At the World Economic Forum (WEF) on 19 January, P&G announced that its Head & Shoulders brand would partner with recycling experts TerraCycle and SUEZ to pioneer a new approach to produce the world’s first recyclable shampoo bottle made from up to 25% postconsumer recycled content (PCR) derived from beach plastic. P&G’s Lisa Jennings, global hair care sustainability leader and Head & Shoulders brand franchise leader, said the initiative reflects concern over ocean waste. Jennings said the issue had been underscored by remarks at the previous year’s WEF by recycling campaigner Ellen MacArthur, who claimed that by 2050 the ocean could contain more plastics than fish. “I grew up by the beach in Brighton in the South Coast of England, and I was stunned,” said Jennings. “I thought about the world I would leave to my children and realised that, both as a consumer and a business leader, I had to play an active role in the solution. “2017 will be a major year for Hair Care Sustainability. I couldn’t be more proud of everyone involved in making this a reality. Together, we made the unrecyclable recyclable, and gave a second life to plastic that usually ends up in landfills or on our beaches. ” P&G has long been inspired by the idea of plastic never becoming waste. Its citizenship goals for 2020 call for doubling the amount of recycled resin used in plastic packaging and ensuring that 90% of product packaging is either recyclable, or programmes are in place to create the ability to recycle it.

For green entrepreneur Tom Szaky, his interest in recycling started in college about 16 years ago—with worm poop and a few childhood friends. “We were growing up in Toronto. When we got into the universities we wanted to get into, we decided to start growing ‘certain plants’ in our basement,” he says. But when they couldn’t quite get those indoor plants to thrive, one of Szaky’s friends decided to try using one of nature’s great recyclers to jumpstart their efforts—worms. Specifically, he used their castings, the nutrient-rich recycled organic material that has passed through a worm’s body, as fertilizer. The plan worked. “That was the genesis. That was how our company began,” Szaky says. Thus, TerraCycle was born. They started small, selling liquid worm castings through companies like Walmart and Home Depot, but have since evolved, branching out from soda bottles and collecting many more former waste materials. The company’s in-house R&D department and laboratories then come up with closed loop systems for turning collected waste into something new. Today, TerraCycle has become a global leader in the recycling industry. “Since then we’ve had straight growth. We operate in 23 countries around the world, and we’ve had really good success,” Szaky says.   Across the world, their waste collection programs work for even the hardest to recycle items—think baby diapers and cigarette butts—keeping them out of landfills and oceans with innovative ways to reuse them, like turning them into tote bags or park benches. Although they do produce products, like flower planters made from crushed computers and fax machines, TerraCycle’s main focus is on the waste itself. A big part of how they do this is through partnerships with large and small companies, retailers, municipalities, and regular people. On a small scale, individuals can send their hard-to-recycle waste (like alkaline batteries or automotive parts) to TerraCycle for a fee, knowing their waste will be recycled into new products. Or, individuals can get involved in one of the company’s many free recycling programs sponsored by a company, organization, or municipality looking to reduce their environmental impact. Even the largest companies are getting onboard, Szaky says, knowing doing so will make their products and image that much greener and more attractive to an increasingly environmentally aware market. Organizations like Colgate, PepsiCo, and Brita are sponsoring collections that allow consumers to send in their spent products to be recycled for free. Municipal programs such as cigarette butt collection stations are also popping up in cities around the world, as are industrial waste solutions. As TerraCycle has evolved, it’s become known not only for its methods and products but also for its company culture. In the Trenton, New Jersey office, everything from walls to desks are made of reused and recycled materials, local graffiti artists redecorate the facility on a regular basis, and employees’ work lives have become something of a cult hit with their reality TV show, Human Resources. “Every aspect of our business echoes our mission,” Szaky says. “Whether it’s our physical office being made entirely of garbage or our belief in transparency, where not only our walls are transparent but the way our people interact is completely transparent.” Although the company has come far from selling worm poop in old soda bottles (and yes they do still offer their famous liquid fertilizers), their mission has remained the same—to solve the problem of waste no matter what it takes. gb&d: One of TerraCycle’s most prominent brand statements is about “solving for waste.” How are you doing that in ways other companies aren’t? Tom Szaky: We realized, after a few years building a multimillion dollar worm poop business, that if we focus only on the product as the hero, we won’t necessarily be able to solve for all types of garbage because it will take the very best types of garbage to make, effectively, the very best products. So we changed our model and refocused on the garbage as the hero. We built a business model around figuring out how to collect it and process it in a circular way, primarily focusing on things that are not typically recyclable. gb&d: As a green business owner, what is your biggest challenge? Szaky: It all has to do with making people care. We are trying to solve something—garbage—that goes out of sight, out of mind. We are asking a person to invest their time and money to be able to do something with it that’s significantly better but not nearly as simple. And that’s not necessarily easy. gb&d: How have you convinced the more than 63 million people who’ve participated in your collection programs to care? Szaky: It’s all about making it personal to the individual. Because the environment is such a broad topic, it’s sometimes very difficult for people to figure out what’s in it for them—whether that individual wants to fulfill their personal sustainability goals or something else. Many entrepreneurs, especially social entrepreneurs, they do the inverse. They go around saying, “Please, help me because it’s the right thing to do,” and that really just doesn’t go far. gb&d: What new TerraCycle developments are you most excited about? Szaky: Last month at the World Economic Forum, we launched the world’s first shampoo bottle with Head & Shoulders made from 25% ocean plastic. This is an interesting case study because ocean plastic is especially difficult to source and it’s expensive, more expensive than recycled plastics. And it’s less capable. This plastic has been floating in the ocean. It’s degraded. So why would P&G put a plastic into the world’s top shampoo brand that is both more expensive and turns their iconic white bottles into gray ones? The reason is that it will actually create value for them. Rather than investing capital in TV commercials or advertising, they’re investing in something like this. Now, if we just went to them and said, “Hey, guys, ocean plastic is a problem.” They’d say, “We agree, but we don’t see a business way to solve it.” Instead, we go in and say, “If you do something with ocean plastic, you can really win big against your competition.” gb&d: You’ve gone into countries like Mexico and Brazil and offered recycling programs with great success. How did you approach those markets? Szaky: We offer services no one ever offered. So when we go to places like Mexico or Brazil, or just recently China, there’s usually very, very big interest in that. The issue is getting someone to pay for it. In China, for example, Colgate is the company we work with who funds our ability to nationally collect and recycle toothpaste tubes. gb&d: How do you get these large corporations behind the idea? Szaky: It depends on the stakeholder. If it’s a consumer products company, what we pitch them is that by working with us you can make your waste nationally recyclable and that will allow you to increase your market share, win at retail, and beat the competition. With retailers as a stakeholder, and we work with about 100,000 retailers now on collecting waste at their stores, it’s more about how to drive foot traffic. But in each case, you’ll notice we don’t go in and say, “Do it because it’s the right thing to do” or “Do it for sustainability.” We say, “Do this because it will fulfill your key goals. It will help you grow your business.” If you can’t nail that, then you have to be able to demonstrate to them that not caring will cause the inverse of those benefits. And that’s the unlocking mechanism.

Environmentally responsible packaging and practices continue to evolve in light of a new generation of consumers and CEOs, material advances, increasing regulations, environmental concerns—and of course, streamlining the corporate supply chain budget. In today’s beauty world, as well as in many other industries, much of the emphasis is on the Millennial consumer—and perhaps rightly so, as their influence is powerful and their purchasing habits differ from those of previous generations. Their awareness and knowledge spreads rapidly due to social networks, and affects their behavior and preferences. A simple tweet can cause an astronomical effect—positive or negative.

Nearly half of Americans do not recycle their beauty and personal care products, accounting for a significant amount of landfill waste. To make a positive impact on the planet, Garnier and DoSomething.org, the largest organization for young people and social change, have teamed up to launch Rinse, Recycle, Repeat, a national campaign and college campus competition to educate America’s youth about the importance of recycling beauty product #empties. To further drive social participation, Remi Cruz, a lifestyle personality and YouTuber known for her popular channels MissRemiAshten and RemLife, will serve as the face of Rinse, Recycle, Repeat, starring in a public service announcement about recycling her own beauty products. The goal of the campaign is to tap into the #empties social conversation and educate young people on the importance of bathroom recycling. The campaign will show them how recycling their beauty #empties can keep them out of landfills and be used to create green gardens within local communities. By rallying young people to recycle their #empties, Garnier hopes that this campaign will be able to divert a total of 10 million #empties from landfills by the end of 2017. To participate in the national Rinse, Recycle, Repeat campaign, individuals can: 1.    Sign up online at dosomething.org/rinse, decorate a bathroom recycling bin and share a picture with DoSomething.org on the “Prove It” page online or by texting RINSE to 38383 to be entered to win a $5,000 scholarship. 2.    Once the bin is filled with 10 pounds of beauty #empties, participants can print a free shipping label to send their #empties to TerraCycle to be responsibly recycled. To help spread the word, encourage friends and family to also recycle in the bathroom and join the #empties conversation, participants can share a photo of their recycling bins on Twitter by tagging @garnierUSA and using #empties and #RRRSweepstakes. On April 1, a competition kicked off on 50 college campuses nationwide to collect the most #empties. The college team that collects the most #empties will be rewarded with a garden for their  community, furnished by Garnier and TerraCycle.

Remember that old rule you learned in elementary school on Earth Day? Reduce, Reuse, Recycle (in that order!) still holds true, and your beauty collection is a great place to focus those energies. So first, KonMari your routine. (Whitney put together a handy guide for donating fashion and beauty items you haven't used, check it out!) Then, consider repurposing your empty jars into planters, as in the photo above, or your empty Diptyque candle holders into makeup brush storage, à la every single person on Instagram. And finally, recycle all of those empties! The good news is that it's pretty much never been easier to do so, and there are plenty of beauty brands that will help you (and even reward your efforts). Garnier Garnier partnered with TerraCycle for a recycling program that allows people to send back their empties — including shampoo caps, conditioner caps, hair gel tubes and caps and hair spray triggers — with free shipping.

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) – The 5th annual gazelle girl run is happening in Grand Rapids this weekend, and one thing the organization has always prided themselves on is being environmentally conscious. This year is no different, Chelsea Brehm is here to tell us all about a “green run”.

After three kids, I have accumulated enough car seats to practically fill our attic. But while the seats may not fit my children's needs any longer, I hate to just put them out by the curb and throw them away. That's why I love that Target, in partnership with recycling company TerraCycle, is offering a car seat recycling program from April 17-30 (just in time for Earth Day!). All you have to do is bring in a car seat you are no longer using, drop it in a bin located either in the baby section or near the front of the store, and then find a Target team member to receive a coupon for 20 percent off any car seat purchase in store or at Target.com through May 31. So what happens to your used seat? It gets upcycled into new products. Awesomely, this program aims to keep 700,000 pounds of car seat materials out of landfills. The beyond-brill initiative was launched nationwide after a test in 90 stores received tons of positive feedback from customers. And why wouldn't it? Car seats are expensive, and the more kids you have, and the older they get, the more seats you will cycle through. It's great to know a seat you no longer need isn't just going into a garbage pile, and that you will be saving money on the next seat you buy. Go Target!

Don’t toss your old car seat — trade it in from April 17 to 30 at any Long Island Target and get a 20-percent-off coupon for any new car seat purchase in-store or at Target.com that you buy by May 31.   Target is teaming up with TerraCycle for the car seat recycling program. After receiving positive feedback on a test of the program in 90 stores last September, Target is kicking off its first trade-in program available at most stores across the country.   The program encourages guests to upgrade car seats to the appropriate size for their child to meet car seat safety standards, and Target expects to keep more than 700,000 pounds of car seat materials out of landfills through the partnership.

We're well into April, which means we're all well into spring cleaning season too. Spring cleaning is the reason for the season — it's an excuse to purge your closets, strip your home of things you haven't used in years, and exchange those items for improved ones. And you'll definitely want to spring clean ASAP, now that Target is giving a car seat discount to parents who recycle their older models — but be forewarned, the everything-store is only running the promotion for the rest of the month of April.   While you might be lugging that old car seat around to Target every week just to go shopping (hello, dollar section), you now have a reason to bring that same car seat to Target and walk out with a new one for an even more reasonable price tag. Beginning Monday, April 17 — just in time for Tax Day, thank you — and ending on April 30, parents can bring their old car seat into Target stores nationwide and get a discount in return. This is neither a drill nor a late April Fools' joke.   So how does it work, exactly? In exchange for their car seat, according to Scary Mommy, parents will get a 20 percent off coupon from the store, good to use on any car seat from Target until May 31. Because just when you couldn't find another reason to love the store enough, it pulls this amazing deal out of its hat. But this exchange isn't just Target's way of giving back to parents who've spent far too much time and money in their stores, likely chasing their toddlers at the same time (although it does seem like a nice act of customer appreciation) — it's Target and recycled product company TerraCycle's way of helping the planet, in honor of Earth Month. Through the exchange, according to Target, the department store plans on keeping more than 700,000 pounds of car seat materials out of landfills. Together, Target and TerraCycle will make sure that the car seats are recycled or turned into new car seats — saving the planet and your bank account, one seat at a time.   Target offers over 100 different models and styles of car seats, ranging in price from under 50 dollars to over 300 dollars. This deal can provide parents with the opportunity to upgrade their car seat or finally get their hands on the model they've been saving up for since before their baby's arrival. This is the first time that Target has offered this deal in stores all across the country.  Basically? Thank you, Target, for giving all parents a reason to love you even more than they do already.