We LOVE PopSockets so a PopSockets recycling program is exciting news!! I’m always up for sharing ways to not only save, but reuse and recycle so I love to hear that brands like PopSockets are doing their part to create a positive impact by taking responsibility for our products at every stage of their lifecycle.     How cool is that, right? I’ve said this many times, and I’ll say it again: It’s not always about saving money. It’s also about choosing the brands and products that not only last and stand up to the test of time – ahem: I’ve had the SAME PopSocket for over TWO years now and it’s still in great condition! – and it’s also about choosing brands that go the extra mile to do good. I’m all about sharing the brands that I love and WHY they earn that status.   PopSockets, maker of expandable phone grips, has partnered with recycling leader TerraCycle to create a FREE recycling program for PopSockets products and packaging, as well as ANY brand of cellular phone case.  

It's the year 2020 and our planet is in need of our help more than ever before. The good news is that there are countless eco-heroes at the ready to help save the environment. They aren't necessarily the ones running around in fancy capes, although that would be super! I'm referring to those everyday unsung heroes who are making a positive impact in their school and community, building awareness of important eco-initiatives and inspiring others to become stewards of the earth. Imagine being able to boost your impact by winning $20,000 in new technology for your school from Staples Canada by simply sharing your green initiatives in the 2020 Superpower your School Contest!   This year, Staples Canada has teamed up with EcoKids and Earth Day Canada for the 10th annual Superpower your School Contest. Up for grabs is not one, not two but TEN prizes of $20,000 in new technology from Staples Canada to be awarded to elementary and secondary schools across Canada. That's oodles of fancy gadgets and updated tech to help supplement learning in the classroom!  

How to Enter:

 

1. Confirm that your school qualifies to enter by reading the contest Eligibility and Entry Criteria.
2. Learn about the contest details by reading the contest Rules and Regulations.
3. Contact Earth Day Canada at powereco@earthday.ca to discuss your entry in advance (optional).
4. Visit staples.ca/powereco to download and complete the entry form before January 31, 2020.

1. Also, take a look at the step-by-step entry guide for additional tips to consider when filling out your entry.

It's Easy to Make a Difference

  Raise your hand if you have ever set aside special items for recycling during your community's environment day but end up forgetting all about it by the time that day arrives. Phew! I'm glad I'm not alone. Luckily, Staples Canada makes it super easy to recycle on pretty much any day of the year. For example, did you know that you could recycle used toner and ink cartridges in store? I also discovered that schools across the country can request a free ink cartridge collection bin by registering at canadaschoolrecycling.ca. This would be an excellent initiative that you could include as part of your contest entry, one that could help divert the 300 million ink cartridges that would otherwise end up in North American landfills each year. Staples Canada offers additional recycling programs as part of the company's commitment to helping schools in their efforts to save the environment. I was thrilled to learn about the following recycling programs:  

• Battery Recycling: Since 2004, Staples Canada has partnered with Call2Recycle to collect used batteries (rechargeable and alkaline) from all store locations and its Home Office, resulting in over 1 million kilograms of used household batteries that have been collected and safely recycled thus far.
• Writing Instruments: In partnership with TerraCycle®, Staples Canada has been collecting used writing instruments, such as pens, pencils, markers and highlighters at local stores, which are then shipped to TerraCycle for recycling.
• Electronics Recycling: Staples Canada and its national electronics recycling partner eCycle Solutions take back end-of-life electronics at most of its retail locations (excluding stores in Calgary, Alberta), with roughly 20.5 million kilograms of e-waste collected for recycling to date. These items include cell phones, computers, computer parts and more

With support from Staples Canada, it's never been easier to make a difference. So go ahead and get started on your next green campaign. And don't forget to share your school's efforts for a chance to win in the Superpower your School contest!  

Styrofoam cups and coffee pods aren’t recyclable … right? They are if you talk to TerraCycle, a Trenton, New Jersey, company that works with conscientious brands and consumers to provide recycling programs for almost every form of waste.   Think of a household product that often ends up in the trash – a used toothbrush, a chip bag, a water filter – and there’s probably a way you can, through TerraCycle, recycle it for free. Usually, you can slide the waste into a padded envelope, print a prepaid shipping label (funded by a partner brand, such as Brita or Colgate) and send it off to TerraCycle, where materials are cleaned, shredded and made into products ranging from school supplies to bird feeders.   Then, there’s the Zero Waste Box™ program. For this, TerraCycle focuses on three categories of waste: disposable cups and lids, candy and snack wrappers, and single-serve coffee, tea and creamer capsules. Offices, stores and even individuals can buy Zero Waste Boxes to fill and ship back to TerraCycle. From there, the “trash” is broken down and converted into compostable waste or reusable raw material.   In April 2018, Subaru of America partnered with TerraCycle to make Zero Waste Boxes available to all Subaru retailers. Since then, retailers have diverted 500,000 pounds of waste, or the equivalent of about 150 Subaru vehicles, from landfills.   When Annapolis Subaru joined the program, the Maryland retailer filled up 30 boxes within six months. “The waste is probably half from the office and half from (community members) who’ve found out we’re a hub,” says General Manager Bill Sadtler.   TerraCycle also has created a line of products made just from the waste Subaru retailers send in. In turn, retailers purchase these items, including picnic tables and playground materials, to donate to local parks and schools.   Jonathan Rivard, regional marketing manager for Subaru of America, is proud of how effective the partnership has proved to be, noting that the Zero Waste Boxes have filled up faster than he anticipated. Customers are especially happy to see that they can recycle things such as single-use coffee pods that aren’t always accepted in regular recycling bins.   “It’s one of those programs that hits on all cylinders – the need for it. It makes sense; it’s easy to understand and implement. You really look at it and ask, ‘Why haven’t we been doing this already?’” Rivard says. “There’s nothing they can’t recycle; they’re really amazing that way.”   Learn more about TerraCycle and find a Zero Waste Box at your local participating retailer.   Subaru proudly supports the work of charities and organizations that share our values. Discover all the ways we work together to improve our communities at subaru.com/partners.  

Manufacturer of accessories for mobile phones, mobile technology and expandable lifestyle accessories, PopSockets, has partnered With the international recycling leader TerraCycle®, creating a free recycling program, you can recycle packaging Where and PopSockets products, Likewise Also the covers of different brands of phones.   For each shipment of waste sent to TerraCycle PopSockets through the PopSockets Recycling Program, earn points collectors can be used for That charitable gifts or cash and Donated to Become Their nonprofit, school or charity choice.   "Taking advantage of the TerraCycle experience, our goal is to recycle even more products we create. We invite customers to recycle PopSockets merchandise and all cell phone cases through our PopSockets Recycling Program, "Said David Barnett, founder and CEO of PopSockets.   Once Collected, the waste is broken down, separated by materials and plastics are cleaned and melted in hard plastic That can be remodeled to make new recycled products. You can Participate by Registering at https://www.terracycle.com/en-US/brigades/popsockets   The PopSockets Recycling Program is open to any interested person, school, office or community organization.

PopSockets, maker of expandable phone grips, has partnered with recycling leader TerraCycle® to create a FREE recycling program for PopSockets products and packaging, as well as ANY brand of cellular phone case.   Through the PopSockets Recycling Program, consumers can now send in the following products and packaging to be recycled for free:   ●           PopGrips® ●           PopMinis® ●           PopGrip® Slide ●           PopWallet® & PopWallet+ ●           PopChains® ●           PopSockets® PopMounts® ●           PopSockets® packaging ●           Otter + Pop Phone Cases ●           PopThirst® ●           PopGrip® Lips, PopGrip® Mirror & PopGrip® AirPods Holder ●           PopStation® ●           Any brand of cellular phone case   Participation in the program is easy: simply sign up on the TerraCycle program page at https://www.terracycle.com/en-US/brigades/popsockets and mail in the accepted waste using a prepaid shipping label. Once collected, the waste is broken down, separated by material and the plastics are cleaned and melted into hard plastic that can be remolded to make new recycled products.

BOULDER -- PopSockets, maker of expandable phone grips, mobile tech, and lifestyle accessories, has partnered with international recycling leader TerraCycle® to create a free recycling program for PopSockets products and packaging, as well as any brand of cellular phone case.   As an added incentive, for every shipment of PopSockets waste sent to New Jersey-based TerraCycle through the PopSockets Recycling Program, collectors earn points that can be used for charity gifts or converted to cash and donated to the non-profit, school or charitable organization of their choice.   "PopSockets' mission is to create positive impact, and that means taking responsibility for our products at every stage of their lifecycle," said David Barnett, PopSockets founder and CEO.   "Leveraging TerraCycle's expertise, we're aiming to recycle even more products than we create. We invite customers to recycle PopSockets merchandise and all cell phone cases through our PopSockets Recycling Program."   Participation in the program is easy by signing up on the TerraCycle program page at https://www.terracycle.com/en-US/brigades/popsockets and mail in the accepted waste using a prepaid shipping label.   Once collected, the waste is broken down, separated by material and the plastics are cleaned and melted into hard plastic that can be remolded to make new recycled products.   "Through the free recycling program, PopSockets is offering consumers a powerful, sustainable option to divert waste from landfills," said TerraCycle CEO and founder Tom Szaky. "By collecting and recycling items that are typically not recyclable, consumers are given the opportunity to think twice about what is recyclable and what truly is garbage."   The PopSockets Recycling Program is open to any interested individual, school, office, or community organization. For more information on TerraCycle's recycling programs, visit www.terracycle.com

Do you have any old PopSockets or phone cases sitting around that you no longer use? PopSockets, maker of expandable phone grips, has partnered with recycling leader TerraCycle® to create a FREE recycling program for PopSockets products and packaging, as well as ANY brand of cellular phone case.     Through the PopSockets Recycling Program, consumers can now send in the following products and packaging to be recycled for free: ●           PopGrips® ●           PopMinis® ●           PopGrip® Slide ●           PopWallet® & PopWallet+ ●           PopChains® ●           PopSockets® PopMounts® ●           PopSockets® packaging ●           Otter + Pop Phone Cases ●           PopThirst® ●           PopGrip® Lips, PopGrip® Mirror & PopGrip® AirPods Holder ●           PopStation® ●           Any brand of cellular phone case Participation in the program is easy: simply sign up on the TerraCycle program page at https://www.terracycle.com/en-US/brigades/popsockets and mail in the accepted waste using a prepaid shipping label. Once collected, the waste is broken down, separated by material and the plastics are cleaned and melted into hard plastic that can be remolded to make new recycled products. Be sure to search around the TerraCycle site, because you would be amazed to find out the things you can have recycled instead of throwing them out.  

The company has partnered with PopSockets and The Clorox Co.’s Glad business in January to launch new recycling programs.   January 21, 2020   Trenton, New Jersey-based TerraCycle has announced it has entered into new partnerships with Boulder, Colorado-based PopSockets and Oakland, California-based The Clorox Co.’s Glad business this January to launch new recycling programs.   With PopSockets, which makes expandable phone grips, mobile tech and lifestyle accessories, TerraCycle is creating a free recycling program for PopSockets products, packaging and cellphone cases, TerraCycle reports in a news release on the partnership. As an added incentive, for every shipment of PopSockets sent to TerraCycle through the PopSockets Recycling Program, collectors earn points that can be used for charity gifts or converted to cash and donated to the nonprofit, school or charitable organization of their choice.   According to a news release from TerraCycle, through the PopSockets Recycling Program, consumers can now send in the following products and packaging to be recycled for free: PopGrips, PopMinis, PopGrip Slide, PopWallet and PopWallet+, PopChains, PopSockets PopMounts, PopSockets packaging, Otter + Pop Phone Cases, PopThirst, PopGrip Lips, PopGrip Mirror and PopGrip AirPods Holder, PopStation and any brand of cellular phone case.   TerraCycle reports that people can sign up for the program on its website and mail in the accepted waste using a prepaid shipping label. Once collected, the waste is broken down, separated by material and the plastics are cleaned and melted into hard plastic that can be remolded to make new recycled products. The PopSockets Recycling Program is open to any interested individual, school, office or community organization.   “Through the free recycling program, PopSockets is offering consumers a powerful, sustainable option to divert waste from landfills,” says TerraCycle CEO and Founder Tom Szaky. “By collecting and recycling items that are typically not recyclable, consumers are given the opportunity to think twice about what is recyclable and what truly is garbage.”   Also, TerraCycle has introduced recyclable food bags are now being integrated into TerraCycle’s Loop pilot program. Through this program, consumers can order products online and then receive and recycle the bags through a reusable steel container and return pouch. The partnership with Glad gives people convenient, in-home recycling for plastic bags, TerraCycle reports in a news release on that partnership.   “Glad’s purpose is to help consumers outsmart waste,” says Drew Kozlak, brand manager for Glad. “Offering responsible consumer product solutions is just one of the ways we’re committed to sustainability, so we’re really excited to explore this option that lets you easily recycle your food bags.”   The Glad brand’s participation in Loop advances The Clorox Co.’s packaging-related environmental, social and governance goals announced in October 2019 as part of its new IGNITE corporate strategy. As a signatory to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s New Plastics Economy Global Commitment, the company has also pledged to pilot new business models and solutions like Loop that enable consumers to refill and reuse primary packaging.

The co-founder of Superette on finding her voice, striving for something different, and the waste of cannabis packaging.   AS TOLD TO ELIZA BROOKE  

Starting Superette could not be further from my upbringing.   I grew up in a very conservative family. Very tightly regulated, very strict. A lot of rules. I didn’t learn how to ride a bike until three years ago. My conservative parents didn’t let me ride one growing up. I was basically allowed to play piano and go to school and that was it.   Entrepreneurship was definitely not in my blood. But from university onwards, I really strived to be the opposite of how I was brought up.   Before university, I didn’t travel. My family does not explore much. I ended up going to Carleton University for international business, not because I wanted to be in business but because there was a one-year exchange program. I saw that as an opportunity to travel. I wasn’t really taking my education seriously when I first started, and I just thought, Hey, I can get out of the country because of school. I used that as an excuse.   I ended up spending a year based in Shanghai, and exploring all around China, Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, and Malaysia. I got my scuba diving license in Thailand. I probably spent a month cumulatively in Indonesia. I also joined a cover band in Shanghai. I played keyboard—I grew up playing piano. We had two singers: One from Kazakhstan, and the other from the US. The guitarist was from Indonesia, the bassist was from Thailand, and the drummer was from Russia—a very international group. It was so much fun.     I gained a lot of confidence in myself through travel. People who have known me since high school or elementary school will tell you that the person I became after my year in Southeast Asia compared to the person I was prior to that—completely different.   I used to be very quiet. I didn’t have many friends. I didn’t talk to many people. I had a really thick shell, and I wasn’t really willing to open up. If I was with a group of people and someone was like, “Where do you want to go for dinner?” I would never speak up. I would never say what I wanted. But during my time in Asia, I started looking at things differently. I told myself: This is temporary. If I end up pissing someone off, I’m not going to see them again, so I’m just going to focus on what I want to do.   I learned how to take initiative. I learned how to voice my opinion. I learned how to even just recognize what it was that I wanted. I’d fallen into the habit of thinking that whatever someone else wanted was always more important. But since then, I have been a lot better at being like, nope, this is better for me, or nope, this is what I want, or this is how I actually feel about the situation. I think that’s really important when you’re working with a team or you’re building relationships that will last a lifetime.   I did venture capital for eight months after school and then moved on to do investment banking for two years. That’s when I started following the legal cannabis space, with Trudeau coming into office and really pushing cannabis forward from a regulatory standpoint across the country.   It wasn’t an industry that I had considered previously. I didn’t know too much about it, outside of personal consumption. But I thought it was something different and undefined. That’s what gets me excited: Things that are not set in stone yet, that are still very fluid. That’s when we can be creative.   When I was looking at the cannabis space back in 2016, early 2017, most companies were focused on becoming cultivators for medical purposes. I thought that was cool, but it didn’t really speak to me. I ended up meeting a company called Tokyo Smoke. They were solely focused on building a brand, and building a connection with potential customers through adjacent industries prior to legalization. I jumped on board there and helped with their corporate strategy and strategic growth. That’s where I met my co-founder, Drummond Munro.       After Tokyo Smoke was acquired, Drummond and I were both presented with great positions within the new entity. We saw it as another job. A great job, but just another job. We thought, why not take this opportunity to bet on ourselves? So we left and started Superette.   At that point, there were a lot of cannabis retail concepts that focused on being luxurious and tech-forward, that really inclined towards that premium feeling. And then there were a lot of legacy head shop-types that were geared toward experienced consumers. We wanted to create something that was a little bit more fun, a little bit more accessible, and that could bring back a human connection.   I’ll paint the picture: You’re walking outside. It’s Wellington Street West in Ottawa. And then you see Superette. It’s a white corner placement. Really, really bright. You walk in and someone’s there to greet you at the door with a smile on their face. They ask to check for your ID to make sure you’re of age and on you go. You enter a large space that’s very akin to your local corner store and there’s a menu that has a list of the current product offerings in store, plus shelves, counters, and deli spaces all showcasing cannabis, cannabis accessories, and also educational pieces.   There’s a lot going on, but it’s very organized. Cannabis can be very confusing for people—they don’t know where to begin. But we try to set up the store so that whether you’re a new user or an experienced user, you can find the section that works for you. You can talk to someone if you want to, or you can not if you don’t want to. You can also just sit down and chill.     Our goal is to make sure you are empowered as a potential customer. There’s no forcing you to buy any products. We just want you to have a good time in the store. That’s the main goal. I want you to come away from our store feeling good.   When I was working in venture capital, day in, day out, I was interacting with entrepreneurs who were doing things in undefined markets and growing really quickly and just going for it. I think that’s what planted the seed for Superette. Wherever I go, I’m always asking, how can we make things better? How can we continue to improve? And what can we change to push the envelope? I realized it was really difficult to do that in traditional industries where there are set standards and expectations.   The voices for social justice in cannabis are much stronger in the U.S., perhaps because the impact has historically been larger. But there are certain groups in Canada that are working hard to push policy forward—groups like Cannabis Amnesty. There’s a general awareness that this space has to grow collaboratively and can’t shut the door on people who made the industry what it was. I think a focus on inclusion and the recognition of legacy participants is extremely important.     Last year, we focused on launching a large corporate social responsibility campaign for 2020. We’d been dedicating community service hours to groups across Ontario, like Ottawa Food Bank and Daily Bread, but then we started thinking: how can we make this a little bit bigger?   One thing people don’t realize is how extremely wasteful cannabis packaging is. Tweed, a cannabis brand, and TerraCycle, a waste management company in Canada, recently committed to taking cannabis packaging from retailers, cleaning it, melting it down to pellets, and reusing it. We wanted to hit two birds with one stone, so we launched a commitment to match every package returned to the store for recycling with a food can donation to the Ottawa Food Bank. We do a minimum commitment of 5,000 units a month. It’s a call to action for people to be a little more aware of what they should be doing after they’re done with the product. At the same time, it provides really meaningful benefits to Ottawa.   My parents are supportive of Superette in the sense that they’ve seen the press and recognition that we’ve received. But I don’t necessarily think they are supportive of the industry I’m in. I think for them, along with a lot of people in that generation, there still is an element of education that needs to take place—to say, “Hey, this is legal and this can be a safe product for you.” There are definitely many people in this world who are more supportive of me than they are, unfortunately.   I face imposter syndrome all the time. I spent most of my career behind a computer screen, but now I’m very front-facing. There’s this persona that I have to put on. I have to be positive and act like everything is good. But I do get frustrated. I do get stressed out. But I try to look at things from a different lens: This is a new experience. This is flexing me in new directions and giving me a skill set that I didn’t have before. Let’s just explore that. Using that as a framework, I’ve been able to learn so much.