Last year, Loop launched its revolutionary shopping platform anchored by reusable packaging. Here, Tom Szaky, founder and CEO of TerraCycle and the driving force behind Loop, provides an update on the platform and how it’s faring in light of COVID-19. Tom Szaky, founder and CEO of TerraCycle, Inc., and founder of Loop Packaging World: What progress have you seen with Loop since it launched last year in New York and in Paris? Tom Szaky: As you know, in May [2019], we launched in Paris with Carrefour and in the Northeast of the U.S. with Kroger and Walgreens. Those tests have gone incredibly well. The punchline is that all the retailers we’re working with are now working on going in-store. Carrefour will be the first retailer to put Loop in-store, which means really the retailer sells it [products in reusable packaging] in their physical stores, and there will be collection bins for the packaging at the store. Carrefour is going into stores starting in July, then 10 more stores in September, and then a much larger number at the end of the year. Kroger will be going in all Portland stores around September/October, and then more stores will follow. Walgreens too is making plans to go in-store in the Northeast. That has been a huge thing. Brands have been joining consistently and continue to join aggressively. We’re seeing really good rates of brands joining—on average, a brand every two days. We are also on track to be launching in Canada with Loblaw, in the U.K. with Tesco, with AEON in Japan, and with Woolworths in Australia, all in the next 12 months. I’d say it’s just off to the races, and we’re thrilled so far. It’s continuing, and it’s accelerating, even within the context of COVID. Actually, March will be the best-performing month to date so far. What have you learned through the pilot? The two biggest lessons by far are related to the three major stakeholders—manufacturers, retailers, and consumers—and then Loop as a fourth stakeholder. And what I’ve learned is that while they all see the benefits of reuse, they really want to try to make it as similar to disposability as possible. And noting that many other reuse models diverge from the concept of disposability, what has really resonated for brands is that they simply fill packages—the packages just happen to be durable versus disposable. Retailers just order the packaging in pallets and put it on their shelf, which is a very similar experience versus things that may be more disruptive in reusables, like refill stations. Then consumers just get to buy products and throw the packaging away—they just happen to be throwing it into a reuse bin, per se. That’s one thing: The desire of all stakeholders to have the convenience of disposable models is very, very high. Another key thing is we found that  shifting from disposability to reusability does bring a major sustainability benefit, but what has been interesting to learn is that what consumers like even more is how beautiful the packages have become, and that packaging beauty has also been a very big driver we didn’t expect before. I’m surprised to hear you say that March will be your biggest month so far, given that companies like Starbucks are banning reusable cups and some retail stores are banning reusable bags because of a fear of contamination with the virus. How do you think Loop has continued to thrive? It’s a very interesting question. I’ll give you the answer in two ways, if I may. The first is that you mentioned Starbucks, and yes, Starbucks has famously stopped accepting reusable coffee cups, and I think frankly, they made absolutely the right decision. And they did that I think because of three main things that are very different in an informal reuse system where a consumer is giving a cup to a barista versus a professional reuse system. In the Starbucks example, there are three things that are very different. One is there’s no dwell time. I could be an infected person giving my cup to a barista, and I’m giving it to them right away. There’s not a single second of dwell time. And there are many reports that show the virus can last maybe up to three days on the surface... . The second is that the barista does not have proper health and safety support, training equipment, or anything like that. They’re just a normal person in normal clothes. And then third, they’re not even cleaning the cup at all. So there’s no cleaning, no health and safety protocol, and no dwell time. In the professional reuse system, whether that’s Loop or whether that’s a Canadian beer [bottle] or Germany with beverage [bottles], which are all examples of very big national reuse systems, all three of those things are at play. There’s strong dwell time. We typically will take about a month before the package is clean. Two, there are major health and safety protocols because that was always a big concern, and we’re really pleased that our health and safety is so strong that nothing had to be upgraded once COVID came out. We were already thinking about really important health and safety measures. So all the team members who do cleaning are in full-body personal protective equipment. And that’s been the case even before COVID. The packaging is also cleaned in a proper cleanroom versus not even being cleaned, or maybe how a bar would clean your beer cup, with just a spray of water, or even like a restaurant doing it in the back of their kitchen. There’s an actual cleanroom environment. And then the third is that it’s being cleaned at very high standards with really sophisticated chemistry and technology. There’s a huge difference within reuse of how one reuses and what systems and measures are behind the scenes. And what’s been interesting is that with COVID, it’s still not even in the top-10 questions we get on customer service in any of the Loop deployment. Where I do get a lot of questions on reuse is in fact only from the members of the media. I say this with a smile and a joke, but I totally understand why you’re asking the question. But it’s interesting that it hasn’t come from the people participating. Do you think the growth of Loop right now is due to the fact that consumers are able to get their products without having to go to a store? And, do you think trend will continue, even after COVID is resolved? I definitely think that the growth is probably in some part linked to the general growth e-comm is having right now due to COVID—for sure. I don’t want to take entire credit that it’s just the platform, and I think the macroeconomic trends and how we are consuming are absolutely playing into it. The positive tailwind and just the general shift in consumption to online is definitely supporting the deployments we have of Loop today, which are mostly online. But do note that all the deployments coming up of Loop are in-store deployments. So we’re not necessarily an online play, we just happened to start online, and I think that’s an important distinction. But yes, today we’re seeing some nice tailwind just because of the way the models are set up today. I do think there’s this general question around the health and safety of reuse, as you just asked. And my hope is—so far so good—that people see the distinction in different reuse models, and that they’re not all the same. There’s a big difference between the systems behind them and how they operate. And during a COVID-type moment, which ones people should maybe temporarily stop using. Starbucks is a great example, and I really commend them for pausing. And really temporarily, by the way, I think it should come back after COVID is over. And then let’s see how much our life changes or not. There’s every sort of assumption. How much will we learn from this and how much will we change is unknown. I really hope, frankly, that we take a reflection that by slowing down the gears of the economy, the planet has improved greatly, from a pollution point of view. I have a funny feeling though, we won’t. We will simply try to work even harder to make up the time and revenue many companies have lost during this time. One thing I’ve seen with COVID is a lot of environmental groups saying that consumer brands are using it as an excuse to extol the benefits of single-use packaging, and that it will undo all the progress these groups have made. Do you think that’s true? Look, I think that I would answer it this way. I think that just like we commented, hopefully the world will reflect that slowing down the economy has made the world better from a climate change point of view and a pollution point of view. I’m sure you’ve seen lots of examples. I’ve seen a lot on my social media that are giving really objective feedback. Look at Italy before COVID, and the amount of emissions it was making during COVID is significantly down, and let’s see if people reflect on that. But that will be COVID creating an environmental improvement. I think on the other side, we are going to wake up to a heightened waste crisis, because people have been now purchasing way more disposable packaging, partly because we shifted our consumption say, away from restaurants and even more into packaged foods, and we will see a general increase in the waste crisis when this is over. I think that’s what we’re going to wake up to post-COVID: A better climate, but a worse environment from a waste point of view. And I think people will understand that it’s not the difference between disposable or reusable. Good packaging has good benefits. There’s really badly designed disposable packaging, and there’s really badly designed reusable, and vice versa. There is incredibly designed reusable packaging, and there’s incredibly designed disposable packaging. I think we shouldn’t necessarily link single-use versus multi-use to whether it’s well designed or badly designed. With the right systems in place, durable packaging can be more sterile or more clean than disposable packaging. Disposable packaging does have acceptable level of microorganisms on it. Yet when you go to a dentist office, and you get your teeth cleaned, they’re using metal tools that were used on hundreds of patients before you. And if they didn’t clean that to a surgically sterile state, that could be putting you at massive health and safety risk. Right? And we’re all totally fine with it. So this is this idea of single-use versus multi-use should be independently questioned from good design versus bad design, versus the cleanliness of the systems at play. They’re all independent concepts. I do understand completely why people link reusable to potentially greater risk, but I think it’s a misnomer. A disposable coffee cup sitting at Starbucks in an uncontrolled environment could collect a lot of dust and dirt and all sorts of other negatives. So these are unrelated questions. I do again, understand, but it’s weird. I’ll give you an example of the weirdness. Before COVID got really crazy, as it was just beginning, I was in an airport lounge, and there was a tray of apples, and they set a sign next to it saying, “To protect your health, each apple has been individually wrapped in Saran Wrap.” And I chuckled to myself and I was like, “Wait a minute. Okay, it’s lovely that they’re wrapped, but were they washed? Who touched them, and how did they touch them? Or did they just basically have a dirty hand?” It was a pesticide-laden apple, just being wrapped in Saran Wrap to make it seem better. So I don’t know, but I had a chuckle on it. I think there’s this weird psychological effect that’s not based in reality. And this is why I think the most important thing as anyone evaluates anything is to think about what are the systems behind it. And in a way, that’s where brands are very powerful. I trust, for example, that a Nestlé product has really good health and safety protocols behind it, just like someone who buys a Nestlé product on Loop should trust that Nestlé has evaluated the cleaning process and has signed off on it, or they wouldn’t put their brand on it. And not a single brand in Loop has asked us to do anything except continue to go. Do you think a reusable packaging program like Algramo where consumers use the same package over and over again is more prone to contamination? So here’s the difference. If you think about reuse systems, it all begins with a reusable package—a durable package. The real difference between any reusable system is not the package, but how the package is refilled. So I’d say Loop is a re-refill-for-you system. You throw it out, we pick it up, clean it, and then the manufacturer refills it, and it’s sold again. So let’s call Loop a re-refill-for-you system. We personally like it because it gives you the convenience of disposability. You can effectively feel disposable but act usable. Now, Algramo, which is a wonderful company, is a you-refill-for-yourself system, which is basically, you take it to a refill station, and they have a unique twist that their refill station can be static, but can also be mobile. It can be on wheels. And the consumer is charged with taking their package, cleaning it as they wish, and using it at the refill station. I think it’s important to note that they are not filling food products. They’re filling detergents, which have different health and safety protocols. I mean, they are literally cleaning agents. It’s not filling food. But one question that’s important to think about is what happens if a consumer who is sick—let’s just say with COVID or any other transmissible disease—is touching that package, and let’s say the virus or the bug can transmit onto the package, and what if the package then touches the refill station or any other aspect of it? And then a healthy person touches the refill station—maybe the walls of the refill station, it doesn’t have to be the nozzles, it could be any aspect of it—and it transmits? And I would say that’s the same as what happens if I should walk into a supermarket, and a sick person who had just looked at buying a can of pickles decided not to buy it and put it back on the shelf, and I picked it up a minute later. This is why Algramo is in no way different than a comparable example: If I’m sick and I evaluate a box of Cheerios and put them back, and you’re healthy and you pick it up a minute later. The same inherent risks are not more or less, right? So that would be my key answer. I think whether the consumer washes it themselves or not is not that relevant because the consumer is keeping the package for their own use. I think what’s really important is if the package goes from consumer A to consumer B, from consumer B to consumer C, and then from consumer C to consumer D, like Loop, then having a very strong cleaning protocol is critical. And I would in no way trust the consumer to clean the package. An example where I would be a bit more critical is there are a lot of reusable cup models where what they do is they have a float of coffee cups, let’s say between 10 coffee shops, and you can buy your coffee in a reusable cup, then you drop it off in a bin in the coffee shop, and then the coffee shop cleans it and then sells it again. Well in no way to disparage a coffee shop, I don’t trust a restaurant doing cleaning in a type of protocol that a big platform would. They would probably just throw it in their dishwasher. There wouldn’t be health and safety inspections, there wouldn’t be a cleanroom environment, which adds added health and safety. It’d be kind of the same as a restaurant setting though, wouldn’t it? It absolutely is. And during COVID, I would not eat in a restaurant and use reusable plates and forks. As soon as COVID is over, I would totally do it, because I don’t think we need to be as concerned post-COVID. Life was normal, and it worked just fine. And again, I think this is where we have to distinguish between today’s environment and a normal environment, and not assume that post-COVID we don’t go back to a normal state. I mean, most of our activities are very communal, and we’re sharing a lot of our microbes.  

While you are stuck in the house whether it be from coronavirus or spring weather, there are some great toys available to check out from ZURU toys. There are toys too perfect for backyard fun or to add to an Easter basket whether you have girls or boys there is something for everyone. I admit too I love all of these products and have played with all of them with my kids.   New for Spring from ZURU toys:     The original and best-selling water balloons let’s one fill and tie 100 balloons in 60 seconds now come with a spark of color! Each Bunch O Balloons stem will come with a completely new mix of multi-colored balloons. PS, In addition, all ZURU Bunch O Balloons products in the USA are fully recyclable through ZURU’s TerraCycle Recycling program. Ages 3+; SRP $6.99       At nearly six-inches long, the newly-sized MICRO revolver-style water blaster can be refilled with one hand in just one second! Simply pull the hammer down, dunk, fill and blast. It is the perfect back-up blaster in water fights anywhere. Ages 3+, SRP $10.99     At nearly 21-inches long, the newly sized Epic Fast-Fill is the must-have water blaster for any kind of water fight, anywhere. Holding up to 1250 ml – more than 5 cups of water! – the Epic also fills in one-second and comes with a robust pump-action feature that enables kids to blast up to nearly 34 feet. In addition, four different nozzles allow one to blast four different ways. Ages 3+, SRP $19.99   Looking for some little gift options or something instead of candy-filled eggs?       Smash open the NEW Smash Egg to find what’s crawling inside with over 100+ dinosaur characters to collect! Smash your dino smashers on the ground, to the wall or anywhere you can think and start building your Smashers collection today! The smashing will never end! Ages 4+, SRP $9.99. Available at Amazon and Walmart .       Unwrap the shrink-wrap and smash open the giant egg! Use the scratch n’ reveal map to start your journey and discover clues to find the fossils inside! Includes: Epic dino egg, dino scratch map, dino yolk egg bag, 5 compounds, digging tool, exclusive smash-o-saur, 6x smash eggs and smash egg rebuilder for tons more dino fun! Ages 4+, SRP: $24.99. Available at Amazon , Walmart and Target.         Here are some oldie but goodie fun toys from ZURU toys:             Cotton Candy Cuties look so real and smell so good! This latest innovative fun, fluffy slime is the new must have compound! This scented, squishy fun foam comes in four awesome colors. Cotton Candy Cuties items each contain a surprise Cutie inside! Combining two things girls absolutely love – fluffy, sweet smelling compounds and cute, collectible slow rise squishy toys. OOSH Cotton Candy SRP $5.99, OOSH Cotton Candy Cuties SRP $9.99 on Amazon and Walmart.        

Arbonne celebrates their 40th year in 2020. Recently, I reached out to CEO Jean-David Schwartz to get his thoughts and impressions of his first two years at Arbonne.   How would you sum up your first two years as CEO?   My first two years at Arbonne have been inspiring. Our community is so passionate and dedicated to our brand, and to meaningfully impact the lives of others in a very positive way. Their welcoming response to me came as a delightful surprise—it’s been a pleasure being on this journey with them.   How has your company vision evolved from Day 1 on the job to today?   The Arbonne DNA is steeped in the desire to create better options for people and the planet. This legacy is something that drives the Arbonne business forward and that has guided my vision from day one. Our journey to becoming a B Corporation brought about a change of mindset—one that will inform all our business practices moving forward—from the guiding principle of living wages, to the way we select vendor partners. We know it will effect change not only internally, but externally too.   What does success look like for you as CEO?   Success to me is marked by a flourishing community. Our mission is to empower people to flourish with sustainable healthy living. If we can do that through our offering and community then that would be success. Of course, results are important too and I’m happy to report that we’ve grown nearly 20 percent two years in a row. This growth has helped move our mission forward.   How are you delivering on your goal of working to evolve and expand the Arbonne brand?   We believe in a holistic approach to beauty, health and well-being, focusing on the whole person to help them flourish inside and out. As such, we are working on innovations and services that expand our current offering.      

When it comes to the company what are you most proud of?

I’m proud of so many things at Arbonne, chief among them would be our community. We have a passionate and inspiring community—our Independent Consultants, employees and expert partners that we work closely with—make me proud every day.  

What are you planning to do in 2020 to celebrate your 40-year anniversary?

We kicked off our 40th anniversary with our B Corporation certification announcement. This has been a journey for us and an achievement that we know we must work at every day to do better. We will continue the celebration throughout the year with activations, events and limited edition product.  

What are you doing to strengthen the customer and representative experience?

We are working on a new digital ecosystem that will be unveiled later this year. It’s a massive undertaking and something our team is working hard on in order to deliver a better experience to our Consultants, Preferred Clients and Clients. Better tools to help our Independent Consultants drive their business and make their communications more seamless is another area we are focused on.  

Please share with us your sustainability efforts that are making a difference.

As I mentioned, we recently became a B Corporation which is something that now informs all our business practices. We continually work to reduce our carbon footprint and earlier this year, we launched a recycling program in the U.S. called ArbonneCycle. Developed in partnership with TerraCycle to ensure that hard-to-recycle products are re-purposed into something brand new.  

Can you share how your brand focus ties into the mind, body and skin?

Our philosophy embraces the connection between a healthier mind, stronger body, and more beautiful skin. We are currently innovating more products and services that align with this focus.  

What are you doing from a training and onboarding perspective?

Our Independent Consultants are our lifeline and as such, we listen to their needs and continue to work on how we onboard, train and supply them with the tools needed to be successful. In order to maintain a consistent message across all Consultants we provide our field with resources and material which enable them to thrive in their business. We ensure that all our content is localized for each country’s needs to ensure each nation’s voice is authentic while monitoring the integrity of our brand.  

What are you laser focused on this year?

We have three key focuses this year—product, technology, and sustainability. First, we will continue to innovate—bringing to life products that are formulated with plant-based ingredients, grounded in science and clinical research with high standards of safety. From a technology standpoint, we are in the process of revamping our website for a better user experience. Lastly, we will continue to build upon our sustainability efforts—becoming more purposeful in everything we do, including championing integrity and transparency in order to become a more sustainable business.  

What are we doing well as a channel, and where do we need to improve from a customer acquisition standpoint?

We strongly believe in this business model. As people engage more and more on social media, we see the potential to share the business opportunity. We hope that by leading the way with integrity we can help cultivate excitement for the brand and how we operate. There has been a significant shift in our Consultant demographic as we see millennial Consultants enter the field due to the social selling format. We believe this new wave of Consultants will only strengthen our business as more and more people engage online.  

How do we continue to compete going forward against the likes of the gig economy and Amazon?

Our business model is unique in that we have a two-sided connection between the end consumer and the Consultant versus just the consumer and a corporation. This distinct factor of bringing a human connection to business is something that makes us different and what we want to build upon. Having an authentic relationship that goes both ways is special and fits into our purpose-driven point of view.   We will also continue to innovate and offer products and services that consider the whole person.  

What are you most excited about going forward?

  I’m most excited to see our brand continue to evolve with our newly updated mission. We believe that by filtering everything we do through the lens of our mission and values that we will change the way we are doing business and continue to innovate in order to make our mission of empowering people to flourish with sustainable healthy living truly a reality.  

What else would you like to share about Arbonne?

  In current uncertain times, where we are concerned about the planet’s future, a fragmented society, and the wellbeing of our families—Arbonne is a safe and welcoming community where people are prioritized.   As corporate companies, we all have a role that goes far beyond short term results. We have the responsibility to put people and the planet first, and to encourage our industry to do the same.  

Local musicians are invited to attend a free recycle and restring event at Dietze Music in Omaha on April 4th, 2020 from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm. Sponsored by D’Addario® and international recycling company TerraCycle®, 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.

It’s easy to toss plastic bottles and used paper into blue recycle bins, but when you want to step up your efforts, these school recycling programs are here for you! Whether you want to recycle bottle caps, juice pouches, or more, there’s an option below.   Many of these school recycling programs involve registering or signing up, which keeps you and your students accountable. And many of them reward you for your efforts—some even with cash or supplies! Some are contests that require creative thinking and teamwork. Whichever one you choose, everyone wins—especially the environment.  

1.  Help turn bottle caps into benches.

  Join Green Tree Plastics in their ABC Promise Partnership (a bench for caps). This exciting partnership requires registration where you pledge that children will be contributing and learning from this experience. Plus, set a goal weight for your students to work toward. For more insight into the program, take a peek at their Facebook page, Green Tree Plastics – ABC Partnership.  

2. Turn milk and juice cartons into garden structures.

  Register your school in the Carton 2 Garden Contest and commit to collecting at least 100 empty milk and juice cartons. Then get the creative juices flowing because the goal is to find a new use for the cartons by turning them into garden structures or other items. Document the entire process and submit your project—the grand prize winner receives a prize valued at $5,000! Receive lesson plans and tips when you complete registration.  

3. Make recycling fun with PepsiCo’s Recycle Rally.

  From engaging contests and rewards for schools to handy educational resources and fun ideas for recycling group activities, PepsiCo’s Recycle Rally has everything you need to take your recycling efforts up a notch. Free resources are available to all schools, but make the most of this school recycling program by enrolling as a Recycle Rally School. Once your school is up and running, track your recycling progress and earn points that can be redeemed for gift cards, supplies, and more.  

4. Earn points from TerraCycle.

  From household cleaners and cosmetics to food wrappers and baby food packaging, the recycling options through TerraCycle are endless. Search their available programs (be sure to look at which ones are accepting new participants), and find one that will be most applicable to your school, classroom, and community. The recycling you gather can be turned in to TerraCycle for points, and once you earn enough points, they can be redeemed for cash payments for your school.  

5. Compete for grants through Grades of Green.

  Register your school with Grades of Green to access clever and educational activities related to air, earth, energy, and waste. Plus semester-long virtual programs take your involvement up a notch. For example, the spring 2020 campaign is about reducing plastic. Teams are paired with a mentor and tasked with creating a campaign to reduce plastic, including the creation of a pitch video. The winning teams receive grants to fund their campaigns.  

6. Take ink cartridges and electronics back to Staples for cash rewards.

  If you’re frequently buying ink cartridges or other school supplies in bulk, it’s worth it to join the Staples rewards program. You’ll get $2 for every ink cartridge that you bring or ship back to Staples for recycling. Members also earn up to 5% back on in-store purchases. Every little bit adds up to major savings! Plus, it’s hard to know what to do with old electronics, but another program at Staples makes it easy. You can take any of your old electronics to a local store, no matter what condition they are in, and they will recycle it for you. This would be a great initiative to do to recycle old equipment at your school. Or you could offer to be a collection site for your community.  

7. Pop the tabs off aluminum cans and donate them to Ronald McDonald House.

  One of the easiest ways to encourage charitable giving and recycling in schools is by getting kids involved in a pop-tab collection program that benefits Ronald McDonald House Charities (RMHC). Set out containers in your classroom or throughout your school—maybe even turn it into a recycling contest between classrooms—and encourage students to collect tabs from family and friends and bring them to school. Please connect with your local RMHC Chapter first to ensure they accept pop tab donations. This is a great opportunity to help raise money for RMHC and teach kids about recycling!  

8. Host a shoe drive.

  Get in touch with Funds2Orgs to learn all about their shoe drive fundraising program and get signed up—you’ll even get your own fundraising coach to help you plan and prepare. The gently worn, used and new shoes you collect go to micro-entrepreneurs in developing countries who sell them to support their family. In return for your fundraising efforts, your school or organization will receive a check!  

9. Donate your used or broken crayons.

  Crazy Crayons offers a national Crayon Recycle Program for individuals and schools. Just send your crayons into the address provided, and they will turn them into repurposed, adorable crayon sets. You do have to cover shipping, but that’s a small price to pay for knowing your crayons aren’t sitting in a landfill.   Learn more about the PepsiCo Recycling program, Recycle Rally right here. You can get free recycling printables, games, resources, and more. Plus, you could earn recycling bins for your school! 

This year marks the 50th anniversary of Earth Day—celebrated annually on April 22.   Does your business honor the environment? Your sustainable business practices can also be an excellent business platform.   In fact, according to a 2019 CGS Retail and Sustainability Survey, nearly 70% of respondents consider sustainability at least somewhat important when making a purchase. Nearly half (47%) would pay more for a sustainable product.   Luckily, the optical industry is serving up an ever-increasing assortment of products that aim to preserve and protect our planet—so you can highlight eco-friendly options daily in your own business.   One big example that has the industry seeing green in more ways than one: Mazzucchelli 1849 has announced an industry-first collaboration with specialty plastics provider Eastman to produce Eastman Acetate Renew, a cellulose diacetate made via Eastman’s carbon renewal technology that contains 60% bio-based and 40% certified recycled content.   “Using Acetate Renew requires no performance sacrifice, meaning we can use it in our full range of premium designs,” says Giovanni Orsi Mazzucchelli, president of Mazzucchelli. Learn more at mazzucchelli1849.it .   Inspired? Turn the page to reveal a dozen more spectacularly sustainable products and initiatives, as we celebrate Earth Month in this special issue. —KERRI ANN RAIMO

Here’s an unusual business model: Encourage customers to copy your product and make more.   Bags by U is a youth group that sells fabric grocery bags and beeswax wraps — and helps people make their own. Its goal is to keep single-use plastics out of the ocean, and all of its proceeds go to environmental education and charity.   “The public should use them for reducing our single-use plastic and trash to reduce climate change and global warming,” says Sophia Morris, 14, who started Bags by U last year. “The true reason why I do it is because there are so many animals dying every year from water pollution, air pollution — all the pollution you can think of. It’s really sad.”   You can buy the produce bags and wax wraps online at rycyclebags.com or at The Recology Store, which has locations in Shoreline, Burien, Issaquah and Bothell. Beeswax wraps are $5 each, and bags are $8 each or 4 for $24. Bags by U also holds events where the kids bring sewing machines and people can make everything for free. Or go to BagsbyU.weebly.com for YouTube tutorials on how to make your own.   “It only turns out that we sell them because demand is high and not everyone wants to make them,” says RyAnn Morris, Sophia’s mom.   After coming up with the idea of making bags, Sophia and her mom took sewing classes and her grandmother bought her a sewing machine. Now Bags by U has two groups: The Burien group meets at her house, and there’s another group that meets at Queen Anne’s Cascade Parent Partnership, where she takes classes with other homeschooled kids.   “We started making them because I was inspired to try to get our family to be zero-waste and produce less trash in general,” Sophia says. “It was a step in stopping plastic pollution and getting a more healthy environment.”   The kids are using the money they raise to go on a Salish Sea expedition, and donating the remainder to The Ocean Cleanup.   Another big part of Bags by U is education. The kids make presentations about why environmental sustainability is important and teach people how to recycle properly.   “We’ll play a game,” Sophia says. “We’ll say, ‘Where do you think this goes?’ ” Start with a big pile of trash, and sort it into four piles: compost, recycling, TerraCycle and landfill.   The Bags by U kids also took a field trip to PCC Community Markets to see how they could shop zero-waste. They walked through all the departments of the grocery store with their own jars and bags to refill, and explored eco-friendlier alternatives like bar shampoo.   RyAnn and Sophia went through their whole house to figure out how to reduce their waste. They only use vinegar and baking soda to clean. When they’re out and about, they bring their own water bottles, coffee cups, bamboo silverware and of course, their own bags.

Now more than ever, it’s important to protect and preserve the environment with a cleaner, greener lifestyle. It’s as important to protect and preserve our skin. These products help you do both.

“I always have a pet peeve of when I watch period dramas where there’s never a hair out of place,” Jodie Comer said brightly, calling from a picturesque corner of France. It was exactly three weeks ago, and the 27-year-old had just wrapped another day on the set of The Last Duel, Ridley Scott’s upcoming project centered around a 14th-century clash, co-starring Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, and Adam Driver. “In those days, everything was a little bit more elaborate, but my character is very much a country girl,” Comer said, describing her on-camera coiffure—less labored-over than lived-in. “We’ve got all the lovely wispy bits. The ‘controlled mess,’ as we like to call it.”   Just days later—as the world took its own medieval turn, grappling with the newly declared pandemic—things felt decidedly less controlled. The film went on hiatus. Stores and restaurants shut their doors. Comer returned to England, to hibernate like the rest of us. But the actor’s work is not entirely on pause. Killing Eve, the cat-and-mouse series that she headlines alongside Sandra Oh, returns to BBC America ahead of schedule on April 12, to satisfy a newly captive audience. And today, Comer claims a new job title: global ambassador for the skin-care brand Noble Panacea.   “I’ve never imagined myself in this position,” Comer said, still marveling at the role. Since the line’s soft launch last fall, followed by a rollout via Net-a-Porter, Noble Panacea has proven to be an unconventional entry in the luxury beauty space, driven by science and sustainability. At the heart of the company’s formulations is a patented molecular framework—based on Nobel Prize–winning research by founder Sir Fraser Stoddart—that facilitates time-released delivery of active ingredients.   “They stand by what they say, and the proof is there,” Comer said, recommending her own secret weapon, the Overnight Recharge Cream: “You put it on, and you start the day off with a glow already.” It anchors the four-piece Brilliant Collection, geared toward a younger audience. The Absolute Collection, meanwhile, promises regeneration and extra nourishment for mature skin.   If the delivery system turns heads on the microscopic level, the more noticeable novelty is the packaging: single-serving sachets no bigger than a poker chip. The discs come with a collection envelope to facilitate easy return to Terracycle. “It’s a very conscious beauty approach,” added Comer, increasingly mindful of the way “we just consume, consume, consume.” It’s also convenient for frequent travelers—once we’re free to wander beyond our own homes again.   “I don’t know if you’re familiar with Liverpool, where I’m from, but Liverpool is the city of glam,” Comer said, explaining her introduction to beauty—the maximalist kind. She described the teenage ritual of getting a “curly blow” at the hairdresser’s, complete with round-brush styling and all-day rollers that “you take out at the last minute so your hair stays in longer.” She laughed at the memory of it all: the eyebrows that were “super heavily drawn on,” the big smoky eye, the obligatory contour. “I look back at pictures of myself, and I’m like, ‘Whoa!’” she said. “I respect my parents for just letting me get on with it!”   Season 3 of Killing Eve promises another take on all-out makeup: full clown regalia. “We shot that in Barcelona, so you can imagine the heat,” Comer said, joking about the hardship of giant floppy shoes. “I was kind of trying not to be a miserable clown through the whole couple of days that we shot that one—similar to Villanelle,” she said of her assassin character, who toggles between fearsome and impetuous. Comer posted a sneak peek of the clown makeup on Instagram, where—also like her alter-ego—she keeps her private life under wraps. “So much of what I do is so out there,” explained the actor, whose face is splashed across the April cover of British Vogue.   Maintaining social-media distancing is one way of setting boundaries—an ability she has come to admire in the “wickedly funny” Phoebe Waller-Bridge, who defined Killing Eve as the first season’s writer and showrunner. (In a twist, Waller-Bridge is set to turn up onscreen this season, playing a Villanelle victim.) “For me, Phoebe represents confidence, and I think that is incredibly attractive in a person,” Comer said, giving a shoutout as well to the London facialist they share, Jasmina Vico. Even with a skin-care hookup, it helps to have a professional look after one's complexion for the big screen.   That moment is slated to arrive with this summer's Free Guy, directed by Shawn Levy and starring Ryan Reynolds. “They are both incredibly fun and calm and nurturing,” Comer said of her introduction to the fast-paced action genre—challenging for the stunt work as well as the choreography. “You have to film things in sections,” she said, “so it’s stopping at points and then making sure that you pick up with the same energy.” That skill—to pause for an undetermined stretch of time and someday restart again—has never felt more necessary. In the meantime, a skin-care regimen that takes things day by day, with enough glow to wow a Zoom audience, is one way to see us through.

Many of us are familiar with recycling. Children are taught the three R’s in school, we ask “Where’s your recycling?” when visiting friends, and participate in municipal programs in an effort to prevent litter, save resources, and help the environment.   Recycling is an impactful habit that makes a difference every day. The challenge is that standard curbside recycling programs are incredibly confusing. What is accepted varies from region to region (even town to town!), very few items are accepted, and sources say much of what we try to recycle through standard programs nowadays gets tossed in the trash anyway.   Why are there so many obstacles to our items being recycled, and what can be done to ensure more products and packaging aren’t thrown “away” to landfills (essentially, land sites where garbage is dumped or buried) or incinerators (where garbage goes to burn)?   What is recycling?   For starters, let’s define what recycling actually is: the collection of discarded items (also known as “waste”) and their transformation into material for new products. Recycling reduces the use of new, “virgin” material and the need to extract additional resources from the earth.   There are many ways to use resources instead of throwing them away. However, unlike waste to energy (using discards as a fuel source for heat or electricity) or upcycling (changing the function of an item without breaking it down, also known as “creative reuse”), recycling breaks down recovered material to build it back into something entirely new. It’s kind of magical!   So, what’s the problem?   There are key ingredients to the magic of recycling that are essential to its success, and if one is missing, it falls apart. Even if something is technically recyclable (more on this shortly!), there are several steps between it being tossed and it being transformed into a new product.   Aluminum, for example, is endlessly recyclable with strong demand all over the world. However, when it comes to plastic, companies often go for new over recycled. That’s because oil is currently cheap, and recycling costs more money to collect, transport, sort, and process into a reusable form.   Generally, if these costs are greater than what a material can be profitably sold for (this is the case with most plastics today), it is considered non-recyclable. Above all, recycling is a function of supply, so if manufacturers aren’t buying recycled materials to produce new items, there is no end-market for the material, and public recycling programs for said materials don’t exist.   This has come into even sharper focus with the recent tariffs on foreign garbage in China and other South Asian countries, covered extensively in mainstream news. Western regions such as the United States had long been sending our recyclables to those countries to supply their manufacturing, and now that they aren’t buying, our “recyclables” have nowhere to go!   As a result, public recycling is a bit of a mess. Single-stream recycling programs (where all recyclables — paper, plastic, glass, and aluminum — are collected in one bin instead of separated) cause cross-contamination, and good-intentioned residents often resort to “wish-cycling” (or, aspirational recycling) because they don’t how for sure what is accepted.   Everything from car parts, bicycles, 5-gallon pails, garden hoses, working smartphones and laptops, even an actual German Enigma machine from World War II, have been extracted from recycling lines as a result of poor separation, another key ingredient to effective recycling.   Discouraged, confused, and, to no fault of their own, generally uninformed about the ins and outs of recycling, people all around the world say they recycle, and yet, the US recycling rate remains stagnant at 35 percent, reflecting a lack of participation in existing programs.   What can I do to recycle more?   Public recycling is economically motivated, so most common items don’t belong in your blue bin. However, TerraCycle® proves that everything is technically recyclable, including candy and snack wrappers, plastic packaging, shoes, razor blades, and old and broken toys.   Even the taboo, the “yucky,” like chewing gum, dirty diapers, and cigarette butts—the most littered item in the world and one for the largest sources of ocean plastic pollution— are recycled into formats manufacturers and brands use for new production.   Recycling always comes at a cost, and public recycling is funded by taxes. The way TerraCycle works around these limitations is through partnerships with conscious companies, who create first-of-its-kind National Recycling Programs, many of which are free for consumers to use.   For products and packaging that don’t have a brand-sponsored recycling solution, the Zero Waste Box™ system has you covered. This is a convenient and all-inclusive option for households, schools, businesses, facilities, and events looking to lighten their footprint.   Simply select and order a solution based on what you want to recycle, collect, ship back to us with a prepaid return label and reorder your next Zero Waste Box system to continue to recycle everything.   It is worth repeating that the key reason TerraCycle is able to recycle almost everything is the fact that someone is willing to pay for it. More and more, the world is waking up to the fact that public recycling is on the decline, so by creating access to solutions, TerraCycle aims to show the world the magic of putting more material to good use.   Here are some additional tips on recycling correctly through your curbside program:  

• The most important aspect of recycling correctly is knowing exactly what your municipality accepts. Don’t be a “wish-cycler”! Go to your municipality’s website or call or email them to learn more.
• To find out what type of plastic a container is made of, look for the Resin Identification Code (RIC) at the bottom: a triangle made of arrows containing numbers 1 through 7. These are NOT “recycling numbers,” of which there are no such thing, and they do not equal recyclability.
• Here are some examples of items that fall into the Resin Identification Code (RIC) categories:

  #1 PET Beverage bottles and personal care packaging. Widely municipally recyclable if clear or white.           #2 HDPE Milk jugs, shower gel bottles, cream tubs. Widely municipally recyclable if clear or white.         #3 V (Vinyl) Cosmetics containers, PVC piping, protective clamshells. Not municipally recyclable.         #4 LDPE Squeeze bottles and tubes, plastic films and bags. Not municipally recyclable.         #5 PP Shampoo and conditioner bottles and product tubs. Sometimes municipally recyclable.         #6 PS “Glassware” containers or protective packaging for fragile items such as cosmetics. Not municipally recyclable without a dedicated take back program.       #7 OTHER Multimaterial packaging, flexible plastics, bioplastic and compostable plastic. Not municipally recyclable without a dedicated take back or composting program.      

• Many municipal recyclers accept #1 or #2 white or clear bottles or jars (with caps, pumps, and spouts removed), aluminum containers, and clear glass with no attachments or added plastic. Again, this varies by region, so please check with your municipality for what is accepted.
• Colored plastic and small and complex items are generally non-recyclable.
• Nearly everything not accepted can be recycled by TerraCycle through Zero Waste Box.