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Tide and TerraCycle Announce the Tide Eco-Box Recycling Program

Building on its commitment to developing sustainable laundry solutions, Tide is proud to announce its strategic partnership with international recycling leader TerraCycle. This will allow the new Tide Eco-Box packaging to be 100% recyclable from bag to box. The new Tide Eco-Box is designed to be environmentally friendly. Its new ultra-concentrated Tide formula is produced with 30% less water, and its package has 60% less plastic than the equivalent bottled size. The innovative boxed design doesn’t require wasteful secondary packaging and takes up less space than the equivalent bottle, which means fewer trucks needed to transport it to stores. “TerraCycle is the logical next step for us, because we want to ensure that not only is the product designed for more eco-friendly shipping and usage, but that every element of it is 100% recyclable, and recyclable through a very seamless process,” said P&G Brand Manager Isaac Hellemn. Through the Tide Eco-Box Recycling Program, consumers can recycle all of the packaging from the Eco-Box for free. Participants are invited to sign up on the program page at https://www.terracycle.com/en-US/brigades/tide-eco-box. Once finished with the Eco-Box, separate any plastic waste from the cardboard box and mail it in using a prepaid shipping label. Once collected, the plastic is cleaned and melted into hard plastic that can be remolded to make new recycled products. Additionally, for every pound of waste shipped to TerraCycle, collectors can earn $1 to donate to a non-profit, school or charitable organization of their choice. To recycle the corrugated cardboard box, participants can enter their address into the interactive map at terracycle.com and search for available recycling options, including TerraCycle drop-off locations and municipal recycling programs. “Each year, more than 79 percent of waste that ends up in landfills has the potential to be recycled,” said TerraCycle CEO Tom Szaky. “TerraCycle, in association with companies like Tide, works every day to reduce that number and integrate single-use packaging into new products.” The Tide Eco-Box Recycling Program is open to any interested individual, school, office, or community organization. For more information on TerraCycle’s recycling program, visit www.terracycle.com. About Procter & Gamble P&G serves consumers around the world with one of the strongest portfolios of trusted, quality, leadership brands, including Always®, Ambi Pur®, Ariel®, Bounty®, Charmin®, Crest®, Dawn®, Downy®, Fairy®, Febreze®, Gain®, Gillette®, Head & Shoulders®, Lenor®, Olay®, Oral-B®, Pampers®, Pantene®, SK-II®, Tide®, Vicks®, and Whisper®. The P&G community includes operations in approximately 70 countries worldwide. Please visit http://www.pg.com for the latest news and information about P&G and its brands. 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. To learn more about TerraCycle or get involved in its recycling programs, please visit www.terracycle.com.

Loop To Launch Zero-Waste Delivery Service In New York This Spring

TerraCycle Include USA P&G Loop

Did you get the memo? The milkman is back in style! Loop, a zero-waste, circular shopping platform that harkens back to the milkman model of delivered reusables, is set to launch this spring. Big brands such as Tide, Coca-Cola, Pampers, and Häagen-Dazs, among others, have joined the project and will offer their items on the platform.

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With more than 300 items available for purchase on the site, Loop will deliver your selected items packaged in refillable and reusable containers, made out of durable materials such as stainless steel or glass, and brought to your doorstep by UPS. The way it works is very similar to your average online shopping experience: create an account, add things to your basket, and purchase at checkout. There are no membership or subscription fees — the main difference from standard online shopping is that with Loop you are asked to pay a deposit. The deposit is fully refundable, and could be anywhere from $47 for a Pampers diaper bin or 25 cents for a Coca-Cola bottle. “The cost will vary per consumer based on what product they order, the deposit for the packaging and if they reach free shipping,” Loop told CleanTechnica. “We’ve had just shy of 50,000 people sign up to be notified when Loop launches so they can apply.” The company plans to launch in New York and Paris this May, with further plans to expand to London, Toronto, Tokyo and San Francisco within the next year. So now maybe you’ve thought about it a bit, heard the word ‘diapers’, and now you’re wondering about the practicality of handling hygiene items? They’ve thought of that. Engadget reports that Procter & Gamble, which has a 2% stake in Loop, has plans to use a durable bin for products such as diapers and menstrual pads, fitted with a carbon filter that will block odors until the bin is picked up for recycling and sanitized for reuse.

https://cleantechnica.com/files/2019/02/image2-8.jpeg

The platform is run by the waste management company TerraCycle, and is making an effort to make recycling convenient and affordable. Because isn’t that really what’s holding the mainstream consumer back from recycling and reusing — convenience? Loop’s system makes it easy to be zero-waste, and for the small price of a refundable deposit fee. This concept isn’t entirely new, and many countries globally have some form of a deposit-refund system in place. This incentivizes and rewards recycling and deters people from throwing away or damaging the containers. However, Loop’s platform is exciting in that it is bringing together major brands and companies to take recycling to the people. We can’t wait to see Loop in action!

Is there a reason toothpaste has to be in a box?

TerraCycle Colgate Include USA

Buying toothpaste can raise all sorts of questions. Which brand? Do I want whitening? Are my teeth sensitive? Is plaque still a thing? A question you may not ask yourself is why the toothpaste tube comes in a cardboard box. After all, the tube is what actually holds the toothpaste. It would be like putting shampoo or shaving cream into an additional package. A Change.org petition is asking that same question while encouraging toothpaste manufacturers to ditch the cardboard box.

The video above comes courtesy of Alan's Theory, a series of videos by a man named Alan who "thinks a lot," makes videos about his thoughts and puts them on Facebook and YouTube. Alan's only been doing these videos for a couple of months, but his toothpaste-box video is already his most-watched on Facebook with 4.8 million views. In it, he asks why in the world toothpaste comes in cardboard boxes that are only going to be thrown away or — at best — recycled. He explains that 900 million boxes of toothpaste are produced a year — his sourcing for this information, which isn't supplied in the video, is likely this Quora post, and its answer is based on a 2007 blog post. He says that it just seems particularly wasteful to do this on such a large scale for a product that doesn't require additional packaging. Perhaps it's because the packaging looks good on the shelf. The video cuts to Iceland, where 90 percent of toothpaste is sold without a box, Alan says, though he doesn't cite a source for that statistic. The video shows store shelves with toothpaste tubes standing upright, held secure by a plastic tray in a branded cardboard box. Alan says this presentation is driven by the environmental awareness of Icelandic consumers, and he films Icelanders giving reasons to the camera. Alan then encourages consumers to reach out to people they know in the toothpaste industry, to share his video with them and to sign the Change.org petition aimed at toothpaste manufacturers and individual brands as well as organizations like the United Nations and the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation.

Recycling the tubes and toothpaste alternatives

Toothpaste boxes do look good on the shelf, and it's almost certainly easier to package, ship and stock toothpaste that way. In the 1995 book "Waste Age and Recycling Times: Recycling Handbook," the editor explains that toothpaste boxes provide information about the product, serve a marketing function, protect the tube and prevent theft. The book also says the boxes are "often made from recycled paperboard," providing a market for wastepaper in addition to packaging for a tube. It still seems wasteful, however. If corporations have found ways to make it work for a relatively small market — Iceland's population is around 350,000, per Iceland Magazine — scaling up such a process wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility, with a slow rollout to help consumers adjust to the new packaging. Tackling the packaging of toothpaste is the low-hanging fruit of the discussion, however. Eliminating the packaging doesn't solve the fact that, using Alan's number, 900 million plastic tubes are going into landfills. It's doubtful that eliminating the packaging would offset the damage done by the tubes themselves after we've squeezed as much as we can out of them. You can recycle the tubes (and your toothbrushes, for that matter), but it's not easy. Since products have to be cleaned before they can be recycled — this is why you can't recycle a cheese-riddled pizza box — it's unlikely you can just toss the tube in your city's recycling bin with wastepaper and glass bottles. There's still toothpaste stuck inside the tube, after all. Plus, toothpaste tubes are often more than one type of material fused together, and that requires special machinery to separate them.

https://youtu.be/ZzhS73t9VO8 For a number of years now, however, Colgate and TerraCycle have worked together, offering a recycling service for all toothpaste tubes — any brand! — and toothbrushes. The irony in all this, of course, is that you have to put the tubes back into a box or envelope and mail them to the recycling location. Packaging, like life, always finds a way. So what can you do if you really want to clean your teeth and keep the environment clean, too? Well, you can make your own toothpaste — MNN has three recipes for DIY toothpastes that are easy to make — and cut out the tubes and the unnecessary packaging entirely. Alternatives like like baking soda, charcoal, types of clay and even cinnamon can help, but they also have downsides.

https://youtu.be/RLBDwNQzBDs You could also try something like Bite, a toothpaste-pill delivery service focused on making toothpaste healthier and more sustainable. You bite down on a cube, then brush with a wet toothbrush. Foamy toothpaste goodness occurs. The pills come in a recyclable glass jar and all the mail packaging is recyclable as well. Whatever you do to green your oral hygiene, please keep brushing your teeth.

Your recyclables can equal cash for SVE Schools

TerraCycle Include USA Brita ZWB Cliff Bar

Less trash for you equals money for the Spencer-Van Etten School District. That is, once you drop off your old toothbrushes, toothpaste tubes, chip bags, printer ink cartridges and a myriad of other items at any of the four convenient locations in SVE. Locations include Vibe Hair Studio located at 133 Route 224 in Van Etten, the Van Etten Library located at 83 Main St., and at Shurfine located at 15 N. Main St. in Spencer and the Spencer Library located at 41 N. Main St. And, as most of these items are not accepted for curbside pickup, you really will be lessening the amount of trash you’ll need to put out, as well as your contribution to humanity’s landfills. Terracycling (www.terracycle.com), something the SVE schools have been doing since the spring of 2008, has thus far netted $ 6,698 for anything related to students’ “Green Education”. Some of the programs and activities have included: guest speakers, Green Week programming each April, educational field trips and experiences, as well as supplemental classroom supplies and activities. And now, with the expansion of the program to include community residents without children in school, more items can be collected, further reducing the waste stream while making more money available to the SVE School District for continuing education. Consider saving and dropping off your items at any of the collection points noted. Waste items accepted for Terracycling include Brita Filters; chip bags – chips, tortillas, pretzels, pita, and bagel chips, soy crisps, and salty snack bags; cereal bags, plastic cereal bags from bagged cereal and liners; energy bar wrappers – foil-lined wrappers for energy, granola, meal replacement, protein, and diet bars; Cliff Products – SHOT, Twisted Fruit, Roks, Bloks and Gels wrappers; oral care items – toothpaste tubes and caps, tooth brushes, floss containers; personal care and beauty items – lipstick cases, mascara, eye shadow and liner cases, tubes, and pencils; shampoo and conditioner bottles, foundation packaging, body wash containers, soap tubes and dispensers, lotion dispensers, shaving foam tubes (no cans), powder cases, lotion bottles and tubes, chapstick tubes, face soap dispensers and tubes, face lotion bottles and jars, concealer tubes and sticks, lipliner pencils, hand lotion tubes, hair gel tubes. Not accepted are hairspray cans, nail polish bottles and nail polish remover bottles. For more information, feel free to contact Brenda Anderson, the SVE District Sustainability coordinator, at 589-7120.

11 Items You Didn’t Know You Could Recycle or Upcycle

TerraCycle Garnier Colgate Include USA ZWB

You’re already recycling paper, bottles, and cans, but there’s so much more that you can keep out of landfills. recycling, logo, recycle

Americans use a shocking 100 billion single-use plastic bags a year—a huge number of which make their way into combined sewage overflows and then on to the ocean, where they pollute global waters and kill upwards of 100,000 marine animals per annum, according to the Center for Biological Diversity. You can recycle these and other kinds of soft plastics like dry cleaning bags; find a location near you on plasticfilmrecycling.org. Make sure you know about these 15 things that should never go in the recycling bin. recycling, logo, recycle

Any house with kids is likely to have a never-ending supply of crayons, some of which are too short to use or quickly fall out of favor. Instead of sending these non-biodegradable items to the landfill, though, you can give them a new life and new purpose by donating them. Programs like The Crayon Initiative collect them to distribute to kids in hospitals. You can keep those old, dried-up markers out of landfills as well with the Crayola ColorCyclerepurposing program. recycling, logo, recycle

Eco-minded toothbrushes, made with sustainable materials like bamboo or with disposable, replaceable heads, are helping to keep some of the world’s 3.5 billion toothbrushes out of oceans and landfills every year. But you can do a more efficient job of disposing of the plastic ones too. A collaboration between Sam’s Club, Colgate, TerraCycle, and the Kids in Needs Foundation lets you send your old ones for free to be upcycled into other products. Don’t miss these other 41 ways to save the planet in five minutes or less. recycling, logo, recycle

Tossed batteries are an ecological nightmare, corroding as they sit in the landfill and leaching toxic chemicals into the soil and the air, according to experts. Although they can’t be recycled with regular household metals, there are plenty of places that accept them for recycling, including Staples and Lowes stores. Battery Solutions will accept old batteries through the mail too. recycling, logo, recycle

Your empty lipstick, concealer, and eye shadow containers are likely not accepted by your municipal recycling center. So what to do with these gloop-smeared bits of plastic when you’re done with them? Recycle Nation reports that many cosmetics companies are happy to take these tubes and cases off your hands—sometimes giving you a discount on future purchases—so they can turn them into new packaging. You can also send old packaging to TerraCycle through its collaboration with Garnier. On the other hand, these are 11 items you thought were recyclable but actually aren’t. recycling, logo, recycle

Almost everyone’s got a drawer in the house holding mystery keys they’ve been hanging on to for years. Rather than throwing them in the regular trash, Recyclebank recommends calling around to your local recycling center to see if they accept them. Most towns won’t take scrap metal in curbside programs, but they might have options for drop-offs. recycling, logo, recycle

In our increasingly disposable society, Americans generate close to 16 million tons of textile waste a year—a figure that seems to be growing and leads to a massive strain on landfills and the overall environment. The good news: Clothing and other textiles in good condition are upcyclable—take them to your local Goodwill or sell them to a consignment shop. TerraCycle sells boxes that you can fill with discarded fabrics, which the company will reuse, upcycle, or recycle. Learn more about what happens to your used clothing donations. recycling, logo, recycle

Livescience.com reports that almost 54 million tons of e-waste like old computers, tablets, TVs, phones, video game consoles get thrown away a year around the world. Luckily, centers exist widely that will take this stuff off your hands and break it down into usable parts for repurposing or recycling. Find a site near you by plugging in your state on E-cycling Central. A lot of these centers take CDs and DVDs as well. Just make sure you do this one thing before recycling an old phone. recycling, logo, recycle

Remodeling your bathroom? Believe it or not, many recycling centers will take your old toilet and turn it into the concrete that goes into local roads and sidewalks. Chasinggreen.org suggests calling around to facilities near you to see what the procedure is—you make have to remove the seat and any screws or bolts before they’ll take your toilet off your hands. recycling, logo, recycle

Lions Club has long set out bins in easy-to-find locations, where you can place donations of old prescription eyewear—according to greenamerica.org, the lenses are re-ground so they can be donated to people in need. The site points out that many eye doctors’ offices collect used glasses as well. Check out these other 12 simple ways to reduce waste—and save money. recycling, logo, recycle

It’s inevitable—every winter you unpack the holiday decoration boxes, untangle the strings of white and colored lights, only to discover that at least one strand of them has gone dead. Programs abound for recycling them, and some even reward you with discounts or gift cards. You can find a list of possible drop-off spots at houselogic.com. Read on for 30 ways to recycle just about anything.

Your Ultimate Guide to Recycling

Include USA Febreze Tide TerraCycle Hit

Make your recycling efforts go further – and make a difference for our planet – with our easy tips. A lot of us already set aside plastic milk jugs, glass bottles and old newspapers for the recycling bin. But with Earth Day approaching, it doesn’t hurt to ask: Could we all be doing more? A lot of times, our good intentions to help the planet are thwarted by recycling incorrectly or simply not knowing what can be recycled. If you’re looking to pitch in more – or even to just get started! – check out our easy-to-follow tips. Start at the Supermarket Assess your shopping habits and think about the items you buy that produce the most waste. Look at foods packaged in unnecessary plastic wrap or products in needlessly excessive packaging. Be more mindful and decide if there’s an eco-friendlier way to purchase what you need. For example, you can buy loose fruit and vegetables instead of pre-packaged ones. If you’re stumped about how to recycle certain essential items like empty detergent containers or used air fresheners, check out TerraCycle, an innovative recycling company that specializes in recycling hard-to-recycle waste and offers a number of programs and initiatives to make the process easier. For instance, Tide laundry detergent bottles and caps and Febreze FABRIC, ONE, PLUG and CAR products are all fully recyclable through TerraCycle drop-off locations around the country, and they also offer an at-home recycling program for these products. Know How to Recycle Plastic Bags Shoppers worldwide use 500 billion single-use plastic bags each year, which often become part of the estimated 5.25 trillion pieces of plastic debris floating in our oceans today. Because they take so long to break down, they repeatedly contribute to the more than 100,000 marine creatures that die each year after getting tangled in plastic. You might already know the impact that discarded plastic bags have on the environment, but did you know that they usually can’t be processed by regular recycling plants? Instead, separate plastic bags from the rest of your recycling and drop them off at a special plastic bag collection point – most grocery stores have them. Make Your Morning Coffee Offer(s) you can use near 10001 New York, NY (Change) You’re probably conscious of everyday recycling at home, but sometimes that mindset gets pushed aside when you’re out and about. Most disposable coffee cups, for example, are lined with polyethylene, which makes them nonrecyclable. It is estimated that every minute more than 1 million disposable cups are tossed in the trash. Invest in a reusable coffee cup instead, and use a drop of Dawn dish soap to wash it after every use so it’s ready whenever you need it. Repair, Share and Reuse Sweden is leading the way in recycling – it has sent only 1 percent of its waste to landfill since 2011. Much of their success comes from the Swedish ethos of miljönär-vänlig – a play on the Swedish words for environment and millionaire that suggests people can save cash as well as the environment by making, borrowing and recycling. Internalize this idea and repair any damaged clothes, or have a dress swap party with your friends so your unwanted garments can find a new wearer. You can also extend the life of your clothing by washing it with Downy fabric conditioner, which helps prevent pilling, stretching and fading in fabrics. And think of crafty ways to use items you’d otherwise toss: Jam jars can be turned into candle holders, and old tights can be used to store onions. Wash and Squash By cleaning your recycling before it goes in the bin, you reduce contamination and improve recycling efficiency. First, scrape off or remove any food leftovers or liquid. Then add a drop of Dawn dish soap and a small amount of water to containers and jugs, and swish vigorously for a few seconds before rinsing. Crush metal cans and squash plastic bottles to squeeze out any excess air, and flatten cardboard boxes. Think Beyond Paper, Tin and Glass Before throwing out an item, consider whether it can be recycled. Mattresses are full of valuable materials and can be dropped off at your local recycling center, along with many small electrical appliances. Look for battery recycling boxes in your area, and ask your local optician’s office about recycling old reading glasses. Wrapping paper can be recycled as long as you remove the sticky tape and it doesn’t have foil or glitter on it. Unfortunately, broken drinking glasses can’t be processed with your empty jars because the glass melts at a different temperature, and mixing in broken glass with recyclable glass can cause the whole container to be rejected. Instead, check with your local recycling center if you’re unsure. Are you a recycling superhero saving the planet one recycled item at a time? Let us know your best recycling tip in the comments section below!

Subaru of America Announces Recycling Milestone

TerraCycle Include USA ZWB Subaru

Subaru of America announced that it has recycled one million pieces of waste through the automaker's ongoing Subaru Loves the Earth recycling program, created in partnership with TerraCycle. "This milestone means a lot to us at Subaru because it reinforces our belief that loving the environment means more than loving the great outdoors," said Alan Bethke, senior vice president of marketing for Subaru of America, in a statement. "Through our partnership with TerraCycle, in less than a year, more than 540 participating Subaru retailers located across the country have recycled more than one million pieces of waste. This partnership allows Subaru owners and the communities that our retailers serve to actively participate in preserving the environment and making the world a better place."

Utilizing TerraCycle's Zero Waste Box platform, participating Subaru retailers encouraged customers, employees and community partners to recycle waste streams that are commonly thought of as hard-to-recycle,including snack wrappers, disposable cups and lids, and coffee, tea and creamer capsules. In addition, Subaru emboldened customers to enhance their own commitment to sustainability by collecting these waste streams at their home or office and bringing them into a local participating Subaru retailer. The collected waste is then turned into useful, high-quality recycled products, like park benches, picnic tables and playground materials and donated to Subaru community partners. Subaru retailers also can view and order products made from the recycled materials through an exclusive Subaru product line, produced in conjunction with TerraCycle.

"At TerraCycle, we are committed to ensuring that waste continues to be diverted away from landfills and local communities," said Tom Szaky, TerraCycle CEO and a 2019 Waste360 40 Under 40 Awards recipient, in a statement. "Subaru not only shares that commitment but has taken it to the next level by spearheading a program that collects and recycles waste that they don't manufacture. Subaru is a model for other companies that want to give back and preserve the environment." The partnership with TerraCycle's Zero Waste Box program is part of the larger Subaru Loves the Earth initiative, which is dedicated to preserving the environment. The automaker's commitment to preservation is one part of the Subaru Love Promise.

3 new frontiers for pet food premiumization

TerraCycle Include USA

3 new frontiers for pet food premiumization

To evolve, pet food brands may want to pursue more sustainable proteins, value for money and customized pet food formulas.

The pet food market, especially in developed regions, owes its ongoing growth in large part to premiumization, or consumers buying higher-priced pet foods sporting label claims such as natural, grain-free and high meat or protein, said Jared Koerten, head of pet care for Euromonitor International. These products traditionally have been sold exclusively in the pet specialty channel, but their expansion into mass market outlets, often at lower prices, is changing premiumization’s effect on pet food. Yet premiumization is evolving, Koerten believes. During the American Feed Industry Association’s 12th Annual Pet Food Conference, held February 12 in conjunction with the International Production and Processing Expo in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, he presented three new frontiers that pet food brands may want to pursue to continue to grow and succeed: ethics, sourcing and sustainability; value for money; and customization and personalization.

Pet food premiumization history, short-term prospects

Euromonitor has identified premiumization as a global “megatrend” for nearly all consumer products, Koerten said, and it definitely applies to pet food. From 2013 to 2018, the average global price of pet food increased 18.5 percent, to nearly U.S.$3.50 per pound. Yet overall pet food growth is slowing in developed markets, partly due to “mass premiumization.” For human food, one of the new frontiers of innovation is organic, which has experienced 8.2 percent compound annual growth (CAGR) since 2013, but pet food has not kept pace, according to Koerten. Instead, much of the short-term innovation in pet food seems to be coming from new formats and processing technologies like cold-pressed, air-dried, freeze-dried, oven baked and frozen. He also named humanized formats such as filets, purees and soups/broths. The three frontiers for pet food premiumization that Koerten presented look out 20 to 30 years.

1. Ethics, sourcing and sustainability

Though Euromonitor does not track ethical label claims on pet food, its data for human foods show increasing sales for claims related to sustainable sourcing, animal welfare, clean label, religious labels and sustainable packaging. Globally, nearly 65 percent of consumers say they try to have a positive impact on the environment through everyday actions, he said. For pet food, this could manifest through sustainable proteins, recyclable packaging and even food miles (local sourcing of foods and ingredients), Koerten suggested. Traditionally, pet food was very sustainable in that it used by-products from the human protein stream. Now, with humanization and demand for “human grade” meats, a conflict has arisen. So, the industry is and should be looking at alternative proteins, Koerten said, including insects, vegan options and MSC-certified fish proteins. Some companies are also already investing more heavily in recyclable pet food packaging. Mars Petcare just began a recycling program with TerraCycle, he said, while Nestle is launching a packaging research institute.

2. Value for money in pet food

As middle classes continue to grow in emerging markets, they will also continue to become pet owners or trade up from table scraps to commercial pet food, or from economy brands to mid-priced ones, Koerten said. He described Asia as ground zero for this growth, presenting data showing rising CAGRs through 2023 for mid-priced and premium pet food categories in Asia and falling CAGRs for economy-priced. (Earlier in his presentation, he identified Asia as a new pet food frontier on its own because of its robust growth.) The key, Koerten explained, is that these newer pet owners can find value for their money, and that concept definitely appeals to people in developed markets, too. “People globally like finding bargains,” he said, pointing out the success of “off price” retail outlets in North America like Nordstrom Rack, TJ Maxx and Aldi, plus Lidl in Europe. With pet food, this is happening with premium private label, which is growing more than twice as fast as premium branded products, according to Koerten: from 2013 to 2018, sales of premium private label pet foods had a 14.5 percent CAGR, compared to 6.5 percent for premium branded products. Part of the mass premiumization effect, this is reshaping the pet food market in the U.S., pushing traditional mass brands to go more natural and premium with their legacy brands.

3. Pet food customization and personalization

Koerten described a progression of pet food, from specific formulas – life stage, small breed or breed specific, condition specific – to therapeutic diets sold through the veterinary channel. The next step in the evolution appears to be formulas customized for individual pets, many offered online. It’s a small but growing category, he said, especially among millennials and younger consumers. As it continues to grow and price points come down, the category will likely be even more attractive to younger pet owners, Koerten said. Even brick-and-mortar retailers are bringing in customization, he added: Petco now has JustFoodforDogs exhibition kitchens in some of its stores, and in Finland, a pet retail chain called Musti ja Mirri developed a loyalty program for dogs themselves – not their owners. A dog enrolled in the program wears a smart collar that is recognized as soon as the dog walks in a store, where staff greet the dog personally, give it a personalized treat and shower it with attention. This is one of the next frontiers.

Middleburg Battles, Recycles Cigarette Butt Litter

TerraCycle Include USA cigarette recycling

Visitors to Middleburg might notice streets that aren’t as littered with cigarette butts as there were in previous years. Since last year, the town has encouraged smokers to dispose of their cigarette butts in special receptacles that it installed on the sides of trashcans along Washington, Federal and Marshall streets. The town’s maintenance department collects the butts and hands them over to the Go Green Committee to be shipped to TerraCycle, an international waste management company that has recycled nearly 58 tons of cigarette waste since 2012. Councilman Peter Leonard-Morgan, the committee’s Town Council liaison, said the initiative to clean the town’s streets of cigarette butts kicked off in spring 2017, after volunteers for the town’s bi-annual cleanup event reported finding hundreds of them in the roads, sidewalks, parking lots, bushes and storm drains. “By the time I was done picking all those up, I was kind of thoroughly grossed out,” said Lynne Kaye, the town’s sustainability consultant and a Go Green Committee volunteer. Kaye said that after that experience, she went online to find out more about the hazards of littered cigarette butts and came across TerraCycle’s recycling program. Following a trip to Niagara-on-the-Lake, Canada, where she noticed cigarette-recycling receptacles attached to trashcans, Kaye proposed a town partnership with TerraCycle—something George Mason University and Northern Virginia Community College are also doing. Last spring, the Town Council approved that partnership and the $2,135 purchase of 13tube-shaped receptacles, which measure a little more than a foot in height, attach to the sides of trashcans across town and were halfway funded by a Virginia Department of Environmental Quality Litter Prevention and Recycling Grant. Almost a year later, Middleburg’s cigarette butt recycling program is a well-oiled process that’s working to rid the town of potentially toxic cigarette filters, which are made of a non-biodegradable plastic that can contaminate the water system when washed into storm drains. According to the Clean Virginia Waterways nonprofit, one cigarette butt is enough to contaminate two gallons of water.

“Once those cigarette butts get littered, they sort of never go away,” Kaye said. Twice a month, Maintenance Superintendent Tim Cole collects the butts from the receptacles and hands them to Leonard-Morgan, who sends them off to TerraCycle every few months. The company then separates the components. The paper and tobacco are composted into soil or fertilizer. The filters are melted into a hard plastic, which is distributed to different manufacturers to turn into products like shipping pallets, ashtrays and park benches. “It’s amazing what they can pull out of these little filters,” Leonard-Morgan said. TerraCycle publicist Alex Payne said that the town has sent in 7 pounds of cigarette butts. “This may not sound like much, but it’s fairly significant considering Middleburg’s size,” he said. Moving forward, Leonard-Morgan said that aside from the committee posting about the initiative on its Facebook and Instagram profiles, there’s not too much it can do to encourage smokers to stop snuffing their cigarette butts out on the ground, since the practice has virtually always been accepted in most societies. “It’s been happening for a hundred years,” he said. “It’s very hard to get people to stop doing that.” Kaye said that the town would work to attract more attention to the initiative and discuss with business owners the possibility of installing their own cigarette butt recycling receptacles. “The biggest challenge is getting people to use the receptacles,” she said. “We really want people to know they’re there and to use them.” pszabo@loudounnow.com