Lately you may have seen the words zero waste on your body lotion (and if that’s the case, we applaud you). It’s an emerging trend within the beauty industry, and as someone who has spent the better part of a decade reporting on such matters, it’s the trend I am most excited about. To get a better understanding of what this term actually means, I spoke to Tiila Abbitt, the CEO and founder of Aether Beauty, a sustainable makeup company that launched the first zero-waste eye shadow palette in the industry. "Zero waste means making sure nothing ends up in a landfill," explains Abbitt. "That can mean a few things: One is that a product is reusable, another is that it can actually be recycled." (I’m going to interrupt here briefly to drop in that oft-quoted National Geographic stat about how 91 percent of plastic ends up in landfills.) "And on that note, it’s making sure there is no packaging or packaging waste. The main idea is to limit what actually goes directly in your trash." And it's not just the indie brands who are making strides toward sustainability. Procter & Gamble (the parent company behind Dove, Secret and Herbal Essences) joined forces with TerraCycle’s LOOP program last year, which provides shoppers with a simple website where they can request pick-ups and order refills of popular household products like shampoo and laundry detergent. "The idea of adopting a zero-waste routine can be intimidating because people think they have to completely switch up their entire lifestyle, but this isn’t about perfection," says Abbitt. "We don’t need a few people creating a zero-waste lifestyle perfectly. We need millions of people trying their best, thinking more about their own footprint and making better choices with the goods they are purchasing, however imperfectly, to make a difference." In sum, it’s not an all-or-nothing affair. So, how else can we be start being more conscious of our consumption? "Look for products that have less waste, are package-free or are fully recyclable. And avoid single-use items like face wipes and cotton rounds," shares Abbitt. We’re also fans of recycling programs from brands like M.A.C. and Lush, who offer new products in exchange for empties. And beyond carefully choosing your beauty products, start bringing reusable items like shopping bags, coffee mugs and water bottles, utensils and metal straws with you for when you are out and about. OK, now who’s ready to shop some of our favorite sustainable beauty products?

Loop, the zero-waste, refillable packaging delivery service, has announced that it is expanding nationally in the US this summer and coming soon to the UK, Canada, Japan, and Australia. Terracycle, which runs the service, has partnered with Kroger and Walgreens in the US, Loblaw in Canada, Tesco in the UK, and Carrefour in France. Terracycle piloted the Loop service in New York and Paris and later expanded to a few regions along the US east coast. Consumers order products from over 200 brands, including products from major international consumer goods companies such as Unilever, Nestlé, Coca-Cola, and Procter & Gamble. Customers place orders online and receive it in a reusable Loop tote, with all of the products within coming in refillable packaging. Goods range from pantry items, perishables, home goods, and personal care products. Once finished, users request a pickup for empties, which is then picked up. Your empty containers go back to Terracycle, where they are then cleaned, sanitized, and refilled for the next customer. The announcement comes as consumers flock to grocery delivery services from companies such as Instacart and Amazon over fears of contracting COVID-19 and being in the vicinity of possibly contagious shoppers in-store. While delivery services provide relief from possible contact with coronavirus, Loop is the only service that offers zero-waste packaging. Loop is currently inviting interested consumers to sign up on their waiting list.

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Americans generate over 250 million tons of trash annually, or 4 to 5 pounds per person per day. Only about 25% to 30% of it is recycled; the rest is incinerated or buried in landfills, where it can often end up polluting the environment and leaching into the soil and groundwater supply.   It’s a reality that TerraCycle finds unacceptable.   Founded in 2001 by Tom Szaky, then a student at Princeton University, Trenton-based TerraCycle is a social enterprise on a mission to eliminate the idea of waste. “We pick up where municipal recyclers leave off and recycle the things they don’t, including coffee pods, cigarette butts, chip and snack wrappers, clothing, shoes, contact lenses and much more,” said TerraCycle North American Public Relations Manager Sue Kauffman. “We collect over 150 waste streams and are adding more every day.”   Different towns have their own rules for recycling, often driven by economics. “If recyclers can sell the processed waste at a profit, they’ll recycle it – if not, they’ll either incinerate it or divert it to a landfill,” she said. “Thanks to over 200 million individuals actively recycling through TerraCycle, we’ve recycled over 7.7 billion pieces of waste, diverted millions of pounds of valuable resources from landfills all over the world, and donated nearly $45 million to charity to-date.”   A Range Of Recycling Solutions   Recycling 97% of the waste it receives and composting the remainder, TerraCycle promotes the opportunity for consumers to “reuse, upcycle, and recycle” in a variety of creative ways:  

• Free Recycling Programs – Sponsored by corporate partners such as Arm & Hammer, Colgate, Gerber, Gillette, Herbal Essences, Solo, Swiffer and other well-known brands, TerraCycle’s free recycling programs enable consumers to recycle specific branded products or entire categories of products at no cost. “Simply go to our website, pick a recycling program, register and ship the targeted waste stream to us using the free shipping labels provided online; based on the weight of the shipments, recyclers earn ‘TerraCycle points’ that can be converted to cash and donated to schools, charities and nonprofits of their choice,” said Kauffman, who noted that points can yield big dividends. “Through the ‘Free Recycle Playground Challenge’ that Colgate runs in conjunction with ShopRite each year, for instance, the school that collects the most oral care waste will win a new playground constructed from the recycled plastic they sent in and valued at $50,000,” she said. In addition to being free and easy, “it’s exciting to see schools starting their own Green Teams, learning about sustainability and participating in our recycling opportunities to earn more points.” Among new items recently added to their recyclable list are the packaging associated with L.O.L. Surprise! dolls and products by Reckitt Benckiser (makers of such brands as Mucinex, Enfamil and MegaRed). “In addition, in association with Gillette, we recently added disposable razors to our list, which represents the first time that there’s been an outlet to recycle disposable razors, blade cartridges and plastic packaging in the U.S.,” Kauffman said.

 

• Zero Waste Boxes – Through this program, consumers can purchase everything from a pouch to a pallet to reuse difficult-to-recycle waste that can’t be recycled through one of TerraCycle’s free programs or through regular municipal recycling. Boxes are specific to a variety of different product categories, from alkaline batteries and light bulbs to printer cartridges, paint brushes, plastic bags, shoes, vitamin bottles and dozens more options. “Once consumers send their waste in to be recycled, it will be weighed, processed, shredded, melted into pellets and ultimately sold to companies who use it to make other things,” Kauffman said.

 

• Loop – Launched in January 2019, Loop is a groundbreaking e-commerce platform that’s reminiscent of the milkman of yesteryear. Through the exclusive program, consumers can receive the products they use every day in durable, reusable containers that were designed for Loop by partners such as Proctor & Gamble, Unilever, Nestle, PepsiCo, Coca Cola and others. When finished, consumers return the packaging for cleaning and refill, completing a no-waste loop. “While TerraCycle recycles plastic and other items to make the Earth a cleaner place, our new Loop program strives to not create waste in the first place,” Kauffman explained. “Response to this program has been so strong that we’ve already expanded it to other states beyond New York and New Jersey.”

  Offering Creative Circular Solutions   Headquartered in a refurbished facility where contents are made largely from recycled items – “my desk is an old door and office partitions are crafted from old soda bottles,” Kauffman said – TerraCycle has tapped into a growing need and is helping to make sustainability a mainstream movement. Following heightened media attention concerning the magnitude of America’s waste, as well as China’s 2018 decision to restrict imports of the megatons of trash they’d been processing/recycling for us for decades, “American consumers are definitely paying more attention to this issue than ever before,” Kauffman said. “The best way to elicit change is by voting with your dollars and buying from companies with a strong sustainable process. In the case of the companies that have partnered with TerraCycle, we’re able to work together to offer creative and efficient circular solutions to waste that don’t include the landfill.”       Nearly 20 years since its founding, TerraCycle now operates in 21 countries, has won more than 200 awards for sustainability, and was named No. 10 in Fortune’s Change the World list, out of 52 companies. For Kauffman and her 300 colleagues, working at TerraCycle is a labor of love. “We’re all extremely passionate here, creativity is so high, and new ideas are blossoming every day,” she said.   “It’s wonderful to celebrate Earth Day in April and we celebrate it for the entire month,” Kauffman concluded, “but the way we see it at TerraCycle, Earth Day should be every day.”   TerraCycle is located at 1 TerraCycle Way in Trenton and can be reached at (866) 967-6766 or by visiting www.terracycle.com.

After decades of bitter fights, environmentalists seemed to be winning the war against single-use plastics in recent years, with cities around the world banning or taxing them. Then the coronavirus arrived, raising fears that reusable goods might lead to infections. The impact has been swift. From Maine to Hawaii, plastic-bag bans have been suspended or postponed. In San Francisco, reusable shopping bags — once totems of the city's vibrant commitment to sustainability — have simply been outlawed. These reversals have sparked deep concern among activists. Some fear the bans will never be reinstated; others that reusable products may be permanently tainted as “unsafe.” The good news is that activists aren’t the only ones demanding more sustainable packaging these days. So are consumers — and some of the world's biggest corporations are paying attention. Campaigns against consumer plastics date roughly to the discovery of the Pacific garbage patch in 1988. The environmental movement was soon galvanized, and single-use plastics — especially grocery bags and straws — became a focus of global activism. Much of this was misdirected. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, plastic bags and wraps amounted to only about 0.3% of all the waste generated by homes and businesses in 2010. By comparison, containers and packaging make up about 30%. Nonetheless, the proliferation of ocean plastic has worried consumers well beyond San Francisco. Last year, a survey of 6,000 people in 11 countries found that 77% perceived plastics to be the "least environmentally-friendly packaging material.” Perhaps unsurprisingly, 72% said they're buying more environmentally friendly products than they were five years ago, and 83% thought it was important for companies to design products that can be reused or recycled. Those shifting perceptions haven’t gone unnoticed by consumer brands. Over the past decade, some of the biggest have adopted ambitious sustainability agendas. In 2017, Apple Inc. rolled out an aggressive strategy to embrace sustainable paper and cardboard, which resulted in a 30% reduction in plastic use in iPhone 7 packaging. The next year, nearly 300 global organizations, including companies such as Nestle SA, Mondelez International Inc. and Colgate-Palmolive Co., pledged to eliminate unnecessary plastic packaging entirely. Some of those commitments may not amount to much. But the broader trend is unmistakable. For example, last May, 5,000 U.S. households gained access to a zero-waste e-commerce site called Loop. It offers brand-name products packaged in custom-designed glass and metal containers, which the company will deliver to your doorstep in reusable tote bags. Once you’re done with them, Loop will collect all the packaging for washing and refilling. Tom Szaky, the chief executive officer of TerraCycle, the company behind the site, told me that the experience isn't all that different from throwing stuff out; it asks almost nothing of the consumer. Loop isn’t making much money to start. But its animating idea — that reuse should be as easy as throwing something away — is powerful enough that some very big consumer-goods companies are now designing packaging specifically for the site. Want Clorox wipes delivered in a reusable metal container? Loop has them. Want the same experience with Haagen-Dazs ice cream or Pantene shampoo? Loop has those too, along with products from 400 other brands. It also has a waiting list of would-be shoppers that's about "100,000 long," Szaky says. Later this year, the company will start offering pick-up-and-return services at retail outlets around the world. "Manufacturers are promising recyclability and reusability," Szaky told me during a Zoom session, "and we're the easiest way to do it." Loop may or may not be successful in the long-term. But the fact is, consumers everywhere are expressing a clear preference for sustainability — and brands are increasingly responsive. Whatever happens with plastic-bag bans, it’s highly likely that this dynamic will ensure that single-use plastics continue to fade from the marketplace. The coronavirus, for all of its challenges, won't change that hopeful trend.

After decades of bitter fights, environmentalists seemed to be winning the war against single-use plastics in recent years, with cities around the world banning or taxing them. Then the coronavirus arrived, raising fears that reusable goods might lead to infections. The impact has been swift. From Maine to Hawaii, plastic-bag bans have been suspended or postponed. In San Francisco, reusable shopping bags — once totems of the city's vibrant commitment to sustainability — have simply been outlawed. These reversals have sparked deep concern among activists. Some fear the bans will never be reinstated; others that reusable products may be permanently tainted as “unsafe.” The good news is that activists aren’t the only ones demanding more sustainable packaging these days. So are consumers — and some of the world's biggest corporations are paying attention. Campaigns against consumer plastics date roughly to the discovery of the Pacific garbage patch in 1988. The environmental movement was soon galvanized, and single-use plastics — especially grocery bags and straws — became a focus of global activism. Much of this was misdirected. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, plastic bags and wraps amounted to only about 0.3% of all the waste generated by homes and businesses in 2010. By comparison, containers and packaging make up about 30%. Nonetheless, the proliferation of ocean plastic has worried consumers well beyond San Francisco. Last year, a survey of 6,000 people in 11 countries found that 77% perceived plastics to be the "least environmentally-friendly packaging material.” Perhaps unsurprisingly, 72% said they're buying more environmentally friendly products than they were five years ago, and 83% thought it was important for companies to design products that can be reused or recycled. Those shifting perceptions haven’t gone unnoticed by consumer brands. Over the past decade, some of the biggest have adopted ambitious sustainability agendas. In 2017, Apple Inc. rolled out an aggressive strategy to embrace sustainable paper and cardboard, which resulted in a 30% reduction in plastic use in iPhone 7 packaging. The next year, nearly 300 global organizations, including companies such as Nestle SA, Mondelez International Inc. and Colgate-Palmolive Co., pledged to eliminate unnecessary plastic packaging entirely. Some of those commitments may not amount to much. But the broader trend is unmistakable. For example, last May, 5,000 U.S. households gained access to a zero-waste e-commerce site called Loop. It offers brand-name products packaged in custom-designed glass and metal containers, which the company will deliver to your doorstep in reusable tote bags. Once you’re done with them, Loop will collect all the packaging for washing and refilling. Tom Szaky, the chief executive officer of TerraCycle, the company behind the site, told me that the experience isn't all that different from throwing stuff out; it asks almost nothing of the consumer. Loop isn’t making much money to start. But its animating idea — that reuse should be as easy as throwing something away — is powerful enough that some very big consumer-goods companies are now designing packaging specifically for the site. Want Clorox wipes delivered in a reusable metal container? Loop has them. Want the same experience with Haagen-Dazs ice cream or Pantene shampoo? Loop has those too, along with products from 400 other brands. It also has a waiting list of would-be shoppers that's about "100,000 long," Szaky says. Later this year, the company will start offering pick-up-and-return services at retail outlets around the world. "Manufacturers are promising recyclability and reusability," Szaky told me during a Zoom session, "and we're the easiest way to do it." Loop may or may not be successful in the long-term. But the fact is, consumers everywhere are expressing a clear preference for sustainability — and brands are increasingly responsive. Whatever happens with plastic-bag bans, it’s highly likely that this dynamic will ensure that single-use plastics continue to fade from the marketplace. The coronavirus, for all of its challenges, won't change that hopeful trend.

After decades of bitter fights, environmentalists seemed to be winning the war against single-use plastics in recent years, with cities around the world banning or taxing them. Then the coronavirus arrived, raising fears that reusable goods might lead to infections. The impact has been swift. From Maine to Hawaii, plastic-bag bans have been suspended or postponed. In San Francisco, reusable shopping bags — once totems of the city's vibrant commitment to sustainability — have simply been outlawed. These reversals have sparked deep concern among activists. Some fear the bans will never be reinstated; others that reusable products may be permanently tainted as “unsafe.” The good news is that activists aren’t the only ones demanding more sustainable packaging these days. So are consumers — and some of the world's biggest corporations are paying attention. Campaigns against consumer plastics date roughly to the discovery of the Pacific garbage patch in 1988. The environmental movement was soon galvanized, and single-use plastics — especially grocery bags and straws — became a focus of global activism. Much of this was misdirected. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, plastic bags and wraps amounted to only about 0.3% of all the waste generated by homes and businesses in 2010. By comparison, containers and packaging make up about 30%. Nonetheless, the proliferation of ocean plastic has worried consumers well beyond San Francisco. Last year, a survey of 6,000 people in 11 countries found that 77% perceived plastics to be the "least environmentally-friendly packaging material.” Perhaps unsurprisingly, 72% said they're buying more environmentally friendly products than they were five years ago, and 83% thought it was important for companies to design products that can be reused or recycled. Those shifting perceptions haven’t gone unnoticed by consumer brands. Over the past decade, some of the biggest have adopted ambitious sustainability agendas. In 2017, Apple Inc. rolled out an aggressive strategy to embrace sustainable paper and cardboard, which resulted in a 30% reduction in plastic use in iPhone 7 packaging. The next year, nearly 300 global organizations, including companies such as Nestle SA, Mondelez International Inc. and Colgate-Palmolive Co., pledged to eliminate unnecessary plastic packaging entirely. Some of those commitments may not amount to much. But the broader trend is unmistakable. For example, last May, 5,000 U.S. households gained access to a zero-waste e-commerce site called Loop. It offers brand-name products packaged in custom-designed glass and metal containers, which the company will deliver to your doorstep in reusable tote bags. Once you’re done with them, Loop will collect all the packaging for washing and refilling. Tom Szaky, the chief executive officer of TerraCycle, the company behind the site, told me that the experience isn't all that different from throwing stuff out; it asks almost nothing of the consumer. Loop isn’t making much money to start. But its animating idea — that reuse should be as easy as throwing something away — is powerful enough that some very big consumer-goods companies are now designing packaging specifically for the site. Want Clorox wipes delivered in a reusable metal container? Loop has them. Want the same experience with Haagen-Dazs ice cream or Pantene shampoo? Loop has those too, along with products from 400 other brands. It also has a waiting list of would-be shoppers that's about "100,000 long," Szaky says. Later this year, the company will start offering pick-up-and-return services at retail outlets around the world. "Manufacturers are promising recyclability and reusability," Szaky told me during a Zoom session, "and we're the easiest way to do it." Loop may or may not be successful in the long-term. But the fact is, consumers everywhere are expressing a clear preference for sustainability — and brands are increasingly responsive. Whatever happens with plastic-bag bans, it’s highly likely that this dynamic will ensure that single-use plastics continue to fade from the marketplace. The coronavirus, for all of its challenges, won't change that hopeful trend.

The beauty industry has a bad reputation when it comes to sustainability, and a lot of that is because of the sector’s dependence on single-use plastic packaging. The numbers are staggering — the cosmetics industry produces about 120 billion units of plastic-containing packaging a year, according to Zero Waste Week, an awareness campaign in the U.K. And after 60 years of global plastic production, only about 9 percent of the collective 8.3 billion metric tons has been successfully recycled, according to a study by Great Britain’s Royal Statistical Society. It’s unclear how much of that successfully recycled plastic has come from the beauty industry, but the industry’s penchant for housing tinctures in bottles made from multiple materials means the packaging is often tough to recycle, according to TerraCycle’s Gina Herrera, senior director of brand partnerships.  “The easiest rule to follow is that the more materials — plastics, glass, metals — that compose your beauty product packaging, the lesser chance it is recyclable in your blue bin. This is because it can be too costly, in regard to both time and money, to separate and process,” Herrera said.

The platform, which ships things like ice cream in metal containers you then send back for reuse, is expanding this summer, after a huge surge during the pandemic.

If you’ve started buying basic supplies like shampoo and toothbrushes online during the pandemic, you may notice that you’re creating a lot of extra waste in your house. But soon you’ll also be able to buy versions that come with sustainable, reusable packaging. Loop, the milkman-style platform that partners with big brands to offer subscriptions to common products like Tide detergent in reusable packaging, will expand its delivery service across the contiguous U.S. early this summer. The startup, which began its first pilots in and around New York City and Paris in 2019, has seen record sales in March and April as consumers have turned to e-commerce to avoid shopping in crowded stores. The expansion is a response to demand from customers, but also offers an alternative to recycling at a time when the recycling industry is struggling even more than it already was. [Photo: Loop] “We’re in a waste crisis,” says Tom Szaky, Loop’s CEO, who is also CEO of Terracycle, the recycling company that first helped launch the new platform. “That’s only worse because of COVID. During COVID, recyclers are hurting even more because oil is at an extreme low, so it makes it hard for recyclers to compete. And many are struggling because of health and safety—recycling is crashing during COVID.” Instead of shipping products in packages designed for a single use before recycling (or going straight to landfill), the platform sells products in packages designed for multiple reuses. When a container is empty, a consumer drops it in a shipping tote, schedules a pickup, and then sends the packaging back to be fully sterilized and then repackaged for another customer. Reuse has faltered in some cases during the coronavirus outbreak—some grocery stores have banned reusable bags, and some coffee shops have stopped reusable cup programs. But Szaky says that hasn’t been the case for Loop. “We’re learning that consumers are comfortable with reuse during COVID, which is very important,” he says. “If you give a coffee cup to a barista at a Starbucks, it has no dwell time, no health and safety protocol, and no cleaning. So it’s pretty bad. In Loop, it’s a professional reuse system, which has all of those three things in a very, very big way.” The platform now offers around 200 products that major brands have redesigned for reuse, either in the packaging or the product itself. A new toothbrush from Oral B called Clic has a reusable base and a head that snaps off to be sent back for recycling. Pantene shampoo comes in a lightweight aluminum bottle instead of plastic. Puretto, Loop’s in-house brands, sells snacks like chips and pretzels in stainless steel tubs instead of plastic bags. The design process for each item takes months; a tub designed for Häagen-Dazs ice cream, for example, uses a unique structure that works in the system, but also keeps ice cream colder longer. Four hundred brands have now signed onto the platform and are working through the process of developing new packaging for their products. As the company tracks where orders are most popular across the country, that will help its retail partners—Kroger and Walgreens—decide where to prioritize offering the same platform in stores later this year.