•Gillette Razor Local Recycling Solutions – Businesses, gyms, colleges, cities and community organizations are invited to become public drop-off points for the Gillette Razor Recycling Program. Participants interested in becoming a drop-off point are invited to sign up on the program page https://www.terracycle.com/en-US/brigades/gillette-local-recycling. After acceptance to the program, they will be sent an exclusive razor recycling bin developed by TerraCycle and Gillette. Once full, they can simply seal and return the bin to TerraCycle via UPS and a new one will be sent back to them. The address listed in the account will be posted on the publicly available map of local recycling solutions on the Gillette Razor Recycling Program page.

New Loop circular platform promotes reusable consumer product packaging

BRISTOL - The students of Mountain View Elementary School need a new playscape and Principal Mary Hawk wants your help.   Hawk said the school has signed up for an online contest where people can vote daily for their favorite school to win new playground equipment.   Colgate, ShopRite, and TerraCycle, a recycling company that specializes in hard-to-recycle waste, are running the contest, in which one school can win a colorful new playscape made from recycled materials, with a retail value of $55,000.   The prize for the first runner-up school is a village playhouse and slide made from recycled materials, with a retail value of $25,000.   The second runner-up school will get a ShopRite gift card for $1,250. The next six runner-up schools will each receive a ShopRite gift card for $150.   The recycled materials used are oral care waste, according to the contest website. These consist of toothpaste tubes and caps, toothbrushes, toothpaste cartons, toothbrush outer packaging, and floss containers, which are shredded and melted into hard plastic that can be remolded into new products.   The regional contest is running now through June 30, when the winners will be announced. Mountain View is the frontrunner.   There are two ways to help Mountain View.   1. Vote for the school daily at the contest website https://www.terracycle.com/en-US/contests/colgateshopriteplayground2019.   Participants can vote daily using and every separate email address counts as a vote. The first vote will require you to confirm your email to make the vote count. After that, each vote is a click.   2. Send Mountain View your oral care containers to recycle.   Each vote will count as one Playground Credit and each unit of used, post-consumer oral care waste will count as one Playground Credit. A “unit” is defined as 0.02 pounds of used, post-consumer oral care products and packaging.   The kids are all bringing in their used toothpaste tubes now, and they’re getting a good message about recycling as well, Hawk said.   If people want to donate their recyclable dental materials, they can just bring it to the school anytime during the school day, she said. “We would love to have other people in the community contribute, that would be wonderful.”   Hawk said if a dental office, nursing home, hospital, or any organization that uses dental supplies wants to donate, “we will go pick it up from them.”   Mountain View has been looking to replace its rusting, corroded playscape since 2017 when Pete Fusco, director of grounds, did an inspection and declared it unsafe. The pre-kindergarten kids have their own playground, which is usable, but the older students just have hopscotch, basketball courts, and other games painted on the blacktop nearby.   Right now there is just a pile of dirt where the old playscape was behind the school. It was 30 years old and was attacked by vandals at night, leaving sharp jagged holes. Hawk said it would have cost as much as $10,000 to repair.   Tabacco & Sons Builders volunteered to remove the pieces and bring them to Liberty Recycling, but in the end the school didn’t even get money from the scrap metal because there was so much cement attached to it, she said.   Since then, the school has been fundraising for a new playscape, she said. “They’re are just incredibly expensive. They range from $40,000 to $120,000, so it’s a monumental task to try to raise all the money.”   Mountain Drive isn’t the only local elementary school in the contest. Ivy Drive, South Side, and Stafford are too, though they are farther down in the competition: Ivy Drive is currently at seventh place, South Side is 19th, and Stafford is 21st.   “But they already have playscapes,” Hawk said. “We just have a pile of dirt.”   Susan Corica can be reached at 860-973-1802 or scorica@bristolpress.com.  

Local musicians are invited to attend a free recycle and restring event at Dietze Music on Saturday, April 6, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.     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

"Instrument strings have been a huge waste for us in the past, and it's great that D'Addario has teamed up with TerraCycle to provide a program for dealers that confronts this issue,"

A new program from Mountain House allows you to send in your used Mountain House meals to be recycled. Mountain House recently partnered with TerraCycle in order to bring a free recycling program to Mountain House consumers in an effort to reduce waste and keep their meal pouches out of landfills.  

  You even earn reward points which turn into donations for a school or non-profit of your choice. This program is only open to the United States and pouches will need to have all food debris removed from them before sending. If you opt to wash or rinse out your pouch, you will need to make sure it has completely dried out before sending them in.

How to Recycle Mountain House Pouches:

1. Create a free account on TerraCycle.com and join the Free Mountain House recycling program.
2. Save your used Mountain House pouches instead of throwing them away.
3. When you are ready to recycle them, box them all up, log in to your TerraCycle account, click on profile & click “Get Shipping Label” to have a pre-paid shipping label emailed to you. Print off your pre-maid shipping label and attach it to your box.
4. Drop of your box at your nearest UPS store.

While you are at it, browse their other free recycling programs and join those whose products you use frequently. About TerraCycle TerraCycle is an innovative waste management company with a mission to eliminate the idea of waste®. Operating nationally across 21 countries, TerraCycle partners with leading consumer product companies, retailers, cities, and facilities to recycle products and packages, from dirty diapers to cigarette butts, that would otherwise end up being landfilled or incinerated. In addition, TerraCycle works with leading consumer product companies to integrate hard to recycle waste streams, such as ocean plastic, into their products and packaging. TerraCycle has won over 200 awards for sustainability and has donated over $25 million to schools and charities since its founding 15 years ago.

A new program from Mountain House allows you to send in your used Mountain House meals to be recycled.   Mountain House recently partnered with TerraCycle in order to bring a free recycling program to Mountain House consumers in an effort to reduce waste and keep their meal pouches out of landfills.   You even earn reward points which turn into donations for a school or non-profit of your choice.   This program is only open to the United States and pouches will need to have all food debris removed from them before sending. If you opt to wash or rinse out your pouch, you will need to make sure it has completely dried out before sending them in.  

How to Recycle Mountain House Pouches:

 

1. Create a free account on TerraCycle.com and join the Free Mountain House recycling program.
2. Save your used Mountain House pouches instead of throwing them away.
3. When you are ready to recycle them, box them all up, log in to your TerraCycle account, click on profile & click “Get Shipping Label” to have a pre-paid shipping label emailed to you. Print off your pre-maid shipping label and attach it to your box.
4. Drop of your box at your nearest UPS store.

  While you are at it, browse their other free recycling programs and join those whose products you use frequently.  

You know that clean beauty is good for you, but do you actually know what clean beauty is? It can be tricky to figure out, because “clean” and “natural” (the other word that's become ubiquitous in beauty marketing) can mean a lot of different things. That's because there's still no standard definition for these terms in the U.S. Perhaps renewed pressure will help move things forward. The Editorial Board of The New York Times recently made a plea for reforms, pointing out that the laws the Food and Drug Administration uses to regulate products and ingredients haven’t been updated since 1938.

1. It's important to read the labels—diligently

While we don't have crystal clear definitions, the word “clean” often means free of chemicals (like sulfates, parabens, and phthalates), and “natural” usually indicates plant-based ingredients (like jojoba oil or aloe), minerals (such as zinc oxide), and animal-based ingredients (like beeswax or milk). Despite those distinctions, the terms are frequently used interchangeably. (To avoid confusion, we'll stick with “clean” for the rest of this article.) It's not a perfect system, but checking your labels for these specific ingredients or lack thereof can help you figure out what's legit and what might just be lip service. Internationally, there are organizations that verify the source and quality of ingredients and certify natural and organic products, like EcoCert and NaTrue, which have official seals. There is also the International Standards Organization (ISO), which isn't a certifying body, but has developed consensus-based criteria for natural and organic cosmetics. The beauty brand Burt’s Bees has adopted the ISO standards, and as a result, the company is rolling out new product packaging that will list the percentage of natural origin on the front. Expect to see new, ISO-based ingredient claims (like “100% natural origin”) on your Burt’s Bees favorites, like the classic Beeswax Lip Balm shown above.

2. You can buy clean beauty products just about anywhere

Ten years ago, you couldn't just walk into any store and shop for clean beauty—you typically had to order from a speciality retailer and wait two weeks for your products to arrive by mail. Now, you can buy clean makeup and skincare at the same place you pick up toilet paper. Target has expanded its clean offerings over the last few years, and now carries dozens of clean beauty products under $15. Even CVShas taken steps to attract more ingredient-conscious consumers. They're in the process of removing parabens, phthalates, and formaldehyde from their in-house brands by the end of this year. Sephora recently rolled out a special “Clean at Sephora” seal to make it easier for shoppers to find items that don't contain iffy ingredients like formaldehyde and sodium lauryl sulfate. And if you're looking for luxury clean beauty products, you can't beat the selection at Credo.

3. You don't need to toss your entire synthetic stash immediately

If you want to go the clean route, you can ease into it by replacing one thing at a time. Mascara is a great place to start, as it's best to use a new tube every three months. (We're into the Burt's Bees Nourishing Mascara pictured below). Then, just keep exploring your clean beauty options and incorporating new discoveries as you see fit. Taking baby steps will help ensure that you find products you actually like.

4. Clean beauty extends to a product's packaging, too

Beauty shoppers aren't just paying closer attention to what their products are made of—they're also scrutinizing the packaging. Many veteran clean brands have been mindful of waste for years; the packaging and labels on Burt's Bees Lip Balms and Lip Shimmer are cellophane free, and the company uses an average of 52% post-consumer recycled plastics across its entire portfolio. Today, more and more companies are getting into sustainable packaging. The opportunity to buy a clean product that's also better for the planet is an added bonus for anyone who's really looking to make a difference not just for themselves, but also for the environment. When you're shopping, look for factors that impact how eco-friendly a product's packaging is, like whether it's made from recycled, biodegradable, or renewable materials. Once you're finished with a product, recycle it curbside whenever possible (just look for the recycling symbol on the back). Many smaller products (like makeup tubes and compacts) may be too small to be captured by conventional recycling equipment, but shipping those items to a company like TerraCycle, which specializes in hard-to-recycle waste, is a great option. Terracycle partners with beauty and personal care brands (including Burt's Bees) to take back empty packaging—and it won't cost you a dime.

Local musicians are invited to attend a free recycle and restring event at WIllis Music Company. Sponsored by D’Addario and 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.