These innovative brands are making it easy for you to become more environmentally responsible

We’re going to assume that you’re already aware of the impact of plastics on marine life: That every day, eight million pieces of plastic find their way into the oceans and ever year, 100,000 marine mammals and one million sea birds are killed by marine plastic pollution. Like us, you may even have seen the footage of the pregnant whale that was found with almost 50 pounds of plastic in its stomach. You’re probably doing your very best to reduce your environmental impact by consuming thoughtfully, and recycling what you can, but when it comes to beauty, that can be challenging. You need to wash yourself and brush your teeth, so there’s only so much you can reduce your consumption, and often, beauty packaging is tough to recycle. “The first issue is that it tends to be small. Small items of packaging, less than 2.5 inches in diameter will generally not be captured in recycling facilities,” explains Eva Cook, brand PR specialist at LUSH. “The other challenge is that cosmetics packaging can be made up of multiple kinds of materials that can’t be easily separated; for example, a metal component with glass and paper. Consider a lipstick or eyeshadow—the external plastic case may be recyclable but there may be another material that the product actually sits in and that can’t be separated in order for it to be recycled.” On top of that, beauty products are mostly packaged in virgin plastic, made straight from petrochemicals, so recycling them is not really getting to the root of the sustainability problem. “Being recyclable is a good start but no longer the endgame,” says Australian haircare brand founder Kevin Murphy. “Because of that, we are seeing a really positive shift to a more preventative mindset. Rather than simply producing packaging that can be popped into a recycle bin, companies are being challenged to get resourceful with the materials they use and consumer demand is what is driving this change.” Here, five tips to help you be a more responsible beauty fan...  

1. Lose your virginity

... when it comes to plastics, that is. It’s possible to make plastic from renewable materials, such as sugarcane, like British men’s skincare brand Bulldog Skincare does. “For every 100 tonnes of sugarcane plastic used in Bulldog tubes, 309 tonnes of CO2 is taken out of the environment,” says brand founder Simon Duffey.   There are also plenty of brands using non-virgin, post-consumer recycled plastic for their packaging, including massive producers like Unilever, which recently announced a commitment to 50 percent recycled content in its North American packaging. Taking things to the next level are L’Oreal’s new Source Essentielle vegan haircare line, which is in 100 per cent recycled packaging, and Kevin Murphy’s entire range, which now comes in 100 per cent recycled packaging from ocean waste. “This initiative is a reflection of the company’s unwavering values, and represents an urgent call to action to help protect our vast oceans and marine life,” says Murphy.   Both brands also package their products in square, not round bottles, which uses less plastic and packing materials, and takes up less shipping space so the overall carbon footprint is reduced.  

2. Have your fill

Buy pretty refillable bottles (Homesense always has good options) and then fill, refill and refill once more. Some brands make this easy—L’Oreal Source Essentielle bottles can be refilled directly at salons, while brands like Kjaer Weis and Elate Cosmetics allow you to purchase refills of their makeup. Elate’s packaging is also made from sustainable bamboo, and refills come in biodegradable seed paper.      

3. Get naked

Brands like LUSH are cutting the waste by reducing overall packaging, or in some cases, cutting it completely. Around 40 percent of its range is packaging-free (the brand calls it ‘naked’ (all packaging is made from materials that are recycled, recyclable, reusable or compostable) and each new range over the past year has been offered in a naked version. LUSH even has zero-waste Naked shops in Milan, Berlin and Manchester, and is touring a bath-bomb pop-up in North America soon. Another great low-waste brand is Calgary’s Unwrapped Life, which also offers home products like laundry soap and dryer balls.    

4. Go a little further

Now that you’ve considered the more obvious beauty products, it’s time to examine things a little harder. Simon Duffey says that in 1990 (the most recent data available), the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)estimated that two billion razors were thrown away each year in the US alone.   “Stats like this are why we wanted to ensure our new Original Bamboo Razor was as environmentally friendly as possible,” he says. It has a handle made from sustainable bamboo, and the packaging is recycled and printed with environmentally friendly ink. The brand is also vegan and cruelty-free international certified. Victoria-based BamBrush is taking a similar approach with toothbrushes—it makes the handles from 100 percent biodegradable moso bamboo. The nylon bristles can be removed when you’re done with your toothbrush so the handle can be composted. Then there are plastic bottles: Sure, water is a big part of your beauty regimen, but stats from Earthday.org suggest that by using a reusable bottle, you can save 156 plastic bottles a year. Brita’s dishwasher-safe Premium Filtering Water Bottle contains a filter, fits into most cup holders, and best of all, is completely leak-free.  

5. Go all the way

For products that can’t be recycled through your domestic program, there’s TerraCycle. You can buy a zero-waste box from them and fill it with toothbrushes, lipsticks and pump bottles, or you can also check out their brand partnerships. Brita customers can return filters and old water bottles or jugs to them for free. TerraCycle also facilitates a program for L’Occitane, where you can return packaging from any brand, of virtually any type, in store and receive 10 per cent off products. The Body Shop is about to launch a similar program, Return, Recycle, Repeat where those who bring five of the brand’s products receive a $10 voucher, and any other brand’s packaging can also be returned. Meanwhile, LUSH runs its own recycling scheme: when you return five of the brand’s little black pots, you get a face mask in return. And with M.A.C’s Back to M.A.C program, you get a free lippie when you give back six pieces of packaging.  

6. Tell them what you want

These days, virtually every brand is accessible on social media and via their websites, so and ask them about their sustainability and recycling efforts. The good ones are responsive, transparent, and will explain their policies to you. After that, decide which brands align with your own values—whatever they are—and spend your money there.  

In the year 2000, the United Nations brought together a group of CEOs to hash out how the global business community could become a force for environmental sustainability. The result was the UN Global Compact, a framework designed to guide companies in their efforts to lessen their impact on the earth’s ecosystem. Today the UN Global Compact has 13,000 corporate participants, all of which are making concrete strides toward averting what many scientists believe could become the defining crisis of our age if unchecked. The following five organizations exemplify how the private sector can, in fact, do its part to make the world a cleaner, safer place. 1. Greenstone Plus Peter Drucker famously said, “What gets measured gets managed.” The team at Greenstone certainly took this maxim to heart. The company produces a software platform that allows its clients to collect various forms of data on carbon emissions, energy usage, waste, water, and fugitive gasses to bring them in line with international standards. Greenstone also supplements its software solution with unlimited human support to ensure that real improvement begins where measurement ends. 2. Goodera Goodera is an international company with a global purpose—to allow users to collect and analyze environmental inputs, regardless of what language they were originally reported in. The platform’s interface then provides unified reporting to all stakeholders to help them reduce their environmental impact while actually improving their profitability. Goodera was founded on the idea that the best way for companies to grow is to foster teams of people who know their efforts are helping make the world a better place, and it continues to operate on that basis. 3. SupplyShift It is often the most seemingly mundane details that create the biggest impact. SupplyShift understands this, which is why it focuses its efforts on helping companies manage and optimize their supply chains. Co-founders Alex Gershenson and Jamie Barsimantov saw that making it possible for companies to consolidate all of the information about their supply chains in one place would allow them to make decisions about them that were as responsible and productive as possible. 4. TerraCycle We are smothering our planet in trash. While more people are recycling than ever before, current methods still fall far short of what is necessary. Fortunately, TerraCycle has an ingenious solution to this serious problem. The organization has developed a process to recycle materials that until now have been considered “non-recyclable,” from ballpoint pens to coffee pods to cigarette butts. 5. Pernod Ricard Pernod Ricard, one of the world’s largest spirits companies, has sustainability at its heart. Founder Paul Ricard loved the sea and spent much of his free time sailing. It was this love that led to him to found the Paul Ricard Oceanographic Institute more than 50 years ago, Ricard’s legacy lives on through the actions of the company he founded. Over the last decade alone, the company has reduced its water consumption per liter of alcohol by 20%, its carbon emissions by 30% per unit of production and waste from 10,253 tons to a total of 748 tons to landfill. It has also publicly announced it will be transforming every element of its operations to fully support United Nations Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.

Make your recycling efforts go further – and make a difference for our planet – with our easy tips. A lot of us already set aside plastic milk jugs, glass bottles and old newspapers for the recycling bin. But with Earth Day approaching, it doesn’t hurt to ask: Could we all be doing more? A lot of times, our good intentions to help the planet are thwarted by recycling incorrectly or simply not knowing what can be recycled. If you’re looking to pitch in more – or even to just get started! – check out our easy-to-follow tips. Start at the Supermarket Assess your shopping habits and think about the items you buy that produce the most waste. Look at foods packaged in unnecessary plastic wrap or products in needlessly excessive packaging. Be more mindful and decide if there’s an eco-friendlier way to purchase what you need. For example, you can buy loose fruit and vegetables instead of pre-packaged ones. If you’re stumped about how to recycle certain essential items like empty detergent containers or used air fresheners, check out TerraCycle, an innovative recycling company that specializes in recycling hard-to-recycle waste and offers a number of programs and initiatives to make the process easier. For instance, Tide laundry detergent bottles and caps and Febreze FABRIC, ONE, PLUG and CAR products are all fully recyclable through TerraCycle drop-off locations around the country, and they also offer an at-home recycling program for these products. Know How to Recycle Plastic Bags Shoppers worldwide use 500 billion single-use plastic bags each year, which often become part of the estimated 5.25 trillion pieces of plastic debris floating in our oceans today. Because they take so long to break down, they repeatedly contribute to the more than 100,000 marine creatures that die each year after getting tangled in plastic. You might already know the impact that discarded plastic bags have on the environment, but did you know that they usually can’t be processed by regular recycling plants? Instead, separate plastic bags from the rest of your recycling and drop them off at a special plastic bag collection point – most grocery stores have them. Make Your Morning Coffee Offer(s) you can use near  10001 New York, NY (Change) You’re probably conscious of everyday recycling at home, but sometimes that mindset gets pushed aside when you’re out and about. Most disposable coffee cups, for example, are lined with polyethylene, which makes them nonrecyclable. It is estimated that every minute more than 1 million disposable cups are tossed in the trash. Invest in a reusable coffee cup instead, and use a drop of Dawn dish soap to wash it after every use so it’s ready whenever you need it. Repair, Share and Reuse Sweden is leading the way in recycling – it has sent only 1 percent of its waste to landfill since 2011. Much of their success comes from the Swedish ethos of miljönär-vänlig – a play on the Swedish words for environment and millionaire that suggests people can save cash as well as the environment by making, borrowing and recycling. Internalize this idea and repair any damaged clothes, or have a dress swap party with your friends so your unwanted garments can find a new wearer. You can also extend the life of your clothing by washing it with Downy fabric conditioner, which helps prevent pilling, stretching and fading in fabrics. And think of crafty ways to use items you’d otherwise toss: Jam jars can be turned into candle holders, and old tights can be used to store onions. Wash and Squash By cleaning your recycling before it goes in the bin, you reduce contamination and improve recycling efficiency. First, scrape off or remove any food leftovers or liquid. Then add a drop of Dawn dish soap and a small amount of water to containers and jugs, and swish vigorously for a few seconds before rinsing. Crush metal cans and squash plastic bottles to squeeze out any excess air, and flatten cardboard boxes. Think Beyond Paper, Tin and Glass Before throwing out an item, consider whether it can be recycled. Mattresses are full of valuable materials and can be dropped off at your local recycling center, along with many small electrical appliances. Look for battery recycling boxes in your area, and ask your local optician’s office about recycling old reading glasses. Wrapping paper can be recycled as long as you remove the sticky tape and it doesn’t have foil or glitter on it. Unfortunately, broken drinking glasses can’t be processed with your empty jars because the glass melts at a different temperature, and mixing in broken glass with recyclable glass can cause the whole container to be rejected. Instead, check with your local recycling center if you’re unsure. Are you a recycling superhero saving the planet one recycled item at a time? Let us know your best recycling tip in the comments section below!  

So, you’ve decided to go plastic-free. The only problem is, you’ve spent these many years accumulated plastic products, single-use or otherwise. Your bathroom is full of plastic shampoo bottles, the fridge has tons of food in plastic containers, who knows what other plastic products are lurking in the living room, your work desk, and otherwise? Maybe you’re wondering: What the heck should you do with all the plastic you already have?

This is where Terracycle comes in! Terracycle is a privately-owned U.S. recycling business that accepts tons of hard-to-recycle materials. More than 80,000,000 people use Terracycle and together, users have recycled 4,104,054,370 items that otherwise would have went to the landfill.

Terracycle recycles nearly everything; from coffee capsules and pens to gloves and makeup containers, Terracycle collects from individuals and companies alike, diverting tons of pounds of unrecyclable, non-biodegradable waste from landfills.

Registering for Terracycle is completely free. After registering, browse through the website to find the right recycling program for you. There are tons! Just to name a few, there is a fabric care recycling program, which collects products and packaging like #5 PP plastic laundry bottle caps, #2 HDPE rigid plastic laundry bottles, and paperboard laundry care packaging.

That’s only one example; Terracycle has so many recycling programs: a free drink pouch recycling program on Walmart.com, an Eos recycling program, a red Solo cup recycling program, and more. Other programs include Febreze bottles, Flonase, energy bar wrappers, Tom’s of Maine natural care products (like the toothpaste at Trader Joe’s!), and Barilla pasta.

After signing up for the individual recycling programs that make the most sense for your household and the waste you create, Terracycle will email you a prepaid shipping label. (Alternatively, for some recycling programs, Terracycle will provide a drop-off location, but most are send-away.) Adhere the prepaid shipping label to a box full of the products you’d like to recycle, then ship it out. Terracycle will reward you in a points system and eventually, you’ll get rid of all that plastic!

During the holiday season, Terracycle offered a Holiday Bonus Bucks program in conjunction with Feed America. Frequent Terracycle recyclers were able to give back to charity the more points accrued. Just 50 Terracycle points provides a meal for an American family facing hunger. Alternatively, if you have a different charity you’d like to donate to, instead of Feeding America, you were able to specify which one you’d like to contribute to.

It’s the early 1960s. Girls are fainting over the Beatles, Sean Connery is James Bond and a revolutionary trend is sweeping the nation: Plastic. Plastic is about to have its breakthrough moment in the food industry. The plastic milk jug, specifically, is on the brink of taking off: the “market potential is huge,” the New York Times correctly notes. To American families, a third of which are still getting their milk from a milk man, plastic is a wonder package. It’s lighter than glass. It doesn’t break. Unlike paper cartons, it’s translucent. You can see how much liquid is left in the jug. With a plastic container, everybody wins. Except for the milk man. And, as it would turn out, the planet. Recycling is a failing industry.” TOM SZAKY, TERRACYCLE CEO Fast forward to now. Plastics are expected to outweigh fish in the ocean by 2050.  Marine life is choking on the debris: Microplastics are in our soil, our water, our air, getting into our bodies with potential consequences that we don't fully understand yet. Massive amounts of plastic have piled up in landfills, some emitting greenhouse gases and contributing to global warming over the seeming eternity they take to degrade. Plastics are threatening the health of the planet and its inhabitants, and they’re not going away. Procter & Gamble, Unilever, Nestlé, PepsiCo, Danone, Mars Petcare, Mondelēz International and others — some of the world’s largest consumer goods companies — are partnering on a potential solution to limit future waste. They’re working together on a project known as Loop, to be announced at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on Thursday. It offers consumers an alternative to recycling — a system that isn't working well these days. At this point, the partners are testing the waters. It’s an experiment they’ll roll out to several thousand consumers in New York and Paris this May, with plans to expand to London later in 2019 and Toronto, Tokyo and San Francisco in 2020. The Loop tote bag (Mark Kauzlarich for CNN) Loop is a new way to shop, offering about 300 items — from Tide detergent to Pantene shampoo, Häagen-Dazs ice cream to Crest mouthwash — all in reusable packaging. After using the products, customers put the empty containers in a Loop tote on their doorstep. The containers are then picked up by a delivery service, cleaned and refilled, and shipped out to consumers again. In other words, it’s the 21st century milk man — here to save the world from single-use plastics. Maybe. From trash in Trenton to a global stage Two years ago, Tom Szaky traveled from Trenton, New Jersey to Davos with a half-baked idea and a loose plan to pitch it to the leaders of the world’s biggest brands. Szaky, now 37, is the CEO of TerraCycle, a modest waste management company. TerraCycle expects its global 2018 sales to amount to $32 million and is currently trying to raise $25 million from small investors. A Princeton dropout with big ideas and a casual demeanor, Szaky spent the first years of his career talking about “worm poop,” a phrase he used to market his fertilizer business in a way that got him a ton of media attention. By the time he was 24, he had landed contracts with Walmart and Home Depot. His mission — to eliminate waste first and make a profit second — is so seductive, some employees have taken major pay cuts to work for TerraCycle. The company’s Trenton headquarters is decorated with garbage; Szaky’s office walls are hanging curtains made from empty plastic bottles. Tom Szaky, CEO of TerraCycle and the brains behind Loop. (Mark Kauzlarich for CNN) At Davos, he said, a certain vibe made top business leaders amenable to his idea. “Have you ever been to Burning Man?” Szaky asked during an interview with CNN Business. “The closest comparison —and it’s a weird comparison to me — is going to Burning Man.” At Burning Man, the annual week-long event where participants build a temporary community in the Nevada desert, people inherently trust each other, he said. At Davos, he was able to approach any business leader and, because of a similar type of openness, be granted an audience.

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Szaky was at Davos in 2017 because TerraCycle had helped Procter & Gamble launch a line of Head & Shoulders shampoo that came in bottles made with plastic collected from beaches. While he was there, Szaky — a slick, charismatic pitchman — landed a spot on stage with the CEOs of Walmart, Alibaba and Heineken. He also secured short meetings with the leaders of consumer packaged goods companies and pitched them on his big idea. Szaky asked companies to think differently about who owns their packaging. Today, companies sell consumers both the product and the package it comes in. Ultimately, it’s up to the customer — and also the municipality where they live — whether an empty bottle gets recycled or tossed in a landfill. Under the current system, the fate of the bottle is out of the manufacturer’s hands, so companies aim to produce the cheapest possible packages, Szaky said. But what if, instead, the manufacturer retained ownership of the bottle by collecting and reusing it? The company could count it as a longer-term asset on its balance sheet and depreciate it over time. Under that system, the manufacturer would be incentivized to invest more resources in an elegant, durable design, Szaky argued. At Szaky’s pitch meetings, some important subtext went unsaid. The plastic waste that ends up in landfills and oceans has the logos of the world’s biggest brands all over it. He had specifically targeted companies that were featured on a Greenpeace list of worst plastics polluters, because he knew they had a potential public relations crisis on their hands. “I don’t have to rub this in their face,” Szaky said, because the companies are “painfully” aware of their reputations. The consumer goods giants got on board. And after that trip, Szaky got serious about making Loop a reality by Davos 2019. Now, eight of the 10 companies mentioned in the Greenpeace report are Loop partners. How it works Loop customers have to make an account and fill up a basket online. The prices for the items should be comparable to what they would be at a nearby store, Szaky said. In addition to the regular cost of the item, customers must put down a fully refundable deposit for each package. The deposit varies from about 25 cents for a bottle of Coca-Cola to $47 for a Pampers diaper bin (which TerraCycle said eliminates the need for a Diaper Genie). Shipping becomes free after the customer buys about five to seven items, depending on the size and bulk of the products.

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In the United States, the items arrive via UPS in a Loop tote bag.  Frozen items, like ice cream, come in a cooler within the tote. As customers go through products — use all the shampoo, eat all the ice cream — they fill up the totes with the empties. Unlike traditional recyclables, the packages don’t need to be washed. At the end of the cycle, a UPS driver picks up the tote. Customers can keep repeating the cycle or opt out and recover their deposit. Even banged up packages earn back the deposit — customers only lose that money if they fail to make a return. When the packages are no longer suitable for use, TerraCycle recycles them. Loop may be convenient for users in some ways, but there are potential drawbacks. Szaky acknowledged that it’s a lot to ask people to use yet another retail website. He hopes that Loop will eventually be integrated into existing online shops, including Amazon. “We’re not trying to harm or cannibalize retailers,” Szaky said. “We’re trying to offer a plug-in that could make them better.” Already, two large retailers, Carrefour in France and Tesco in the United Kingdom, are Loop partners and more may join the project. Eventually, Loop packages may also be sold on store shelves. Shoppers who want to be a part of Loop’s soft launch in May have to apply. The first group of users will be selected based on location and overall interest in the platform, according to TerraCycle. The test will allow Loop to iron out any kinks before the program is open to the broader public, Szaky said.  

The engineering challenge

Partner companies have to pay to participate in Loop. Szaky didn’t disclose the buy-in amount, but said it’s in the low six figures. On top of that, many are redesigning their traditional packages — an expensive endeavor that could cost another seven figures, Szaky said. Szaky said TerraCycle asked the Loop partners to design packages that can survive at least 100 reuses. Rick Zultner, TerraCycle’s director of product and process development, is more measured; he called that figure a “nice goal to meet.” “Some things can definitely meet that,” Zultner said, adding that if the packages are reused at least 10 times, they’re probably still better for the environment than single-use plastics. TerraCycle needs to conduct its beta test to make sure that hypotheses like these are right. “There is a fundamental advantage of reuse versus recycle,” Virginie Helias, Procter & Gamble’s chief sustainability officer, said. But “we need to have certain conditions” to make it work, she added. Carbon emissions from trucking and other factors could outweigh the environmental benefits of Loop if packages are only reused a few times, or if the transportation system is too spread out. Loop has conducted life-cycle analyses to try to estimate the environmental impact in a variety of situations. To maximize the number of reuses, Loop packages are made out of durable materials like stainless steel, aluminum, glass and engineered plastic, which is stronger than disposable plastic.

Single-use vs. Loop’s reusable packages

         

Loop/CNN

Loop packages are sleek and innovative. Degree’s refillable deodorant in silver and white looks like something Apple would make. Ingredients and, when relevant, nutritional information for all products appear in an insert inside the Loop tote instead of on the packages. In Paris, Loop users can recycle soiled Pampers diapers and Always menstrual pads in this bin. (Procter & Gamble) One package — a bin launched by Procter & Gamble in the Paris test — is designed to hold soiled Pampers diapers and Always menstrual pads. It has a carbon filter to block odors. The hygiene items, which are traditionally thrown out, are instead recycled, while the bin is sanitized and sent out again. Nestlé’s new Häagen-Dazs container, part of the New York launch, is designed to keep ice cream cool in the Loop tote and cooler for 24 to 36 hours. Kim Peddle-Rguem, president of Nestlé’s US ice cream division, called the redesign a “torture test.” It took 15 tries to get the container, a double-walled stainless steel vessel, right. In one prototype, the ice cream wouldn’t harden at a critical stage. Another package was too difficult for customers to open. For now, Nestlé is making 20,000 containers for the Loop test. Five flavors will be available: Strawberry, vanilla, non-dairy chocolate salted fudge truffle, non-dairy coconut caramel and non-dairy mocha chocolate cookie. Häagen-Dazs Loop containers. (Brinson+Banks for CNN) Because the test is so small, Nestlé isn’t making Loop products in any other facility — which means it has to truck everything from California to the East Coast. If the project takes off, Nestlé will rethink that route to make sure it’s environmentally sound. “This process isn’t yet perfect and we know it will need to continue to be updated and refined,” said Peddle-Rguem. “We will be analyzing all parts of the process, including shipping and how many times consumers are reusing the container to find those areas for adjustment.” A plastics crisis Consumer goods companies say their customers are demanding more environmentally-friendly packaging. “We’re seeing that very clearly in our research,” said Procter & Gamble’s Helias, adding that wasteful packaging is “becoming a deterrent for purchase.” Mondelēz, Nestlé, Procter & Gamble, Unilever and others are aiming to make all or some of their packaging out of recycled materials by 2025. Szaky doesn’t think they’ll be able to pull it off. “Recycling is a failing industry,” he said. Roughly 30% of US recyclables are exported overseas. But in 2017, China — then the world’s largest importer of waste and scrap  — stopped accepting unsorted paper and some types of plastic from other countries, throwing the US recycling system into a tailspin. The Chinese ban left many communities scrambling for a new place to send their recyclable waste. Some municipalities halted curbside pickup for recycling, others recycled fewer items or raised prices. The operators of some recycling facilities reportedly stashed recyclable waste, looking for a new buyer, but ultimately dumped it in landfills. Unaware consumers may continue as usual, without realizing their recyclables aren’t being recycled at all. Last year, “we saw a global shift in how recycling works,” said Keefe Harrison, CEO of The Recycling Partnership, a nonprofit group that uses corporate funding to help develop recycling infrastructure. We want to put an end to the current ‘take-make-dispose’ culture and are committed to taking big steps towards designing our products for re-use.” ALAN JOPE, CEO OF UNILEVER China’s ban is not the only reason that recycling is struggling. Ironically, an effort to reduce packaging called lightweighting — making plastic packages, like water bottles, lighter as a way to use less plastic and reduce the amount of fuel needed to move packages by truck — poses recycling challenges because light packages fly off recycling conveyor belts and get lost. Plus, low oil prices make it cheaper for companies to just make plastic from scratch, Szaky noted. Overall, about 91% of all the plastic waste ever created has never been recycled — a statistic so “concerning,” the Royal Statistical Society named it the 2018 international statistic of the year. Recycling is not the best way to cut down on waste. “Preventing in the first place is always better than cleaning up after,” Harrison noted. If Loop works correctly, it would do just that. The question is: will it work?

When garbage was glamorous

Single-use packages were touted as convenient and elegant in mainstream media from the 1930s to 1960s.

     

   

Sourced from Life Magazine

Can the milk man make a comeback? For the largest players, Loop is a relatively small experiment. The partners are among the largest advertisers in the world. If they wanted to, they could throw their full weight behind promoting reusable packaging. But at this point, the companies are moving forward with caution and pointing to Loop as one part of their broader sustainability efforts. Nestlé will decide after about 12 weeks whether or not to expand its participation with Loop. Other partners are giving Loop more time. Unilever will evaluate the project over the course of about 12 months. “We want to put an end to the current ‘take-make-dispose’ culture and are committed to taking big steps towards designing our products for re-use,” Alan Jope, CEO of Unilever, said in a statement. Unilever is testing nine brands in the Loop launch, including Axe, Dove and Degree deodorants, Hellmann’s mayonnaise and Seventh Generation soaps. Like Nestlé, the company will evaluate the project’s success by tracking the number of repeat customers. We’re “not yet worried about the financial side of this,” said David Blanchard, Unilever’s chief research and development officer, noting the company is more interested in evaluating whether Loop triggers a “behavior change” among some consumers. It’s easy to see how Loop could fail. It asks customers to completely rethink how they shop. It asks them to dole out deposit money upfront, something many people can’t afford to do. It assumes that, all things being equal, people prefer their detergent in a spiffy container and their deodorant in a sleek pod. In reality, people may not care. Loop could be a dreamy, idealistic house of cards. But it also could work. Small dairies throughout the country are already reviving the milk man by offering delivery services. And it’s not just milk. Refillable beer growlers are staging a comeback, with Whole Foods and Kroger offering in-store beer taps. Startups are trying to help people refill reusable soap containers at home, and millions of consumers are already refilling SodaStream bottles in their kitchens, a sign that there’s a market for reusable bottles. If there’s ever a time that these new models can succeed, it’s now, said Bridget Croke, who leads external affairs for Closed Loop Partners, which invests in recycling technologies and sustainable consumer goods. (Despite the similar name, Closed Loop Partners has no formal relationship with TerraCycle’s Loop project.) To make Loop work, she added, TerraCycle will “need the right investments, the right consumer goods partners.” And “they’re going to really need to understand how to make the consumer experience better than what they have today.” And with so many big companies on board, they have a “solid shot,” she said. Photo Illustration: Getty Images / Loop / CNN If TerraCycle manages to find a solution to plastics pollution — to dust off the milk man, spruce him up, give him a website and get people to shop — things will start to change. “Once these trends start to shift,” Croke noted, “then it starts to catch fire.” Szaky hopes that by the 2060s — a century after plastics came on the food scene —  things will have come full circle. “Hopefully 50 years from now,” Szaky said, “we look at waste as a strange anomaly and we’re happy it’s over.”

Did you get a new phone recently? How about a laptop, printer, TV, electronic game, toy or small kitchen appliance? We are constantly upgrading and buying new electronics, but what do we do with the old ones we no longer want, or are no longer working? We are producing more and more electronic waste (e-waste) than ever before, and only 20 percent of it is recycled worldwide. Here are some facts about e-waste, including what you can do to reuse or recycle it responsibly. According to the United Nations, almost 45 million tons of e-waste were discarded globally in 2016, and this amount is projected to increase 3-4 percent every year. About 20 percent is recycled safely, 4 percent is disposed of in landfills, and the fate of the remaining 76 percent is unknown, but is likely either dumped or recycled in unsafe conditions. According to the UN, about a third of e-waste from the U.S. is shipped to developing countries, where it is often recycled in a way that is unsafe to both human health and the environment. Electronics contain valuable metals that are extracted during the recycling process. According to the EPA, for every one million cell phones that are recycled, 35,274 pounds of copper, 772 pounds of silver, 75 pounds of gold, and 33 pounds of palladium (a precious metal) can be recovered. Electronics also contain heavy metals which can leach into soil and water when dumped or placed in a landfill, and can be dangerous to workers who recycle them without proper safety equipment. Knowing all of this, how can you dispose of old electronics responsibly? If they are still working, you can sell or donate them. Bring working electronics and small appliances (no old CRT TVs and computer monitors) to Goodwill, Salvation Army, Savers, or call Hartsprings Foundation (Big Brothers/Big Sisters) to pick them up. The Hospice Shop in Northampton takes small household appliances, but no computer equipment. If electronics are non-working, bring or send them for recycling to: Staples — They accept computers and accessories, audio and video devices, phones, video games, and a few kinds of small appliances at no charge. No TVs, lamps, or kitchen electronics. Search Staples Recycling to see the full list. Best Buy — They accept computers and accessories, audio and video devices, phones, video games, cameras, and a short list of small appliances at no charge. $25 charge for TVs and monitors. Search Best Buy Recycling for the full list. Goodwill — Through the Dell Reconnect program, you can bring any brand of desktop or laptop computers and accessories to Goodwill, and Dell will collect and recycle them. Northampton Computer Repair — They take all desktop and laptop computers, phones, and flat panel monitors and TVs under 40” at no charge. Check to make sure they have storage available. Valley Recycling — They take any electronics or small appliances for a small fee. Fees vary. Check their list at https://www.valley-recycling.us/. Municipal Transfer Stations — Most transfer stations take electronics and appliances for recycling (fees apply) if you have a sticker. Some towns also have electronics collection events. Hasbro and Terracycle Toy Recycling Program — These companies have teamed up to offer free recycling for any old toys and games, including electronic ones. Go to www.terracycle.com and search Hasbro Toy Recycling Pilot Program. Cell Phones for Soldiers — Donate working phones for soldiers to use overseas. They also accept non-working phones for recycling. See www.cellphonesforsoldiers.com. Mimi Kaplan is the waste reduction coordinator for the Town of Amherst Department of Public Works.

TerraCycle is a company that specializes in recycling items that most other recycling programs do not take. It also earns the Spencer Middle School Green Team cash for sending in these items.   Thank you to the ShurFine and the Spencer Library for caring about the environment and letting the Green Team at the Spencer Middle School place a box in each location. Let’s all give a gift to the earth this Christmas and start recycling the following items:   The more people willing to send in their recyclable items, the better. The list of items includes Brita filters and accessories, chip bags (includes pretzel, pita chip, bagel chip, soy crisp and salty snack bags), cereal bags (either plastic or box liners), foil-lined wrappers for energy, granola, meal replacement, protein and diet bars. Cliff products accepted: SHOT, Twosted Fruit, Roks, Bloks & Gels wrappers; Entenmann’s Little Bites pouches, baby food pouches/squeezable fruit pouches and caps; toothpaste tubes, caps, brushes and floss containers; all ink cartridges for home printers; juice pouches (empty) and markers.   The personal care products TerraCycle will take: lipstick/chapstick cases, mascara tubes, eye shadow/eyeliner tubes/cases, foundation/powder packaging; bottles, dispensers or tubes for shampoo, conditioner, body wash, lotion, soap, shaving foam (no cans); concealer, lip liner pencils, hair gel tubes. Not accepted: hair spray cans, nail polish/ remover bottles.

Miranda Legg, a senior at Winston-Salem State University, proved herself a credit to the school by winning a contest involving recycling and then speaking passionately about the environment when interviewed by the Journal’s Jennie Drabble earlier this week. As a result of her devotion, WSSU’s Simon’s Green Acre Community Garden at the school’s Enterprise Center will get a $30,000 facelift, and Legg will receive a $2,000 scholarship.