“Storied plastics,” or plastics that are collected by waste stream, sorted by material type, and traced back to the original point of origin, are a good choice of material for use in packaging as companies attempt to improve their sustainability practices, writes Pierre-Francois Thaler, co-founder and co-CEO of EcoVadis (via FoodDive). Companies that know they need to expand their eco-friendly practices are looking for ways to either limit packaging or to make packaging more sustainable, but that can “leave a hole in the product development process,” Thaler writes. Instead of filling this hole with generic recycled materials, consider storied plastics, he suggests. Storied plastics provide an opportunity for a brand to differentiate itself by giving a product color and background via the story of where its material originated. “The traceable, ‘origin story’ component of material comprised of products and packaging people have interacted with in their own lives can be communicated clearly and effectively to today’s highly discerning consumer,” wrote Tom Szaky, founder and CEO of TerraCycle, in Huffington Post last spring.

Allen will perform at the 2017 Jersey Fresh Jam Festival, a hip-hop event in Trenton on Aug. 12, along with other artists. The festival is held at TerraCycle at 121 New York Ave. in Trenton from noon to 7 p.m. The free event will have “local and regionally known emcees, bands and DJs provide the soundtrack for the day’s festivities.” Aerosol artists “adorn the walls of TerraCycle with their signature masterpieces.”

Locals are invited to attend a free, open event to keep cigarette waste off the street and out of landfills at Preston's Colfax Clean Butt Crawl August 19 at 5 p.m. A community cleanup and birthday celebration in one, participants will meet at Prohibition (http://www.prohibitiondenver.com) and split into teams to gather as many cigarette butts as possible; the team with the greatest amount of cigarette butts will be rewarded with a prize. All cigarette butts collected will be recycled through TerraCycle’s free Cigarette Waste Recycling Program. “The purposeof this event is to encourage others to prioritize keeping Colfax Avenue clean,”said Preston Murray, Preston's Colfax Clean Butt Crawl organizer.  “I have planned it around my birthday to leverage the people who care about me to care about donating their time to benefit Colfax and the cleanliness of our city in an effort to clean as much of the neighborhood in which I work and live around the occasion of my next year of life.”

Though non-parents seem to regard changing diapers as the worst parental duty, new moms and dads quickly get used to the mechanics of a diaper freshening. One thing many of them never get used to: the gnawing guilt they feel throwing the diapers into a landfill. That guilt is not misplaced: Although experts quibble over whether cloth or disposable diapers have more of an impact on the environment, it’s clear that one of the downsides of disposables is that they linger long after they’re no longer doing their job.

While pet owners often consider the impact packaged pet food has on their pets, the same consideration is not often given to the impact it has on the environment. Pet food company, Earthborn Holistic^® is aiming to provide food that’s beneficial to both pets and the environment. By teaming up with TerraCycle^®, Earthborn Holistic pet food bags are now recyclable through the Earthborn ReBorn^® Recycling Program, a free, national recycling program. CountryMax of Seneca Falls is a public drop-off location for the program, allowing Seneca Falls residents to return their empty bags during store hours and aid in the reduction of local landfill waste.

My son is going into his first year of middle school next year and the teacher warned us that they will need to pack deodorant with them in their gym bag. This may also be the year that he will need to get braces, so good oral hygiene is important for him, too. Today I'm sharing some Gym Bag Essentials for Middle Schoolers, including natural Tom's of Maine® Original Care Deodorant and Tom's of Maine® Antiplaque & Whitening Toothpaste.

A movement to transform marine plastic pollution into athletic shoes, skateboards and other products is gaining traction, but there is a debate about how much impact ‘upcycling’ can have. When oil prices drop, as they have in recent years, recycling profits plummet. In most countries it’s cheaper to simply make new petroleum-based plastic goods than turn the ones used once into the same items again. That’s led to a dismal recycling rate of just 9 percent worldwide, and an enormous buildup of plastic in the ocean, according to a recent study on global plastic production,. But as recycling rates drop and ocean pollution worsens, many innovators are taking marine debris, a notoriously unrecyclable material, and turning it into useful items. They’re turning all types of marine plastic trash, from old fishing gear to bits of broken-down hard plastic called microplastic, into new products.

Providing pets with better digestion and better nutrition is essential to giving them a better life, and that is why Holistic Select has announced an updated line of recipes to deliver high levels of probiotics and digestive enzymes for cats and dogs. Holistic Select is a premium pet food brand operated under WellPet. “The digestive system is one of the most important parts of your pet’s body and is essential to maintain a strong immune system for both cats and dogs. Research has indicated that 70 percent of a pet’s immune system lies in the digestive tract,” said Dr. Danielle Bernal, on-staff veterinarian with WellPet.

WALK by the RIMAC and Main Gym weight rooms, Canyonview’s pool, Main Gym’s cycle room, or Rec Gym’s FitLife office, and sure enough you’ll find a box asking for your energy bar wrappers. UC San Diego Recreation is currently partnered with Terracycle to recycle these wrappers, conveniently placing bins where people are most likely to have wrappers to discard. All of the money collected, at 2 cents per wrapper, is then donated; Recreation has already given $350 to Feeding America San Diego, and another $188.40 to other charities, totaling a whopping $538.40 for 26,920 successfully recycled wrappers.

Global customs and logistics solutions by UPS are powering TerraCycle’s mission to transform hard-to-recycle items like toothpaste tubes and snack bags into new products, diverting 40 million pounds of waste from landfills since 2012. UPS’s unique customs expertise and technology solutions helped TerraCycle grow its global recycling programs and customer base, which means less waste. Over the last five years, for instance, TerraCycle has turned 3.5 billion pieces of waste into useful products like trash cans and park benches. The collaboration reflects UPS’s commitment to solving environmental challenges and helping customers achieve a more sustainable global supply chain focused on waste reduction, reuse and recycling.