plastic bottles, not to mention harmful microbeads and microplastics. Garnier, for example, partners with TerraCycle, focusing on consumers’ bathroom blind spots. It says 90% of packaging in people’s kitchens makes its way into the recycling bin, while just 50% of bath-product packaging does.   Lush says last year alone, its U.K. customers generated 89.8 million plastic-free hair washes.   The company’s U.S. spokesperson tells Marketing Daily that no stores are planned here yet, but says so far, it has sold “an incredible 1.3 million shampoo bars in North America alone, resulting in more than 4 million plastic bottles saved from potentially ending up in landfill and our oceans.”   It’s also introducing Lush's global Naked Skincare campaign, using a #LushNaked hashtag, highlighting the many naked products available in Lush shops worldwide, as well as a brand-new naked skincare line, including facial oils and cleansers in bar form.

Transformar a bituca de cigarro em adubo é possível e esse processo, bastante parecido com a compostagem de resíduos orgânicos, consiste em descontaminação, trituração e normalização e estabilização, a fim de neutralizar a carga tóxica da queima do cigarro para posteriormente aplicar no solo.

The new bar has a digestibility of greater than 90 percent. Guardian Pet Food Company has launched an innovative pet food in a highly digestible, convenient and portable bar. Guardian’s MoRE Canine Food Bar (a playoff of “Meal Ready to Eat”) is a 100% complete and balanced days’ worth of nutrition in a 2oz freeze-dried bar.   “We are very excited to be distributing Guardian in our East Coast markets,” said Antoine Seailles, Market Strategy Manager at Pet Food Experts. “Guardian’s MoRE bars are a unique product, that gives pet parents the ability to feed raw “on the go.” This partnership gives our independent retailers a new option for active, raw feeding pet parents.”   Independent third-party labs confirmed in vivo digestibility of greater than 90% (compared to industry average of just below 80%) as well as a nutrient dense 6,100 kcal/kg (industry average 3,500 for kibble and averaging less than 1,300 for “freshly prepared” meals). “We created our MoRE Bars using only ingredients from nature so it could be easily digested by dogs and cats,” said Dr. Ryan Yamka, co-founder and COO. “With targeted nutrition, dogs and cats will eat less and, in turn, put less out as waste.” Less waste is the genesis behind Guardian’s “Give us a week and we’ll give you back your yard!” campaign.   “We set out to create a different kind of pet food and to be a different kind of pet food company,” said co-founder and CEO Jim Galovski. “We focus on nutrition, not ingredients. We make products that address pet owner concerns like obesity, digestibility and convenience. Through our partnership with TerraCycle and B-Corp, we’re also taking on broader industry issues like sustainability and transparency.”   Guardian’s MoRE Canine Food Bars have an SRP of $4.99/2 oz. Bar. The company’s Whole Prey Treats for Dogs, a freeze-dried multi-component treat (available in Beef, Chicken and Turkey flavors) has an SRP of $8.99 for a 2oz pouch. Guardian’s products are distributed through Pet Food Experts and sold at independent pet specialty stores and on Guardian’s website (www.guardianbars.com).  

Many of us keep our blue denim until it is worn out with holes in the knees that are beyond repair and likely are destined for the trash. Fortunately, during the winter months of January and February, Teton Valley Community Recycling (TVCR) partners with Habitat of Jackson Hole to collect used blue denim no longer suitable for wearing or resale at the Thrift Store. Through the “Blue Jeans Go Green” program, your old blue denim will be upcycled into Ultratouch Denim House Insulation, some of which will be used in local affordable homes.   The TVCR Denim Drive will take place from January 1 through February 16. Please bring your clean blue denim to a collection point at the Geotourism Center in Driggs (open 24 hours) or at the General Laundry Company in Victor (open 7am-10pm). This is an annual recycling program that we offer every winter, so if you miss it this year, please save your blue jeans for next winter. For more information about the recycling process, check out bluejeansgogreen.org. You can also turn your old cotton clothes into household rags, or compost them when they are really worn out.   Valley resident, Simone Hunter, who installed Denim Insulation in her home over 13 years ago, says the product is absolutely wonderful. She chose it because it is non-toxic and reuses a waste product that otherwise might have ended up in a landfill. So, please, recycle your old denim! It can last for decades more as home insulation.   While you are dropping off old denim, take advantage of these same locations which are also TerraCycle collection sites to drop off your dental waste (old toothbrushes, toothpaste tubes, floss containers), cereal bags, contact lens & blister packs, deodorant or mouthwash containers, and any sort of foil bar wrapper. Thank you for recycling!!   If you have any questions or comments about recycling in Teton Valley, don’t hesitate to contact Iris Saxer at 206-484-7354 or email tetonrecycling@gmail.com.

Stop us if you've heard this before: In an effort to make your hair-care routine a little greener, you switch up your shampoo and conditioner only to find that the new stuff just ain't cutting it. What's an earth- (and beauty)-loving person to do? Thankfully, sustainable brands are stepping things up in a major way with products that are both effective and kind to the environment, the most recent example being Seed Phytonutrients, the farm-to-bottle beauty company that launched in April 2018 under the L'Oréal umbrella. In addition to officially hitting Sephora online and in stores, the green beauty brand is ringing in 2019 with a major expansion of their hair-care offerings, as Allure exclusively reports.   "We have a very clear understanding of what our community cares about, and how we bring value to their lives," founder Shane Wolf tells Allure. "One of the things that we heard very early on was this need — specifically within the hair category — for targeted solutions." Enter the brand's newest collections in the hair space, which address moisture, frizz, color, and volume, respectively. Previously, the brand shook things up (and left us just plain shook) with its original range of hair products, which includes a daily shampoo and conditioner encased in waterproof paper packaging. "Consumers were saying that they were so excited to have a new solution from a brand that is natural and sustainable," Wolf says. "They loved the idea, but they weren’t ready to — nor should they — compromise the needs of their hair."       Each of the four collections contains a shampoo, conditioner, and leave-in treatment (the last comes in a variety of formulations ranging from a texture mist to a smoothing cream). "When it came to the products, what our consumers were saying was that they were struggling to find something that was high performance but also clean and natural," adds Brad Farrell, Seed Phytonutrients' lead brand farmhand (for those wondering — yes, that's his official title). "For us, it was about figuring what we already did really strongly — our Daily Hair Cleanser was our number one product — but making it specified for different customer needs."   And in keeping with the brand's MO, the philosophy behind the launches was that no matter the hair concern, there's an organic seed oil that can help address it: The hero ingredient of the Moisture range is organic meadowfoam seed oil ("one of the most hydrating seed oils," according to Farrell), whereas organic raspberry seed (a natural antioxidant) and grapefruit oil make their way into the Color and Volume ranges, respectively. Organic jojoba and coconut oil from the Anti-Frizz range act as a natural alternative to silicones. The products have been formulated to suit a wide variety of hair types, with Farrell name-checking the Moisture range as the most versatile for textures ranging from kinky to straight.   Back to the packaging for a sec: Made in collaboration with Ecologic, the brand is taking its innovative, shower-safe paper bottles to a greener level using an impressive 70 percent less plastic than conventional designs. "By moving into this packaging, it was a disruption — and something that many people were experiencing for the first time," Wolf says of the I-can't-believe-it-doesn't-disintegrate material. "We were passionate about further improvement, and we will never stop pushing ourselves until we can ultimately eradicate plastics from the industry altogether." The brand has also been working closely with TerraCycle, a company specializing in hard-to-recycle materials, to ensure that elements like bottle pumps are also recyclable.     However exciting the newness is — and trust us, it is — that's not the only thing that's got Seed Phytonutrients hyped for the New Year. As previously mentioned, the brand launched at Sephora on January 1, with an in-store launch of select products following on January 11. As for how the partnership came about? Well, to say it was a natural fit is almost too on the nose, but the truth is that a lot of it had to do with the May 2018 launch of Clean at Sephora, the beauty behemoth's new category and standard of products free of ingredients like sulfates, phthalates, and more. "We have a very strong point of view when it comes to sustainability in beauty, and when we saw a retail partner [like Sephora] take an important, consumer-facing step forward [in supporting sustainability], my heart leapt," Wolf says of the announcement. "We really doubled down on our efforts then to make a connection with the team, and from the beginning, it was magic."

State regulations make it hard for cannabis companies to focus on sustainability. That doesn’t mean they’re not trying. Despite the bad press millennials receive, as a cohort they have committed to sustainability. A full 70% of millennials will pay more for products made sustainably, while 83% consider a product’s environmental or social impact before making a purchase. They are bringing that sense of responsibility for maintaining a livable planet to the cannabis industry which is populated with young, progressive entrepreneurs.   But while cannabis is a business based around agriculture, there aren’t clear rules for how to make it more sustainable. Because cannabis production and consumption have been illegal for nearly a century, there is limited data to support the design of best practices for the industry. And unlike other valuable agricultural crops, there has been virtually no publicly-funded research on how to produce cannabis most effectively and efficiently, nor which of the various cultivation methods has the smallest carbon footprint.   In fact, some current building and energy codes actually force indoor growers to use more energy than necessary with requirements that can be damaging to plants unless they use high-energy consumption mitigators. Indoor cultivation uses the least amount of water, a boon for water-poor states such as California. But it’s also the most energy-intensive growing method. For example, even before legalization, 1% of all electricity used in the entire United States was consumed by cannabis. Today, almost 4%of Denver’s total electricity usage can be attributed to the crop. But that energy use in part is the result of residential and commercial building codes which haven’t considered cannabis’ unique requirements. Codes that maximize insulation requirements and are designed to improve HVAC efficiency increase the need for air filtration and dehumidification for indoor growers, leading to increased energy consumption.   Many cannabis companies are doing their best to reduce their carbon footprint while continuing to meet local regulations. Some are switching to more efficient and ecologically sound methods, including LED lighting, solar power and water reclamation systems. State-of-the art greenhouses, that rely on technology to control everything from the amount and intensity of light to the ambient temperature and moisture level, are also helping with sustainability at the plant level.   Another way cannabis companies are hoping to become more sustainable is through packaging changes. To date, state regulators have been concerned with a contaminant-free supply chain, appropriate labeling and keeping cannabis products out of the hands of children. That’s led to state laws, such as one in Washington state, that mandates requirements such as every product being individually wrapped. So, multi-serving packages of edibles and concentrates must have each serving be self-contained. Bottles with liquid products must provide serving cups, such as those found with cough syrup, instead of simple hash marks on the bottle. Los Angeles mandates that so-called “exit bags” for edibles be made of unrecyclable Mylar.   Labeling requirements also contribute to the need for excess packaging. Despite its small size, an edible single serving in Washington state still must include two state-mandated caution logos, various written warnings and information on the licensees and product, not to mention any branding info the producer wants to include. In Massachusetts, wording on edibles labels must be at least 1/16^th of an inch, and include the patient’s name; the producer’s name, registration number, telephone, mailing address and website; the name of the product; the quantity of cannabis contained in the package; the amount of THC; a list of ingredients, including the cannabinoid profile; the date it was produced and its expiration date; plus seven other pieces of information. After that, each label also must include a 49-word warning statement, some of it in all caps.   Industry groups and producers are hoping technology in the form of QR codes, a type of matrix barcode which can be read by smartphones and stores URLs and other information, can help. While Indiana has not legalized cannabis, it does allow CBD products produced from hemp as long as they include QR codes. While a lot of data must still be printed directly on the label, Indiana consumers can find lots more info by scanning the code. Other states might soon follow suit, eliminating some of the excessive plastic required to cram all the mandated information onto each package.   At the same time, cannabis industry groups are taking the lead on sustainability, recommending the creation of packaging recyclingprograms, which offer small discounts to customers for returning bags and containers. They’re also searching for ways to incentivize producers and processors to switch to sustainable containers, including biodegradable hemp plastic. Trade groups such as the Cannabis Alliance, a non-profit dedicated to the advancement of an ethical and sustainable cannabis industry, are working to help find and develop compostable packaging. Companies such as TerraCycle are springing up specifically to deal with recycling cannabis packaging.   As cannabis continues to grow, and emerge from prohibition in more parts of the country, the industry will continue looking for ways to decrease its carbon footprint and working toward more environmentally sound packaging from the fields to store shelves.

Gottschalk Music Center invites you to attend a guitar restring and string recycling event on Saturday, January 19th, 2019! Collect your used strings (and from your friends and fellow musicians) and bring them to the store along with your electric or acoustic guitar. Your contribution of used strings qualifies you for a FREE set of D'Addario and Co. strings and a complimentary restring by our expert team. Choose wither a set of D'Addario's premium NYXL electric guitar strings or D'Addario's new Nickel Bronze acoustic guitar strings. We are looking forward to seeing you on Saturday, January 19th!

Gottschalk Music Center invites you to attend a guitar restring and string recycling event on Saturday, January 19th, 2019! Collect your used strings (and from your friends and fellow musicians) and bring them to the store along with your electric or acoustic guitar. Your contribution of used strings qualifies you for a FREE set of D'Addario and Co. strings and a complimentary restring by our expert team. Choose wither a set of D'Addario's premium NYXL electric guitar strings or D'Addario's new Nickel Bronze acoustic guitar strings. We are looking forward to seeing you on Saturday, January 19th!