Even in normal times recycling faced challenges. According to a February Packaging World article on recycling, the majority of critical recycling issues in the U.S. are related to sorting and management of discarded plastics, because the capacity and capability of recycling centers is not adequate for the amount of recycling needed. And now many recyclers are closing shop during the pandemic, and even more waste is headed to landfills or incineration.   Consumer compliance and cost are other issues. With the pandemic, the amount of single use plastic and packaging is growing (think take out containers from all of the closed restaurants, water bottles and other wrapped items purchased by a virus-wary public, and a massive growth in medical waste), and if not disposed of properly by the consumer, will head for the landfill. Amazon and other e-retailers are hiring employees to keep up with the demand of consumers who are staying home and ordering what they need, and all of this additional e-commerce requires additional secondary packaging which must be properly disposed of.   Recycling has long had issues with financial feasibility. A ton of low-grade mixed plastics in CA would fetch $20 in 2017, but in 2018 it cost $10 to dispose of the same ton of mixed plastics. In 2018 China stopped purchasing the U.S. recyclable materials, increasing the amount of material that needed to be processed locally.   A pandemic-influenced drop in oil prices makes plastic even cheaper to produce, and according to a recent Wired article, as the Coronavirus has taken a toll on the price of oil, it will no longer “make economic sense for a company to process and sell recycled materials if they end up being more expensive than the virgin plastic another company is making.”   The Wired article quotes Tom Szaky, founder and CEO of TerraCycle, who says that lightweighting plastic bottles – while saving money for the manufacturer – is also creating a product that “becomes progressively less profitable for a garbage company to bother recycling.”   Like so many things, the near-term outlook for recycling and waste-processing will need to recover from the pandemic’s wave, but the future still has hope. According to a new report on Sustainability from PMMI Business Intelligence, the global sustainable packaging market is expected to grew at a CAGR of approximately 6% by 2025, reaching $280 billion for packaging that is recyclable, biodegradable, compostable or defined as green.  

For those seeking silver linings in the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the notable drop-off in air pollution has been a recurring bright spot. But while the skies might be clearing up (at least temporarily) while millions of people shelter in place, humans are poisoning the planet in other ways. Increased demand for medical supplies, households stocking up on tons of goods, and fears over COVID-19 spreading across different surfaces has single-use plastics on the rise — and as Wired reports, we're running out of places to put it.   As more plastic waste pours in, the already overwhelmed recycling system is at risk of getting completely buried. Prior to coronavirus, many recycling companies were already struggling to deal with the more than 300 million tons of plastic discarded every year — nearly 50 percent of which is single-use. According to the Earth Institute at Columbia University, only about 10 percent of all discarded plastic products in the United States actually get recycled — a fact the plastic industry knew for years while touting recycling programs that would never be viable. Nearly 75 percent ends up in landfills, where it can sit and erode for hundreds of years, releasing carbon dioxide as it degrades and often making its way into waterways and oceans. It's likely that as the country produces more plastic waste in this time of crisis, even more will be heading to landfills, as the already inundated recycling firms slow their operations. "Many recyclers, because of health and safety concerns, are also stopping the service,” Tom Szaky, CEO of recycling company TerraCycle, told Wired. “Recycling — that's been in sort of a crash — is now getting even worse.”   Those slowdowns are happening in tandem with a resurgence in single-use plastics. This is happening for a number of reasons, both out of necessity and potentially unfounded fears. Plastic bags have made a comeback during the coronavirus crisis due to concerns that reusable bags may carry the virus. A number of states and cities have reversed plastic bag bans and some have even instituted restrictions on reusable totes. While it is known that coronavirus can survive longer on certain surfaces, there doesn't appear to be any evidence that the virus is more viable on a cloth tote than a plastic bag, particularly if the bag is washed after use — though the plastic bag is likely to be discarded after one use, limiting additional exposure. With people worried that the virus can be transmitted through a number of surfaces, the demand for packaged goods is on the rise as well. According to FoodNavigator, demand for packaged goods has skyrocketed in Europe by as much as 111 percent for some items as compared to the previous year.     There is also the fact that the price of oil has dropped dramatically, which makes producing plastic goods cheaper than usual — and they aren’t all that expensive to begin with. Plastics are made from oil, and when the price of oil drops far enough, it can result in it actually being cheaper to produce new plastic products than recycle old ones. And when the demand for recycled goods disappears, more plastic ends up in landfills, slowly eroding and polluting the planet.   Plastic waste doesn't have the same effect as something like air pollution — we don't immediately see the damage as it occurs. But the change in our consumption habits will be immediately felt at the landfills that are already being overrun. It will be felt by oceans that are already at risk of having more pieces of plastic than fish by 2050. Even the short burst of uptick in plastic waste could cause significant disruption to the waste and recycling ecosystems. According to Waste Dive, dozens of cities and counties across the country have suspended recycling programs entirely. Rachel Meidl, a fellow at Rice University's Baker Institute, told Wired, “materials that would normally find its way to recyclers are being channeled to landfills and incinerators.” So before touting that "we are the virus" meme and spouting off to your friends about how the Earth is healing while we're all trapped indoors, remember that there are a lot of ways we can hurt the planet without ever leaving our couches.  

We all want to be more sustainable and eco-friendly, but today, there’s so much pressure to be a purist that it can be intimidating—not to mention costly or geographically unattainable. That’s why throughout April, Going Green Without Going Mad will unpack how to be more eco-conscious without sacrificing your sanity or 401k. We’re diving into the truths about sustainable fashion, talking about the business of going green, and highlighting the brands and people making changes toward a better and safer planet.   While you may know that plastic bottles and cardboard boxes go into the recycle bin, do you know how to recycle your mattress? Don’t feel bad if you don’t. According to a 2014 survey conducted by the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries and Earth911, 65% of respondents said they didn’t understand what plastics were acceptable in curbside recycling collection. And when you add items like styrofoam and batteries into the mix, the whole recycling system can get even more confusing and contaminated.   “What makes recycling so complicated is that every city has different recycling functionalities. It’s a business and things are recycled if there is a demand or a value for the recycled product,” says Lauren Singer, founder of Trash Is For Tossers and Package Free. She notes that items like metal are easy to separate, but plastic, which is artificially inexpensive, usually has no demand for the recycled product.   So how can you make sure that you’re recycling correctly? Below is a list of the most common items people have trouble recycling, with advice from Singer on how you can salvage them rather than giving up and throwing everything in the trash.       According to Singer, there’s simply no recycling business for styrofoam. “There’s no value for the recycled products. It’s cheaper [for the government] to send it to landfill,” she explains.   But if you don’t want to add more to landfills, how can you get rid of Styrofoam safely? According to It’s All You, a website on recycling, many grocery stores and shipping companies have take-back programs for foam packing and peanuts. Or if you live in New York, Singer says that her shop, Package Free, uses a recycling program called TerraCycle that offers a discount code for users who want to get rid of their styrofoam.   The best thing you can do, however, is to refrain from using styrofoam at all. Try to have reusable utensils and cups on you at all times, and ask companies to not use peanut packaging when delivering products.       According to The Mattress Recycling Council, Americans dispose of roughly 15 to 20 million mattresses every year. Plus, conventional mattresses contain synthetic fibers, foams, and hazardous flame retardant chemicals, which are hard to recycle and aren’t biodegradable, according to the Environmental Working Group.   The good news is, some parts of your mattress—such as foams, metals, and woods—can be recycled. And all you have to do is contact your nearest recycling center to see if they collect them. If you don’t have a place near you, Earth911 states that you can call Goodwill or The Salvation Army to see if they take mattress donations or have a recycling program of their own. There are also other resources, such as ByeByeMattress.com and Earth911, that offer ways for you to easily search online for places that’ll accept your mattress, too.   Keep in mind, most recycle centers will request a fee ranging from $20 to $40 if they pick up the mattress for you, and they won’t accept mattresses that have been stained, ripped, or are ridden with bed bugs.       “Electronics are really complicated because they’re made of so many different mixed materials,” says Singer. “To be recycled properly, they’d have to be picked apart, and each material taken to various places.”   If you want to recycle your electronics—and as of 2018, 25 states have passed laws requiring people to do so—you can visit Call2Recycle to find out where the nearest drop-off recycling center is located. Third parties like Apple or Microsoft will also take back old computers to refurbish or give away to local schools or libraries. But if you want to make money from older electronics, programmers are always looking for new computers on Craiglist or eBay to buy and update for their own personal needs.   As of late, a lot of materials that make up single-use batteries are no longer hazardous and can be recycled. According to Battery Solutions, all you have to do is call your local solid waste district to find out if there is a collection program, where you can drop off your batteries if you want them to be recycled. For instance, Earth911 has a recycling search program where you can look up “Alkaline Batteries” and your zip code to find the closest center near you.   However, when it comes to rechargeable batteries, you never want to throw them in the trash. They usually contain nickel cadmium, which can leach into the soil and water in landfills. Instead, you can drop rechargeable batteries off at home department stores, office supply stores, or eco-friendly shops. Call your local stores to see if they have a program in place.

Even in normal times recycling faced challenges. According to a February Packaging World article on recycling, the majority of critical recycling issues in the U.S. are related to sorting and management of discarded plastics, because the capacity and capability of recycling centers is not adequate for the amount of recycling needed. And now many recyclers are closing shop during the pandemic, and even more waste is headed to landfills or incineration.   Consumer compliance and cost are other issues. With the pandemic, the amount of single use plastic and packaging is growing (think take out containers from all of the closed restaurants, water bottles and other wrapped items purchased by a virus-wary public, and a massive growth in medical waste), and if not disposed of properly by the consumer, will head for the landfill. Amazon and other e-retailers are hiring employees to keep up with the demand of consumers who are staying home and ordering what they need, and all of this additional e-commerce requires additional secondary packaging which must be properly disposed of.   Recycling has long had issues with financial feasibility. A ton of low-grade mixed plastics in CA would fetch $20 in 2017, but in 2018 it cost $10 to dispose of the same ton of mixed plastics. In 2018 China stopped purchasing the U.S. recyclable materials, increasing the amount of material that needed to be processed locally.   A pandemic-influenced drop in oil prices makes plastic even cheaper to produce, and according to a recent Wired article, as the Coronavirus has taken a toll on the price of oil, it will no longer “make economic sense for a company to process and sell recycled materials if they end up being more expensive than the virgin plastic another company is making.”   The Wired article quotes Tom Szaky, founder and CEO of TerraCycle, who says that lightweighting plastic bottles – while saving money for the manufacturer – is also creating a product that “becomes progressively less profitable for a garbage company to bother recycling.”   Like so many things, the near-term outlook for recycling and waste-processing will need to recover from the pandemic’s wave, but the future still has hope. According to a new report on Sustainability from PMMI Business Intelligence, the global sustainable packaging market is expected to grew at a CAGR of approximately 6% by 2025, reaching $280 billion for packaging that is recyclable, biodegradable, compostable or defined as green.

  SO YOU GOT your jumbo pack of toilet paper from Costco. You speed home so nobody Mad Maxes you off the highway and steals your treasure, and immediately rip open the plastic packaging and throw it in the recycling bin. You stash rolls in the bathroom, but also hide them around the house, in case your family becomes less of a family and more of a free-for-all, and everyone ends up fighting to the death over TP.   A few days later, you take out your recycling, figuring that plastic wrap will find new life as plastic wrap elsewhere. The reality is it will become trash because, this being capitalism, it wouldn’t be economically feasible to recycle it even at the best of times. But now, with the coronavirus pandemic worsening, even stalwart recyclables like bottles and cans and cardboard are in many places going straight to the dump.   In some ways, the pandemic has been great for the environment: With heavy industries shutting down and fewer cars on the road, we’re spewing less greenhouse gases and air quality is vastly improving. “The world is breathing better, objectively,” says Tom Szaky, the founder and CEO of the recycling company TerraCycle. “This is the great irony—the world will breathe better, but wake up to an even bigger garbage crisis.”   Recycling was already in a crisis in recent years, due to a confluence of factors. But now the coronavirus pandemic is here to kneecap it. “Many recyclers, because of health and safety concerns, are also stopping the service,” says Szaky. “Recycling—that's been in sort of a crash—is now getting even worse.”   The recycling industry has been suffering from a trio of maladies. First, given that plastic is oil, when oil prices fall—as they have in recent years—plastic gets cheaper to make. This corrupts the economics of recycling. To be financially feasible, a recycling operation has to make more money than what it costs to gather the waste and process it. If oil, and therefore plastic, is cheap to begin with—and the coronavirus crisis has thoroughly cratered the price of oil—it doesn’t make economic sense for a company to process and sell recycled materials if they end up being more expensive than the virgin plastic another company is making.   You might think that the science is lagging, that it’s just not possible to recycle the materials we would want to, or perhaps that the recycling infrastructure isn’t robust enough. “It has nothing to do with that,” says Szaky. “It has everything to do with the economic equation: Is there a business model?”   The second reason is that for decades the United States sold mountains of recyclable materials to China for processing. But in 2018, China said no thanks to all that anymore, and banned imports of plastic and mixed paper. That was part of the nation’s bid to boost its own domestic garbage collection and, well, not have their country drown in plastic bottles. That left the US without a massive market upon which to jettison its waste.   “The third is what no one notices, that the quality of the waste is going down,” says Szaky. This is known as “lightweighting,” and it was happening long before the pandemic began. By making plastic bottles thinner, the manufacturer saves money by using less plastic. But, Szaky says, “it becomes progressively less profitable for a garbage company to bother recycling.”   And so an industry already in tumult has run headlong into the coronavirus pandemic. Now single-use plastics are more popular than ever as people panic-buy disposable items like water bottles, plus other products wrapped safely in the confines of plastic, like hand sanitizer and tissues and foods. Then, of course, people scrub these all with sanitizing wipes, themselves packaged in single-use plastic containers.   Toilet paper sales in the US in March were up 112 percent from the previous year—and would have been far higher if it weren’t for shortages—while aerosol disinfectants were up 343 percent. In the last week of February, hand sanitizer sales were up 313 percent from the same week last year. Amazon has had to hire 100,000 extra workers to keep up with demand—packing individually wrapped products into cardboard boxes bound for your doorstep.   In addition, the restaurant where you used to eat food off plates using metal utensils now sells you a to-go bag full of individually-wrapped dishes. And I doubt you’ll want to reuse that bag. Indeed, in the Bay Area, you’re not even allowed to bring your reusable bags to the grocery store anymore, lest you bring the virus from your home to the checkout counter. In early March, Starbucks stopped filling customers’ reusable cups for the same reason, before shuttering stores altogether. “So disposability is going like crazy,” says Szaky. “And during Covid, we saw that the recycling equation that was bad anyway, and trending down, is even worse.”   Even if the industry could handle this crush of “recyclables,” and even if it were economically feasible to process all the stuff, many recyclers have shut down in response to the pandemic. Curbside recycling programs have been suspended by dozens of county and local governments, from Miami to Los Angeles County, according to the trade publication Waste Dive. Recycling facilities are struggling to figure out how to protect their workers, who are concerned about virus exposure from handling materials.     TerraCycle, which gets many of its recyclables from stores, has obviously seen materials dry up, too. “I mean, we have collection points in 100,000 retailers around the world, and all of those are closed right now,” says Szaky.   In addition, over half of the states with container redemption programs—the way you as an individual can get money for each can or bottle you collect—are temporarily suspending enforcement. “Thus, materials that would normally find its way to recyclers are being channeled to landfills and incinerators,” says Rachel Meidl, a fellow at Rice University's Baker Institute, who studies plastics.   Making matters worse is the deluge of waste coming out of hospitals running on overdrive right now: You can’t just recycle a plastic face shield a doctor used while treating a Covid patient. Any biohazardous waste generated from Covid-19 at medical facilities, or samples from coronavirus test sites, has to be properly packaged and sent to a hazardous waste facility for incineration.   All told, the coronavirus crisis is producing more and more waste that’s either contaminated or not economical to recycle, and would be even if the recycling infrastructure was still running at full capacity. “With restaurants shifting to take-out, which requires the use of single-use plastics, consumers stockpiling groceries and bottled water, and the medical community rapidly turning over protective equipment, there has undoubtedly been an uptick in plastic waste due to the coronavirus pandemic,” says Meidl.   When we finally get a vaccine and the crisis begins to wane, our skies will once again fill with smog as we commute and spin up heavy industries, and the temptation will be to rely more heavily than ever on single-use plastics out of fears of sharing any lingering germs. But there are ways to do better. TerraCycle, for instance, runs a program that delivers products like shampoo in durable containers that customers ship back once the product is gone, for cleaning and reuse.   We need this kind of behavioral shift because recycling isn’t a panacea; indeed, it was the plastic industry’s push for recycling that got us into this mess. By shifting the blame for plastic pollution onto the consumers, they manipulated us into thinking the problem was ours to solve. The solution for the past few decades has been encouraging individuals to recycle, not to demand that the industry stop churning out so much single-use plastic. That narrative could be crumbling, though, as scientists continue to uncover the pervasiveness of plastic pollution: Sea creatures’ stomachs are filling up with plastic bags and microplastics are blowing from cities onto pristine mountaintops.   The trouble is that our modern society wouldn’t exist without the stuff—it’s just too damn useful. Big investments from industries and governments could develop better recycling technologies and more easily recyclable plastics that would increase the profitability of recycling. But it matters, too, whether we think of plastics as essentially disposable or recyclable. “The bottom line is, no matter how much government funding is allocated towards recycling efforts,” says Meidl, “there first needs to be a significant paradigm shift in human behavior where plastic is deemed as a resource and not a waste.”  

SO YOU GOT your jumbo pack of toilet paper from Costco. You speed home so nobody Mad Maxes you off the highway and steals your treasure, and immediately rip open the plastic packaging and throw it in the recycling bin. You stash rolls in the bathroom, but also hide them around the house, in case your family becomes less of a family and more of a free-for-all, and everyone ends up fighting to the death over TP.   A few days later, you take out your recycling, figuring that plastic wrap will find new life as plastic wrap elsewhere. The reality is it will become trash because, this being capitalism, it wouldn’t be economically feasible to recycle it even at the best of times. But now, with the coronavirus pandemic worsening, even stalwart recyclables like bottles and cans and cardboard are in many places going straight to the dump.   In some ways, the pandemic has been great for the environment: With heavy industries shutting down and fewer cars on the road, we’re spewing less greenhouse gases and air quality is vastly improving. “The world is breathing better, objectively,” says Tom Szaky, the founder and CEO of the recycling company TerraCycle. “This is the great irony—the world will breathe better, but wake up to an even bigger garbage crisis.”   Recycling was already in a crisis in recent years, due to a confluence of factors. But now the coronavirus pandemic is here to kneecap it. “Many recyclers, because of health and safety concerns, are also stopping the service,” says Szaky. “Recycling—that's been in sort of a crash—is now getting even worse.”   The recycling industry has been suffering from a trio of maladies. First, given that plastic is oil, when oil prices fall—as they have in recent years—plastic gets cheaper to make. This corrupts the economics of recycling. To be financially feasible, a recycling operation has to make more money than what it costs to gather the waste and process it. If oil, and therefore plastic, is cheap to begin with—and the coronavirus crisis has thoroughly cratered the price of oil—it doesn’t make economic sense for a company to process and sell recycled materials if they end up being more expensive than the virgin plastic another company is making.   You might think that the science is lagging, that it’s just not possible to recycle the materials we would want to, or perhaps that the recycling infrastructure isn’t robust enough. “It has nothing to do with that,” says Szaky. “It has everything to do with the economic equation: Is there a business model?”   The second reason is that for decades the United States sold mountains of recyclable materials to China for processing. But in 2018, China said no thanks to all that anymore, and banned imports of plastic and mixed paper. That was part of the nation’s bid to boost its own domestic garbage collection and, well, not have their country drown in plastic bottles. That left the US without a massive market upon which to jettison its waste.   “The third is what no one notices, that the quality of the waste is going down,” says Szaky. This is known as “lightweighting,” and it was happening long before the pandemic began. By making plastic bottles thinner, the manufacturer saves money by using less plastic. But, Szaky says, “it becomes progressively less profitable for a garbage company to bother recycling.”   And so an industry already in tumult has run headlong into the coronavirus pandemic. Now single-use plastics are more popular than ever as people panic-buy disposable items like water bottles, plus other products wrapped safely in the confines of plastic, like hand sanitizer and tissues and foods. Then, of course, people scrub these all with sanitizing wipes, themselves packaged in single-use plastic containers.   Toilet paper sales in the US in March were up 112 percent from the previous year—and would have been far higher if it weren’t for shortages—while aerosol disinfectants were up 343 percent. In the last week of February, hand sanitizer sales were up 313 percent from the same week last year. Amazon has had to hire 100,000 extra workers to keep up with demand—packing individually wrapped products into cardboard boxes bound for your doorstep.   In addition, the restaurant where you used to eat food off plates using metal utensils now sells you a to-go bag full of individually-wrapped dishes. And I doubt you’ll want to reuse that bag. Indeed, in the Bay Area, you’re not even allowed to bring your reusable bags to the grocery store anymore, lest you bring the virus from your home to the checkout counter. In early March, Starbucks stopped filling customers’ reusable cups for the same reason, before shuttering stores altogether. “So disposability is going like crazy,” says Szaky. “And during Covid, we saw that the recycling equation that was bad anyway, and trending down, is even worse.”   Even if the industry could handle this crush of “recyclables,” and even if it were economically feasible to process all the stuff, many recyclers have shut down in response to the pandemic. Curbside recycling programs have been suspended by dozens of county and local governments, from Miami to Los Angeles County, according to the trade publication Waste Dive. Recycling facilities are struggling to figure out how to protect their workers, who are concerned about virus exposure from handling materials.     TerraCycle, which gets many of its recyclables from stores, has obviously seen materials dry up, too. “I mean, we have collection points in 100,000 retailers around the world, and all of those are closed right now,” says Szaky.   In addition, over half of the states with container redemption programs—the way you as an individual can get money for each can or bottle you collect—are temporarily suspending enforcement. “Thus, materials that would normally find its way to recyclers are being channeled to landfills and incinerators,” says Rachel Meidl, a fellow at Rice University's Baker Institute, who studies plastics.   Making matters worse is the deluge of waste coming out of hospitals running on overdrive right now: You can’t just recycle a plastic face shield a doctor used while treating a Covid patient. Any biohazardous waste generated from Covid-19 at medical facilities, or samples from coronavirus test sites, has to be properly packaged and sent to a hazardous waste facility for incineration.   All told, the coronavirus crisis is producing more and more waste that’s either contaminated or not economical to recycle, and would be even if the recycling infrastructure was still running at full capacity. “With restaurants shifting to take-out, which requires the use of single-use plastics, consumers stockpiling groceries and bottled water, and the medical community rapidly turning over protective equipment, there has undoubtedly been an uptick in plastic waste due to the coronavirus pandemic,” says Meidl.   When we finally get a vaccine and the crisis begins to wane, our skies will once again fill with smog as we commute and spin up heavy industries, and the temptation will be to rely more heavily than ever on single-use plastics out of fears of sharing any lingering germs. But there are ways to do better. TerraCycle, for instance, runs a program that delivers products like shampoo in durable containers that customers ship back once the product is gone, for cleaning and reuse.   We need this kind of behavioral shift because recycling isn’t a panacea; indeed, it was the plastic industry’s push for recycling that got us into this mess. By shifting the blame for plastic pollution onto the consumers, they manipulated us into thinking the problem was ours to solve. The solution for the past few decades has been encouraging individuals to recycle, not to demand that the industry stop churning out so much single-use plastic. That narrative could be crumbling, though, as scientists continue to uncover the pervasiveness of plastic pollution: Sea creatures’ stomachs are filling up with plastic bags and microplastics are blowing from cities onto pristine mountaintops.   The trouble is that our modern society wouldn’t exist without the stuff—it’s just too damn useful. Big investments from industries and governments could develop better recycling technologies and more easily recyclable plastics that would increase the profitability of recycling. But it matters, too, whether we think of plastics as essentially disposable or recyclable. “The bottom line is, no matter how much government funding is allocated towards recycling efforts,” says Meidl, “there first needs to be a significant paradigm shift in human behavior where plastic is deemed as a resource and not a waste.”

Below are some of the basic rules for recycling to help people make more educated decisions when recycling in Northbrook. What can be recycled What cannot be recycled Any material that contains food or liquid is not recyclable, such as half-full soda cans. Other items that cannot be recycled include flexible plastic packaging like chip bags and plastic bags since they can damage machinery. Wax-coated juice cartons cannot be recycled since the wax cannot be separated from the paper. This can cause the recycling machinery to break. Sharp items are not recyclable  because they pose a safety hazard to the workers who pick up recycling. If a product is not clearly recyclable, set it aside and research if it is recyclable in Northbrook (www.northbrook.il.us/870/Waste-Recycling). What happens when there are attempts to recycle non-recyclable items? When there is an attempt to recycle non-recyclable products, all the items in that recycling load, whether recyclable or not, have to be sent to a landfill. Food waste contaminates the recyclable materials and prevents them from being turned into new products. For example, when a plastic bottle, still containing liquid, is recycled, it contaminates the other recyclables by making them wet. The wet recyclables can no longer be made into new products, so they are sent to a landfill. Items such as plastic bags and cords cannot be recycled because they can jam the machinery used in the recycling program. TerraCycle TerraCycle is a company that aims to eliminate waste by making new products from materials that are not otherwise recyclable. Individuals can participate in TerraCycle’s programs, one of which is the Zero Waste Box. These boxes recycle products that normally cannot be recycled, such as coffee capsules like Keurig K-Cups, plastic snack wrappers, office materials and cosmetic containers, such as shampoo bottles and mascara tubes. Zero Waste Boxes can be bought online (zerowasteboxes.terracycle.com) so the box can be accepted by TerraCycle when it is shipped back to them. Sources: Advanced Disposal Website TerraCycle publicist Alex Payne Lisa Disbrow, spokesperson of Waste Management of Illinois Inc.

MEGA™ Unveils Free Nationwide Recycling Program To Give New Life To Old Toys    TORONTO, April 16, 2020 /CNW/ - MEGA™, a leading construction toy brand, announced today a partnership with international recycling leader TerraCycle®. This partnership will recycle used Mega Bloks®, Mega Construx™ and other non-electronic MEGA™ toys to create new products in Canada.     Through the Blocks and Bricks Recycling Program, consumers can send in MEGA toys to be recycled at no charge to the consumer. Participation is easy: consumers can sign up on the program page at www.terracycle.com/blocks-and-bricks-en-ca then mail in their blocks and bricks using a prepaid shipping label that can be printed at home. Once collected, the blocks and bricks will be cleaned, melted into hard plastic and remolded to make new products from the recycled materials, which may include playgrounds, picnic tables and park benches, to name a few. The Blocks and Bricks Recycling Program is open to any individual, school, office, or community organization interested. "MEGA is giving builders of all ages a unique opportunity to divert waste from landfills," said Tom Szaky, TerraCycle's founder and CEO. "By collecting and recycling items that are typically not recyclable through municipal programs, consumers are given the opportunity to think twice about what is recyclable and what truly is trash."   Earlier this year, MEGA released a new line of building products made from plant-based materials. As part of the line, all products come in Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)-certified packaging that is fully recyclable.   "Our plant-based blocks were the first step towards creating a more sustainable future and we are excited to continue the momentum as we believe that with every step, together we can make an impact," said Bisma Ansari, SVP of MEGA. "By teaming up with TerraCycle, we are providing builders a more sustainable option to dispose of their well-loved toys and the ability to recycle our toys for free. We are very proud to continue our commitment towards a greener planet, one block at a time, as we build a brighter tomorrow together."   For more information on this initiative and TerraCycle's recycling programs, visit https://www.terracycle.ca.   About Mattel Mattel is a leading global children's entertainment company that specializes in design and production of quality toys and consumer products. We create innovative products and experiences that inspire, entertain and develop children through play. We engage consumers through our portfolio of iconic franchises, including Barbie®, Hot Wheels®, American Girl®, Fisher-Price®, Thomas & Friends™ and MEGA™ as well as other popular brands that we own or license in partnership with global entertainment companies. Our offerings include film and television content, gaming, music and live events. We operate in 40 locations and sell products in more than 150 countries in collaboration with the world's leading retail and technology companies. Since its founding in 1945, Mattel is proud to be a trusted partner in exploring the wonder of childhood and empowering kids to reach their full potential. Visit us online at www.mattel.com.   About TerraCycle 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. TerraCycle has won over 200 awards for sustainability and has donated over $44 million to schools and charities since its founding more than 15 years ago and was named #10 in Fortune magazine's list of 52 companies Changing the World. To learn more about TerraCycle or get involved in its recycling programs, please visit www.terracycle.ca.

In 2019, the cosmetics industry was valued at some $532 billion, and it’s been growing by nearly 5 percent each year since 2016. The numbers and growth are certainly astounding. And while the beauty industry does much to improve people’s sense of self and wellbeing, it is also responsible for a great deal of waste that has taken a toll on the environment.   Advancements in modern technology means shopping – online and in-store – has never been easier. However, the rapid production and accessibility of any and all products have created a damaging cycle for our ecosystems, wildlife, and planet. And the beauty industry is a big culprit. “According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), a third of the landfill is from the beauty industry with the majority of it coming from color cosmetics because they're using single-use plastics and materials” explains Tiila Abbitt, founder of vegan makeup brand Āether Beauty.   While this information might be a bit daunting, many beauty and hygiene brands are stepping up to combat the negative effects of the industry by bringing shoppers eco-friendly alternatives that don't sacrifice quality. In honor of Earth Month, The AEDITION is looking at sustainability practices within the cosmetics, skincare, and wellness worlds, what it means, and how we can all do better to make our world – and ourselves – more beautiful.  

Sustainability in Beauty

Sustainability in and of itself is the fulfillment of a modern-day need in a way that does not hinder the future or the present through the production of said need. In beauty and personal care, sustainability means recyclable packaging, decreased use of single-use plastics, consciously curated ingredients, safe-to-use components, and small-footprint production from start to finish.       But because many of the products go directly on the skin, hair, or teeth, creating safe and efficacious products adds an additional challenge. “It's about sourcing natural ingredients sustainably,” says Bee Shapiro, founder of clean perfume brand Ellis Brooklyn. “But it’s also looking at how green chemistry and biotechnology can be used in the industry to save trees and natural resources.”  

WHY THE BEAUTY INDUSTRY IS NOT SUSTAINABLE

In 2015, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) banned the use of microbeads in cosmetics products after research showed its negative effect on the oceans. More recently, brands have started to research and invest in biodegradable alternatives while shifting away from single-use plastics. But there are still aspects of the industry that need addressing.       “I visited a ton of recycling facilities and talked to packaging engineers in this space and realized that, with color cosmetics, you have mixed materials,” Abbitt explains. “There are heavier plastics where there isn't a secondary market to recycle them, and they're being mixed with mirrors, magnets, and screws. There's nobody there taking these pieces apart.” Not to mention, many of those additives are not recyclable. “Mirrors and magnets are completely unrecyclable,” she says. “And they're in almost every makeup component."   While no one expects beauty and personal care to be zero-waste, procedures and protocols can and must change. Currently, much of what the industry produces is a long-term waste. Paper takes two to six weeks to decompose, while plastic needs nearly 1,000 years. This is why shopping smarter is more important than ever.  

CAN THE BEAUTY INDUSTRY BE SUSTAINABLE?

Despite its massive presence on the global stage and rapid growth, the beauty industry can be more sustainable so long as brands take the necessary steps. “True sustainability is complicated,” says Lejla Cas, founder of biodegradable facemask brand KNESKO. “Balancing cost, sustainability, and safety, you have to find a fine balance between sustainable items that won’t degrade into our skincare, in addition to looking good.”   In order to be sanitary and portable, beauty products tend to come in smaller packaging built to be both ergonomic and aesthetically pleasing. But that doesn’t mean they can’t be sustainable. “When you launch a new product, you need to look for the most sustainable alternative for everything, from the cap to the material used for the tool to the paper, the cellophane, formulations, even the scent,” explains Sue Nabi, founder of clean beauty and fragrance brand Orveda. “We are the only skincare line that is scented with a 98 percent biodegradable scent that does not contain allergens.”  

What Brands Are Doing

While no company can be completely zero-waste, many are doing as much as they can to offset the environmental impact of their formulation and production process, while maintaining quality and safety. Below are a few steps beauty brands have taken toward sustainability.  

1. PACKAGING

When you consider how many layers of shrinkwrap, cardboard, and plastic you have to go through (and discard) in order to open many beauty products, it should come as no surprise that packaging is a major source of waste in the personal care industry.   “Packaging sustainability encompasses everything from design, to production, to transportation, to disposal,” Cas notes. In the case of KNESKO, she says her team is “educating” itself by “exploring new technologies and considering every angle before adopting any new initiatives to always keep improving.”   Mirrors and magnets are two such packaging components in need of an eco-friendly update. At Āether Beauty, Abbitt developed makeup palettes that do not contain either and made sure everything was FSC certified. Additionally, she sought out fair-trade paper from sustainable forests, and she continues to monitor her ink sources to see if recycling is an option.   For Nabi and Orveda, innovation is the natural solution. “We are currently working on sustainable options for the plastic wrap around our products,” she explains. “We have launched the first 100 percent biodegradable and reusable deluxe candles, and we are working on a next-gen, 100 percent sustainable and efficient SPF.”   While moving away from plastic may seem like an obvious solution, it’s not necessarily as simple as it sounds. “If we move from plastic containers to aluminum or paper, where does it come from,” asks Matthew Malin, co-founder of MALIN+GOETZ. “How much more or less energy was used to get it to us and produce it?” Emissions from manufacturing and transportation must be evaluated before deciding on a suitable alternative. “We consider all of our manufacturing and how to keep it local,” he explains. “What ingredients are the most sustainable, effective and best for use? Can we consider and transition to packaging that is more environmentally friendly? And what does that mean?” Such efforts don’t just extend to new products. Legacy brands have made similar commitments to evaluating their own systems and processes. “Last year we conducted a ‘plastics scan’ and analyzed our full line of packaging weighing up its impact on the environment from cradle to grave,” explains Charles Denton, CEO of Erno Laszlo. The findings led to an “approved” packaging list that includes resins with a known, viable recycle stream – such as glass, aluminum, high-density polyethylene (HDPE), and polypropylene (PP).   In keeping with this commitment, the brand also upgraded its iconic double-cleanse method to be more environmentally sound by removing the soap dish and plastic wrap in favor of parchment paper. The result? A fully recyclable customer experience. “Ultimately, I would like to own and operate a closed-loop recycle stream to recover our own plastic waste for repurposing into new packaging that will wind up back in the hands of our consumers,” Denton says.   And he encourages other businesses to move in a similar direction: “Take action to eliminate problematic or unnecessary plastic packaging,” he suggests. “Take action to move from single-use towards reusable models. Where relevant, 100 percent of plastic packaging should be reusable, recyclable, or compostable.”  

2. INGREDIENTS

When speaking about sustainability, product formulations and ingredient sourcing must also be considered. While there is very little FDA regulation in the beauty industry, brands are taking matters into their own hands.   Vegan formulas are increasingly common, as are promises that ingredients are sourced ethically. “There are certain ingredients that you have to be especially wary of, and they generally have to do with wood-derived ingredients,” Shapiro explains. “You can definitely have well-sourced sandalwood, but there is still a shocking amount of sandalwood that is illegally traded or not sustainably grown/harvested at all. Anything palm oil-related also needs a second look.”   Mica, a mineral dust used to add shimmer and sparkle to makeup, is another ingredient with a troubling reputation. “Thirty percent of the world’s mica is child labor-related,” Abbitt laments. “With every single innovation that's happened with ingredients, there's no reason to be supporting brands that source in this way.” As a workaround, Āether Beauty uses synthetic mica when it can’t source ethical mica. “It looks exactly like mica,” she says of the man-made alternative. “But it's clear.” Fragrance is another area in which eco-conscious synthetic ingredients can go a long way. Ellis Brooklyn recently released Iso Gamma Super — a 100 percent synthetic scent. “It is made with green chemistry, completely renewable, and allergen-free,” Shapiro says.   Orveda, meanwhile, has figured out ways to reduce its carbon footprint using technology. “We have decided to use mainly biotechnology sourced natural ingredients to avoid exhausting nature’s resources,” Nabi shares. “We are using less than 5 percent plastic components across all touchpoints and have pure glass packaging, FSC papers, and bin-free point of sales where everything is reusable. Therefore, no single usage items.”  

3. ADDITIONAL EFFORTS

But what about all the less sustainable products currently in the market? Brands and retailers have come up with eco-minded programs to help reduce waste and offset manufacturing processes.   In January, The Detox Market debuted its Sustainability Starts Now initiative, which was inspired by rising global temperatures. Its Earth CPR strategy involves offering clean products, planting more trees, and recycling used beauty products. The goal is to plant 500,000 trees in 2020 and 2.5 million by 2025, in an effort to become carbon negative. The recycling program, meanwhile, is in partnership with TerraCycle and allows anyone to drop off used and/or expired products knowing that it will be recycled properly.  

What Can Consumers Do?

As with all businesses, the basic economic rule of supply and demand plays a key role. Those who want to make their beauty and hygiene routines more sustainable and eco-friendly have to make their purchases based on those values. Here’s how you can make your beauty routine a bit more sustainable.  

1. RESEARCH

There is a lot of greenwashing in the industry,” Cas says. “The words ‘organic’ and ‘natural’ are essentially meaningless.” So the best way to know what goes into the product and how it’s made is by doing due diligence. “Consumers can learn about the company by viewing its website and ingredient deck, if available,” she recommends. Resources such as the Environmental Working Group (EWG) Skin Deep database verifies beauty and hygiene products based on their chemical makeup to ensure consumers are shopping safely.  

2. SHOP SMARTER

If you are interested in creating a more sustainable routine, look for cosmetic products with a longer shelf life and refillable options that will eliminate the need for single-use products. From fragrance and hygiene to hair, makeup, and skincare products, there are many ways to make your regimen a bit more eco-friendly. “Less is more,” Abbitt says. “Āether Beauty palettes have a huge fill that last three to four years. We're taking the idea of slow fashion into beauty.” Clé de Peau Beauté, Kjaer Weis, L'Occitane, Le Labo, and Rituals are just a few of the brands that offer refillable products.    

3. ELIMINATE WASTE

  For starters, try purchasing reusable cotton rounds instead of single-use cotton swabs. When it comes to small changes, Malin explains that “something as simple as egregious use of unnecessary and unsustainable packaging practices can be worth avoiding to make a small impact daily.” Do an inventory of what products can be substituted with eco-friendly alternatives and how your shopping habits can be changed to decrease the amount of waste.  

4. RECYCLE

What many eco-friendly brands offer is recyclable packaging but finding a place to do it can be difficult. And at times, it’s hard to tell if something can be recycled at all. Brands and retailers including The Detox Market, Garnier, Kiehl's, Lilah B, Lush, Origins, and Summer Fridays allow for customers to return expired and/or used beauty products to ensure that not just the packaging but the remaining formula are disposed of properly. Companies like TerraCycle can be a good alternative for those who cannot find a recycling facility near them.  

The Takeaway

It’s impossible to be perfectly sustainable all the time, but that doesn’t mean a series of small actions can’t make a big environmental impact. Never is that more true than in the beauty and personal care space. When consuming anything, your money speaks for you — so opt for brands that share your values. While it might seem overwhelming, it is important to remember that the power is in your hands. Consider all the factors: Will you use it? What is in it? How was it made? How will you recycle it? And go from there.

Last February, ELLE editors along with a team of experts reviewed hundreds of submissions for our thirteenth annual recognition of the best in eco-friendly and sustainable beauty. From Dove’s bottled products, now made from 100% recycled plastic packaging, to French heritage brand Guerlain’s goal to help save a billion bees in the next ten years, the 2020 Green Beauty Stars not only deliver results, they also leave a lighter footprint on the planet in the process.

While the COVID-19 crisis has drastically changed the current state of our world, its future remains in the balance making these beauty brand’s efforts to be more sustainable all the more critical. The need to treat each other and the planet with kindness is now.