The Global Food & Beverage Summit returns to Chicago on July 15-17, 2014 where it will be held at the Chicago Hyatt Regency.  This year the event is rolling out two dynamic learning tracks that offer high quality learning to those in the food & beverage sector—Strategies for Marketing & Brand Differentiation plus Technical Intelligence to Enhance Production & Engineering. Packaging Digest had the opportunity to connect with Albe Zakes, vp of communication, TerraCycle Inc., who will be speaking at the event. His background includes playing an integral role in the transformation of TerraCycle from a small start-up selling liquefied worm poop in reused soda bottles into a successful and highly visible recycling innovator that runs pre- and post-consumer packaging reclamation programs for major manufacturers such as Kraft Foods, Frito-Lay, L’Oreal, 3M, Kimberly-Clark, Proctor & Gamble and Newell Rubbermaid. For companies that are looking to increase their triple bottom line, what are some key practice points for developing a successful sustainability program? Zakes: Unfortunately, sustainability and social responsibility programs don't come in a "one-size-fits-all" so any company looking to improve their triple bottom line, must first understand where their issues and opportunities exist. A good way to start this process is review each major step of your supply chain individually. Start with the "low-hanging" fruit, your own offices and employees. For environmental improvement, look to see how you can reduce waste and increase recycling or reuse. Naming an "eco-champion" for the office helps to provide a more defined sense of responsibility. Then look at all the ways you can reduce waste, without affecting productivity. Do you have a double-sided printing policy? Are recycling bins clearly labelled and widely available? Do you provide reusable coffee mugs and dish ware? Consider a small "reward" for those who bike or carpool to work. Then consider gamifying the whole process. Have internal contests about which department/floor/section can reduce, reuse and recycle the most. Have a leader board and watch the competition heat up while helping to reduce your company's eco-impact. Then for social impact there are fun easy ways to get your employees involved and actually increase their positivity and commitment. Consider local volunteer days, bonus time off for running in charity races, setting up clothing, shoe or can food drives in the office. Every little bit helps and most employees will be glad to participate. Then look at your transportation and manufacturing, a trickier place to improve, but with bigger pay off if done correctly. After all, yours is a for-profit business and making sure you keep your costs controlled is vital. Consider renewable energies in your manufacturing or whether alternative transportation is viable, be it electric cars or using simply using freight train versus trucking. Many investments in sustainable energy can become cost-saving measures, but often have very long horizons before that is the case. At TerraCycle, we leased our roofs to a solar company, who then installed solar panels on our factories and offices. We recoup serious energy savings, the solar company sells the left over credits and in 20 years we will own the panels outright. All at no cost to the company! Try to balance a few long-term investments and with a few smaller, easy and less costly to implement ideas. Look at reducing your post-industrial waste as an easy cost saving solutions. More and more companies are providing free or low-cost recycling solution for trim or off-spec materials, reducing your impact and tipping fees. Triple bottom line efforts don't have to detract from the fiscal bottom line. Start with smaller, easy projects like increased recycling options, updating company policies and running intern drives and charity efforts. Then you can get a sense of your stakeholders’ willingness to tackle the bigger issues.   How can companies increase consumer engagement to purchase sustainably and ethically-packaged products? Zakes: Education, education, education. Consumers can't be expected to pay a premium of any size or make a brand-switch simply because they are told your package is more sustainable or ethical. They need to know why the issue you are addressing matters and what eco/social impact the less responsible choice is creating. Further, they need to how why your package is better, not just have faith that you’re telling the truth. Getting that message across is not easy but can be delivered with honest, straight-forward marketing. Bring the issue to life visually through images, infographics and third party endorsements from reputable figures. Use these talking points and images on your package, POP materials, social media and your website. Consumers trust what they see and information from respected authorities. Use these channels to educate and inspire consumers on why the issue matters and why they should make the better choice. Ask for feedback and give your consumers a voice. Today's social media driven world is a 2-way conversation with consumer like never before. Don't just tell your consumer that your package is more responsible; ask them for their help on a journey to a better package. Take pride in the improvements you've already made and ask them for their opinion on how to make it even better. Consumers feel a much stronger affinity to a product they feel they've helped to build or improved and are far more loyal to a company they think is actually interested in their opinion.   How can an organization maximize its impact on the community and ensure its future sustainability? Zakes: The key is combining long-term and short-term goals into a strategy that can have both an immediate and long-lasting affect. Start with smaller ways to engage the local communities around your offices and facilities. This can take the form of the aforementioned charity drives, mentorship programs, local clean-up efforts or donations to local non-profits. While there are some small costs to these efforts they can also create shared value through PR, Social Media and general impact consumer awareness and opinion. Once you've started to develop these relationships with the local community, use the experience to create templates for how these events can make both social impact and help your business, then decide which to continue or make into annual or recurring events. As your view turns towards a longer horizon think about adding to these annual outreach efforts by setting up a local scholarship fund or mounter/fellowship program. Work with the recyclers and waste management companies in your area to understand how you can work together better to reduce waste. Talk with local government to see who you can support their beautification or environmental initiatives. Host a community "town hall" to discuss and understand the impacts—both positive and negative—that your business and others in the area have on the community. While that type of public transparency might seem risky or intimidating at first, you will gain invaluable insight and massive respect from consumers simply for your willingness to listen.   How do you see the sustainable packaging industry evolving? Future trends and innovations? Zakes: Sustainable packaging has a very bright future. Innovation is taking place across the board and has the buy in from all stakeholders from manufacturers to purchasers to consumers to governments. Tactics like designed for re-use are being explored by giants like Coca-Cola. Compostable, bio-based plastics are becoming more affordable and applicable to a wider range of packaging formats. Post-consumer recycling opportunities for packaging falsely labelled "non-recyclable" are booming lead by TerraCycle, Aveda, Crayola and otherwise. Ways to reduce the energy or materials required to manufacturer packaging are blossoming and more and more decreasing the carbon impact of shipping—through lighter weight packaging or items that stack better—is becoming the norm. Packaging will forever be a part of modern consumerism, but the day when packaging is celebrated—not vilified—for its environmental impact grows ever closer. Albe will be presenting on July 16, 2014 at 10:00 a.m. To find out more about the event, please visit http://pdlinks.com/WGJ9Ds. For more information about how to register for the summit and pre-conference workshop, visit www.fbpackaging.comor call 310-445-8535.

“Content Marketing” was a major buzzword among marketers in 2013, and its importance continues to grow in 2014. At TerraCycle—a pioneering recycling startup with limited marketing budgets—“we learned long ago that it was far more valuable to get paid to create the content than to pay to sponsor other’s content,” says Albe Zakes, Global Vice-President, Communications. In a recent presentation, Zakes outlined TerraCycle’s content-marketing philosophy and approach.

   

 

To get started with content marketing, it is vital to identify the core audiences you are trying to reach and determine what engages them. Then, you have to identify what type of content to deliver and what learning or outcome you want to create for the audience.

   

The content produced and distributed will in part define your brand. It is important to ask yourself, “What makes my brand interesting and what will make people want to share my story?” By doing so, you start the process of creating a brand story. Look to your employees, your business model, your supply chain and your consumers themselves for ideas of what story to begin telling.

 

 

If you want your content to have impact and reach you require, keep it relevant. Look beyond your own story to your industry at large or general news that relates to your brand. How? Follow industry groups, influential journalists and professional associations; create Google Alerts or RSS feeds for keywords; and watch social media threads that parallel your company.

     

TerraCycle began our journey into content marketing unexpectedly. After placing numerous stories in a major small-business magazine, we were told by an editor they simply couldn’t cover our story any longer without seeming biased. In response, we offered to start writing a non-promotional guest blog—an offer they gladly accepted. We then quickly began to approach media focused on other subjects with a similar offer.

To help sweeten the deal, we told these editors or website managers not only would we provide content, but also promote every post on our website, social networks and in our newsletter. For an online/web editor this means more traffic, more clicks and thus more revenue. The results speak for themselves. Within two years, TerraCycle was regularly blogging for Treehugger, The New York Times, Huffington Post and trade publications like Packaging Digest and Industry Intelligence. Combined, these outlets have greatly contributed to the growth of our reach, awareness and expert profile.

- See more at: http://partners.decisionbriefs.com/content-marketing-strategies/article/the-brand-perspective-how-terracycle-innovated-content-marketing/#sthash.14b150xE.dpuf

Recycle Across America® (RAA) has joined forces with Participant Media to launch a social action campaign focused on transforming recycling and improving the economics and prevalence of sustainable packaging and manufacturing. The campaign, unveiled at the European Union’s Environmental Summit by RAA’s founder Mitch Hedlund, is inspired by Participant’s new show “Human Resources,” premiering August 8, 2014 on its television network Pivot. “Human Resources” follows the non-stop, deadline-driven world of TerraCycle, a company whose mission is to eliminate waste on a global scale. The Recycle Right! campaign offers informational videos, tips and practical solutions – such as standardized recycling labels – to help everyone recycle right and increase the amount of quality raw recycled materials available to be used by manufacturers looking to lessen their environmental footprint. “We can’t sit idle knowing that millions of tons of valuable recyclable materials, which are easy to convert into new products and packaging, are going to waste every year.  Which one of us wants to throw billions of dollars and our environmental wellbeing into landfills?  That’s what we’re doing if we’re not recycling right,” says Tom Szaky, CEO, TerraCycle. “We’re thrilled to join forces with Participant Media and Recycle Across America to fix the dysfunction of recycling and move the needle toward progress. And we can’t wait for audiences to watch ‘Human Resources’ to see inside our world at TerraCycle where every day we’re proving that even the most undesirable and traditionally non-recyclable materials can have a new purpose and can be valuable.” Historically there have been thousands of different looking labels on public area recycling bins causing confusion and resulting in tons of garbage being thrown in recycling bins each day. A key component of the campaign is expanding the use of standardized recycling labels to help eliminate confusion at the bins and empowering everyone to recycle right. The campaign aims to double the amount of standardized labels being used by the end of the year to one million. Use of the standardized labels on recycling bins have shown to: ·       Increase recycling levels by more than 50 percent and significantly reduces the amount of trash thrown in recycling bins. ·       Help ensure a consistent quality and quantity of recycled materials. This helps keep the cost of recycled raw materials competitive with virgin materials. “We are incredibly excited to work with two of the most predominant leaders of change in their industries, Participant Media and TerraCycle! Worldwide waste is expected to double by 2025 and with the United States being the largest producer of waste in the world, it is imperative that we address this issue today,” RAA executive director, Mitch Hedlund explains. “We need to remind ourselves that it’s not just waste that’s doubling; it’s the use of finite natural resources and generation of excessive CO2 that will also double. This is why we're thrilled to work with these companies to advance the use of the standardized labels. It's a deceivingly simple solution that creates exponential progress - and I think we're all ready for some progress!" Chad Boettcher, EVP of Social Action and Advocacy at Participant Media, says, “We know that recycling is the most important action we can do to improve the environment yet the percentage of valuable materials being recycled has not improved much over the past 17 years,” Boettcher continues, “We are eager to work with Recycle Across America and TerraCycle to spread awareness on such a tangible and easy step we can all take in improving the health of our world environmentally and economically.” Many industry leaders have already begun using the labels on their bins, such as: NBCUniversal, Hallmark, Kohler, Walt Disney World employee areas, Procter & Gamble manufacturing, SanDisk, AOL, two thousand U.S. K-12 schools – including all the public schools in Washington DC, many universities including University of Denver, George Mason University, Johns Hopkins University, and thousands of other adopters. Today approximately half a million of RAA’s standardized labels are in use throughout the United States, Canada and Europe. The RAA and Participant Media through Recycle Right! will continue this effort. For more information on Recycle Right!, please visit www.takepart.com/HumanResources

What happens to your garbage? Ninety-nine percent of the total material flow in the U.S. becomes garbage within six months. That's a lot of waste! For recyclables, many municipalities have the infrastructure to process and re-purpose it. Non-recyclable materials are sent to landfills or incinerators. Garbage that is recycled goes to a processing plant and is converted into new raw materials to make new products. This not only eliminates the negative effects of land filling/incinerating it, but processing garbage into new raw material releases fewer emissions than producing new materials. Why are some materials non-recyclable? Technically, "non-recyclable" materials can be recycled. However, these materials must be collected, sorted and processed differently than what we consider traditionally recyclable materials, which are really just the most easily recyclable — glass, metal, paper and some plastic. How do we go beyond what is easy? In 2001, Tom Szaky, then a 19-year-old Princeton student, accomplished his first major coup against the major environmental issue of "waste." While the intervening successes are amazing, to stay on target, fast forward seven years. In January 2008, Szaky, as TerraCycle founder and CEO, went corporate with "sponsored waste." TerraCycle began partnering with consumer packaged goods manufacturers to administer free programs for consumers to help collect non-recyclable packaging, which is then upcycled or recycled into eco-friendly products. New Mexico-based Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Co., for instance, is the corporate sponsor for the recycling of cigarette butts into pellets. Rebates for consumer collecting are sent directly to the participants' designated non-profit. Currently, participating nations include Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, Puerto Rico, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Note: in 2013, reports detailed that in Sweden, people are so diligent about recycling that just 4 percent of all trash ends up in landfills. (Please reread paragraph one before continuing.) As of June 2014, the following stats appear on the TerraCycle website. People collecting trash: 41,813,394 Waste units collected: 2,601,688,712 Money to nonprofits: $6,667,938.12 Coyote Howling's TerraCycle campaign has already logged 24,910 units of cigarette waste. (Thanks, Gabe, for the encouragement to take on this specific collection brigade!) Another flourishing Brigade is cheese packaging for which we have logged 7,679 units. A standing ovation to Pizza Hut and Schlotzsky's for bringing in their weekly collections of cheese packaging! Are you one of the people collecting Terracycle? If not, why not? Easier to just throw things away? Let's go beyond easy! Add your name, church, business or organization to the growing list of TerraCyclers! To check out what counts for TerraCycle, review the details at www.CoyoteHowlingShopForaCause.com, or visit Coyote Howling and learn how to take your trash back from the landfills and use it to fund meals for children. Coyote Howling's designated nonprofit: Feed My Starving Children. Tonya Huber, PhD, is founder and owner of Coyote Howling Shop for a Cause Contact her at CoyoteHowlingNM@gmail.com 575-808-8320.

Timbuk2 used Earth Day to announce the launch of its Timbuk2 Life Cycle, a program to reduce, reuse, repair, recycle and reimagine Timbuk2 bags. To launch this effort, Timbuk2 announces new partnerships with yerdle, iFixit, and TerraCycle, and hires a full-time repairs sewer in San Francisco. Timbuk2′s Life Cycle program was inspired by Patagonia’s Common Threads Partnership, says Timbuk2 brand director Lizzy Fallows. “Patagonia educated us about the 5 R’s of their Common Threads Partnership and encouraged us to use a similar structure for our Life Cycle program,” she says. “Their mentorship and generosity developing, testing, and launching our program was invaluable.” More information about Life Cycle can be found at http://lifecycle.timbuk2.com and a summary of the program’s five pillars is below: Reduce: Timbuk2 encourages customers to invest in things that last. All Timbuk2 bags have a lifetime warranty and Timbuk2 stands behind the legendary quality and craftsmanship. Reuse: Timbuk2 now helps customers find a new home for their bag: Yerdle Your Bag – Timbuk2 partners with yerdle, an online community where people give and get things for free. On yerdle, people give away durable goods they no longer need, like camping gear, kitchen tools, electronics and kids toys. By giving something away, you earn points – then use your points to get something you want. Send Timbuk2 any unwanted bags and they will find it a new home via a local non-profit partner and give the customer 30% off their next Timbuk2 purchase through April 2014, and 20% thereafter. Repair: Timbuk2 now offers repairs to keep their bags working for the long haul: Timbuk2 launches new fix-it manuals and replacement parts for customers to repair their bag. Get started here: http://lifecycle.timbuk2.com. Timbuk2 hired a new full-time sewer dedicated to repair products. Customers can now send in damaged bags and they’ll do their best to repair it. Learn more here:http://lifecycle.timbuk2.com. Recycle: Customers can now send Timbuk2 any unwanted bags and they will recycle it via their new partner TerraCycle, a New Jersey-based upcycling company, and will give 30% off the next Timbuk2 purchase through April 2014 and 20% thereafter. Reimagine: Timbuk2 now provides inspiration to create something entirely new out of a Timbuk2 bag. http://lifecycle.timbuk2.com.

Kimberly-Clark Professional, a global leader in cleanroom and laboratory contamination control garments, has helped divert 137,000 pounds of disposable garments and 45,000 pounds of nitrile gloves from landfills through its innovative large-scale recycling program called RightCycle by Kimberly-Clark Professional. The RightCycle by Kimberly-Clark Professional program allows cleanroom employees to conveniently deposit used gloves, hoods, boot covers and hairnets in collection boxes where they are then delivered to recycling pioneer and partner, TerraCycle. TerraCycle transforms these otherwise landfill-bound items into useable products such as composite decking, park benches, and Adirondack chairs. “By recycling more than 90 tons of garments and gloves since the program began, we have helped our customers achieve or exceed their Corporate Social Responsibility and sustainability goals,” said Randy Kates, director, Global Scientific Business, Kimberly-Clark Professional. “At Kimberly-Clark, our mission to create Exceptional Workplaces that are healthier, safer and more productive is inseparable from our commitment to protecting the environment. This program addresses both of these goals.” Since 2011, the Kimberly-Clark Professional and TerraCycle partnership has made it simple and convenient for companies to recycle these previously non-recyclable waste streams, helping them meet their zero-waste goals. The overwhelming success of the RightCycle by Kimberly-Clark Professional program is part of a larger goal by Kimberly-Clark Corporation, the parent company of Kimberly-Clark Professional, to send zero manufacturing waste to landfills by 2015. The company’s Global Nonwovens Division has already worked to keep more than 99 percent of its manufacturing waste out of landfills. As the environmental and economic costs of landfilling and recycling manufacturing waste continue to rise, alternative recycling options are becoming increasingly important to both industry leaders and consumers. Through this pioneering program, Kimberly-Clark Professional is not only providing a more long-term solution to its own waste-generation, it is helping to pave the way for a more sustainably conscious corporate world. About Kimberly-Clark Professional Kimberly-Clark Professional partners with businesses to create Exceptional Workplaces* helping to make them safer, healthier, and more productive. Key brands in this segment include: Kleenex, Scott, WypAll, Kimtech, and Jackson Safety. Kimberly-Clark Professional, located in Roswell, Ga., is one of Kimberly-Clark Corporation’s four business sectors. To see how we are helping people the world over work better, please visit www.kcprofessional.com.

TerraCycle, an international recycling company, and The North Face, a leading supplier of outdoor apparel, equipment and footwear, continue to work together to pursue a solution to the common problem of massive amounts of left over polyethylene bags that are used to protect merchandise through distribution and transit. The North Face has engaged 25 of its retail stores in TerraCycle’s The North Face Polybag Brigade®, to ensure these plastic bags get recycled. Together the two companies have kept 1.5 million plastic polybags, equaling more than 62,000 lbs., of plastic out of U.S. landfills. “We are always looking for ways to reduce our environmental footprint and TerraCycle has been an important partner in helping The North Face address the challenging issue of plastic bag recycling,” said Adam Mott, Director of Sustainability at The North Face. “This partnership is especially vital in locations where municipal recycling does not accept hard-to-recycle plastics, such as polybags, which would otherwise be disposed of in a landfill without the TerraCycle recycling program.” Until this partnership between The North Face and TerraCycle began two years ago, the 25 stores were not able to readily recycle the polyethylene bags. Now, the bags will be recycled into a variety of different products such as plastic lumber, bike racks and pavers. “The volume of polybags that are used every day in shipping to customers and to retail stores is mind-boggling,” said TerraCycle Founder and CEO Tom Szaky. “The fact that The North Face is committed to going the extra step to keep them out of the waste stream is an action that should be applauded and replicated by more manufacturers and retail stores.”

YORK SPRINGS >> Bermudian Springs Elementary School students earn money and prizes for their school by collecting and recycling the drink pouches they use at home and in the lunchroom. Bermudian Springs students have just reached the third level of TerraCycle and Capri Sun’s Drink Pouch Brigade milestone contest by collecting more than 40,000 drink pouches. For their accomplishment, the school earned 50 TerraCycle wristbands and a vinyl banner announcing their achievement. The students have also earned over $2,200 for their school by collecting the drink pouches. The Drink Pouch Brigade is a free recycling program that rewards people for collecting and sending their waste to TerraCycle to be recycled or upcycled. The Milestone Program began in September 2013 when Capri Sun added prizes for collecting certain amounts. Now, in addition to the money they earn for each piece of waste collected, participants can win prizes made from recycled drink pouches, such as park benches,recycling bins, a playground, and other fun rewards.

NASHVILLE, Ga. — Berrien Primary School students earn money and prizes for their school by collecting and recycling the drink pouches they use at home and in the lunchroom. Berrien Primary students have just reached the third level of TerraCycle and Capri Sun’s Drink Pouch Brigade® milestone contest by collecting more than 40,000 drink pouches. For their accomplishment, the school earned 50 TerraCycle wristbands and a vinyl banner announcing their achievement. The students have also earned over $1,300 for their school by collecting the drink pouches. The Drink Pouch Brigade® is a free recycling program that rewards people for collecting and sending their waste to TerraCycle® to be recycled or upcycled. The Milestone Program began in September 2013 when Capri Sun added prizes for collecting certain amounts. Now, in addition to the money they earn for each piece of waste collected, participants can win prizes made from recycled drink pouches, such as park benches, recycling bins, a playground, and other fun rewards. "The Milestone Program is meant to inspire individuals and organizations to collect more waste while receiving prizes for their achievements," said Tom Szaky, CEO of TerraCycle. "It is rewarding to see the students and administration get so involved in making this work.  It’s an incredible achievement to have kept so many pouches out of the waste stream." Thousands of other schools across the United States participate in the Drink Pouch Brigade. To learn more about the program or to sign up, visit www.terracycle.com. The program is free to any interested organization or individual, and all shipping costs are paid. In addition, for each piece of waste received, participants earn money for a charity of their choice.

Glacier Park Elementary students earn money and prizes for their school by collecting and recycling the drink pouches they use at home and in the lunchroom. Glacier Park Elementary students have just reached the third level of TerraCycle and Capri Sun’s Drink Pouch Brigade® milestone contest by collecting more than 40,000 drink pouches. For their accomplishment, the school earned 50 TerraCycle wristbands and a vinyl banner announcing their achievement. The students have also earned more than $3,000 for their school by collecting the drink pouches. The Drink Pouch Brigade® is a free recycling program that rewards people for collecting and sending their waste to TerraCycle® to be recycled or upcycled. The Milestone Program began in September 2013 when Capri Sun added prizes for collecting certain amounts. Now, in addition to the money they earn for each piece of waste collected, participants can win prizes made from recycled drink pouches, such as park benches, recycling bins, a playground, and other fun rewards. "The Milestone Program is meant to inspire individuals and organizations to collect more waste while receiving prizes for their achievements," said Tom Szaky, CEO of TerraCycle. "It is rewarding to see the students and administration get so involved in making this work.  It’s an incredible achievement to have kept so many pouches out of the waste stream." Thousands of other schools across the United States participate in the Drink Pouch Brigade. To learn more about the program or to sign up, visit www.terracycle.com. The program is free to any interested organization or individual, and all shipping costs are paid. In addition, for each piece of waste received, participants earn money for a charity of their choice.