UC Blue Ash student Suzanne Yorke is leading the effort to collect used dental supplies for recycling. Students in the dental hygiene program at UC Blue Ash College want your old toothbrush. They'll also take empty toothpaste tubes and floss containers when you're done with them. The 2017 class is on a mission to collect used dental supplies and submit them for recycling. The goal is to use the proceeds they receive to help patients in the Dental Hygiene Clinic pay for services they can't afford. 'Our graduating class wants to raise money for patients who need help in paying for x-rays,' says Suzanne Yorke, dental hygiene student who is coordinating the project. 'Our cost is already low in our clinic, but some of our patients can't afford the $10 for an x-ray. That's a concern since we have learned in class how important these can be in diagnosing hidden issues beneath the gumlines, as well as cavities between teeth.' The students submit the old dental supplies to TerraCycle, an organization that reuses items that are hard to recycle to make playground equipment. Yorke says she learned about the dental waste recycling program, which is sponsored by Colgate, in a professional dental care magazine. 'I noticed that there is a lot of waste generated in dentistry, and I thought that recycling at-home dental care items like toothbrushes, toothpaste tubes and empty floss containers would be one way to mitigate some of that,' says Yorke. 'The fact that we can also raise money to help patients is definitely a nice bonus.' Some of the dental supplies collected by dental hygiene students for recycling. In addition to helping patients, there is an environmental benefit too. So far the students have diverted over 30 pounds of dental waste from landfills. The students have sent such a large quantity of old dental items to TerraCycle over the past year, the organization recently sent them a new collection bin to replace the small box they had been using. Donations come in from students, faculty and staff at UC Blue Ash, as well as patients of the Dental Hygiene Clinic. 'I am so impressed by the leadership and generosity our students have displayed in organizing this project,' says Cyndee Stegeman, professor and chair of the Dental Hygiene Department at UC Blue Ash. 'They did this on their own, separate from their other community service projects, because they saw a need among our clinic patients and identified a way to help.' The goal is to raise $100, which would cover the cost of x-rays for 10 clinic patients; they are about 75 percent of the way there. The fundraising goal may not sound like much, but the payoff is a little over $2 for every pound of recycled items. When you're talking about lightweight, small items like toothbrushes and empty toothpaste tubes, it can take a lot of donations to equal just one pound. If you are interested in donating your used dental supplies, you can place them in the collection bin outside the Dental Hygiene Clinic at UC Blue Ash College (Walters Hall, first floor). If you have any questions about the project, contact Bethany Smith in the Dental Hygiene Department at (513) 745-5635.

TerraCycle launched the fourth annual Recycled Playground Challenge with Colgate and ShopRite to teach school students, teachers and communities about preserving healthy smiles and a healthy environment as they compete to win a recycled playground for their school.   Starting March 12, schools located throughout New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Connecticut and Maryland were eligible to compete for a new playground made completely of recycled material by joining TerraCycle’s Colgate Oral Care Recycling Program, a free, national program hosted by Colgate and TerraCycle.   Through June 30, each unit ("unit" defined as 0.02 lbs of used, post-consumer oral care products and packaging) of oral care waste, such as empty toothpaste tubes and floss containers, sent to TerraCycle for recycling earns participating schools one (1) ‘Playground Credit’ towards winning the grand prize playground. Schools can earn additional Playground Credits by  encouraging their community to vote online.   “We are pleased to announce the continuation of our Recycled Playground Challenge in partnership with ShopRite and TerraCycle,” Juan Pablo Zamorano, president, North America, Colgate-Palmolive, said in a statement. “By offering the Colgate Oral Care Recycling Program and Recycled Playground Challenge, we are able to remain committed to the well-being of our customers and the preservation of our environment.”   The school with the most Playground Credits will be named the winner by July 30, 2017, and the playground will be installed this fall. The first and second runner-up schools, as well as six honorable mention participants, will be awarded various prizes and ShopRite gift cards.

TerraCycle announces the 2017 Recycled Playground Challenge, its fourth annual partnership with Colgate and ShopRite to teach school students, teachers and communities about preserving healthy smiles and a healthy environment as they compete to win a recycled playground for their school. Starting March 12, schools located throughout New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Connecticut and Maryland are eligible to compete for a new playground made completely of recycled material by joining TerraCycle’s Colgate® Oral Care Recycling Program, a free, national program hosted by Colgate and TerraCycle. Through June 30, each unit (“unit” defined as 0.02 lbs of used, post-consumer oral care products and packaging) of oral care waste, such as empty toothpaste tubes and floss containers, sent to TerraCycle for recycling earns participating schools one (1) ‘Playground Credit’ towards winning the grand prize playground.  Schools can earn additional Playground Credits by encouraging their community to vote online by logging ontowww.terracycle.com/colgateshopriteplayground2017. Full set of rules for the 2017 “Recycled Playground Challenge” can be viewed: www.terracycle.com/colgateshopriteplayground2017. “We are pleased to announce the continuation of our Recycled Playground Challenge in partnership with ShopRite and TerraCycle,” said Juan Pablo Zamorano, President, North America, Colgate-Palmolive. “By offering the Colgate Oral Care Recycling Program and Recycled Playground Challenge, we are able to remain committed to the well-being of our customers and the preservation of our environment.” The school with the most Playground Credits will be named the winner by July 30, 2017 and the playground will be installed this fall.  The first and second runner-up schools, as well as six honorable mention participants, will be awarded various prizes and ShopRite gift cards. ShopRite is also encouraging community participation in the contest with contest displays throughout its stores and information about the contest on ShopRite’s Facebook page. “ShopRite is excited to once again bring this great program to schools in the communities where our ShopRite stores operate. The Recycled Playground Challenge motivates students to recycle and teaches them innovative ways to preserve the environment,” said Christine Magyarits, ShopRite Community Relations Manager. “For the fourth year in a row, we are excited to have this opportunity to show ShopRite’s dedication to the surrounding communities.” All participants in the Colgate® Oral Care Recycling Program are making a difference for the environment and their community.  The program is an ongoing activity open to any individual, family, school or community group.  For each piece of waste sent in using a pre-paid shipping label, participants can earn money toward donations to the school or charity of their choice. “With the recycling program, Colgate enables their consumers to divert waste from landfills, engage their communities and be rewarded for their effort,” explained Tom Szaky, TerraCycle Founder and CEO.  “The Recycled Playground Challenge promotes the program and creates awareness, allowing us to reach more people and make a greater difference in the environment.”

Everybody knows we should always recycle our empty cans and water bottles. But what are we supposed to do with all those makeup and shampoo containers once we’re done? Well, you could win a scholarship just by tossing them in the right bin. The Do Something Organization teamed up with Garnier to help you do away with unwanted, recyclable trash. According to their website, “Nearly half of Americans don’t regularly recycle their beauty and personal care products.” That means it’s time to create a conversation about how to do better. All those empties take up a lot of space in landfills. But there’s something we can do about it right now. Do Something gives people a little nudge in the right direction with the chance at a $5,000 scholarship. They’ve created the “Rinse, Recycle, Repeat” campaign to encourage make-up users to dispose of their waste responsibly. An easy, impactful way to recycle empty beauty and personal care products (aka empties!) is to make fun and creative bins for bathrooms. You can sign up here for a chance to win a the scholarship if you’re in college. If you’re not, you can get a free shipping label to send them to TerraCycleyourself. Do Something.org is a “global movement” that enlists young people to get involved with social issues, hoping to inspire them to enact change. We love that they’re empowering people to make positive world-wide changes through community-based efforts. And we can’t wait to see more awesome things like this in the future!

In 2014, Mark Lefko began writing a book on global sustainability to capture the knowledge and best practices of sustainable businesses. The book sought to prove how global sustainability is shaping the growth of the most progressive profitable multinational, Fortune 500, middle-market and startup companies around the world. The following chapters highlight interviews with leaders discussing strategies for diverting food waste, developing sustainable agriculture, recycling and creating better packaging. They are meant to inspire other CEOs and executives to participate in the sustainability movement and evolve their organizations. Package lightweighting Pacific Seafood’s Greenshield boxes are an example of a growing practice known as "package lightweighting," which means exactly what the term suggests. Honest Tea’s Seth Goldman recommends this practice, not just because it benefits the environment by cutting down on the amount of plastic used, but also because it’s cheaper. "We’ll certainly look for packaging savings," said Goldman. "My point of view on the packaging in general is that its value is neutral. And if I can lightweight my packaging, that’s a good step for our business financially as well as environmentally. I’m happy to look for the cheapest sustainable option I can find." TerraCycle’s Tom Szaky agrees, although he finds the subject to be a bit more complex. "So the idea of the circular economy when it comes to consumer goods is, how do you make the packaging easier to recover and put right back into the same product? That is a simplified example, but every major consumer-product company in the world is lightweighting their packaging. They are using fewer resources to make the package, which has a very good short-term sustainability story to it, without question. There is less resource use. However, when you move away from a glass jar to package your pasta sauce in a sachet, you have used fewer resources, but you have also made it significantly less recyclable. This is the challenge. There is huge discussion about sustainability and its derivatives, and about what constitutes a circular economy, and so on. But what actually happens, in many cases, is not what is being discussed. That is the part that is the overall challenge. "So it is a journey. We need to keep showing as many strong case studies as we can, but there are huge forces out there … that we have to contend with."

Garnier, the personal care products company owned by L’Oréal, wants you to make more of an effort to recycle those empty plastic bottles of shampoo and body wash. The company says it is looking to boost waste diversion by preventing at least 10 million bottles from entering landfills. To that end, the company enlisted a popular YouTuber and partnered with DoSomething.org to spread the recycling gospel. According to a widely shared press release, as many as half of all Americans cannot be bothered to pitch their bathroom “empties” into the recycling bin. So during this campaign, Garnier is taking a two-pronged approach. First, participants are encouraged to decorate a bathroom recycling bin and share a picture on DoSomething.org for the chance to win a $5,000 scholarship. Once that bin is full, recycling devotees can print a shipping label for free and then send those pesky empties to TerraCycle, which has worked with Garnier and other CPG companies to upcycle plastic waste into new products. And of course, consumers are expected to share their stories using the hashtag #empties. Garnier is also trying to leverage peer pressure on college campuses: It selected 50 campuses to compete in a recycling competition, with the winning school scoring a garden funded by Garnier and TerraCycle.

Once you’ve worn your lipstick down to a sorry nub, cut the bottom off your liquid foundation to get to the leftovers that are stuck to the sides, used a Q-tip to dig out the very last drop of your fancy night cream, artfully arranged them in proper flat lay form, photographed them, adjusted the brightness and contrast, posted it to Instagram, and hashtagged “#empties,” all you’re left with is plastic. And plastic, regardless of what it once was in a past life, needs to be recycled.   Unfortunately, nearly half of Americans do not recycle their beauty and personal care products, according to a national survey. That means that a significant amount of landfill is made up of empty tubs of La Mer bottles, Diptyque candle jars, and Naked palettes that’ve been used down to the pan. That sucks — but it doesn’t have to stay that way.   In an effort to change this statistic and make a positive impact on the world at large, Garnier is teaming up with DoSomething.org, America’s largest organization for young people and social change, to launch Rinse, Recycle, Repeat, a national campaign and college campus competition with a goal of educating the nation’s youth about the importance of recycling those empties.   But don’t worry: You have full license to wait until after you’ve ‘grammed them. Nobody is trying to take that away from you — in fact, social participation is requested. That’s exactly why YouTuber Remi Cruz will serve as the face of the campaign, starring in a public service announcement about recycling her own beauty products. “Rinse, Recycle, Repeat combines my three favorite things: beauty products, creativity, and most importantly, doing my part to help the environment,” Cruz said.   If you, too, enjoy those things, it’s easy to get involved. You can sign up online by clicking here and enter to win a $5,000 scholarship — if you’re in college, that is — or get a free shipping label to send your own empties off to TerraCycle for responsible recycling. The goal is to divert a total of 10 million beauty products from landfills by the end of 2017. Save your empties, save the world.

Once you’ve worn your lipstick down to a sorry nub, cut the bottom off your liquid foundation to get to the leftovers that are stuck to the sides, used a Q-tip to dig out the very last drop of your fancy night cream, artfully arranged them in proper flat lay form, photographed them, adjusted the brightness and contrast, posted it to Instagram, and hashtagged “#empties,” all you’re left with is plastic. And plastic, regardless of what it once was in a past life, needs to be recycled. Unfortunately, nearly half of Americans do not recycle their beauty and personal care products, according to a national survey. That means that a significant amount of landfill is made up of empty tubs of La Mer bottles, Diptyque candle jars, and Naked palettes that’ve been used down to the pan. That sucks — but it doesn’t have to stay that way. In an effort to change this statistic and make a positive impact on the world at large, Garnier is teaming up with DoSomething.org, America’s largest organization for young people and social change, to launch Rinse, Recycle, Repeat, a national campaign and college campus competition with a goal of educating the nation’s youth about the importance of recycling those empties. But don’t worry: You have full license to wait until after you’ve ‘grammed them. Nobody is trying to take that away from you — in fact, social participation is requested. That’s exactly why YouTuber Remi Cruz will serve as the face of the campaign, starring in a public service announcement about recycling her own beauty products. “Rinse, Recycle, Repeat combines my three favorite things: beauty products, creativity, and most importantly, doing my part to help the environment,” Cruz said. If you, too, enjoy those things, it’s easy to get involved. You can sign up online by clicking here and enter to win a $5,000 scholarship — if you’re in college, that is — or get a free shipping label to send your own empties off to TerraCycle for responsible recycling. The goal is to divert a total of 10 million beauty products from landfills by the end of 2017. Save your empties, save the world.

When it comes to living sustainably, less is more. Setting out to buy less, consume less and waste less often translates into a reduced carbon footprint, offsetting demand for the goods and services that put strain on the earth’s finite resources. However, a smaller package doesn’t always equal a smaller environmental impact, as demonstrated by the trend of “lightweighting” in consumer product packaging.   In a nutshell, “lightweighting” is the practice of cutting down the amount of packaging material used to make it, or replacing it with a lighter weight alternative entirely (i.e. glass vs plastic); the average consumer will see this most often in the food and beverage market, which increasingly innovates to satisfy needs of convenience, function and novelty in today’s fast-paced culture.   But the trade-off of a smaller, lighter package is often one that is neither reusable nor recyclable, destined for landfill or incineration and the inevitable pollution of our natural ecosystems.   Here are 5 examples of common “lightweighted” food and beverage packaging items that are making a heavy environmental impact:   1. Plastic bottles   Once upon a time, beverages were delivered and bottled in durable, reusable, highly recyclable (albeit, heavy) glass. When high-density polyethylene (HDPE) was introduced in the early 1960s, the use of plastic to bottle beverages went from being an expensive technology into an affordable, economically viable practice. Plastic’s lightweight nature, relatively low production and transportation costs and resistance to breakage made them popular with manufacturers and customers.   Today, the food and beverage industry has almost completely replaced glass bottles with plastic bottles. While many plastic bottles are readily recyclable in most municipalities, they belong on this list because so little of this material is captured for recycling, and so many plastic bottles are, believe it or not, viewed as being disposable and tossed in the trash.   2. Modern cartons   We’ve come a long way from the patent of the “paper bottle,” the first milk carton featuring a folding paper box for holding milk. Nowadays, cartons are available in two categories – refrigerated (gable-top) and shelf-stable (or aseptic). The first type is comprised mostly of paper and can be processed by some municipal recycling facilities.   The second, not so much.Multi-compositional packaging (like almond milk boxes) tends to get difficult-to-recycle, and carton technologies have evolved to feature various combinations of plastic, metal and paper, moisture barriers; a typical shelf-stable carton averages 74 percent paper, 22 percent plastic and 4 percent aluminum. Though the Carton Council recognized this problem and set out to increase access to carton recycling across the U.S., many consumers do not think cartons are recyclable.   3. Disposable add-ons   Speaking of cartons, the ones with the old-fashioned “gable top” are often given a modern upgrade with pour spouts and screw-top caps. Drink pouches (#4, coming up) will come with little straws, as will little juice boxes (a mini carton, really).   Though they are often comprised of a rigid, single-compositional plastic material, the various closures and fitments that give “lightweighted” items high functionality (i.e. straws, caps, spoons, etc.) are not recyclable through curbside collections due to their small size. These loose add-ons fall through the screeners at municipal recycling facilities and are missed for recovery.   4. Pouches   A flexible plastic juice pouch is multi-compositional in nature and not recyclable in the current waste management infrastructure. The multi-layer films from which most pouches are comprised are often made up of several different plastics, which are difficult to recycle because these components require separating. Same goes for baby food pouches, performance nutrition packaging pouches and snack bags.   5. Sachet   Today, one of the most extreme examples of “lightweighted” packaging is a small, thin, flexible plastic pouch-like item called a sachet. Think single-serving configurations of hot chocolate, coffee, juice packets and instant soup. Other consumables like laundry detergent and dish soap are also sold in sachets.   These single-use sachets are very inexpensive to make, which brings down cost for consumers, making them quite popular in many areas. However, these items also fall outside the scope of recyclability due to their small size, and are prone to end up in oceans and waterways.  

Schools will have a chance to win a recycled playground (like the one pictured here) by sending TerraCycle their dental waste, such as toothpaste tubes, dental floss containers and toothbrushes.COURTESY OF TERRACYCLE TRENTON >> TerraCycle, the city’s recycle-everything company, is challenging schools to send them their dental waste for a chance to win a playground.  Of course — in true TerraCycle fashion — the playground will also be made from recycled oral waste products.  For the 2017 Recycled Playground Challenge, TerraCycle is teaming up once again with Colgate and ShopRite for the fourth consecutive year. The recycling battle starts this Sunday, March 12 and ends June 30, 2017. Participating schools will receive one (1) “Playground Credit” for each unit, defined as 0.02 pounds, of discarded toothpaste tubes, dental floss containers and toothbrushes sent to TerraCycle. Credits can also be earned by community members voting for schools online at terracycle.com/colgateshopriteplayground2017.