FREE INSTRUMENT RESTRING/RECYCLING EVENT HOSTED BY HEID MUSIC

Local musicians are invited to attend a free recycle and restring event at Heid Music in Appleton, WI on Saturday April 6, 2019 from 11:00 AM - 4:00 PM. 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.

Keep Alachua County Beautiful began working with TerraCycle earlier this year, to recycle cigarette butts and install eight new receptacles downtown. For 30 years, Keep Alachua County Beautiful has collected cigarettes littering Gainesville streets. Now, for the first time, the nonprofit will recycle them. The organization started a new partnership with TerraCycle earlier this year, to recycle cigarette butts and install new receptacles. It has already installed at least eight in the downtown area. Gina Hawkins, the organization’s president, said cigarettes are the most littered item in the U.S. She believes a cleaner city will help stimulate more economic investment. “When people throw cigarettes, it sends a message to visitors and investors that this community doesn’t care,” Hawkins said. Any collected cigarette ashes, papers, plastics, filters and cartons will be sent to TerraCycle, a New Jersey-based company that offers free recycling programs funded by companies and manufacturers. The company will then repurpose the remains into other items such as hard plastic shipping pallets. For every pound of cigarette litter collected, the company will donate $1 to KACB’s parent organization Keep America Beautiful. The receptacles vary in size, but each one can hold approximately 10 pounds of cigarette butts. Sam Schatz, a sustainability intern at KACB who spearheaded the project, collects cigarettes from local restaurants and receptacles around town every day. People are more likely to properly discard their cigarettes in ashtrays provided by restaurants, he said. When restaurants and bars like Dragonfly Sushi and the High Dive partner with groups like KACB, it allows Schatz to recycle a larger amount of cigarette butts at a time. Mainly functioning off donations, the organization has installed new cigarette receptacles from a $5,000 grant it received from the state. Older receptacles, big plastic containers bolted to the ground at street corners, were vandalized, Schatz said. Oftentimes people have either disregarded them, knocked them over or tossed their cigarette butts on the street. These new receptacles are “drunk-proof,” Schatz said. Nailed to walls of buildings and made of stainless steel, the receptacles are much sturdier. He hopes that more people will be more likely to discard their cigarette butts since the containers are located at eye level. “This needs to happen because you live in the community and in one way, shape or another, you contribute to it,” Schatz said. Hawkins hopes that KACB will place receptacles in what she calls transition places, such as parking lots or hospitals, where people are more likely to discard their litter before they head indoors. Otherwise, chemicals from the cigarette litter run the risk of traveling into stormwater drains where they can get into creeks and rivers, she said. “It sounds so simple, but that litter has a huge impact when it blights a community,” Hawkins said.

DIETZE MUSIC’S FREE RESTRING/RECYCLING EVENT SPONSORED BY D’ADDARIO AND TERRACYCLE

Local musicians are invited to attend a free recycle and restring event at Dietze Music in Lincoln, NE on Saturday April 6, 2019 from 10:00 AM - 2:00 PM. 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.

The school entered a contest in which Colgate, ShopRite and TerraCycle give the opportunity to win a brand new playground made from recycle materials. The school can win a playground, village playhouse, a slide and gift cards. Mountain View School is now in second place.

The Entertainer has dominated toy headlines again this week – it really is on a roll at the moment. Fresh from last week’s acquisition of Early Learning Centre, this week saw the release of the retailer’s 2018 results – and a very positive set of figures they were too. Total sales climbed by 21.7% to £197m, while profit increased by 31% to £15m. When you take into account the current retail climate, this is a mightily impressive performance. The Entertainer has certainly come a long way since it first opened in 1980; its turnover in year one was a mere £100,000.   I was privileged to be the only journalist invited to attend The Entertainer’s internal business update at which the results were first unveiled, and there were some fascinating statistics beyond the headlines. Sales increases came across the board; stores achieved a like-for-like growth of 17.3%, while sales via its Tosyhop.co.uk website grew by 38% across the whole year and a massive 50% over the peak festive trading period. The deal with Matalan to curate its toy offering added £4.5m to the turnover, while international growth continued apace via 32 new store openings. The Entertainer is looking to open a further 27 stores in the international market this year, in territories including India, Malaysia and UAE. Its UK store opening target is slightly more modest – 12 new stores are planned over the next 12 months – which Gary Grant describes as “a prudent approach in the current climate. We need the uncertainty behind us.” That said, the Early Learning Centre deal will certainly boost The Entertainer’s UK presence; there is even talk of standalone Early Learning Centre stores returning to the High Street at some stage. In addition to new store openings, The Entertainer is also being given opportunities to relocate existing stores to better locations, as landlords acknowledge the positive impact its outlets can have on footfall. It’s great to see a specialist toy retailer thriving in a tough year for the High Street – long may it continue and let us hope that other toy retailers can also continue to buck the trend.   One toy brand which has continued its strong showing from 2018 is L.O.L. Surprise! (As a journalist, how annoying is that exclamation mark?). However, its stellar performance – along with that of the collectibles market as a whole – had started to cause a conundrum for some of the more environmentally-aware retailers. Clearly the huge numbers of dolls sold was generating a significant amount of packaging waste, and I started to receive emails from retailers last year, who admitted they were slightly uneasy about this. So it’s no surprise that this week’s announcement from Isaac Larian, confirming that MGA will be partnering with recycling specialist Terracycle on a global recycling scheme to address the excess packaging issue, has been warmly received. Hopefully now that MGA has taken the lead, it may encourage other toy companies to follow suit.   Another huge trend over the past year has been the addition of sequins to a wide range of toy products. This has come to the attention of the Administrative Cooperation Expert Group on Toy Safety within the EU Commission, which has issued guidelines that toy suppliers and retailers would do well to heed – you can read more about that here. Ty, which has been instrumental in popularising the sequin trend, has always been aware of the potential pitfalls. From the start, the company positioned its Flippables range and other sequin products as gift or fashion items rather than toys. However, some of the ‘tributes’ (ahem) that have subsequently jumped on the sequin bandwagon may not have fully considered the ramifications – that may change with this latest pronouncement.   The ongoing Debenhams saga shows no sign of either abating or reaching a resolution. Mike Ashley’s advances have been rebuffed on several occasions, with the latest subtle threat from the retailer – that it would consider putting itself into a pre-pack administration to avoid having to acquiesce to Mr Ashley’s demands – escalating tensions to a whole new level. The leak of this option also puts pressure on its lenders; if Debenhams can secure the £150m it is seeking from backers, a pre-pack administration would no longer be required. With a £50m quarterly rent payment due next Monday, Debenhams appears to be playing a game of brinkmanship which rivals our government’s Brexit strategy for bravado (or stupidity, depending on your perspective).   Disney has finally completed its acquisition of 20th Century Fox. I read a comment on LinkedIn which suggested the move had taken Disney “from a behemoth to a colossus.” It put me in mind of the latest series of Who Wants to be a Millionaire, and in particular the ‘fastest-finger-first’ opening round. If those descriptions came up as options, I would genuinely have no idea whether a behemoth or a colossus was bigger. Either way, while the deal will have a major effect on areas such as movies, broadcast and theme parks, I’m not sure it will have quite the same impact on the licensing business in the short-term. Other than The Simpsons, Fox has struggled with licensing in recent years; arguably, the acquisition just gives Disney an even greater number of middling brands to add to its already ‘full –to-bursting’ portfolio – just what licensees needed (not).   Finally, I’d like to congratulate Little Tikes on its 50th anniversary celebrations, and also the Playtime PR team on its fifth birthday this week. It’s nice to see both companies continuing to thrive and celebrating significant milestones – in Little Tikes’ case, literally, by turning its boardroom into a giant ball pit, with a giant slide set up to propel staff into the 67,000 balls below. I bet there aren’t too many industries where companies mark major anniversaries in such entertaining fashion….we’re already planning what to do to commemorate our 10th anniversary in a couple of years’ time. Watch this space!      

Including tips on how to recycle more than just plastic bottles.     Believe it or not, reducing the amount of trash you produce doesn't just positively impact the state of our landfills—it can also give your pocketbook a boost. Sure, it takes time to mend items that you can no longer use or to find new ways to repurpose them elsewhere in your home, but the end result is worth it. Recycling is one of the easiest ways to offset the amount of trash you produce and how much you throw out every day. If you simply can't reuse an item—be it old clothing or tarnished kitchenware—consider these six simple alternatives to sending them off to the landfill.  

Mend Your Clothing

In 1929, the average middle-class man owned six work outfits; the average woman, nine—all built to last. The typical American today buys six items of clothing per month. And we dump an awful lot, too: 84 percent of unwanted attire ended up in landfills or in an incinerator in 2012, according to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency data. To streamline what you own (and, ultimately, what you trash), invest in fewer, higher-quality pieces, and when they wear thin, repair them. The Japanese tradition of sashiko is a form of mending that announces itself with artful designs in white thread. The sewing technique leaves shirt plackets and pant knees thicker and more durable. If you don't want to DIY it, shop at retailers that make mending part of their ethos. Nudie Jeans, for instance, offers free repairs on every pair of its jeans for life. Patagonia does the same for all of its gear, in addition to providing repair instructions, selling used and recycled clothing, and even more through its Worn Wear program.  

Drop Off Plastic Bags

Did you know that retailers will actually take back the plastic bags you used to bring your purchases home? The ones that hold groceries, produce, and dry cleaning are all made of high- or low-density polyethylene, which most municipal recyclers can't accept. But many major retailers, including Target and Walmart, offer drop-off bins. Visit how2recycle.info to find participating stores.    

Start Using Refillable Containers

Back in the day, the milkman picked up empty bottles. We may soon be able to return ice cream and other containers in the same fashion, thanks to programs underway at Nestlé, PepsiCo, Procter & Gamble, Unilever, and several other companies. Together with Terra-Cycle, they're testing a website called Loop, where you can buy food and toiletries in glass, metal, and reusable engineered-plastic vessels and mail them back for more. Nespresso already has a program like this underway: Shoppers can return its pods in prepaid envelopes, where the aluminum gets recycled, and the grounds get composted.   In the meantime, try repurposing glass bottles and jars you have, filling them with food you make or buy in bulk, like grains and beans.  

Turn Denim Into Insulation

Take any stretched, faded, or outdated jeans to J.Crew, Madewell, or a Rag & Bone store. You'll get a discount on a new pair, and the discarded items will get transformed into home insulation as part of these companies' partnerships with Cotton Incorporated's Blue Jeans Go Green initiative.  

Recycle Your Makeup Jars

L'Oréal, Garnier, Burt's Bees, L'Occitane, and more beauty brands are working with the eco-ninjas at TerraCycle to upcycle as much as possible, including tricky mascara tubes. Go to terracycle.com to find a collection point near you (like local drugstores) and drop off your empty packaging. TerraCycle will take it from there.  

Get Composting

Got food scraps? Congratulations: Even in the city, you qualify to transform them into a fertilizer that can help feed the planet. Place fruit and vegetable peels, eggshells, tea leaves, paper tea bags, coffee grounds, and paper filters into an airtight countertop bin to put a lid on the smell—or keep it in a covered bowl in the freezer. Then, take your weekly bag to a municipal site or farmer's market stand, or start a pile in your backyard. Here's how you can get started.