Global eye health company Bausch + Lomb has launched a national recycling program to provide Americans with a responsible option for their otherwise non-recyclable contact lenses and blister packs. By partnering with recycling company TerraCycle to create the Bausch + Lomb ONE by ONE recycling program, Bausch + Lomb gives contact lens wearers the ability to recycle used Biotrue ONEday brand contact lenses and blister packs, and lenses and packs from other Bausch + Lomb brands, as well as all other contact lens brands. Contact lenses and blister packs are considered non-recyclable through municipal facilities mainly because they are too small to be captured by standard sorting machinery. Through the Bausch + Lomb ONE by ONE recycling program, contact lenses and blister packs are now 100% recyclable, providing a nationwide solution to prevent these items from entering the waste stream, at zero cost to the consumer. Once collected, contact lenses and blister packs are separated and cleaned. The metal layers of the blister packs are recycled separately, while the contact lenses and plastic blister-pack components are melted into plastic that can be remolded to make recycled products. For every pound of accepted Biotrue ONEday and other Bausch + Lomb brand packaging sent through this program, a $1 donation will be made to Optometry Giving Sight, a global fundraising initiative that targets the prevention of blindness and impaired vision. “Bausch + Lomb is continuously striving to become a more environmentally sustainable company in order to preserve not only the well-being of our patients, but also of our environment,” saysy Guy Guglielmino, Vice President of Marketing, Vision Care, Bausch + Lomb. “With the launch of our Bausch + Lomb ONE by ONE recycling program, we are asking people to join us to take ONE small step each day to help the environment, so that together we can create a significant positive impact.” The Bausch + Lomb ONE by ONE recycling program is open to any interested individual, eyecare professional, or organization.

Global eye health company Bausch + Lomb has launched a national recycling program to provide Americans with a responsible option for their otherwise non-recyclable contact lenses and blister packs. By partnering with recycling company TerraCycle to create the Bausch + Lomb ONE by ONE recycling program, Bausch + Lomb gives contact lens wearers the ability to recycle used Biotrue ONEday brand contact lenses and blister packs, and lenses and packs from other Bausch + Lomb brands, as well as all other contact lens brands. Contact lenses and blister packs are considered non-recyclable through municipal facilities mainly because they are too small to be captured by standard sorting machinery. Through the Bausch + Lomb ONE by ONE recycling program, contact lenses and blister packs are now 100% recyclable, providing a nationwide solution to prevent these items from entering the waste stream, at zero cost to the consumer. Once collected, contact lenses and blister packs are separated and cleaned. The metal layers of the blister packs are recycled separately, while the contact lenses and plastic blister-pack components are melted into plastic that can be remolded to make recycled products. For every pound of accepted Biotrue ONEday and other Bausch + Lomb brand packaging sent through this program, a $1 donation will be made to Optometry Giving Sight, a global fundraising initiative that targets the prevention of blindness and impaired vision. “Bausch + Lomb is continuously striving to become a more environmentally sustainable company in order to preserve not only the well-being of our patients, but also of our environment,” saysy Guy Guglielmino, Vice President of Marketing, Vision Care, Bausch + Lomb. “With the launch of our Bausch + Lomb ONE by ONE recycling program, we are asking people to join us to take ONE small step each day to help the environment, so that together we can create a significant positive impact.” The Bausch + Lomb ONE by ONE recycling program is open to any interested individual, eyecare professional, or organization.

When it comes to being a steward for Mother Earth, doing your part to change some long sown habits and influence the behavior of your neighbors can seem intimidating, but focusing on the big picture brings personal goals within reach. Instead of simply writing down “recycle more” or “live more green,” make a resolution to do what makes sense for a sustainable planet, and live with the intention to do right by it. Walk down a greener path in 2017 and consider these 5 environmental intentions to get started: Read up on environmental news If today’s most pressing issues don’t directly affect your day to day lifestyle, sustainability can be a topic that feels very out of sight, out of mind. Being more cognizant of the scope and scale of the world’s environmental challenges by reading up and creating dialogues within your community will help you set intentions. Connect with your food The demand for perfect-looking produce, pre-packaged items and inexpensive meats creates food waste, excess packaging waste, greenhouse emissions, damage to farming ecosystems, and a general disconnect between us and what we put in our bodies. Being more mindful of what food is for (sustenance and keeping us healthy) may inspire you to shop local, buy less at a time and learn to cook from scratch. Give your time and/or money to a cause With the resources, anything is possible. Donating your time or your money to a cause you believe in has an immediate impact and raises awareness of the issues to the people around you. TerraCycle’s recycling programs present a unique opportunity to dedicate your time to recycling and raise money for the charity of your choice.  Focus on investing in items with maximum reuse potential The post-holiday clearance sales are a popular time for people to update their wardrobe or stock up on housewares for the New Year, but be wary of trends. Reuse is one of the first steps in reducing your carbon footprint, and investing in quality items you enjoy and plan on using for long time is a way to streamline your consumption. Learn how to recycle right Recycling more does not equal throwing all of your household plastics in one bin and hoping for the best. Many municipalities have resources available that will tell you exactly what is accepted through curbside recycling, and any guidelines for recycling them correctly. For items that fall outside this scope, there are private recycling companies, TerraCycle’s free recycling programs and custom Zero Waste Box solutions, which enable you to recycle hundreds of different waste streams that are not accepted municipally.

Bausch + Lomb (B+L) has announced the launch of the B+L #ONEbyONE recycling program, encouraging consumers to help preserve the environment by taking one action at a time to one day achieve a greener future in which even their contact lenses can play a role. Patients can now recycle their used Biotrue Oneday contact lenses and other B+L contact lenses and blister packs through a free program, developed by B+L, in partnership with TerraCycle, a leader in the collection and repurposing of hard-to-recycle post-consumer waste. B+L launched the program with a consumer event at the Marshall B. Ketchum University’s Southern California College of Optometry located in Anaheim, CA on Nov. 15, which was America Recycles Day. Visit www.BauschRecycles.com to learn more about the program.

Bausch + Lomb Launches Unique Contact Lens Recycling Program November 2016 — Did you know? Normally, used blister packs, top foil and contact lenses are not recyclable locally. Usually they are filtered out and sent to landfills instead. But if you use Bausch + Lomb Biotrue Oneday lenses, there's great news: The new Bausch + Lomb #OneByOne recycling program lets you recycle the used lenses, blister packs and top foil, free of charge. The program was developed in partnership with TerraCycle, a company that collects and repurposes hard-to-recycle post-consumer waste. How does it work? Simply place your used blister packs, top foil and contact lenses into a small cardboard box. When the box is full, print a free One by One shipping label, available at BauschRecycles.com. Take the box to a UPS location or ship it from your home or office. That's all you have to do! (Note: Don't include the outer boxes of your contact lens packaging. These can be placed with other cardboard that you normally recycle locally.)

Going paperless has been a trend across industries for the last several years. A move to increase efficiency and keep up with changing systems, digitalization streamlines information and addresses environmental concerns. However, going paperless is still very much in the future at many businesses due to the fact that sweeping infrastructure changes and comprehensive iterations to existing document management solutions (DMS) pose challenges of security and compliance, two of the most important considerations when going paperless.   These considerations are why the shredding industry is a multi-million dollar business. Shredding companies offer legislative compliance for businesses and institutions obliged to protect the private information under their control. In a highly competitive marketplace, well-established shredding companies face the constant challenge of not only offering top-of-the-line service, but finding new ways to add value for their customers.   Some shredding companies are expanding their portfolio of services to include a turn-key waste solution for clients to diversify their offerings and scale for growth. Through my company TerraCycle’s highly customizable Zero Waste Box platform, major paper shredders across the country are bringing their customers the ability to recycle more than 300 categories of waste. The core benefit of this program mechanic is that TerraCycle makes it accessible for these shredding companies to offer new solutions to their clients while not increasing costs. This is possible because they are ‘piggy-backing’ on their own logistics.   With the traditional model, an individual, organization or business purchases one or many Zero Waste Boxes, priced by size and degree of material separation; this cost pays for the actual separation and processing of the recycled materials, as well as the cost associated with shipping.   When a shredding company works with TerraCycle to offer Zero Waste Boxes as an add-on service to customers, the shipping cost back is offset by the logistics used to handle the recycling boxes, which are already in place as an aspect of their shredding service. The shredder sets up and collects the Zero Waste Box in their clients’ place of business, taking over the shipping and transportation from FedEx or UPS.   At the point where shredders have accumulated a large amount of boxes and are ready to return them, some will send them back to TerraCycle via freight, while more local companies may choose to deliver the boxes directly to the TerraCycle warehouse using their own box trucks; both methods are less expensive (and more environmentally sound) than shipping through an external delivery company.   Shredding isn’t going anywhere, and staying competitive within the marketplace by offering a service that other companies do not is advantageous to both shredding companies and their clients. Recycling is an environmental business practice in and of itself. Coupling these circular systems with sustainable logistics that provide concurrent purpose is not only killing two birds with one stone and conserving valuable resources, it’s highly profitable.   In a similar manner that recycling is one of the most accessible and easily understood aspects of environmentalism, doing away with paper is an aspect of waste reduction perceived to be a sustainable and entirely doable practice. But until a total conversion to digital has come to pass, shredding companies will remain an integral part of keeping our information safe. By investing in another line of business that solves for a negative value commodity (that which people pay to have taken away), shredders and other logistics experts are able to sustainably diversify their offerings at low risk, and pass these benefits to customers and clients.

Admit it: Hiding in your home’s junk drawer is an ancient flip phone that composed your very first text. Deep in the bowels of your hall closet is your long-dormant, 2002-era PC clone. And down in your basement? You’ve likely stashed a clunky TV plus a DVD/VHS player (for that sweet VHS collection you’re also hoarding). This stuff is called e-waste, and according to the Environmental Protection Agency, it’s the fastest-growing municipal waste stream in America. But only 25% of the estimated 2.37 million tons of electronics we’ve chucked so far was properly recycled—which is a dirty shame, because there are valuable materials (hello, gold!) in all those tiny circuits, as well as toxic elements like mercury that seep into the soil and contaminate groundwater.  All of which means that ethical homeowners should learn the right way to get rid of e-waste. Try these steps in lieu of just chucking your defunct gadgets in the garbage—then pat yourself on the back for doing your small part to clean up the world. And for the real dinosaurs… Face it, you’re going to make precisely $0 selling your pager, 1990s fax machine, or home phone. TerraCycle’s Recycling Program offers a sustainable solution to this growing problem with an E-Waste Zero Waste Box Program. Simply buy a Zero Waste Box (the smallest, at 10 inches by 10 inches by 18 inches, costs $82), collect your outdated junk and ship it to TerraCycle for recycling. Apart from decluttering your digs, you can enjoy the satisfaction of having done at least a small good deed for the environment.

Procter & Gamble and Colgate-Palmolive are standing out from the bevy of manufacturers participating in the annual "Hannaford Helps Schools" cause campaign by staging account-specific promotions at the Ahold Delhaize chain. Colgate-Palmolive's Tom's of Maine is reprising a contest it ran at Hannaford last year to again award one of the schools participating in the cause campaign with four garden beds made from recycled materials through the manufacturer's ongoing partnership with recycling company TerraCycle. The prize goes to the school that receives the most votes from Aug. 29 to Nov. 28 via a web page within terracycle.com. Updates posted on TerraCycle's Facebook page and shared by Hannaford link to the page.

Central Elementary School in Nampa, Lincoln Elementary School in Caldwell and Jefferson Elementary School in Boise all received a donation of school supplies recently. The interesting part? … All the supplies were made from toothbrushes and toothpaste tubes. Thankfully, it was recycled. It’s not like someone took ink and poured it into a drilled-in hole in a used toothbrush, then added a nib. There are standards. Albertsons, Colgate and TerraCycle got together to make this happen for the Kids In Need Foundation, a nonprofit that assists schoolchildren through free supplies and grants. Each school was given 333 toothbrush pens, 56 backpacks and 200 notebooks. Congratulations to these schools and their students!

GU Energy Labs releases a new packaging sleeve for GU Energy Chews. This convenient sleeve gives athletes a new way to carry a double serving of portable energy that fits easily in a jersey pocket or hydration vest. The new sleeves hold a stack of eight individual Energy Chews that each deliver 20 calories. Created for daily training and competition, GU Energy Chews help sustain the energy demands of long-duration activities. Now easier to open,eat on the go, and share with friends, GU Energy Chews contain sodium to replenish electrolytes, complex and simple carbohydrates for fast and lasting energy, and branched-chain amino acids to help prevent mental fatigue and reduce muscle damage. GU Energy Labs aims to create portable, convenient, and effective ways to deliver the functional nutrients that are essential to improved athletic performance. The new double-serving sleeve responds to the needs of discerning athletes who asked for a compact way to carry more fuel. GU Energy Labs will continue to offer Energy Chews in single-serving pouches for athletes that prefer the smaller serving size. Like all GU Energy Labs packaging, the new Energy Chews sleeves can be recycled with TerraCycle.