By MELISSA BARNETT, OD, FAAO, FSLS, FBCLA May 1, 2020   In our modern society, plastic is everywhere—from water bottles, cars, toys, packaging, clothing, food utensils, and straws to contact lenses, lens solution bottles, and contact lens cases. According to a 2016 study, 32% of plastic packaging is either not collected or is collected and then dumped illegally or mishandled (World Economic Forum, Ellen MacArthur Foundation, and McKinsey & Company). Most manufactured plastics can be recycled; however, there is confusion about how to recycle, with a myriad of different rules and guidelines. According to National Geographic, 91% of plastic has never been recycled. Additionally, every city and town has its own recycling program. It is important to check a location’s rules to confirm what can be recycled.  

Plastic in Contact Lenses

  Daily disposable lenses boast the highest rate of replacement compliance among the different soft lens replacement schedules (Dumbleton et al, 2009). As daily replacement lenses gain in popularity, both patients and practitioners may have concerns that more waste is generated by using new lenses every day. However, as far as the lenses themselves are concerned, an annual supply of daily disposable lenses (365 pairs) produced 11.36g of dehydrated plastic waste, slightly more than it would take to produce two credit cards. A commonly used 20oz water bottle has the equivalent weight of 1,586 dehydrated contact lenses (a 2.17 year supply) (Routhier et al, 2012).   In addition, the amount of plastic that goes into manufacturing multipurpose solution bottles and lens cases is often overlooked. A single multipurpose solution bottle has an average weight equivalent to 2.5 years of daily replacement contact lenses (Routhier et al, 2012). Of interest, a single multipurpose solution storage case is equivalent to more than a four-year supply of daily disposables, and a peroxide case is equal to more than eight years’ worth.  

Recycling Rules

  Contact lens cases and solution bottles may be recycled in the plastic number 5 container. Number 5 recycling is increasingly becoming more accepted by recyclers and can be recycled by some curbside programs. Materials are recycled into signal lights, battery cables, brooms, brushes, auto battery cases, ice scrapers, landscape borders, bicycle racks, rakes, bins, pallets, and trays (Howard and Abdelrahman, 2020).   One contact lens company in the United States offers a recycling program for contact lens waste that can’t be recycled curbside. Patients can bring their lenses, blister packs, and foils to a participating eyecare practitioner’s office, where the materials are shipped to TerraCycle, or they can ship them from home. The contact lenses and blister packs are separated and cleaned after they are received. All brands of lenses may be recycled with this program.   Hard plastic number-5-stamped contact lens containers (blister packs) can also be recycled through Preserve’s Gimme 5 Program (www.preserve.eco ). The packs must be cleaned, and the foil tops must be removed and disposed of elsewhere.   The Contact Lens & Cornea Section (CLCS) of the American Optometric Association (AOA) has published guidelines for the safe disposal of used contact lenses and their packaging (AOA, 2018):  

• Remind patients to never flush lenses down the sink or toilet.
• Inform patients about recycling programs that are available, especially for contact lenses.
• Don’t forget that boxes, contact lens cases, and lens solution bottles are usually recyclable through standard recycling bins.

 

A Practice Builder

  I frequently discuss contact lens recycling with my patients. In addition to the benefits of a clean lens each day, they are pleased to learn about these recycling resources, which in turn grows our daily replacement lens business.

Los Angeles-based F. Gaviña & Sons Inc., maker of Don Francisco’s Coffee, Café La Llave and a wide variety of other family-crafted coffees, has teamed up with international recycling company TerraCycle to offer coffee lovers a free, easy way to recycle Don Francisco’s Coffee Family Reserve and Café La Llave single serve coffee pods and espresso capsules.   Through the Coffee Pod Recycling Program, the latest eco-friendly initiative from the family-owned company, consumers can now send in their used single serve coffee pods and espresso capsules to be recycled for free. Interested consumers may sign up on the TerraCycle program page at terracycle.com/gavina and mail in the used pods and capsules using a prepaid shipping label. Once collected, the packaging is cleaned, separated by material type, melted and remolded to make new recycled products while the residual coffee is sent to an industrial composting facility.   Additionally, with every shipment sent to TerraCycle through the program, consumers can earn points that can be used for charitable gifts or converted to cash and donated to the non-profit, school or charitable organization of their choice.   “As coffee growers and roasters, my family built our business on a 150-year legacy and passion for coffee that runs deep and spans four generations,” said Lisette Gaviña Lopez, executive marketing director at F. Gaviña & Sons Inc. “Sustainability is at the core of every business decision we make, and as we innovate to meet the changing needs and preferences of our customers, we also look for new ways to minimize environmental impact. Through our partnership with TerraCycle we can now extend our environmental efforts beyond the shelf with a responsible recycling program for our espresso capsule and coffee pod customers.”   “At TerraCycle, we understand Americans’ love affair with a great cup of coffee—we share the sentiment,” said Tom Szaky, TerraCycle founder and CEO. “But through the Coffee Pod Recycling Program, coffee connoisseurs can enjoy their favorite pick-me-up, easily reduce waste, all without sacrificing the enjoyment of their favorite brew.”   Gaviña & Sons Inc.’s commitment to sustainability led to the creation of the Direct Impact Initiative, which focuses on four pillars: dedication to farmers, sustainable sourcing, environmental sustainability and social stewardship. Dedicated to smallholder farmers and the land they work upon, Gaviña and partners work toward improving the quality of life and increasing social and economic development in Coffee Belt farming communities. These efforts include technical assistance for Guatemalan farmers to employ sustainable farming techniques while increasing household income and building a central coffee processing wet mill in Colombia to help local smallholder farmers adapt to climate change while reducing environmental footprint. The company also sources certified coffees from Rainforest Alliance, Fair Trade USA and USDA Certified Organic and roasts all their coffee from their Zero Waste to Landfill plant in Vernon, California.   The Coffee Pod Recycling Program is open to any interested individual, school, office or community organization.   Established in Vernon, California, in 1967, F. Gaviña & Sons Inc. is one of the largest family-owned coffee companies in America and the nation’s largest privately held minority-owned coffee roaster.   TerraCycle is an innovative waste management company with a mission to eliminate the idea of waste. Operating nationally across 21 countries, TerraCycle partners with leading consumer product companies, retailers and cities to recycle products and packages, from dirty diapers to cigarette butts, that would otherwise end up being landfilled or incinerated. In addition, TerraCycle works with leading consumer product companies to integrate hard to recycle waste streams, such as ocean plastic, into their products and packaging. Its new division, Loop, is the first shopping system that gives consumers a way to shop for their favorite brands in durable, reusable packaging.

Eight years ago, environmental activist Lauren Singer set out to make reducing waste accessible.   A college student at the time, Singer learned about living waste-free from blogger Bea Johnson. Johnson helped the zero-waste movement gain traction, but she lived in a California suburb with children in a spacious house. Singer, meanwhile, was navigating the hustle and bustle of the city, while attending New York University.   "I had to apply this concept to a lifestyle that felt unique and relatable to me," Singer told Global Citizen.   The idea led her to create the educational platform Trash Is For Tossers for people who might not have the time or resources to figure out how to adopt low- and zero-waste practices on their own.   To Singer, living zero-waste means "not sending anything to a landfill or to discard anything with the intention of it not being repurposed or reused — basically not creating trash."   Trash that ends up in landfills emits methane gas, which is a major climate change offender.   While eliminating all waste might seem intimidating at first, starting small is the secret, according to Singer.   "When you zoom out, the average American makes about four and a half pounds of trash per person per day," she said. "Over the course of a year, that would be like eliminating thousands of pounds. When you look at the little things that you do — like say no to a plastic bag, or buy something in bulk as opposed to in packaging — these little changes that over time add up and result in not making any waste."   After launching her platform, Singer gained recognition in 2014 for fitting all the waste she produced in two years in a 16-ounce Mason jar. She also worked as a sustainability manager at the NYC Department of Environmental Protection. Certain tools, like reusable water bottles or stainless steel food containers, helped make a waste-free lifestyle easier, she realized, but they were pretty hard to find. The companies making these products were having a hard time scaling their businesses, and sustainable companies weren’t getting much financial backing, she said.   To bring all her favorite companies together, Singer founded Package Free in 2017. The company sells waste-reducing products online and at a brick-and-mortar shop in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.   "I started Package Free to make those really simple swaps easy for people — switching from a plastic toothbrush to a bamboo one, from shampoo packaged in plastic to a shampoo bar," Singer said. "We have alternatives for just about anything that you would need to buy packaged."   The stores has kept 100 million pieces of trash out of landfills to date.   While running the store and online platform, Singer continued squeezing all the waste she accumulated into one Mason jar until 2020. But in the wake of the COVID-19 coronavirus crisis, reducing waste has required a bit more effort. On the one hand, Singer has found herself eating out less and having more control over the waste she’s contributing. Buying groceries, however, has presented a bigger challenge.   "During COVID, there have been inconveniences that have been created, like you can't buy groceries in bulk anymore," Singer said.   In an Instagram post on March 21, Singer shared a photo of the food she purchased in plastic packaging to take precautions and stock up on items she might need, if stuck in her home.   "We’re all navigating this situation together, and while I’m far from perfect, and have made VERY imperfect decisions over the past few weeks, I am trying to be the best for myself, my community, my company and team, and our collective humanity," she wrote.   Once lockdowns are eased and Package Free re-opens, it will help members of its community divert any packaging accrued during the pandemic from landfills. The retailer works with waste management company Terracycle to collect non-recyclable waste and turn it into reusable raw materials for new products. Online, the store is selling zero-waste boxes to help consumers ensure items, like disposable gloves and kitchen household products, get recycled.   "Any choice to reduce your waste and live a more sustainable lifestyle is positive," she said. "Don't be discouraged by what you're not doing, be motivated and inspired by what you are doing."

With grocery shelves quickly emptying out, bulk bins closed, and reusable grocery bags banned, you’ve probably found a lot more single-use packaging entering your home than usual during the COVID-19 quarantines. But if you do your best to live a zero-waste lifestyle, you may be wondering if plastic film recycling is possible.   While recycling plastic food packaging and plastic film bags isn’t as simple as recycling other materials, there are certainly ways to recycle plastic film and keep it from going to the landfill.   Read on for everything you need to know about recycling plastic food and film packaging. Plastic film refers to soft, flexible plastic packaging — most typically, film packaging means the thin, stretchy single-use plastic used to make shopping bags, produce bags, dry cleaning bags, and more. However, plastic film can also refer to other slightly less flexible plastic packaging, such as the plastic bags used to package snacks, frozen food, lettuce, and more.  

Is plastic film recycling possible?

  Most municipalities do not recycle plastic film curbside — so don't put any plastic film in your home recycling bin — but luckily, many municipalities require grocery stores and pharmacies above certain sizes to offer drop-off bins for plastic film recycling. Generally, big-box grocery chains are a safe bet when looking for film recycling, such as Target, Walmart, and Whole Foods. If you don’t see a film recycling bin when you enter the store, ask at the customer service desk.   The availability of plastic film recycling varies from city to city, so you’ll have to do research to find out which local store is your best bet for dropping off your plastic film recycling. You can look up local drop-off points on Earth911. According to Earth911, the following items can generally be recycled at drop-off film recycling bins:  

• Grocery and retail bags
• Newspaper bags
• The outer plastic wrapping from napkins, paper towels, toilet paper, and diapers
• Bread bags (and other thin, stretchy bags, such as those packaging rice or sometimes cereal)
• Dry cleaning bags
• The outer wrapping from bulk beverages
• Produce bags
• Bags labeled No. 2 or No. 4

  Before dropping any of these bags off for film recycling, make sure they are completely clean and dry. If any of your plastic was used as food packaging, simply wash it and let it dry before recycling.    

Plastic film recycling during the coronavirus is possible, but can wait.

Most people are limiting grocery store trips during the coronavirus pandemic, and many people are also staying out of grocery stores entirely. So while you may otherwise bring plastic film to drop-off bins fairly often, it’s understandable if that’s not a possibility right now.     The organization Plastic Film Recycling is urging people to recycle plastic film packaging only when and where it’s possible to do so safely. According to the organization, some stores have even paused plastic film recycling for the moment. So for now, Plastic Film Recycling recommends collecting your plastic at home until the pandemic slows down and going into stores is safer. In the meantime, use one plastic bag to store all the other ones that you plan on recycling. According to Earth911, unless it is labeled with No. 2 or No. 4, the following items cannot be recycled at supermarket drop-off bins:  

• Food packaging or cling wrap
• Prepackaged food bags (such as frozen food bags, lettuce salad bags, etc.)
• Plastic film that is contaminated with paint or glue

  But just because you can’t recycle the above items in stores doesn’t mean you can’t recycle them at all.  

How to recycle non-recyclable plastic packaging.

  If you are doing your best not to send anything to landfill, there are a few options for the plastic film that can’t be recycled in grocery store drop-off bins. The best option in the U.S. is TerraCycle.   If you’re not familiar, TerraCycle is a company offering various national recycling programs, allowing people to recycle numerous otherwise non-recyclable items, from snack packaging to cigarette butts to industrial waste to Swiffer pads to pens to baby food pouches to Brita filters to coffee pods to razors…  the list goes on. Most of these programs are free, thanks to brand sponsorships — and some of the programs are not brand exclusive.   For example, TerraCycle’s Snack Bag Recycling Program accepts snack bags of all sizes and from all brands. To participate, all you need to do is register for a free TerraCycle account, sign up for the program you’d like to use, print out the prepaid mailing label, attach it to a box filled with your clean and dry plastic waste, and put it in the mail.   If you have a variety of plastic waste and want to send it all in together rather than contribute to several programs, another great option is TerraCycle’s Zero Waste Boxes. These boxes come with a fee (usually starting around $100), but can help people recycle some very random items that don’t have brand sponsorships, such as hair (yes, hair), laminated paper packaging, office supplies, paint brushes, party decorations, sporting goods, stuffed animals, used chewing gum, and more. There’s also TerraCycle’s All-In-One Zero Waste Box, which allows you to recycle any non-organic and non-hazardous waste. This box starts at $199 — but before you shell out the cash, consider asking your employer to invest in one at work or asking an administrator to invest in one at your school, to help reduce their environmental impact.   You can also do some research to see if any businesses in your area have communal Zero Waste Boxes — for example, in New York City, both locations of the zero-waste shop Package Free have these boxes available for customer use.  

How does plastic film recycling work?

According to Plastic Film Recycling, plastic film is often broken down into small pellets, which are then turned into bags, containers, pipes, crates, and more. Plastic film is also often turned into composite lumber, which can then be used to make outdoor structures such as decks, benches, and playground sets.   Plastic waste recycled through TerraCycle are typically melted and turned into pellets, which are then molded into various new recycled plastic products.   The best way to prevent contracting or spreading coronavirus is with thorough hand washing and social distancing. If you feel you may be experiencing symptoms of coronavirus, which include persistent cough (usually dry), fever, shortness of breath, and fatigue, please call your doctor before going to get tested. For comprehensive resources and updates, visit the CDC website. If you are experiencing anxiety about the virus, seek out mental health support from your provider or visit NAMI.org. 

1. The zero waste circuit has had a facelift!

 

2. Giorgio Armani wants to slow the pace of in-store clothing collections to reduce the waste of resources. [ Source ]

 

3. Second Life , which offers baskets of "ugly" fruits and vegetables, is now offering home delivery given the circumstances surrounding the COVID-19 crisis. [ Source ]

 

4. A new TerraCycle program allows MEGA BLOKS to be recovered. [ Source ]

 

5. Obviously, it's better to move on to the next one, but in the case of broken parts, it's good to know!

 

6. The creation of a directory of Quebec businesses, Le panier bleu .

 

7. Three Trudeau government ministers are said to be tasked with producing an economic stimulus package aimed at speeding up the greening once the COVID-19 crisis hits. To be continued! [ Source ]

 

8. Oceans potentially regenerated by 2050. [ Source ]

 

9. Oil and gas exploration projects in the St. Lawrence are over ... for now. [ Source ]

 

TRENTON, N.J., – GU Energy Labs, a leading sports nutrition brand, and recycling company TerraCycle announced today that through the Performance Nutrition Recycling Program they have successfully recycled over one million pieces of performance nutrition packaging waste.   “In 1993, we pioneered the Energy Gel and revolutionized the way athletes fuel by using single serve, portable packets. While we love seeing the ways our products help athletes achieve more, there is nothing more deflating than seeing spent gel packets on the road or trail during a ride or run,” said Celia Santi, Senior Brand Experience Manager at GU Energy Labs. “This is where TerraCycle comes in to help divert waste from landfills.   In 2020, GU Energy Labs, and all of their over 50 event partners, are taking a significant step towards diverting even more waste by pledging to collect and recycle all wrappers used during races. “We are thrilled that our partners are joining in our commitment to keep waste out of the landfill,” said Santi, “and we are looking forward to getting to two million pieces more quickly!”   Initially launched in March 2015, the Performance Nutrition Recycling Program asked athletes to send all single-serve sports nutrition packaging, regardless of brand, to TerraCycle to be recycled for free. This includes gel, chews, stroopwafel, and drink packets. As the program matured, individuals were also given the option to drop-off their empty performance nutrition packaging at a number of participating run, bike, and outdoor shops throughout the United States. Four years later, the partnership has successfully diverted over one-million pieces of packaging waste from the landfill and is still collecting. Once collected, the plastic packaging waste is converted into raw material that is used in plastic products such shipping pallets, bike racks, park benches, and recycling bins.   “For the last four years, the Performance Nutrition Recycling Program has offered the active environmentalist a way to responsibly dispose of the endurance foods they love, minus the guilt over the waste generated from the individually-wrapped nutrition packets,” said TerraCycle CEO and Founder, Tom Szaky. “By participating in this program, GU athletes have successfully diverted over one million performance nutrition packets from landfills - this is truly a win for our shared environment.”   In addition, with every shipment of packaging waste sent to TerraCycle through the Performance Nutrition Recycling Program, collectors earned points that are available for donation to a non-profit, school or charitable organization of their choice.   The Performance Nutrition Recycling Program is ongoing and open to any interested individual, school, office, or community organization. Those interested are encouraged to visit the program page at https://www.terracycle.com/en-US/brigades/performance-nutrition-brigade.   For more information on TerraCycle’s recycling programs, visit www.terracycle.com.

By picking up on Ulta Beauty employee Bianca Ann Levinson’s viral TikTok video showing the retailer’s practice of destroying or “damaging out” returned beauty products, the publication Dazed stirred a heated discussion in the beauty industry about how to properly treat returned merchandise. The discussion was continued on the Instagram account of anonymous beauty industry watchdog Estée Laundry, where beauty brands brought up that the costs of demolished returned products are passed onto them. 

 

We decided to further explore the issue of “damaging out” by asking 11 beauty entrepreneurs: What are the implications for beauty brands of this retail practice, and what alternatives do you think should be considered?

                                   

The fairy tale of recycling — and it is a fairy tale — does not start at the register, or the curb, or even hovering over the kitchen trash can, licking the yogurt top clean, and wondering if it's good enough. No, the story we Americans believe in begins in our hearts, put there lovingly by Sesame Street puppets, parents, and teachers: Place your depleted bottle in that blue bin and soon enough it will be reincarnated — or smooshed or melted down or however, whatever — into something new. Maybe the two of you will meet again. We are a generation raised to believe in recycling. Too bad it rarely happens. Only nine percent of all plastic waste ever produced has actually been turned into something that we were then able to use again (i.e., recycled). Wait, what? And also: Wait, why? There are two main reasons. One, that waste has to be disposed of perfectly correctly, which is difficult even for those with the best intentions. A bottle cap, a shard of glass, traces of tomato soup... they contaminate the entire bin and typically condemn everything in it to landfill-ville. But honestly, the stuff was probably headed there anyway because of the second reason: For waste to be recycled, someone needs to want it. And pretty much no one does. (The exception is aluminum — there's money to be made there, and more often than not, it gets recycled.) China was willing to take our recyclable trash for a while, but that party ended a couple of years ago with the country's ban on the import of foreign trash. So where does that leave us? With a new sustainability motto, already promulgated by cities such as San Francisco: reduce, reuse, recycle, refuse. "Buy less, use less, buy in bulk, use resealable containers," says Sonya Lunder of the Sierra Club's Gender, Equity & Environment program. And yes, do your damnedest to sort your trash. But do not pass off all the responsibility to a blue bin. It's on you. Thankfully, experts are here to help. In a world where "recycling" doesn't exactly mean what we thought it meant but we still want clean hair and crimson lips, how do we imagine a world without packaging? It requires expert foresight and a little wishful thinking. Julie Corbett is the closest thing to a sustainable packaging oracle that we've got. Corbett, the founder of Ecologic, is behind such innovations as Seed Phytonutrients' shower-friendly paper shampoo bottles. And the future she sees might not be what you expect. Or what you want to hear. You may have heard about the problem with pumps. Often presented as the white whale of the sustainable packaging community, pumps are typically made out of two or more types of plastic and a metal spring. Short story: "The pump will never be recyclable, no matter what people say," says Corbett. She predicts there will be a new breed of pump, made of recycled plastic, which is better than the current situation. But her ultimate solution is a bit more radical: Standardized pumps, purchased somewhat like a knife set, and used for decades for everything from cleansing oil to dish soap. "I call it the liquefication of America," says Corbett. "We're addicted to plastics because we've liquefied everything." The only way out is to move toward solid and powdered products — and to invest in new beauty technology. (Like a just-add-water moisturizer, for example. We're ready!) But even bars are not devoid of packaging — where else would the ingredient list go? But Corbett has a solution for that too: "It's going to involve technology. Maybe at the store, you'll have a touch screen that will tell you what the ingredients are before you buy." For those wondering why we can't just use glass for all that liquid America sloshing around: Glass is heavy, expensive, and carbon-polluting to ship. And that's just part of the problem: The recycling process for glass releases more greenhouse gases than plastic or aluminum do. And it pretty easily pollutes the recycling stream. "Everyone is asking why [the big beauty brands] don't use more glass," says Corbett. "It's because they've all made carbon commitments to lower their footprints, and glass will increase them." Instead let's ask the big beauty brands another question: "Where can I buy parchment-wrapped wafers that mix with water to make a facial essence?" Recycling giant TerraCycle's Loop program, which launched last year, has a solution to the packaging problem: What if we used reusable, refillable packaging for...every single product in the world? The concept is a simple return to the days of the milkman, only now you're putting down a deposit on a reusable aluminum shampoo bottle, delivered to (and later picked up at) your door in a reusable fabric box. You can now get Pantene Pro-V shampoo, Gillette razors, and more in nine states, Washington, D.C., and two regions in France, and there are plans to expand to the West Coast, Canada, Japan, and the U.K. this year. Loop's service, ambitious and utopian, provides a hint that refillable, standard packaging could be the future.

Sharing the #NotTodayLandfill message

Colorado Springs, CO —– The American Trail Running Association (ATRA) will feature GU Energy Labs as a member of its Event Standards Program. ATRA’s Event Standards Program debuted in 2012 and now includes vendors and suppliers as partners to further assist trail race directors in meeting ATRA’s 15 criteria necessary for staging a safe and well-organized event.   As part of this partnership, ATR­A will work with GU Energy Labs to share their successful upcycling program and support the #NotTodayLandfill message with trail runners, trail race directors and fans of the sport.   “GU Energy Labs partnered with TerraCycle to create a free Performance Nutrition Brigade that we want to shout from the rooftops,” said Nancy Hobbs, ATRA’s executive director. “As a long-time supporter of GU products, seeing their commitment to the environment has made me an even bigger fan. Through a simple step-by-step TerraCycle™ program, sports nutrition wrappers will no longer end up in the landfill, an initiative we applaud.”   ATRA will share the GU TerraCycle message through monthly e-newsletters and social media, through Trail News articles, and in YouTube videos like a recent installment from Outdoor Retailer (click here to view).   “2020 marks our five-year anniversary with TerraCycle, and to date we have diverted over 1.3 million wrappers, equivalent to over 6,100lbs. This is enough to make 15 recycled playgrounds!” said Celia Santi, GU Energy Labs’ senior brand experience manager. “We are thrilled to partner with ATRA to educate race directors and runners how easy it is to take the GU TerraCycle pledge and ensure that all brands of nutrition wrappers are upcycled.”   Adam W. Chase, ATRA president, added, “GU Energy Labs, a long-time supporter of trail runners, individually, nutritionally and at our races, is walking the walk or, more accurately, running the run, by promoting clean trails and a less-polluted world in general. ATRA and GU are a natural fit and this partnership is an easy one for us to support in earnest.”   The Performance Nutrition Recycling Program is ongoing and open to any interested individual, school, office or community organization. Those interested are encouraged to visit the program page here.   For more information on TerraCycle’s recycling programs visit www.terracycle.com.   GU Energy Labs joins  Ashworth Awards, Marathon Printing, Inc., Leslie Jordan, Active at Altitude, Joe Viger Photography, Nicholas Hill Group, UltraSignup and Athletes for a Fit Planet in our Event Standards Partner Program.  

California-based F Gaviña & Sons, Inc, makers of Don Francisco’s Coffee, Café La Llave and a wide variety of other family-crafted coffees, has teamed up with international recycling company TerraCycle to offer coffee lovers a free and easy way to recycle Don Francisco’s Coffee Family Reserve and Café La Llave single serve coffee pods and espresso capsules.   Through the Coffee Pod Recycling Program, the latest eco-friendly initiative from the family-owned company, consumers can now send in their used single serve coffee pods and espresso capsules to be recycled for free. To participate, customers will sign up on the TerraCycle program page at www.terracycle.com/gavina and mail in the used pods and capsules using a pre-paid shipping label. Once collected, the packaging is cleaned, separated by material type, melted and remolded to make new recycled products while the residual coffee is sent to an industrial composting facility. Additionally, with every shipment sent to TerraCycle through the program, consumers can earn points that can be used for charitable gifts or converted to cash and donated to the non-profit, school or charitable organisation of their choice.   “As coffee growers and roasters, my family built our business on a 150-year legacy and passion for coffee that runs deep and spans four generations,” said Lisette Gaviña Lopez, executive marketing director at F Gaviña & Sons, Inc.   “Sustainability is at the core of every business decision we make, and as we innovate to meet the changing needs and preferences of our customers, we also look for new ways to minimize environmental impact. Through our partnership with TerraCycle we can now extend our environmental efforts beyond the shelf with a responsible recycling program for our espresso capsule and coffee pod customers.”   “At TerraCycle, we understand American’s love affair with a great cup of coffee – we share the sentiment,” said Tom Szaky, TerraCycle’s founder and CEO.   “But through the Coffee Pod Recycling Program, coffee connoisseurs can enjoy their favorite pick-me-up, easily reduce waste, all without sacrificing the enjoyment of their favorite brew.”   F Gaviña & Sons’ commitment to sustainability led to the creation of the Direct Impact Initiative, which focuses on four pillars: dedication to farmers, sustainable sourcing, environmental sustainability, and social stewardship. Dedicated to smallholder farmers and the land they work upon, Gaviña and partners work towards improving the quality of life and increasing social and economic development in Coffee Belt farming communities. These efforts include technical assistance for Guatemalan farmers to employ sustainable farming techniques while increasing household income, and building a central coffee processing wet mill in Colombia to help local smallholder farmers adapt to climate change while reducing environmental footprint. The company also sources certified coffees from Rainforest Alliance, Fair Trade USA and USDA certified Organic, and roasts all its coffee from its Zero Waste to Landfill plant in Vernon, California.   The Coffee Pod Recycling Program is open to any interested individual, school, office, or community organisation. For more information on TerraCycle’s recycling program, visit: www.terracycle.com.   For more information on Don Francisco’s Coffee and Café La Llave brands, visit: www.donfranciscos.com.   For more information about parent company F Gaviña & Sons, Inc and its sustainability efforts, visit: www.gavina.com.