Hundreds of dancers and families gather together for the University of Iowa Dance Marathon Big Event each year, and new sustainable practices within the student organization aim to help reduce the waste that a group that size can create.   Starting this year, Dance Marathon is recommending that returning dancers reuse their bags from last year and will utilize TerraCycle, a waste management company, to recycle items that may not typically be considered recyclable.   At the beginning of this academic year, Dance Marathon surveyed returning dancers on whether they would reuse their bags from the previous year, said Dance Marathon Sustainability Chair Katelyn Murhammer. While new dancers receive a bag to put things in when they get their paperwork at check-in, she said returning dancers would arrive already with a bag.   Around 50 dancers said they would be interested in reusing their bags to help reduce the amount the organization needed to buy and divert the amount of waste the bags could create, Murhammer said.   Dance Marathon will also use TerraCycle to recycle items such as chip bags and granola bar wrappers, Murhammer said. A special bin that the organization paid for through the green-initiatives fund will be filled at the event and sent back to the TerraCycle company to be repurposed, she added.   “I think it’s especially important for an organization as large as ours. With more than 3,000 people here in the IMU at one time, it’s going to be really important that we’re being sustainable because what we do is going to have a big impact with that many people,” Murhammer said. “So I think it’s good for people to be aware of sustainability things we have going on and to know how to do it.”   The organization will continue its practice from last academic year of having waste diversion stations at meals, Murhammer said. Volunteers and Dance Marathon leadership will make sure items that can be composted and recycled are put in the right bins at each meal, she said.   The UI Office of Sustainability helps with the Dance Marathon sustainability committee with the organization’s composting and recycling efforts, said UI Office of Sustainability Recycling Coordinator Beth MacKenzie. The chair of the committee meets with the UI team in the fall to discuss new efforts for the academic year, MacKenzie said.   The two work to incorporate sustainability into more than just the Big Event, she continued, but also into their smaller events throughout the year.   In the past, the organization has used old T-shirts to make pillows and create decor for the event using recycled materials, she said. “They reach a large audience,” MacKenzie said. “So when Dance Marathon displays sustainability as an important piece of their organization, that shows other people that sustainability is important.”   First-time dancer Lauren Davis said there would be a substantial amount of waste if Dance Marathon participants brought their own disposable water bottles instead of being provided with reusable ones. She added that TerraCycle will likely be beneficial for the Dance Marathon.   “People are probably snacking a lot, and because there are so many people here, it would just be really nice to have little, smaller things [like granola bar wrappers and chip bags], not just water bottles and paper to be recycled,” Davis said.

Lead engineer Shannon Moore shares an insider’s view of the development including the considerations, what was learned, advice and more.   Consumers have always loved convenience in the packaged products they purchase and nowadays it’s important that packaging not only be recyclable, it should be convenient to recycle, too.   It’s something that Kellogg’s Solana Beach, CA-based Bear Naked Inc. granola company took seriously. After 18 months’ development the brand stakes a claim as the first fully recyclable stand-up barrier pouch made for food packaging that’s available nationwide. The previous pouch structure was recyclable, but the process wasn’t efficient or convenient: recycling required customers to sign up for a special program to ship the packaging for recycling; now, the packaging can be recycled using convenient at-store drop-off locations.   Kellogg’s lead packaging engineer, Shannon Moore, was deeply involved in the development in which the company worked with partners to develop a barrier recyclable film that could meet the brand’s technical and marketing requirements. Moore’s four years’ experience at the company followed 10 years’ work at Procter & Gamble that involved various roles in supply chain and package development on household and personal care brands.   The recyclable pouch rollout involves all of Bear Naked core product lines of granola and bites, according to Moore, some 13 product lines in all. “All of the granola has already converted over and we are currently in the process of rolling it out on our bites,” she tells Packaging Digest. The rest of our interview follows.   What’s this about? Moore: Bear Naked granola wanted to increase their sustainability efforts within packaging by creating a more sustainable pouch. This required development of strategic partnerships across the value chain, from resin to manufacturing. Together, the team worked to design the Recycle Ready pouch for launch in 2019. This is just one part of the overall journey of sustainability for this brand and Kashi as part of Kellogg’s sustainability commitments for 2025.   How was the packaging changed? Moore: The previous structure was a multilayer PET/polyethylene film. The new film is mono-material PE with ethylene vinyl alcohol barrier. The pouch size and the net weight did not change.   What were the marketing and technical considerations? Moore: We surface print with a matte appearance and have a window on the front of the pouch. Marketing requirements meant that we had to ensure that these elements were maintained. We had to also maintain our existing shelf life in the new film, which appears on the pouch bottom.     How was the previous package disposed of and what’s done now? Moore: The packaging was either sent to TerraCycle or landfilled. Now the film can be dropped off at stores and retailers into the store drop-off recycling stream. The pouches are printed with the How2Recycle label information, which appears along the bottom of the back panel bottom next to a “Recycle Ready” callout.

A nova escova de dentes Signal Ecolo Clean é feita de plástico 100% reciclado (PCR) pós-consumo, enquanto seu design inteligente apresenta uma alça confortável e ergonômica com 40% menos plástico que uma escova de dentes comum – economizando 10 toneladas de plástico ao ano. E no final de sua vida, a escova de dentes não precisa contribuir para aterros ou perturbar os frágeis ecossistemas oceânicos.

 

Your kid may not be ready to give up his LEGO collection, but that doesn’t mean you can’t start eliminating plastic from your everyday life. Read on for 25 easy ways to start reducing your family’s plastic waste. From buying in bulk to swapping out your plastic straws, these ideas on how to reduce waste will start better habits and get you on the way to ditching plastic altogether.   1. Switch to paper, silicone or metal straws.   2. Bring your own bags to the grocery store (this includes your own smaller reusable bags for fruits and veggies).   3. Buy in bulk when you can, and bring your own containers. Remember to weigh the containers before checking out so the cashier can accurately ring you up.   4. Ditch the plastic sandwich bags. Use these awesome Stasher bags instead.   5. Replace plastic saran wrap with Beeswax wraps.  

photo: iStock

6. Use a refillable water bottle to stay hydrated.   7. Recycle your plastic bags. Many grocery stores have collection bins outside.   8. Stop using glitter for craft projects and ask your kids’ teachers to do the same.   9. Buy biodegradable dog waste bags like these Earth Rated bags.   10. Stop using bath and body products with synthetic microbead exfoliants and opt for either natural exfoliating ingredients like scrubs with nut/seed exfoliants like St. Ive’s, or sugar scrubs.  

photo: Mali Maeder via Pexels

11. Know your plastic recycling codes and what your town does and doesn’t recycle. Upcycle what your town can’t recycle: plastic containers and bottles are great for craft/paint projects, puzzle/game piece storage or bath toys.   12. Compost at home to cut down on the amount of trash bags you use.   13. Switch to compostable, eco-friendly trash bags like these.   14. Keep a set (or two) of utensils/reusable straws at work, in your purse, in your diaper bag or in your car, so you don’t have to use disposable utensils when you’re out and about. PS: Chopsticks take up a lot less drawer/bag real estate, and you’d be surprised how many things you can eat with them!   15. Join your local Buy Nothing Group (or start your own) to pay it forward and to snag gently-used goods. We love these groups especially for the baby and toddler phase when it's easy to get inundated by plastic toys and gear.     16. Switch to bamboo toothbrushes.   17. If babe loves the food pouches, but you hate the waste, research where you can recycle them via Terracycle. You can even start a collection site of your own.   18. Buy toilet paper and paper towels that are wrapped in paper instead of plastic.   19. Better yet, ditch the paper towels altogether. Use old rags or towels.   20. Say no to single-use coffee pods.   photo: Godisable via Pexels   21. Bring your own coffee mug when you order your latte at your fave coffee shop.   22. Anticipating leftovers? Bring your own to-go container for your doggy bag.   23. For the mamas, check out the Diva cup or opt for plastic-free menstruation products.   24. Stop using a disposable razor.   25. Switch to metal or steel hangers instead of plastic hangers.   26. Make your own cleaning products.   27. Cut back the amount of frozen food you buy. Not only are the wrappers plastic, but the cardboard box is also coated in a layer of plastic.   —Erin Lem and Keiko Zoll

Dear Recyclebank: In Vermont, more and more people are using wood pellet stoves for heating. Each ton of pellets is 50 bags and I use about 3 tons, so that is a lot of bags to dispose of. The plastic bags they come in say "Please Recycle", however, I am unable to find a place that will accept them — where should they go? –Frank B. Dear Frank: Pellet stoves are becoming a very popular home heating solution for good reason. Wood pellets are made of waste products like sawdust, lumber mill scrap, and trees that are unsuitable for lumber, so little energy is needed to obtain the raw product. Pellet stoves are cost-effective and energy efficient. According to the California Air Resources Board, pellet stoves are the most efficient and least polluting of new stove designs, including electric and gas fireplaces. Plus, the Department of Energy states that pellet stoves are the cleanest solid-fuel residential heating appliances. When it comes to your home energy use’s impact on climate change, pellet stoves are a smart move. However, none of the energy benefits of pellet stoves change the fact that most wood pellets are packaged in hard-to-recycle plastic bags. When you consider that the average homeowner will go through approximately two to three tons of wood pellets per heating season, you end up with a lot of plastic bag waste. The most important thing you can do is reach out to the manufacturer of your wood pellets to express your dissatisfaction with their packaging; the Rutland County Solid Waste District suggests you ask what actions the company is currently taking to reduce the environmental impact of their packaging, and express that you would be interested in participating in a bag take-back program. The next best option is to avoid the bags all together and buy in bulk. But what about the bags you already have? The first step to recycling your wood pellet bags is to call your waste hauler or drop-off center to find out if they’ll accept them. Many municipalities will not accept thin plastic packaging at all, especially in your recycling container. If they do accept thin plastic films in general, it’s possible they still may not accept wood pellet bags because they don’t have the resources to inspect, rinse, and dry the bags to remove wood-pellet debris. If you cannot recycle your pellet bags in the traditional methods, see if your local grocery store or pharmacy has a plastic bag drop-off container at the entrance. Check if they accept the type of plastic your pellets are packaged in, and if they do, simply rinse and dry the bags at home, then bring them to the store for recycling. A more pricey yet effective solution for ethical bag disposal is obtaining a Terracycle Zero Waste Plastic Packaging Box. For a flat rate, Terracycle will send you a storage box, a return shipping label, and will process your recyclables. This is a good choice for stockpiled bags. Another way to reduce the environmental cost of your wood pellets is to reuse the bags. The simplest reuse for wood pellet bags is to use them as replacement garbage and recycling bags. They are also quite useful in the garden as frost covers for small plants, liners for planters for easy repotting, and as flowerbed liners to prevent weed growth. If you’re particularly creative, save your bags so that you can make a water blob for your kids (or the kid in you) to play with this summer.

Roncesvalles Dental Centre has taken a major step in going green — and they’re not compromising the quality of their dental products to do so.   The dental office is the latest business in Toronto to join TerraCycle’s Zero Waste Box program, an initiative that gives patients and community members the opportunity to recycle toothbrushes, toothpaste tubes, caps, packaging, and floss containers — items that cannot be recycled at home.   Office manager Leah Lavergne said the decision to join the initiative and put an oral care waste box in their office came from the influx of requests they were getting to supply bamboo toothbrushes to patients.   “That’s the big craze, and we know that there’s a problem with plastic toothbrushes and where they end up, and we didn’t want to contribute more and more and more, and so we wanted to find ways to reduce our carbon footprint, help the environment, give patients an option,” she said.   Lavergne added that the dental office couldn’t initially find a bamboo toothbrush that met their professional standards (though they just recently found one) and they also knew that some patients were loyal to the plastic toothbrushes they already used.   As a result, they decided joining the TerraCycle program was their best option.   “The community is pretty excited about it ... we’ve had a pretty positive response. We have a lot of businesses that are on board as well,” she said.   Shaye DiPasquale, of TerraCycle, said it's exciting to see more dental practices across Canada embracing their program.   “Collecting and recycling hard-to-recycle oral care waste doesn't have to be a difficult practice. It can be as straightforward as collecting your family's toothbrushes, empty floss containers and toothpaste tubes and dropping them off at your dentist's office during your next visit, thanks to the efforts of dental practices like Roncesvalles Dental Centre,” she said.   Lavergne said Roncesvalles Dental Centre also plans to work with local waste reduction group Roncy Reduces on further initiatives in the future.   Tina Soldovieri, founder of Roncy Reduces, said the TerraCycle program is a great start for the dental centre.   She added that not only does it provide the opportunity for people to recycle these difficult items, but it creates the opportunity for conversation and gets people thinking about how they can be more conscious about reducing their own footprint.   “I think (the initiative) is really cool, because we know all these items go to a landfill,” Soldovieri said. “And apart from that, most plastic, even if it is supposedly recyclable, goes in the landfill. But to send something to TerraCycle means you really don’t want it to go there — you’re not even taking the chance. I think that’s really cool because all of our toothbrushes will be (in the landfills) longer than we live.”  

As the fires in Australia rage on – albeit the media attention has passed – and the Indonesian floods gradually subside, leaving untold damage and devastation in their wake, global attention is once again fully focused on the industries contributing to climate change, and those that have a huge part to play in these environmental disasters. Fossil fuel and animal agriculture industries are, quite rightly, feeling the heat, while the fashion world is taking a long hard look at itself and the implications that fast fashion has on the environment. But what about us? While in comparison to the catastrophic consequences of the burning of fossil fuels, or the mass deforestation caused by animal agriculture, we might not be culprit number one, or even two, but boy, do we contribute. The amount of beauty waste produced is eye-watering. Indeed, a study by Zero Waste Europe found that the use of beauty and personal care products produced 142 billion units of packaging in 2018. That is a lot of single-use packaging headed to landfill.   Like the fashion world, the beauty industry is guilty of promoting fast beauty. While clothing sites such as In The Style are getting hauled over hot coals for its approach to consumerism – with the endless cut-price deals, dirt cheap garments and promotions seemingly never ending – make no mistake, we have failed in our approach to cosmetics and personal care too. The promotion of monthly-subscription boxes of miniature products, 10-step beauty routines, mascaras for day, night and everything in between have catastrophic environmental consequences; the very core model of our industry is based on excess. And while it may look pretty having a dresser beholden with all the latest must-have buys, what does this ‘please sir, can I have some more’ attitude create? More, and more, and more packaging, aka, waste. And that’s just the waste side, where do we even begin on the environmental impact of the use of microbeads, palm oil, crop growth to harvest ingredients, VOCs, and energy used to ship, move and transport ingredients and finished products. I could go on.   Of course, there are those that are trying – the likes of Lush and The Body Shop, are well known for their progressive sustainability actions. Many brands are moving to PCR (post-consumer recycled) packaging, Terracycle has teamed up with beauty companies to create recycling schemes and consumers are increasingly backlashing against excess such as face wipes (single use sheet masks still seemingly a big draw.) But it still doesn’t really feel like it’s enough, and a growing amount of consumers are increasingly looking to smaller indie brands that have better fundamental environmental policies, greener formulations and better recycling options (according to analytics firm Future Market Insights, the global organic beauty market will reach $54 billion by 2027.) Indeed, Beiersdorf is said to be losing market share on its hero brands Nivea and La Prairie because of this shift.   The reality is, we should be trying harder. The big guns should be doing more. Sustainability agendas should be given precedence, recycling schemes should be prioritised in order to foster a circular economy, and we should, as an industry, be promoting how to buy better. There’s no denying it, it’s not without its difficulties, there are myriad obstacles to overcome at every level; transportation, sustainable production, consumer education on why and how to recycle are just some examples, and talked about on the GCN Zero Waste podcast (listen here).   And it goes beyond packaging – education on new initiatives regarding formula is also vital. When discussing the environmental benefits of upcycling beauty on the GCN podcast, Dr Meryem Benohoud talked about the logistical problems of creating green formulations at mass scale (listen here). However, they are not insurmountable and Tina Hedges, Founder /CEO LOLI Beauty, highlighted that while brands can be hit with uncertainty when trying out new schemes such as using food waste in beauty, it is consumer education and good marketing that allows this education and understanding to take place. And let’s face it, education and understanding are imperative in helping to foster change, and it is up to us all to make changes at every level if we are to alter our legacy on the environment from one of needless waste to one of positive impact and change.

When legalization came into fruition, Canadians soon realized that the cannabis industry was far from green. The cause—excessive packaging. Canada has some of the strictest packaging regulations in the world. The Federal Cannabis Act mandates packaging to be opaque, child-resistant, tamper-evident, waterproof, and contaminate proof. Add Health Canada’s requirements for health warnings, a standardized cannabis symbol, and specific product information and you now have a lot of packaging accompanying even small amounts of cannabis. The Price of Packaging Public outcry for more sustainable solutions followed, and retailers were just as concerned. However, there were hurdles to overcome. Efforts by licensed producers (LPs) to meet regulations have led to the use of several diverse materials, which made recycling through conventional means difficult. Refilling containers was also not an option due to packaging requirements.  

  Cameron Brown, communications officer for The Hunny Pot Cannabis, in Toronto, shares retailers’ frustration. “When we entered the industry, sustainability was top of mind for our team. We opened on April 1, 2019, and from the beginning, we wanted to recycle our packaging properly as well as work on other initiatives to reduce our carbon footprint.” The store receives on average 250 to 500 shipping boxes per week. Brown says their first step was to ensure staff members were separating products properly. Then they needed a program to dispose of the actual containers. Thankfully, Canopy Growth had recognized the problem early on and partnered with TerraCycle, a global leader specializing in hard-to-recycle materials. Their stores Tweed and Tokyo Smoke accept any packaging purchased from licensed retailers, including outer and inner packaging, tins, joint tubes, plastic bottles, caps, and flexible plastic bags. This recycling solution is also available to other retailers. “The program is Canada’s first and largest cannabis packaging recycling program,” states Alex Payne, public relations for TerraCycle North America. “Since its launch in October 2018, the program has signed up 412 cannabis retailers across the country and collected 2,372,634 units of packaging or 47,000 lbs. as of November 2019. These numbers continue to grow as new retailers get involved every month.” “The Hunny Pot reached out to Canopy Growth and TerraCycle to become a part of their program. As of November 2019, we have shipped 25,000 containers to TerraCycle. Our customers are making a real effort to bring the packaging back.” Brown adds that is thanks in part to their one-on-one service that provides education for the consumer. Jason Richeson, store manager for Garden Variety in Manitoba, shares how their popular recycling program, done in partnership with LP, Zenabis, is a little different. “We wanted to stand apart and increase customer incentive. Therefore, we offer clients a 50-cent credit per returned container. Customers can bring in up to 10 items ($5.00 credit) to be redeemed off their purchase daily.” LPs Standing Out with Sustainable Products Co-founder and Executive Director of Freedom Cannabis, Troy Dezwart, states that they are one of the few federally licensed growers committed to not using plastic containers for the recreational market. The privately-owned producer located in Acheson, Alberta, will be the first in Canada to use Nitrotins, which are fully recyclable. As part of the packaging process, a drop of liquid nitrogen is used to purge air from the Nitrotin. This process has the added benefit of increasing the product’s shelf life and maintaining quality. Freedom Cannabis products began distribution in late 2019, early 2020 and retailers are excited about the new packaging. Industry Tight-lipped Regarding Vape Products As the marketplace prepares for the introduction of cannabis vape pens and cartridges, a whole new set of recycling woes await. Vape products are more complex to recycle as they contain several different materials, batteries, and electronics in small quantities that need to be separated. A viable recycling program will require scale and time to develop. Most producers and retailers are without a solid recycling plan. Dezwart says Freedom Cannabis is still working on finding high-quality vape products with recyclable parts.  

  The Hunny Pot shares that they are in open discussions with LPs regarding their plans for new products and how to recycle them. “We will continue to keep on our producers to ensure we have a solution,” adds Brown. “We are not even sure if there will be an opportunity to recycle them yet,” says Richeson. “Garden Variety’s management company, Native Roots in Colorado, is experiencing this now. It’s a real concern because the sector blew up for them, overtaking flower sales.” This is predicted to happen in Canada as well. “Unfortunately, cannabis vape cartridges are not currently accepted through the Cannabis Packaging Recycling Program,” says TerraCycle’s Payne. It seems the consensus remains to wait and see. Social Responsibility Beyond Recycling Throughout all the highs and lows that the industry has faced, it is reassuring to see retailers and producers showing their commitment to social responsibility. Beyond its recycling efforts, The Hunny Pot now offers 100% biodegradable plastic bags. Bags can be kept to use them again; however, once exposed to the elements, they will break down completely within 18 months. This spring, the company is also looking forward to having beehives installed on its roof, furthering their environmental commitment. On the production end, as LPs begin to increase their scale and expand their product focus, cost savings have allowed them to start exploring more advanced sustainable packaging. And, eco-friendly packaging could be just the marketing tool they need to make their green products stand out.

Look up natural on and you will find a simple definition: “Existing in or formed by nature (opposed to artificial).” So you might think that it should be pretty easy to pick out which cleaning products are natural and which aren’t. Well think again. Just like other things in life — nutrition labels, clothing sizes, dating profiles — the ingredient list on “natural” products can be mighty misleading. But there are brands out there trying to change that.   No, it’s not that brands are trying to make their toxic ingredients more visible to us as consumers, but instead, there are brands popping up that are trying to do away with the toxic ingredients all together. Clean and cruelty-free beauty (that includes men’s skin care you guys) continues to get a lot of news coverage, but clean homecare? Not quite as much.   That’s not to say there aren’t new options and better practices that are becoming more available both in accessibility as well as cost. Terracycle, which we use here at AskMen HQ, makes recycling those hard-to-recycle objects much easier — think chip bags and gum wrappers. Loop, a new initiative from Terracycle, employs a broader tactic by partnering with mega brands such as Unilever and Kroger and acts as a storefront for well known products in fully recyclable packaging you receive and send back over and over again which creates something of a ... loop.   You’re not looking for the same dishwasher liquid or glass cleaner you’ve always used just in a reusable package? You want something that’s not going to end up in the landfill or pollute our shared water supply? We hear you and we agree. That’s why we dug deep, and out of all the natural, non-toxic, eco-friendly brands we could find out there, we picked these 15 best natural cleaning products because they look great, work well and don’t cost a fortune.   Blueland might be one of the easiest eco-friendly brands around at the moment. If you have ever dropped the fizzy old school Alka-Seltzer for headache relief, then you have already figured out how to use Blueland. The brand’s founder Sarah Paiji has a simple mission — quit using so much damn plastic. After the realization that every single piece of plastic ever made — Every. Single. One. — remains on the Earth and most likely is living in the ocean somewhere, Paiji made a brand that uses what it calls the Forever Bottle. By combining a concentrated cleaning tablet comprised of natural derived, biodegradable ingredients with water, you have one of three super cleaners or a hand soap.       A force of nature this is indeed, if its shtick stands up, and as much as we could tell, it did, it kills 99.9 percent of germs with a combination of only salt, water, and vinegar. This futuristic brand uses ingredients as old as time to create an electric cleaner that covers everything from the diaper genie to baby’s binky. Yes, you heard that right. The same cleaner is not only safe enough for both, but provides both — and anything else — with a thorough, sanitized clean. The trick? Electricity. Using a minimal amount of solution, the Electrolyzer whisks up the ingredients with water to provide a gentle but powerful multi-purpose cleaner that can replace disinfectants, deodorizers, surface, bathroom and glass cleaners and lasts for two weeks.     Founder Mat Franklin (surprisingly not Aunt Fannie) is proud to prominently display the brand’s “No List” on the site laying out in great detail, the ingredients that you will not find in any of the brands products. The extensive offering includes probiotic cleaners and soaps, vinegar cleaners and even pest and mosquito solutions — all made from quality plant-based ingredients, probiotics and essential oils. Franklin prefers to leave “natural” out of the equation since the word itself can mean nothing and everything, all at once. You can read more about Aunt Fannie’s — and in turn, all cleaning products — here.     A theme you may be catching onto here is that products that are good for you and good for the earth are more often than not, good for your wallet too. Dropps makes laundry and dishwashing pods you can just drop(p) right in and go about your business. Made from eco-friendly ingredients, the detergent isn’t the only thing that is good for the earth. The water soluble pod membrane itself is made of polyvinyl alcohol (PVOH) which dissolves in your washer and enters the water stream eventually breaking down to water and carbon dioxide.       With one of the more comprehensive ingredient lists available for review, Common Good also happens to have the least amount of frill to its packaging — which is a big plus in our book. Given that most packaging is glass, and all is designed to be reused over and over again, if our mood or decour changes, this brand will still clean well while blending in perfectly.     Don’t want to ever run out of your all-purpose, glass or floor cleaner? You might want to consider Better Life, since you can buy five gallons at a time in recyclable boxes. The Better Life claim-to-fame is that its American-made formulas biodegrade up to five times faster than leading natural and conventional cleaners — meaning they are basically not just good for the environment, but they might be amazing.     Started after Kate Jakubas was studying for her Masters degree in Environmental Engineering and learned that cleaning ingredients didn’t have to be listed on products. Which, if you ask us, doesn't make a lick of sense. It didn’t to Jakubas either, so she formulated her own vegetable soap (as you do when you’re about to be a Environmental Engineer) and discovered she could offer better products that were rooted in simple ingredients. Now, these MADE SAFE certified, made-in-Chicago products are proof she was headed in the right direction.   Another bulk-to-go brand that makes keeping all your cleaning supplies on hand is Attitude. Sure, while it offers laundry detergent, dishwashing liquid and all-purpose cleaner in half gallon cardboard containers, it also gives you the option to tack on EWG Verified shampoo, shower gel and hand soap in bulk as well.     Call a truce on the fight between green and clean and use Dr. Diann Pert’s EWG Verified simple, safe cleaning products — Truce. (See what we did there?) The Truce mission is to not to wait until being told what to do, but rather doing what needs to be done to produce the best possible product.     If we could join a cult to have all of our products look this good, we probably would. Luckily it’s not necessary to abandon the non-believers and drink the Kool-Aid. Instead, you just have to buy the products and use them. The cleaners are great, but what we really, really love about this brand is the upscale design of the bottles themselves. The no-slip grip vessels are dishwasher safe and shatter resistant and the brand’s coconut derived formula is sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF).     Do you want to clean well? Then do we have a brand for you! (Sorry, we had to.) CleanWell products were born from a father's love for his son. After learning the use of household products loaded with unsafe chemicals made his son's life living with an immune system disorder even harder, he created his own products to use instead — CleanWell. Given its origin story, it would make sense that keeping concoctions kid-friendly would be a big goal, while also killing 99.9 percent of germs around the house and leaving a fresh lemongrass scent behind.     One bottle really can do it all, if that bottle is the Branch Basics Concentrate. By adding various amounts of water, depending on the cleaner’s purpose, the Concentrate can make up to three all-purpose bottles, three bathroom bottles, three glass cleaner bottles, three foaming hand wash bottles and 64 full loads of laundry. That’s a lot of clean out of one bottle of all-natural green goodness.     If there is a theme to the green clean movement, it’s parents wanting the best for their kids. Puracy is no exception. One of the best sellers in the category on Amazon, founders Sean Busch and Paul Tracy can sleep easy in their naturally clean houses knowing they are making the world a better place. But it’s not just Busch and Tracy that make Puracy a good brand to reach for, the team includes a Magna Cum Laude honored, American Board of Dermatology Double Board Certified dermatologist, a pediatric doctor of osteopathic medicine and a doctor of philosophy and chemistry from MIT. You know, just a few folks who might know a thing or two about how to make green, clean formulas safe enough for the whole family.   You can’t have a gathering of good-for-the-Earth cleaning products and not find Method somewhere amongst them. Sure, the scale of Method makes it hard to believe that it can keep up (or … down?) with the smaller guys, but it takes it’s accountability very seriously. With a mission to continue to provide affordable, green products to the masses, it’s working towards lowering carbon emissions, reducing water usage and hitting 99 percent diverted waste footprint by the end of 2020. Are they perfect? No. Are they better than most of the big brands you’re going to find while scrolling through Amazon — very likely.   These aren’t the only cleaning products out there with a mission to do a better job at keeping your home clean and the earth green, but they are all a great place to start. Whether you decision is based on budget or you’re a bit more bougie, the future holds only more great cleaning products for us all to enjoy.  

Lead engineer Shannon Moore shares an insider’s view of the development including the considerations, what was learned, advice and more.   Consumers have always loved convenience in the packaged products they purchase and nowadays it’s important that packaging not only be recyclable, it should be convenient to recycle, too.   It’s something that Kellogg’s Solana Beach, CA-based Bear Naked Inc. granola company took seriously. After 18 months’ development the brand stakes a claim as the first fully recyclable stand-up barrier pouch made for food packaging that’s available nationwide. The previous pouch structure was recyclable, but the process wasn’t efficient or convenient: recycling required customers to sign up for a special program to ship the packaging for recycling; now, the packaging can be recycled using convenient at-store drop-off locations.   Kellogg’s lead packaging engineer, Shannon Moore, was deeply involved in the development in which the company worked with partners to develop a barrier recyclable film that could meet the brand’s technical and marketing requirements. Moore’s four years’ experience at the company followed 10 years’ work at Procter & Gamble that involved various roles in supply chain and package development on household and personal care brands.   The recyclable pouch rollout involves all of Bear Naked core product lines of granola and bites, according to Moore, some 13 product lines in all. “All of the granola has already converted over and we are currently in the process of rolling it out on our bites,” she tells Packaging Digest. The rest of our interview follows.   What’s this about? Moore: Bear Naked granola wanted to increase their sustainability efforts within packaging by creating a more sustainable pouch. This required development of strategic partnerships across the value chain, from resin to manufacturing. Together, the team worked to design the Recycle Ready pouch for launch in 2019. This is just one part of the overall journey of sustainability for this brand and Kashi as part of Kellogg’s sustainability commitments for 2025.   How was the packaging changed? Moore: The previous structure was a multilayer PET/polyethylene film. The new film is mono-material PE with ethylene vinyl alcohol barrier. The pouch size and the net weight did not change.   What were the marketing and technical considerations? Moore: We surface print with a matte appearance and have a window on the front of the pouch. Marketing requirements meant that we had to ensure that these elements were maintained. We had to also maintain our existing shelf life in the new film, which appears on the pouch bottom.     How was the previous package disposed of and what’s done now? Moore: The packaging was either sent to TerraCycle or landfilled. Now the film can be dropped off at stores and retailers into the store drop-off recycling stream. The pouches are printed with the How2Recycle label information, which appears along the bottom of the back panel bottom next to a “Recycle Ready” callout.