Local musicians are invited to attend a free recycle and restring event at Village Music Shoppe in Mastic Saturday, June 3 at 12 p.m. Sponsored by D’Addario, musicians can bring any old instrument strings for recycling and get their electric or acoustic guitars restrung with D’Addario NYXL or Nickel Bronze Acoustic strings. Old strings collected during the event will be recycled through Playback, D’Addario’s free, national recycling program.

What began as a watershed victory for environmental activism has grown into a month-long observation of global proportions: April 22nd’s Earth Day has expanded into the April-long Earth Month. Since Earth Day’s origin in 1970, the month of April has continued to be an important time for environmental action, observation, and celebration. The campaigns and initiatives slated for this April have the chance to make long-lasting and considerable impacts, galvanizing activists and conscious consumers into action. See if you can get involved with some or all of the initiatives, events and activities scheduled this Earth Month, and get your family, friends and community to join you.

March For Science

A variety of collaborative international conservation and environmental efforts occur throughout Earth Month each year, using April as a time to heighten public awareness of environmental issues and the need to create realistic, actionable solutions. This year, in the wake of the U.S. presidential election and increased global political activism, there are more opportunities than ever for people to have their voice heard, the old-fashioned way. In over 300 cities across the world and in Washington, D.C., The March for Science is a series of rallies and marches set to be held on Earth Day, April 22 to celebrate science and safeguard the scientific community. Inspired by the 2017 Women's March of January 21, 2017, The March for Science is an international, non-partisan event for scientists, science enthusiasts, and concerned citizens in favor of scientific evidence-based policymaking. You can find a satellite march near you here.

Tom’s of Maine Less Waste Challenge

Manufacturers and major brands are increasingly stepping in to invest in the next generation of environmentalists. This coming Earth Month, we are working with our sponsorship partner and natural care brand Tom’s of Maine to help support their second Less Waste Challenge, which last year saw thousands of individuals and families pledge to reduce a collective 130,000 pounds of waste from their everyday lives. Toys are a waste stream that children understand, adding an element of engagement that brings complex waste management issues to their level. This year, Tom’s of Maine will not only continue to share expert tips and waste-reduction strategies on their program landing page and social media platforms, but run a toy recycling program through TerraCycle during the campaign. Consumers will be able to download a free shipping label directly from the program landing page to solve for old toys. Make the pledge here.

D’Addario Recycle and Restring Events

Did you know that musical instrument strings are not recycled through municipal recycling programs? It is estimated that more than 1.5 million lbs. of instrument string metal could be put into landfill every year. This April, musicians nationwide are invited to attend a free recycle and restring event at their local music supply store.  Sponsored by D’Addario, the instrument manufacturers, musicians can bring any old instrument strings for recycling and get their electric or acoustic guitars restrung with D’Addario NYXL or Nickel Bronze Acoustic strings. Old strings collected during the event will be recycled through Playback, D’Addario’s free, national recycling program powered by TerraCycle. Find your nearest recycle and restring event here.

This year was one of historic significance. The global community had a front-row seat to developments on the world-stage of international politics, the movements of which have implications for this coming year and all those to follow. More connected by technology than ever, the world’s citizens engaged in discussions of pressing issues like human rights and environmental sustainability, speaking to an increased willingness to convert values into action.   At TerraCycle, 2016 notched a decade and a half of dedication to the circular economy, corporate social responsibility and the renewal of the world’s finite resources.  Through free recycling programs, custom recycling solutions and partnerships with some of the world’s largest companies, TerraCycle so far has engaged more than 60 million people to recycle in 23 countries, diverting nearly 4 billion units of difficult-to-recycle waste from landfills and incinerators and raising $15 million for charity.   Milestones this year include the launch of new programs that marked the first time TerraCycle has recycled in their respective categories. Henkel, a leading global manufacturer of industrial adhesives, including the LOCTITE® brand, became the first company to offer a recycling solution for anaerobic adhesive packaging. The main challenge with recycling the polyethylene [PE] plastic bottles and the reason they are not accepted by the conventional waste management infrastructure is due to the residual adhesive. Learning about the adhesives and how they cure allowed us to develop a solution and recycle this category of material for the first time.   The year also saw us finalize a partnership with SUEZ, one of the largest waste management companies in the world. Through the deal, SUEZ can bring TerraCycle’s consumer-facing programs to its customers in France, the UK, Belgium, Finland, the Netherlands and Sweden, and we gain access to perhaps the world’s largest sales force dedicated to the circular economy.   Recyclability is among the top purchase drivers for a range of consumer products, and finding new ways to engage consumers and end-users on our programs adds value for current and potential partners. Instrument string manufacturer D’Addario this year launched their Recycle and Restring events, which bring recycling into local music stores across the country, showing communities what sustainability could do for them. Open Farm’s #RecycleWithOpenFarm contest and Tom’s of Maine’s Green Your School Fund (a nationwide school science competition on which I had the pleasure of judging) were social media activations that demonstrated the power of digital eco-activism and its latent ability to bring people together over sustainability and CSR.   Unprecedented sales in our Zero Waste Box division showed that consumers are increasingly willing to pay a premium for sustainable goods and services, include those which solve for waste. Consumers enjoy the convenience and innovation of this turn-key recycling solution, and some companies (like paper shredders and waste management entities) have begun using the platform to expand their portfolio of services, diversifying their offerings and scaling for growth by piggy-backing on their own route logistics.   As it stands, waste is a negative value commodity: people pay to have it taken away. TerraCycle is in the business of solving for waste by not only capturing this refuse, but bringing value to it so that people will pay for products made out of recycled materials. This year called for a massive expansion of our international sales force to answer a growing demand for circular solutions at all levels of consumption, making for our most profitable yet. The challenge in 2017 will be to continue nurturing this market to ease the strain on the Earth’s resources and move us towards a more sustainable, circular global economy. 

Recycling is the most accessible and easily understood aspect of environmentalism and sustainability. An eco-conscious practice often learned in childhood, the habit (or lack thereof) is passed down to us by our role models, parents and guardians, an action we are exposed to alongside taking out the trash. The concept of recycling may be an implicitly understood process explicitly enforced by some mandated guidelines, but do consumers still care about recycling? If you want to figure out what people care about, see what they spend their money on. It’s no coincidence that some of world’s most admired companies are sustainability stars; a majority of consumers see recyclability as the most important factor in choosing eco-friendly products. In a survey conducted for Packaging Digest’s 2015 Sustainable Packaging Study, 57% of participants cite a product’s recyclability to be top of mind when it comes to the environment and sustainability, a product featuring recycled content and reduced packaging coming up for second and third place. Now representing a quarter of the entire U.S. population with an influential $200 billion in annual buying power, Millennials in particular increasingly report a willingness to pay a premium for products and services that come from companies demonstrating a commitment to sustainability. Where consumers feel responsible for purchasing products that are good for the environment and society, they also believe that businesses should be very or extremely responsible for implementing programs and working to improve the environment. Americans now expect food and beverage brands to be engaged in increasing the rate at which their packaging is recycled, 68% of whom think that manufacturers and or retailers should bear the cost of recycling programs if they are not readily available to consumers. Consumers also report that they would recycle more if given better indication of product recyclability and if given the chance to earn cash or rewards. At TerraCycle, we work with a number of companies and brands on a mission to solve for their previously unrecyclable product and packaging waste throughsponsored recycling programs. By putting forth the resources to collect and process the potentially valuable component materials that fall outside the scope of the current municipal recycling infrastructure, they divert waste from landfills, as well as incentivize consumers. For example, D’Addario, one of the largest instrument string manufacturers in the world, sponsors Playback, TerraCycle’s Instrument String Recycling Program with TerraCycle. Calling upon consumers to “Offset Your Set,” the program is free to any individual, school or musical organization and solves for old and broken instrument strings, regardless of brand. Consumers are rewarded for each minimum shipment of strings with either a cash donation to the D’Addario Foundation or Playback loyalty points. Incentivizing recycling in this way is empowering and creates positive reinforcement for sustainable behavior. To the average consumer, some of today’s most pressing environmental issues can seem a bit abstract. Topics like natural resource depletion, global warming and water contamination can be intimidating, and their solutions even more so. The individual impact of eco-conscious behaviors like choosing to bike or carpool to work and voting against fracking may not be immediately quantifiable, and therefore immaterial. But person’s impact recycling can be measured in increments of every unit of waste individuals don’t place in the trash bin. Recycling is a behavior, and the conscious decision to engage in actions such as separating household waste into different bins, holding on to plastic and glass beverage bottles when in public, or participating in a TerraCycle recycling program has an immediate consequence that is experienced first-hand. Recycling affords the individual a direct proximity to the cause and effect of sustainable activity, empowering them to see the action as valuable, important and worthwhile.

Local musicians are invited to attend a free recycle and restring event at Town Center Music in Suwanee Saturday, October 22 at 12:00 p.m. Sponsored by D’Addario, musicians can bring any old instrument strings for recycling and get their electric or acoustic guitars restrung with D’Addario NYXL or Nickel Bronze Acoustic strings. Old strings collected during the event will be recycled through Playback, D’Addario’s free, national recycling program. Playback is the world’s first instrument string recycling program, launched through a partnership between D’Addario and international recycling company TerraCycle. The program is a part of D’Addario’s Players Circle loyalty program, and allows registered users to recycle their used strings in exchange for extra Players Circle points. Musicians attending the recycle and restring events will receive a code at the event, redeemable for extra Players Circle points. Points can be used towards merchandise or donated to the D’Addario Foundation, the company’s nonprofit organization supporting music education in underserved communities. "It's a great feeling to do something you love and do good for others at the same time,” said Town Center Music’s Aaron Brown “Matching our 'Will Restring for Food' event with a string recycling event is a great opportunity to make progress in two areas that are important to Town Center Music: environmental sustainability and lending a hand to those less fortunate. And where else can you turn four cans of food into six guitar strings?" Town Center Music is Gwinnett's premier independent music store providing top-quality instruments, accessories, & lessons to the North Atlanta area. We believe that life is meant to be lived, coffee now, and music is the most important 'useless' thing in the world. We offer instruments and service you can't find anywhere else, carefully curated to give you a musical experience that goes off the beaten path. D’Addario has been consistently committed to the environment, working to reduce their company’s packaging waste and use the most environmentally responsible packaging available on the market. Their partnership with TerraCycle allows them to further reinforce their role as an environmental leader in the music industry. TerraCycle is a global leader in recycling typically non-recyclable waste, working with companies to implement recycling initiatives and finding solutions for materials otherwise destined for landfill. Musicians interested in recycling through Playback can visit http://www.daddario.com/playback.

Local musicians are invited to attend a free recycle and restring event at The Music Store in St. George Friday at 3 p.m. The event is sponsored by D’Addario & Company, Inc., the world’s largest manufacturer of musical instrument accessories marketed under several product divisions. Musicians can bring any old instrument strings for recycling and get their electric or acoustic guitars restrung with D’Addario NYXL or Nickel Bronze Acoustic strings. Old strings collected during the event will be recycled through “Playback,” D’Addario’s free, national recycling program. Playback is the world’s first instrument string recycling program, launched through a partnership between D’Addario and international recycling company TerraCycle, a global leader in recycling typically non-recyclable waste, working with companies to implement recycling initiatives and finding solutions for materials otherwise destined for landfill. The Playback program is a part of D’Addario’s Players Circle loyalty program and allows registered users to recycle their used strings in exchange for extra Players Circle points. Musicians attending the recycle and restring events will receive a code at the event, redeemable for extra Players Circle points. Points can be used towards merchandise or donated to the D’Addario Foundation, the company’s nonprofit organization supporting music education in underserved communities. D’Addario has been consistently committed to the environment, working to reduce their company’s packaging waste and use the most environmentally responsible packaging available on the market. Their partnership with TerraCycle allows them to further reinforce their role as an environmental leader in the music industry. The Music Store is Utah’s premiere full-service music shop. The Music Store is passionate about providing a world class selection of instruments, accessories and information to fellow music lovers.  Vocal and musical instrument lessons are offered by trained and certified professionals. Musicians interested in recycling through Playback can visit the D’Addario & Companywebsite.

The Music Store in St George is hosting a free guitar string recycling event to recycle old and used guitar strings Friday, October 7 at 3:00 p.m. Musicians can bring in their old strings for recycling, as well as get their electric or acoustic guitars restrung with new strings, furnished by D'Addario, for free. Details about the instrument string recycling program can be found: http://www.terracycle.com/en-US/brigades/daddario-playback

Local musicians are invited to attend a free recycle and restring event at James Hood Guitar Repair this Sunday, Sept. 4. Local musicians are invited to attend a free recycle and restring event at James Hood Guitar Repair in Carlsbad on Sunday, September 4 at 3 p.m. Sponsored by D’Addario, musicians can bring any old instrument strings for recycling and get their electric or acoustic guitars restrung with D’Addario NYXL or Nickel Bronze Acoustic strings. Old strings collected during the event will be recycled through Playback, D’Addario’s free, national recycling program. Playback is the world’s first instrument string recycling program, launched through a partnership between D’Addario and international recycling company TerraCycle. The program is a part of D’Addario’s Players Circle loyalty program, and allows registered users to recycle their used strings in exchange for extra Players Circle points. Musicians attending the recycle and restring events will receive a code at the event, redeemable for extra Players Circle points. Points can be used towards merchandise or donated to the D’Addario Foundation, the company’s nonprofit organization supporting music education in underserved communities. Founded by James Hood, James Hood Guitar Repair’s mission is to be the premiere guitar and amp repair center in North County and beyond by way of exceeding each client’s expectations from initial consultation to well after the repair, service, purchase or modification through service, knowledge transfer, and recommendation. TerraCycle is a global leader in recycling typically non-recyclable waste, working with companies to implement recycling initiatives and finding solutions for materials otherwise destined for landfill. Musicians interested in recycling through Playback can visit http://www.daddario.com/playback. For more information on the recycle and restring event, please contact: 208-522-8691.

D'Addario is excited to announce that they will be the official string sponsor of this year's Lockn' Festival. As a part of this sponsorship, D'Addario has teamed up with Lockn' to request the artists and musicians to save all their used strings for the month leading up to the festival to bring and deposit them in one of the D'Addario Playback string recycling containers located throughout the backstage area. D'Addario artists participating in the festival as well as this initiative include Umphrey's McGee, MMJ, Moon Taxi, Gary Clark Jr, and more. As the world's largest maker of instrument strings and accessories, D'Addario has been a pioneer in sustainability for decades. From environmentally responsible packaging to a robust tree re-planting program, D'Addario is elevating our environmental commitment even higher in 2016. Introducing Playback, a safe and independent way to recycle and upcycle instrument strings. Currently, municipal recycling systems in the United States do not accept instrument strings because of the metals and alloys they are made from, leading to approximately 150 million pounds of strings in the landfill every year. However, with D'Addario's Playback program - in partnership with TerraCycle - you will now be able to recycle your used strings. Not only will Playback reward players for recycling D'Addario strings through our Players Circle program, but Playback also accepts all other string brands as part of this global program. Other events where D'Addario has partnered with this initiative, and had string recycling bins available, include this year's Bonnaroo, Telluride, and WXPN's XPoNential Music Festival. In additional to their environmental efforts at the festival, D'Addario will also be hosting the co-presented Relix/Lockn Friends & Family BBQ on Sunday night, August 28.

The free event allows people to bring in their old strings for recycling "and get their electric or acoustic guitars restrung for free," according to a press release.