Me: “I’m writing an article about pumps.” Husband: “Bike pumps?” Me: “No.” Husband: “Breast pumps?” Me: “No.” Husband: “Gas pumps?” Me: “No.” Husband: “Like the high heels?” Me: “No!” (I grabbed a hand soap bottle from our bathroom to make my point.) Out of all the types of pumps, the liquid dispenser pump is by far the most common in our home. I did a quick count, and there are 17 in our kitchen and bathroom, that’s far more than the number of high-heel shoes I have. It goes to show that pumps are everywhere, even if they don’t really register with most people.   You may be wondering why someone would be spending time thinking about pumps—enough time, in fact, to dedicate an entire article to them. Pumps, ingenious mechanisms for controlled actuation of liquid formulas, are so functional and ubiquitous in personal care products that they’ve become interwoven with our lives. But, if you’re a packaging designer or beauty entrepreneur focused on sustainability, the pumps’ pervasiveness means they’re a huge problem to tackle.

THE PROBLEM WITH PUMPS

  The issue isn’t so much the pump itself, but the way they’re used in consumer packaged goods. Pumps are wonderful and complex devices. A standard pump utilizes at least two to four different types of plastic, plus stainless steel, and sometimes glass and rubber. Each part of a pump is tiny and carefully crafted to do its job.   Why so many different materials? Because each part has been optimized for its unique purpose. Certain parts require a plastic with low reactability to liquid formulas to avoid stoking compatibility issues. Certain parts require a plastic that can slide against other parts with little friction. Certain parts require a plastic that can easily be pigmented to generate colors brands desire.   Don’t get me wrong—pumps do a fabulous job of dispensing the exact amount of liquid needed. The big issue with pumps is that, in most cases, they’re only used for a very short period of time before they’re tossed into the trash or recycling bin.

PUMP RECYCLING PREDICAMENTS 

  Remember the plethora of materials in pumps? Even if each individual material is recyclable, a pump would need to be dutifully disassembled and each material sorted by type to facilitate recycling. Unfortunately, since the pieces are small, they aren’t economically viable to recycle at a municipal sorting facility. As a result, the vast majority of pumps are destined for landfills.   TerraCycle, the self-proclaimed global leader in recycling hard-to-recycle materials, handles the minority of pumps that are recycled. Brands can pay TerraCycle to operate take-back programs that collect empty packages for recycling. Because brands pay for these services, there’s an economic incentive for the complicated process of disassembly and material sorting. TerraCycle’s process for recycling pumps involves shredding the pump and, then, separating out the stainless steel, plastic, glass and rubber to place into distinct recycling streams.   I spoke to a representative from Loop about how it deals with pumps. Part of TerraCycle, Loop is a circular retail platform selling household products in durable packages that customers use and return to be sanitized, refilled and resold. I was disappointed to hear that Loop doesn’t reuse pumps, probably because it’s too difficult to fully sterilize the interior cavities. The pumps are sent to TerraCycle for recycling. Perhaps in the future, Loop will design a reusable, cleanable alternative or allow consumers to purchase products with or without pumps to provide them the option of reusing a pump from a previous purchase.

PUMP ALTERNATIVES

  The next logical question is: Can we simply phase out pumps? After all, there are lots of other types of packages that hold liquids, including jars, tubes, squeeze bottles and droppers. And there are ways to formulate products in solid formats that don’t necessitate the amount of packaging liquid products necessitate. Those ideas are worthwhile and will work in several scenarios.   However, there are instances when a pump is truly the only option. For example, some skincare products with active ingredients use special airless containers to help prevent formulas from coming into contact with the outside environment and stave off bacteria. Another example is liquid products that are meant to be sprayed. A sprayers and atomizers are versions of pumps, and have the mixed materials and tiny parts associated with other personal care pumps.

THE REINVENTION OF PUMPS 

  Another approach to the pump problem is to redesign the pump for recyclability. Ren Clean Skincare is the first personal care brand to try. The brand developed a spring-free, all-plastic pump. The pump is an exciting innovation and step in the right direction. The catch is Ren’s pump contains a variety of types of plastic and recycling it remains tricky.   Brazilian packaging manufacturer Wista Airless Systems is behind a mono-material pump designed out of polyethylene or PE and has a PE spring. The tubes or bottles attached to the pumps are also constructed from PE, making the entire package 100% PE and truly mono-material. Wista offers recyclable sugarcane-based PE, too, which lessens environmental impacts by not being petroleum-based. INNBeauty Project uses a CTK Cosmetics mono-material pump in its Slushy Serum Moisturizer Cream. In an Instagram post, the clean beauty brand asserts it’s the first fully curb-side recyclable pump on the market. The pump is made from polypropylene or PP.   The next hurdle is ensuring recyclable packages actually are recycled. Brands with mono-material pumps must educate consumers to deposit packages into the right bins when they’re finished with their products. Then, the robots and people sorting items at material recovery facilities, where curbside recycling is taken before being sorted, baled and sold, have to know which pumps and packages are mono-material.   Currently, most material sorting at facilities is done visually, so a mono-material pump would get pulled off the recycling line and sent into the landfill stream since it looks like any other pump. To create identifiable recyclable pumps, a universal symbol to indicate mono-materiality should be displayed on packages. I also hope that recycling infrastructure continues to improve and innovate to introduce new ways of plastic sorting.  

PUMP REUSE 

  Since there isn’t a great solution for recycling pumps yet, the best short-term solution is to change how we use them. The idea of throwing away a pump every time you complete your shampoo or body lotion is bananas. The fine pieces of pump machinery have the capacity to be used over and over again. Ask the brands you love to sell bottles with and without pumps included, so you have the option to reuse them. Or request brands offer refill pouches or stations to refill bottles. Try shopping for personal care items at a package-free shop. Refill the bottles in your home whenever possible instead of buying new bottles.   Eco-conscious people and companies are addressing the implications of the enormous flood of personal care plastic waste. Fortunately, they seem to agree on two things: 1). Brands have a responsibility to be thoughtful about the types of packages they put into the world. 2). Consumers should reexamine the manner in which they buy, use and discard packages, and support brands that are doing better for the earth. Together, we can find a new path for pumps.   Lauren Golik is the art director at Bartlett Brands, an award-winning boutique branding agency in San Francisco. She leverages brand strategy to create holistic visual brand narratives incorporating identity, packaging, photography, video and marketing campaigns for clients ranging from cosmetics to consumables. Prior to Bartlett Brands, Golik worked in graphic design at Kendo Brands and Bare Escentuals. 

It's hard to picture now, but one day, something other than coronavirus might change your trip to the grocery store. Imagine entering your nearest chain grocery store to find nuts, pasta, flour, and fresh produce sold exclusively in bulk, with high-tech measuring and distribution methods specific to each product. In the cleaning and houseware aisles, there's laundry detergent, shampoo, and lotion getting dispensed into reusable bottles, which the store will clean upon return. It's not totally impossible. But for now, David Pinsky, a plastics campaigner at Greenpeace, notes that if consumers want package-free options, very few, if any, major retailers provide them. No one wants to get stuck with tons of excess packaging after buying some soap or pasta. Sometimes, though, it just...happens. That's not your fault: Grocery store experts note that most consumers focus on cost and convenience when they set foot in a store, and it's unlikely they look for the items with the least packaging. For consumers focused on cost and convenience, it would certainly be a lot easier to avoid generating packaging waste if that waste just wasn't there in the first place. That's where package-free efforts come in. Getting major grocery stores to go entirely package-free is likely a pipe dream, according to grocery store experts, plastics and waste experts, and small, package-free store owners. In all likelihood, big chains probably won't ever get there. But a radical overhaul to the way packaging is made, used, and dealt with in big chain stores? That's more possible — and likely a better goal.

What package-free efforts mean for our plastic addiction 

The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that containers and packaging alone, which includes food-related containers, comprise over 23 percent of the materials going into landfills in the U.S. That's a problem because the plastic packaging waste from retailers, particularly single-use plastics that are sometimes used for just seconds by a consumer, can last for lifetimes in the environment, says Pinsky. Plastic pollution is already known to devastatingly harm our oceans and wildlife. A 2019 study from the Center for International Environmental Law also found that greenhouse gas emissions currently produced when making and managing plastic threaten the global community's ability to keep temperature rise below 1.5 degrees Celsius, and that the threat will become worse if plastic production grows as planned until 2050.  Grocery retailers could be part of the solution by moving away from single-use plastics, though. Part of the trouble right now is that supermarkets typically don't release data about their plastic footprint, Pinsky notes. Because of this, it's difficult to estimate the impact of going package-free at a given chain. Instead, by focusing on recycling to address plastic pollution, Pinsky notes that retailers "often feed into the industry narrative that individual responsibility will solve the problem; that the customer is to blame for the pollution crisis." A 2019 Greenpeace report, which Pinsky co-authored, evaluated the overall plastic footprints of big U.S. retailers, including Costco, Walmart, and Trader Joe's. Greenpeace did so based on each company's policies around mitigating their plastic footprint, actual reduction, and transparency concerning single-use plastic. With their metrics, no store scored better than 35 out of a possible 100, a failure in his book. While we don't know every store's plastic footprint since complete plastic footprints are not available publicly, we've seen glimpses. While Kroger, Trader Joe's, Costco, and Whole Foods didn't provide Mashable with their plastic footprints when asked, Trader Joe's, Costco, and Whole Foods sent Mashable information about their plastic reduction efforts. Walmart, for its part, says it will release data on its plastic footprint in a forthcoming Environmental, Social & Governance Report for 2020, marking its first year doing so, according to Walmart's press team. When Kroger began phasing out plastic bags in 2019, National Geographic wrote "The company calculated that they handed out about 6 billion plastic bags a year, about six percent of the total number of bags distributed annually across the country. That’s the equivalent of about 32,000 tons of plastic, or enough to fill over 3,000 moving trucks jam packed with bags." It wasn't always this way. Before the advent of the grocery behemoths we see today, how people typically accessed food involved a lot less packaging, says Marc Levinson, an economist and historian who chronicled the changes to retail juggernauts in his book, the Great A&P and the Struggle for Small Business in America. Think of, say, a milkman reusing glass bottles, or a general store selling portions from bulk items. The evolution of how Americans access and eat food is nuanced, long, and, ultimately, fascinating. Grocery aisles packed with ready-made food in disposable packaging marks the current chapter of this saga. It's a story centered on convenience and cost, say Levinson and Jon Steinman, the author of Grocery Story: The Promise of Food Co-ops in the Age of Grocery Giants. In plenty of cases, packaging is necessary to preserve, transport, and sell products, says Darby Hoover, a senior resource specialist for the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) focusing on the food system. On the other hand, for lots of products, the packaging just serves marketing purpose, Levinson points out. A cashew in a giant tub is just a cashew, but a cashew in a package with a company's label on it becomes a marketable entity. "A package is a billboard," Levinson says. "From the point of view of sellers, they don't want to go back to the days when products were sold in bulk." In the 19th century, if you were trying to buy, say, molasses, your local grocer would simply pour molasses for you. There was no such thing as "name-brand" molasses.

What small stores are doing, and what big chains can learn 

If you actively seek out items with less packaging, you're probably not going to big chains anyway. You're turning to alternative options that have popped up to meet this desire: package-free stores and delivery services; co-ops offering food in bulk; refillable stations for basics like shampoo and lotion. It's not like a big chain trying to cut down on packaging operates the same way as these stores and services (more on that later) but understanding what has — and hasn't — worked can help illuminate what could. Take the Czech company MIWA, which Pinsky says has features that could be appealing to a big grocer otherwise hesitant to adopt reuse models. MIWA's "smart containers" help automate the weighing of bulk purchases, as well as payment, and provide usage data, which he notes is valuable for retailers since they care about consumer behavior and restocking needs. There are other innovations out there, too. In the realm of grocery deliveries, there's Loop, which offers customers major label products like Häagen-Dazs, Crest, and Tide that arrive in a "Loop Tote." (Customers pay a refundable deposit for each package.) When the reusable containers are empty or in need of a refill, people send them back to Loop in the tote, where they're cleaned and reused. CEO Tom Szaky says Loop solves the negative consequences of throw-away packaging, while "maintaining the virtues of disposability — affordability and convenience." Typically, Szaky says, manufacturers aren't incentivized to care about their packages after they're with the consumer, which leads to a plethora of inexpensive, disposable packaging. Under Loop's system, though, the package for a product becomes an asset to the manufacturer: Szaky says manufacturers want to make packages durable and long-lasting so they can withstand as many reuses as possible. As is, Loop can fill a major need with respect to eliminating packaging in grocery deliveries. (Steinman notes that in June, online grocery sales hit a record of $7.2 billion, with 45.6 million households using online grocery services.) Down the road, Loop also intends to expand its in-grocery store presence worldwide, Szaky says. (A spokesperson says Loop is first scheduled to be in stores in 2021.) Big chains can also innovate after examining the challenges that smaller, package-free stores might encounter. First, not everything can be sold through bulk or refillable methods, even at smaller stores. At Sustain LA, a zero waste company that sells refillable home and beauty products, Leslie VanKeuren Campbell, the company's founder, and her team sell things like dish liquid, body lotion, and mouthwash at refillable stations at farmer's markets, in its store, and through deliveries. She notes that it might be harder for a large chain to have a proprietary, spill-proof dispensing system than it was for her when Sustain LA opened its own brick-and-mortar shop. Even on her own store's scale, finding the right pumps for particular items proved difficult. Sometimes, depending on the consistency of what was being dispensed, pumps could get jammed or take a while to dispense. (To this end, there are particular pumps that work better for, say, shampoo, than other items.) At a small store, this is mainly a minor inconvenience, but for a big chain it could be a major deterrent, VenKeuren Campbell points out. At Sustain LA, if a customer gets frustrated, the staff can quickly help, but at a bigger chain, a dysfunctional pump could lead to a big loss in sales. Then there's the way in which bulk items get converted into refillable or reusable formats. Steinman notes that when his local co-op tried to go package-free, they found that disposing of the containers for bulk laundry liquid being purchased actually carried a bigger environmental impact than what they would have saved by not using individual containers. (VanKeuren Campbell says Sustain LA typically refills bulk containers with vendors, or they donate big drums to animal shelters, or send them back to vendors.) "Beans still get to the store in something," Hoover of the NRDC says. "There's never zero packaging."

What's stopping the package-free revolution?

In large part, Levinson sees the lack of package-free options as a logistics problem: For big chains with massive amounts of traffic each day, even seemingly minuscule decisions can have a rippling impact. "For modern food retailers, logistics is extremely important, and packaging is important to decide those logistics," Levinson says. "There's a concern in shaving every hundredth of a cent possible." For the Walmarts and Whole Foods of the world, it's not quite as simple as scaling up the same practices as smaller companies. They operate on a much bigger scale than mom-and-pop package-free options, Pinsky says similarly. Take bulk items: Bread, coffee, and other dry goods could be sold in bulk in more places, Steinmain notes, in the sense that they can be sold without packaging. Logistical concerns get in the way, though: Levinson points out that cashiers need to weigh bulk items at checkout which slows down the line. It seems minor, he says, but for a big chain that would lead to a loss of sales that few seem willing to give up. "The key stress test is to test these things for scale," Szaky, of Loop, says. "Any extra work; they're not going to be able to do it. It's just not going to be possible." Ultimately, though, Hoover maintains that big chains need to address the root of the waste to really get packaging (and specifically plastic packaging) out of their stores: suppliers. In 2019, the Break Free from Plastic initiative conducted 484 cleanups in 50 countries (and six continents) and identified the brands whose products showed up as litter most often. The audit revealed the same brands had the most plastic waste for a second year in a row: Coca-Cola, Nestlé, and PepsiCo. The Walmarts, Krogers, and Costcos of the world have sway with suppliers. If a grocery chain actually wants to go package-free, Hoover notes it would have to communicate that desire to the suppliers covering their products with (potentially unnecessary) packaging. This is one place in which big chains actually have potential for package-free options in a way that smaller mom-and-pop stores don't: The Walmarts, Krogers, and Costcos of the world have sway with suppliers, Hoover notes. Mashable asked Whole Foods, Walmart, Trader Joe's, Kroger, and Costco about the roadblocks towards package-free options. Kroger, Costco, and Whole Foods declined to comment. Commenting on bulk methods overall, a Trader Joe's spokesperson told Mashable via email that Trader Joe's has evaluated the use of bulk bins in its efforts "to minimize waste and shift to sustainable packaging," but "with the expansion in the number of stores and focus on reducing waste, the use of bulk bins is not a sustainable option for us at this time." That said, the spokesperson maintains "[Trader Joe's is] constantly evaluating options and are committed to making improvements." Trader Joe's didn't comment on other roadblocks. When asked about the potential financial deterrent of slow lines from weighing more bulk items, Walmart had no comment. When asked about mechanical troubles associated with refill stations that might deter a larger chain from implementing them, Ashley Hall, director of strategic initiatives at Walmart, told Mashable via email: "We believe the issues can be addressed and it is a technology to watch." When asked about reducing packaging by communicating a desire for less packaging with suppliers, Hall writes: "Since 2006, Walmart has been encouraging suppliers to reduce packaging in the products we sell," adding that the company distributes a voluntary survey to suppliers about their product packaging. Levinson agrees that these giants can impact what suppliers make, including items with less packaging, but the likelihood of chains doing that out of the goodness of their hearts is slim, in his opinion. "They know what's moving, and what's not moving," Levinson says. "If they decide the 32-ounce [container] isn't moving, they'll tell the supplier. The consumer is calling the shots here." Still, how can you call the shots when you're not able to decide what shots are available in the first place? Without more package-free options, you're stuck picking between a 16-ounce plastic container, or a 32-ounce one.

Where do we go from here?

Grocery store experts say that for some customers and grocers, forgoing certain forms of packaging, or using reusable containers when handling food and hygiene items, sounds perilous amid the spread of coronavirus, leading to resistance to package-free efforts. That concern isn't founded, necessarily — a cohort of 125 virologists, epidemiologists, and health experts recently said consumers can safely use reusable containers during the pandemic. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provides specific advice for preventing the spread of the virus while grocery shopping, adding: "There is no evidence that food or food packaging play a significant role in spreading the virus in the United States." Still, some states, counties, and cities, have rolled back plastic bag bans which went into effect before the pandemic. (Additionally, in the early days of the coronavirus' spread in the U.S., the Plastics Industry Association lobbied the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to declare that bans on single-use plastics presented a public safety risk.) "In a way, we've gone back many decades," Steinman says, in reference to the increased use of single-use plastics in stores during the pandemic. "I'd like to think we'd be able to move past this, and get back on track with package-free shopping." Pinsky sees a decrease in momentum as "largely temporary." If there's one thing the pandemic quickly revealed for people, it's that our sense of "normal" is hardly static. There have been massive overhauls to the ways in which we get basic goods in the past, but where the current moment will take package-free options down the road remains to be seen. It could go many ways: Maybe the plastics industry, reinvigorated by single-use plastic ban reversals amid the pandemic, will continue its stronghold; maybe consumers, now more aware of the systems in which they live, will push back on their limited options for accessible, package-free food. Maybe packaging will be the next lobbying effort in statehouses and city halls across the country, after plastic bags and styrofoam clamshells. "It's really a turning point for the world that we need," Pinsky says, referencing both the Black Lives Matter movement and the pandemic. "We need to rethink the way the world has been operating."

Dive Brief:

• Ulta on Tuesday announced the creation of Conscious Beauty, an initiative that will launch in the fall and certify beauty brands under five pillars: clean ingredients, cruelty free, vegan, sustainable packaging and positive impact.
• The clean ingredients label will certify that a brand meets Ulta's "Made Without List," which consists of parabens, phthalates and other ingredients from over 25 chemical categories, according to a company press release.
• As part of the sustainable packaging initiative, which highlights brands made with reduced, recyclable or refillable packaging, Ulta will pilot a "circular shopping experience" with Loop. The beauty retailer is also pledging that 50% of all packaging sold by 2025 will be recyclable, refillable, or made from recycled or bio-sourced materials.

Dive Insight:

In the midst of a pandemic that has threatened to put many things on the back burner, including sustainability initiatives, Ulta Beauty has announced a wide-ranging effort to hold itself accountable to more conscious practices. The beauty retailer set its first sustainable packaging goals as part of the initiative, and partnered with various third parties for the certification process, including ClearForMe to verify brands have clean ingredients, and PETA, Leaping Bunny and Choose Cruelty-Free to help certify cruelty-free brands. The company also established a Conscious Beauty Advisory Council to "ensure accountability and drive the initiative forward." Currently, the council includes CEO and co-founder of Loop, Tom Szaky, and co-founder and COO of Credo Beauty, Annie Jackson, among others. A partnership with Credo Beauty was announced by Ulta in June, and the clean beauty collection, dubbed the Credo Collection, will launch within the conscious beauty platform. While all of the certifications are meant to help customers identify brands that share their values, it's the sustainable packaging initiative that Ulta itself is committing the most to. In addition to setting a 50% sustainable packaging goal, the retailer also plans to support the Sustainable Packaging Coalition, and will use How2Recycle instructions on its owned brand packaging and print materials. Ulta is hitting on some of the biggest issues in the beauty space, and retail more broadly, with this launch. For years, the level of waste created by retail packaging has been scrutinized, and retailers have turned their focus to tackling that and other major sustainability issues, including making products with more sustainable materials and building up the circular economy. Loop is one of the companies at the forefront of sustainable packaging, partnering with companies like Procter & Gamble, Unilever and Kroger in 2019 to test out refillable packaging solutions. Clean and sustainable beauty initiatives have also grown to define the beauty space in recent years, with Sephora launching a Clean at Sephora category in 2018 and Neiman Marcus debuting an online shop centered around clean beauty products in 2019. Even big-box players like Walmart and Target have added brands to their assortment that focus on clean ingredients. "As the beauty retail leader, we have the unique opportunity to inspire positive change in our industry," Dave Kimbell, president of Ulta Beauty, said in a statement. "With Conscious Beauty at Ulta Beauty, our focus is to educate, guide and simplify product choice and elevate those brands doing good for our world. This initiative helps our guests readily navigate our assortment through the lens of what matters most to them."

The plan is to identify products that are clean, cruelty-free and vegan, as well as those that have sustainable packaging or positive impacts.

As virus-wary customers opt for grocery delivery instead of in-store browsing, an eco-friendly startup is offering U.K. shoppers a way to cut down on all that consumer-goods packaging. Loop, a spin-off of New Jersey recycling specialist TerraCycle Inc., is starting a trial with supermarket operator Tesco Plc that lets consumers order products like Heinz ketchup and Nivea shaving balm in containers designed to be returned and refilled over and over again. Shoppers can order the products via a local Loop website, with Loop keeping a small deposit that’s returned when it gets the packaging back for reuse. The U.K. is Loop’s latest market -- it already operates in the U.S. and France, while expansion to Canada, Japan and Australia is coming in this year and early 2021, the company said. Related: The Milkman Model Is Back, This Time for Shampoo and Haagen-Dazs In a phone interview, Loop and TerraCycle founder and Chief Executive Officer Tom Szaky said the company’s sales remain strong amid the Covid-19 pandemic that has roiled the consumer landscape. Tesco CEO Dave Lewis said in a statement that the grocery chain “has a clear ambition to reduce packaging” and the partnership will help it develop new plans using reusable containers. Loop, which has partnered with big companies like Coca-Cola Co. as well as smaller ones, ships customers’ orders in stainless steel, glass or aluminum packaging. When the container is emptied, shoppers can either request pickup of the containers or they can drop them off at 2,500 collection points in the U.K. The jars, canisters and bottles are sorted, professionally cleaned and returned to the manufacturer for a refill. “The professional cleaning means people aren’t afraid” to use the service during the pandemic, Szaky said.  

We can’t shop our way to saving the planet, but mindful choices matter. From ingredient sourcing to sustainable packaging, here’s how the industry’s forward thinkers are striving to tread more lightly as they produce the beauty products you see on the shelves. RETHINK (INGREDIENTS) The fine print on beauty labels tells us next to nothing about how responsibly sourced ingredients are. To muddy matters, calculating a product’s eco-footprint is far trickier than checking if the formula is all-natural or organic. For starters, natural ingredients can still cause environmental havoc—take, for instance, palm oil and its derivatives. Widely used in beauty products, they can be found in everything from shampoo to lipstick. They are largely produced in Indonesia and Malaysia, and the destruction of rainforests to clear the way for palm oil plantations is rampant. “A lot of companies are coming in and bulldozing and forcing communities out,” says Lindsay Dahl, senior vice-president of social mission at Beautycounter. Although the brand initially wanted to eschew palm oil, it realized that palm derivatives are still the best choice for many of its products.

I have a slightly complicated relationship with my deli containers. I have a drawerful that made their way in via deli soups, meal kits, and supermarket olives, and most of them have been in there...forever? Some may have turned cloudy. Others absorbed the myriad smells of foods they’ve since held. I greatly value them for their usefulness: as vessels for bulk grains, soups, the giant potato I parboiled but didn’t use immediately. “If you are in possession of the full range—a quart, pint, half-pint—you basically have a container to suit every storage need,” says Allison Bruns Buford, Food52’s Test Kitchen Director, ex-catering maven, and deli container fan. They’re so easily stacked in the fridge, she adds, and there’s “nothing quite like eating straight out of one.”

When Tom Szaky dropped out of Princeton in 2002 to start a company, TerraCycle, that made fertilizer out of worm poop, a lot of people were skeptical. Why not start a web company like that other guy, Mark Zuckerberg? “They expected a male college student to start a dot-com,” Szaky says. “Garbage and waste management wasn’t nearly as sexy.” But in garbage—or at least the management part of it—Szaky saw a path for change. Over the next 18 years, his company TerraCycle moved well beyond worm poop, taking on some of the toughest recycling challenges—cigarette butts, dirty diapers, used coffee capsules—that no other operation would go near. Szaky is even tackling the problem of plastic pollution in the ocean, 8 million metric tons of which accumulates annually. He’s turned a profit by transforming that trash into shampoo bottles, among other things. To date, TerraCycle has recycled 310 million pounds of plastic from the ocean. Something was still nagging Szaky, though. “Recycling is really important, but it’s not the answer to garbage,” he says. “It’s an answer to the symptom”—the equivalent of, say, taking a Tylenol when you have a headache. Szaky wanted to eliminate the headache in the first place. So last year he launched Loop, a “circular shopping platform” that offers top consumer brands in reusable metal and glass packages. Customers buy a pint of Häagen-Dazs or a bottle of Tropicana OJ and instead of throwing away or even recycling the package when they’re done, they return it to Loop, which cleans, sterilizes and refills it to be resold—resulting in a much smaller environmental footprint. Brands have signed on in droves—55 at latest count—as have some of the country’s largest retailers, including Kroger supermarkets. “People want to change, but there aren’t solutions out there for them—not everyone can be a Brooklyn zero waster,” said Szaky. “The biggest lesson we’ve learned is that you have to meet people where they are.”