TerraCycle announced recently the 2018 Save Water Garden promotion, the first-ever pledging contest with Colgate-Palmolive (“Colgate”), the global oral care leader, and regional retailer ShopRite. The partnership calls upon school students, teachers and communities to take the pledge to save water on behalf of their school for a chance to win one of two recycled gardens made from recycled oral care waste.

Nearly 20% of U.S. contact lens wearers flush their disposable lenses down the toilet or drain when done with them, a recent study has shown. Those 2-3 billion contact lenses then become 20-23 metric tons of wastewater-borne plastics polluting the earth annually. Arizona State University scientists are reporting the first nationwide study that shows how consumers, by discarding used lenses down the drain, may be unknowingly contributing to plastic pollution. According to the study, lenses that are washed down the drain end up at wastewater plants and then in sewage sludge. For about every two pounds of wastewater sludge, a pair of contact lenses typically can be found. Sewage sludge is routinely applied on land for sludge disposal and soil conditioning, thereby creating a pathway of macro- and microplastics from lenses to enter terrestrial ecosystems where potential adverse impacts are poorly understood. HOW ECPs CAN HELP ECPs can help make their contact lens patients aware of the environment impact of disposable plastic lenses (even if not flushed, the lenses and blister packs end up in landfills) AND help them recycle the materials instead of throwing them away. The Bausch + Lomb One by One contact recycling program, now in its second year, allows ECPs to help their patients recycle their used contact lenses and blister packs. The program provides practices with receptacles for their patients’ contact lens waste (or, patients can recycle via an at-home program). The lenses, blister packs, and foil tops are then collected and recycled through a partnership with TerraCycle. The One by One program is approaching the 3 million mark in number of contact lenses recycled—and removed from our country’s waste stream. To read about how one ECP has successfully implemented this program in her practice, click here.

Congratulations to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque Catholic School for being named one of five winners in this year's Entenmann's Little Bites: I <3 Recycling photo submission sweepstakes, in parternship with TerraCycle, an "innovation waste management company with a mission to eliminate the idea of waste."[gallery link="file" orderby="title"]

Summer 2018 will go down as the summer we said goodbye to unnecessary plastic waste. Starbucks committed to eliminating plastic straws in all locations by 2020, IKEA banned all single-use plastics from its stores, and entire cities (like Seattle) banned the use of plastic bags and straws... Fortunately, in an effort to minimize the waste generated by disposable contact lenses and facilitate the recycling process, some eye care companies have started their own recycling initiatives. Through these programs, individuals can ship their used contacts to TerraCycle (a company that specializes in recycling the hard-to-recycle) for free or drop them off at participating retailers.

(CBS News) - Some 45 million Americans wear contact lenses. Of them, 15 million wear daily disposables -- soft plastic discs that are worn once and thrown away... Bausch & Lomb has a recycling program for its Biotrue line, which took in 1.9 million contacts last year, according its recycling partner, Terracycle.

Now, a trio of researchers has done a first study on what happens to these lenses after they leave our eyes... Bausch & Lomb has a recycling program for its Biotrue line, which took in 1.9 million contacts last year, according its recycling partner, Terracycle.

In partnership with recycling pioneer TerraCycle, eye health company Bausch + Lomb launched the Bausch + Lomb Recycling Programme in 2017 to help Australians keep all brands of contact lenses, lens cases and blister packs out of landfill.

When one thinks of French beauty brand L’Occitane en Province, high-tech is probably not the first adjective that springs to mind. Known for its shea and almond bath products, lavender scents and its tastefully muted color scheme, L’Occitane is very much about what its tag line says it is: natural beauty from the south of France. Historical profile aside, L’Occitane is looking to compete in a technology driven, digital and experiential retail environment, which means being naturally beautiful is not enough. Some technological augmentation is required. And, as it rolls out its Manhattan flagship store today (Aug. 22), it seems L’Occitane has decided to lean in all the way in an attempt to create those robust retail experiences. The Midtown store will offer an area dedicated to social media and a live feed of the company’s U.S. Instagram account — an area where L’Occitane has been working to establish a bigger footprint. Customers in the store, with the help of stationary bikes and augmented reality (AR) technology, will be able to take a bike ride through Provence, or a virtual reality (VR) powered hot air balloon ride through the South of France. That virtual ride comes with a hand massage using the beauty brands products. The brand is also using their new store as a vehicle to expand the sustainability project it first undertook with international recycling company TerraCycle, offering customers a 10 percent discount on one full-size L’Occitane product if they hand over their used makeup bottles. Customers will also be able to engrave and customize Swell water bottles with their names and other personalized designs, in an effort to prevent disposable bottles from clogging landfills. Customers will also be able to customize other L’Occitane merchandise. And, speaking of merchandise, the products themselves are prominently placed, of course, and set up for experimentation. The new store is part of a broader effort to compete with other beauty specialists like like Ulta and Sephora, as well as department stores like Macy’s, and even bigger entrances from players like Target and Walmart. L’Occitane has responded to the increasing competition with bigger efforts at enticement in the U.S. market — last fall, it rolled out a  lavender-scented truck to entice shoppers back into sync with the brand as it reworks its American store fleet. The New York flagship, said Paul Blackburn, vice president of concept design, construction and merchandising at L’Occitane North America, is its most visible effort at driving new-customer acquisition. After a week-long soft launch in Midtown, things are looking promising. The 1,870-square-foot shop has greeted over 2,400 prospective customers, making it most foot-trafficked store in America, according to Blackburn. To keep those consumer engaged, the store’s contents will continuously change — 60 percent of the store setups will be switched around about four times a year. Some things, like the social media area and the VR experience, were designed to be permanent features, while other elements may also remain unchanging, depending on what consumers end up liking best. And while its sales have been positive, and revenue has grown in recent quarters, the brand senses that it might need a bit of rebranding. The L’Occitane demographic is aged at 43, and is fairly affluent. It is happy to keep that demographic, and its enthusiastic spending habits, but it also wants its customer base to be a bit more inclusive. The goal, Blackburn noted, is to change the common perception of L’Occitane from serious and old-fashioned to “modern and fun.” “We have an obligation as a brand to continue to push the envelope,” he said. “There needs to be a reason for a customer to come into stores now more than ever.”

Did you know that 2,000 plastic water bottles are used every second, or that a dump truck’s worth of plastic goes into our oceans every minute?... Commit to making small changes now that make a positive impact for our future: Recycle Brita products through TerraCycle

L’Occitane’s new store is full of flashy tech... For the launch, the store has dedicated a section of the space to the company’s sustainability initiatives: In May, L’Occitane partnered with international recycling company TerraCycle to collect empty bottles and packaging of all brands of beauty and skin-care products from customers.