“Our host is so big that she won Big Brother Canada,” said Matei Olaru, CEO of Toronto-based tech company Lift & Co, as he introduced host Sarah Hanlon to a room full of “best buds” at Toronto’s Fairmont Royal York on Friday night.   It was also a very big night — the 6th Annual Canadian Cannabis Awards, an annual event that this year was estimated to bring together nearly 900 cannabis industry leaders. The glittering award night was dedicated to the movers and shakers of the Canadian industry. Recognizing top people, products and companies, the award ceremony was hosted by Sarah Hanlon, winner of Big Brother Canada 3, and The GrowthOp (TGO) contributor. “The awards a year before were hosted by Rick Campanelli, of ET Canada fame, so I clearly have some big shoes to fill,” she wrote in TGO’s Pot Culture column late in October. Kevin Anderson from Broken Coast Cannabis Ltd. was awarded the Top Master Grower award, who in his acceptance speech had only one thing to say: “Thank you, everyone, that loves weed.”   The top cannabis flower and oil products were chosen with a record-setting over 31,000 votes by consumers, Lift&Co. confirmed in a press statement. Select top products of the year included:  

• Top High THC Bottle Oil: Rossignol by Organigram;
• Top Capsule: Argyle Softgels by Tweed;
• Top Sativa Preroll: Jean Guy by Good Supply;
• Top Sativa Flower: Tangerine Dream by San Rafael ’71;
• Top Hybrid Flower: Ruxton (Sour OG) by Broken Coast Cannabis.

  “And that was it, we did,” said Hanlon as all the winners were announced, and in some cases displayed on the screen.   As the celebration came to a close, attendees were encouraged to give to a choice of four Canadian charities as part of the campaign, Trec With Purpose, to Dress for Success Toronto, HXOUSE, Evergreen, and Cannabis Amnesty. Donations are open here until the end of the year.

Damm Music Center in Wichita will hold its annual Restring for Food food drive on Saturday, November 23 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. When you bring in a can of food, you will get your guitar re-stringed for FREE. All food received during the drive will be donated to Our Daily Bread Food Pantry, which benefits families right here in Wichita. The drive is sponsored by D’Addario. Musicians can bring in their electric or acoustic guitars and Damm employees will install a new set of D’Addario strings. There is a limit of two instruments per household or person. To add to the fun, they’re also holding a raffle. You’ll earn one raffle entry for every five food items donated. Raffle prizes include a Kala Bocote Butterfly ukulele, four free guitar lessons, plus other great prizes. To be eligible for the raffle, food items must be unopened, not expired, labeled, and similar to items on the “Most Needed Items” list. (Of course!!) Most needed items include canned vegetables, fruit, soup, peanut butter, cereal and other breakfast items, macaroni & cheese, rice, beans, tuna, pasta and pasta sauce, large diapers, can openers, t.p. and more… (To see the full list, click here to go to the food pantry website and scroll down until you see the Wish List section.) It’s a Damm nice thing to do. Please visit the Damm Music Center website for all the details and share this post with all your musician friends.

“We take our responsibility to protect our planet very seriously,” said Fred Penny, president, Bimbo Bakeries USA. “For years, we have taken steps to reduce the plastic used in our packaging and we are now committing to ensuring that packaging we have in the market does not make it to landfill or our oceans.”   This sustainable packaging pledge is part of a greater global commitment by Grupo Bimbo, the company of which Bimbo Bakeries USA is a part. Last year, Grupo Bimbo committed to sustainable packaging across its entire portfolio around the globe by 2025.   “To make immediate progress in this commitment, we are expanding our partnership with TerraCycle to make all bread, bun, bagel, and English muffin packaging easily recyclable starting Jan. 1, 2020,” said Penny. “We have already diverted more than 5 million Little Bites pouches from landfill through TerraCycle and look forward to including the rest of our portfolio in this important program.”   TerraCycle is a private U.S. recycling business that recycles items not typically collected in municipal pickup of plastics, glass, and paper—including most commercial bread packaging, which is currently recyclable as a “4.” Through the TerraCycle program, individuals can save their Bimbo Bakeries USA product packaging, print out a free shipping label and send it to be recycled.  

  Henkel has partnered with TerraCycle to launch the free Schwarzkopf Recycling Program in the United States. The program, which is slated to begin January 1, 2020, will allow U.S. consumers to recycle all Schwarzkopf retail hair care, color and styling products, through TerraCycle’s recycling platform. By recycling products through this program, U.S. consumers can earn points which can be redeemed for charitable gifts or converted to cash and donated to a non-profit, school or charitable organization of their choice. How It Works When the program launches, consumers will be able to collect used packaging from purchased Schwarzkopf products, and when ready, download a shipping label from the TerraCycle website to mail in for recycling. Once received, the packaging will be cleaned and melted into hard plastic that can be remolded to make new recycled products. “Until now, the recyclability of hair color and styling products was difficult due to product packaging needs and the requirements of curb-side recycling programs. Through the TerraCycle program, we’re proud that Schwarzkopf retail products will now be 100% recyclable,” explained Manuela Emmrich, marketing director, Hair U.S., Henkel Beauty Care. Henkel has been partnering with TerraCycle since 2016. Earlier this year, Henkel and TerraCycle teamed up to create a free recycling program throughout Canada for Henkel’s Sunlight and Purex brand plastic detergent pouches. Henkel’s Adhesive Technologies business unit also launched a partnership with TerraCycle for customers in the U.S., making it possible for them to recycle their used adhesives packaging instead of sending them to a landfill or incinerator. The Schwarzkopf and Henkel Adhesive Technologies Recycling Programs are available to any interested individual, school, office, or community organization in the United States.

#AmericaRecyclesDay event urges more action -- start with not stuffing recyclables in a plastic bag   Tossing a pizza box into the recycling bin seems like a guilt-free chaser to America's favorite dining shortcut. Yet a standard cardboard pizza box, with its greasy remnants, is large enough to contaminate other recyclables in the bin.   Pizza boxes are one of the biggest recycling sins among many committed by well-meaning consumers -- "wishcyclers" is one term to describe them.   The best chances for successful paper and plastic recycling comes with abiding by tossing only "empty, clean and dry" containers and avoiding hazardous and too-large materials all together (more engine blocks and bowling balls have found their way into curb-side bins than you'd care to think about). Recycling small items, such as shredded paper, hurts operations at the sorting facility as well.   "The ketchup bottle, soda can, any type of container that has residue can pose a real challenge and the majority of packaging material is fiber based, which means liquid or food can really soak in and thus that's contaminated if not washed and dried," said Pete Keller, vice president of recycling and sustainability at Republic Services(RSG) , the second-largest U.S. provider of non-hazardous solid waste and recycling handling, including sorting facilities.   (link)   Friday, Nov. 15 was declared America Recycles Day (link), an event to build recycling program awareness. Below, tips from recycling-industry operators on how to keep recyclable items from still hitting the landfill.   1. Trash audit. One the most effective ways to ease the recycling sorting challenge and lend an even bigger boost to habitat preservation and keeping plastic out of the world's waterways is to cut down on new plastic use. But small behavior changes may not achieve the depth of result you want. Instead, conduct a whole-house audit to see where you're accumulating the most single-use plastics, and work to eliminate them, suggests Curbed.com, in its "101 Ways to Live Sustainably" guide (link). One blogger, in her own audit (link), discovered she generated 65 pounds of measurable waste (no, not that kind) in one month, some recyclable, some not.   2. Try topless. Take an extra beat to think how a particular item may best be recycled, perhaps in part not whole. One way to recycle that used pizza box is to cut off its presumably cleaner lid and recycle that portion exclusively. That is, unless it too has the forensic trail left by the pepperoni and mushrooms. Box makers may increasingly do their part to use smarter materials that could cut down on waste. Yum Brands Inc.-owned Pizza Hut(YUM) is newly testing a round pizza box (link) that uses less overall packaging and is compostable, meaning it won't have to be tossed in with the recycables going to the sorting facility but can degrade on its own.   3. Major disqualification: recyclables in plastic bags. For household convenience and, presumably, because recyclers think it's easier for the collectors and sorters, too many Americans toss cans and bottles in plastic grocery bags and drop the whole lot in the recycling bin. Keller of Republic Services says his sorters are trained to avoid plunging their hands into bags packed with items for their own safety, because the belt moves along too quickly for overly detailed sorting and because contamination will be likely. Instead, consumers should take plastic bags directly back to retailers and the collection bins often found there. There are also programs throughout the U.S. that ban plastic bag use and encourage nondisposable cloth bags for carrying groceries and other shopping.   Related: With refillable deodorant and naked products, Unilever thinks it can halve virgin plastic use by 2025 (link)   4. No batteries, no exceptions. Car battery-disposing programs help keep this violator largely out of the recycling bin, but consumers seem all too comfortable dumping other types of batteries in regular curbside recycling programs, where they don't belong. Confusion may arise in part because batteries are marked with a "not-for-trash" icon that may be misunderstood as a greenlight to recycle them with other items. The ban extends to dry-cell batteries such as the AAA variety to the lithium-ion batteries commonly used for portable electronics. Consumers should try battery-specific recycling services such as the Call 2 Recycle program with receptacles at most home improvement stores. TerraCycle is another U.S.-based business that focuses on removal of hard-to-recycle items.   5. Recycling versus reuse. Experts say that too many clothing items and shoes find their way into the traditional container recycling programs operated by cities. Many of the sorting facilities are not equipped nor contracted to set these items aside and donate them to nonprofit reuse programs. The responsibility lies with consumers to donate clothing, including for instance to the jean programs that turn denim into building insulation.   6. Shredded paper is just trash, unfortunately. Electronic communication and file-keeping means there is less paper in circulation. But that physical paper trail -- much of which may be recyclable if not coated or may even be made from recyclable material already -- is an enemy of the sorting centers' mechanical machinery once it's shredded. Add plastic cutlery and straws to the no-list as their size and shape complicates the sorting process, too, and off they go to the trash heap.   7. Yard waste: Add a bin. Keller of Republic Services said some consumers are putting in the recycling bin the grass clippings, leaves, vegetable peelings and other biological waste than can break down via anaerobic digestion, just not alongside paper and metal. That means households should follow municipal rules for composting and keep this type of "recycling" in its own bin.   Read: MrBeast and PewDiePie will 'freaking do something about climate change' by planting 20 million trees (link)   8. Beware the tanglers. A material might be recyclable technically but the composition of the item excludes it. Keller called them "tanglers," hoses and ropes, for instance, that clog the machines at his sorting facilities. Diapers are another confusing culprit. Their inclusion in the color-coded bins might only be explained by the likelihood that too many households use the recycling bin simply as a second garbage can.   Read: Fast shipping isn't great for the environment-- 7 ways to cut the carbon footprint on your Amazon deliveries (link)   9. Flexible packaging not a panacea. Changing the way that products are wrapped, including cutting down on rigid containers, using, as an example, detergent pods or refillable bottles using concentrates, has gained traction. But recycling center experts say flex packaging, for instance if a smaller package still requires multiple layers of covering including a foil layer for safe shipping, are challenging for their facilities. On Friday, two members of Congress and a coalition of businesses and trade groups in plastics, waste management and other materials advanced a $500 million federal legislative proposal that they see funneling more money to upgrading the recycling infrastructure (link), such as upgrades to material recovery facilities to better handle flexible film and other new kinds of packaging.

Sarasota’s Ornata Jewelry partners with TerraCycle recycling program to help eliminate unnecessary waste.

Sarasota-based online retailer Ornata Jewelry is working with innovative recycling company TerraCycle to reduce harmful plastic waste. By participating in TerraCycle’s Zero Waste Box program, the jewelry company recycles the plastic packaging raw materials come shipped in. Disposables, such as plastic bags, that would otherwise be sent to a landfill are now placed in a receptacle box that once full can be shipped back to TerraCycle for repurposing. The Zero Waste Box program is remarkably straight-forward. First, businesses choose which box package and size works best for their waste disposal needs. Dozens of box options are available, including those for a variety of plastic products, worn down shoes, dead batteries, used coffee pods and even cigarette butts. After receiving the box, users fill it to the brim with appropriate debris before mailing it back to TerraCycle. (Return shipping is included in the initial box price.) Now, instead of spending a lifetime in a landfill or requiring incineration these byproducts will be up-cycled and given a second life as a park bench, bike rack or shipping pallet. This recent partnership is just one in a long line of steps Ornata Jewelry has taken to reduce the organization’s environmental impact. Since conception, company leadership has made great efforts to monitor the business’s carbon footprint and minimize waste. Ornata’s reduce, reuse and recycle efforts also include using eco-friendly paper in product packaging, shipping containers that meet Sustainable Forestry Initiative standards, sourcing supplies from ecologically-minded manufacturers and, whenever possible, recycling sterling silver or metal scraps. The leaders at Ornata hope that their efforts will inspire other small businesses to take action over their own environmental impact. The company issued a statement that read, “We believe in our world and understand that its future depends on our actions, both the big and the small. Consciously logging what we use and its effects on the earth heighten our awareness and naturally leads to positive changes in our behavior.” Through teaming with TerraCycle, Ornata is one step closer to achieving its dream of creating a waste-free world and a product customers can feel good about.

Fill and refill — it’s a simple concept. For Eagle County residents, Fill & Refill is a new business in Edwards, taking away the cost of packaging and plastic-waste contribution by offering refillable daily-use, organic products — from body washes, shampoos and conditioners to hand soap, body lotion, menstrual hygiene products, toothpaste tablets and more. With paper, glass and metal refillable packaging for organic, biodegradable products, Fill & Refill is a business cutting into the county’s carbon footprint. “They all work really well,” owner Allison Burgund said of the products vetted at her family of four’s home in Edwards. “They all smell really great and feel really great. Most importantly, they don’t have toxins for your body — or my kids — and the environment.” Brands in Fill & Refill include Bee’s Wrap, Smartliners, Dr. Bronner’s All-One, EO Products, Sapadilla, Wildland Organics and more. The cost of refills ranges from 30 cents per ounce to 70 cents per ounce. Burgund has refillable jars available for purchase, as well as rent. A starter kit features a tote bag, two glass bottles and pumps as well as fills on each bottle for $27. After 20 years in the business of graphic design, Burgund is starting a new chapter with Fill & Refill. “I found a new passion,” she said from her small shop in Edwards, where smells are free. “It’s a small space, but hopefully I’ll make an impact.” In addition to offering refillable daily-use products, Burgund is focused on educational outreach, including adding a box for snack wrappers at Edwards Elementary School, collaborating with Walking Mountains Science Center and working with Knapp Ranch and rental units to provide sustainable amenity kits.

‘I like the concept of refilling’

After a trip to the recycling center near Wolcott with her daughter’s second-grade class two years ago, Burgund decided to collect her family of four’s plastic trash for a month to see how they were contributing. “It was much bigger than I thought,” she said, adding that plastic recycling is essentially trash, citing National Geographic’s report that 91% doesn’t get recycled. She reached out to grocery stores in Eagle and Summit counties asking them to offer refillable products, with no luck. So she started researching and testing products herself, looking at other zero-waste stores that sell products used on a daily basis — hand soap, laundry soap, shampoo, deodorant, etc. One of the first products she tested with her two children was having them make their own bubble baths starting with unscented, organic essential oils and adding scents like lime, orange and grapefruit. Products at Fill & Refill are initially packaged in paper, glass and metal and can be re-used. “I really like local companies because that’s the best support of reducing a carbon footprint — less travel, less gas and less packaging,” she said. Just before Halloween, Burgund teamed up with recycling company TerraCycle to put a Zero Waste Box in Edwards Elementary School, where candy and snack wrappers will go. When the box is full, it gets shipped back to TerraCycle, which turns them into recycled new products, such as benches, bike racks, shipping pallets and more. The school’s Green Team is helping manage the box. “That’s a nice, tidy little way to handle some of that stuff, and I feel like it teaches kids that they can make a difference,” said Burgund, mother of a 7-year-old and 9-year-old herself. With Fill & Refill, Burgund is currently a team of one, but she is looking to expand — with both the product line as well as satellite locations in Vail and Eagle. “I like the concept of refilling,” Burgund said. “I think eventually it should not just be limited to the healthiest products, although that’s what I believe in.”

Bimbo Bakeries USA, the largest baking company in the United States, announced that it is committing to 100 percent sustainable packaging for its entire product portfolio by 2025. Through this commitment, the plastic bags, individual wrappers and cardboard boxes for more than 21 brands of bread, buns, bagels, English muffins, sweet baked goods and snacks will be recyclable, reusable or compostable by 2025. Bimbo Bakeries USA is the first commercial baking company in the U.S. to make this commitment.   “We take our responsibility to protect our planet very seriously,” said Fred Penny, president, Bimbo Bakeries USA. “For years, we have taken steps to reduce the plastic used in our packaging and we are now committing to ensuring that packaging we have in the market does not make it to landfill or our oceans.”   This sustainable packaging pledge is part of a greater global commitment by Grupo Bimbo, the company of which Bimbo Bakeries USA is a part. During last year’s RE100, Grupo Bimbo – the world’s largest baking company with operations in 32 countries – committed to sustainable packaging across its entire portfolio around the globe by 2025.   “To make immediate progress in this commitment, we are expanding our partnership with TerraCycle to make all bread, bun, bagel and English muffin packaging easily recyclable starting January 1, 2020,” said Penny. “We have already diverted more than 5 million Little Bites pouches from landfill through TerraCycle and look forward to including the rest of our portfolio in this important program.”   TerraCycle is an innovator that prides itself on recycling items not typically collected in municipal pickup of plastics, glass and paper – this includes most commercial bread packaging, which is currently recyclable as a “4.”   The recycling experts at TerraCycle are committed to their mission of eliminating waste and work with leading consumer product companies like Bimbo Bakeries USA, to recycle products and packaging and prevent it from being landfilled or incinerated. Through the TerraCycle program, individuals can save their Bimbo Bakeries USA product packaging, print out a free shipping label and send it to be recycled. For every shipment of packaging waste sent to TerraCycle, 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.   Sustainability is built into Bimbo Bakeries USA’s Purpose – to build a sustainable, highly productive, and deeply humane company. Notable initiatives include:  

• Reducing company-wide plastic use by more than a million pounds since 2018
• Producing 100% renewable electrical energy for all U.S. operations as of July 2019, with energy created through a Wind Farm backed by a Virtual Power Purchase Agreement with Invenergy
• Named EPA ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year in 2018 and 2019 for superior leadership, innovation and commitment to environmental protection through energy efficiency
• 14 ENERGY STAR Certified facilities
• Manufacturing operations divert greater than 95% of waste from landfill
• 360 company-owned vehicles utilize alternative fuel – propane, compressed natural gas, and electric

  “For more than a decade, we have been executing a strategy internally and with suppliers to reduce our waste and resource consumption, recycle and find innovative ways to accelerate our sustainable practices,” said Penny. “Announcing our commitment to 100% sustainable packaging by 2025 on National Recycling Day is one more critical action.”   Bimbo Bakeries USA  has over 20,000 U.S. associates and operates more than 50 manufacturing locations in the United States including brands such as Arnold, Artesano, Ball Park, Bimbo, Boboli, Brownberry, Entenmann's, Little Bites, Marinela, Mrs Baird’s, Oroweat, Sara Lee, Stroehmann, and Thomas'. Bimbo Bakeries.  USA is part of Mexico’s Grupo Bimbo, S.A.B de C.V., the world's largest baking company with operations in 32 countries.  

#AmericaRecyclesDay event urges more action -- start with not stuffing recyclables in a plastic bag   Tossing a pizza box into the recycling bin seems like a guilt-free chaser to America's favorite dining shortcut. Yet a standard cardboard pizza box, with its greasy remnants, is large enough to contaminate other recyclables in the bin.   Pizza boxes are one of the biggest recycling sins among many committed by well-meaning consumers -- "wishcyclers" is one term to describe them.   The best chances for successful paper and plastic recycling comes with abiding by tossing only "empty, clean and dry" containers and avoiding hazardous and too-large materials all together (more engine blocks and bowling balls have found their way into curb-side bins than you'd care to think about). Recycling small items, such as shredded paper, hurts operations at the sorting facility as well.   "The ketchup bottle, soda can, any type of container that has residue can pose a real challenge and the majority of packaging material is fiber based, which means liquid or food can really soak in and thus that's contaminated if not washed and dried," said Pete Keller, vice president of recycling and sustainability at Republic Services(RSG) , the second-largest U.S. provider of non-hazardous solid waste and recycling handling, including sorting facilities.   (link)   Friday, Nov. 15 was declared America Recycles Day (link), an event to build recycling program awareness. Below, tips from recycling-industry operators on how to keep recyclable items from still hitting the landfill.   1. Trash audit. One the most effective ways to ease the recycling sorting challenge and lend an even bigger boost to habitat preservation and keeping plastic out of the world's waterways is to cut down on new plastic use. But small behavior changes may not achieve the depth of result you want. Instead, conduct a whole-house audit to see where you're accumulating the most single-use plastics, and work to eliminate them, suggests Curbed.com, in its "101 Ways to Live Sustainably" guide (link). One blogger, in her own audit (link), discovered she generated 65 pounds of measurable waste (no, not that kind) in one month, some recyclable, some not.   2. Try topless. Take an extra beat to think how a particular item may best be recycled, perhaps in part not whole. One way to recycle that used pizza box is to cut off its presumably cleaner lid and recycle that portion exclusively. That is, unless it too has the forensic trail left by the pepperoni and mushrooms. Box makers may increasingly do their part to use smarter materials that could cut down on waste. Yum Brands Inc.-owned Pizza Hut(YUM) is newly testing a round pizza box (link) that uses less overall packaging and is compostable, meaning it won't have to be tossed in with the recycables going to the sorting facility but can degrade on its own.   3. Major disqualification: recyclables in plastic bags. For household convenience and, presumably, because recyclers think it's easier for the collectors and sorters, too many Americans toss cans and bottles in plastic grocery bags and drop the whole lot in the recycling bin. Keller of Republic Services says his sorters are trained to avoid plunging their hands into bags packed with items for their own safety, because the belt moves along too quickly for overly detailed sorting and because contamination will be likely. Instead, consumers should take plastic bags directly back to retailers and the collection bins often found there. There are also programs throughout the U.S. that ban plastic bag use and encourage nondisposable cloth bags for carrying groceries and other shopping.   Related: With refillable deodorant and naked products, Unilever thinks it can halve virgin plastic use by 2025 (link)   4. No batteries, no exceptions. Car battery-disposing programs help keep this violator largely out of the recycling bin, but consumers seem all too comfortable dumping other types of batteries in regular curbside recycling programs, where they don't belong. Confusion may arise in part because batteries are marked with a "not-for-trash" icon that may be misunderstood as a greenlight to recycle them with other items. The ban extends to dry-cell batteries such as the AAA variety to the lithium-ion batteries commonly used for portable electronics. Consumers should try battery-specific recycling services such as the Call 2 Recycle program with receptacles at most home improvement stores. TerraCycle is another U.S.-based business that focuses on removal of hard-to-recycle items.   5. Recycling versus reuse. Experts say that too many clothing items and shoes find their way into the traditional container recycling programs operated by cities. Many of the sorting facilities are not equipped nor contracted to set these items aside and donate them to nonprofit reuse programs. The responsibility lies with consumers to donate clothing, including for instance to the jean programs that turn denim into building insulation.   6. Shredded paper is just trash, unfortunately. Electronic communication and file-keeping means there is less paper in circulation. But that physical paper trail -- much of which may be recyclable if not coated or may even be made from recyclable material already -- is an enemy of the sorting centers' mechanical machinery once it's shredded. Add plastic cutlery and straws to the no-list as their size and shape complicates the sorting process, too, and off they go to the trash heap.   7. Yard waste: Add a bin. Keller of Republic Services said some consumers are putting in the recycling bin the grass clippings, leaves, vegetable peelings and other biological waste than can break down via anaerobic digestion, just not alongside paper and metal. That means households should follow municipal rules for composting and keep this type of "recycling" in its own bin.   Read: MrBeast and PewDiePie will 'freaking do something about climate change' by planting 20 million trees (link)   8. Beware the tanglers. A material might be recyclable technically but the composition of the item excludes it. Keller called them "tanglers," hoses and ropes, for instance, that clog the machines at his sorting facilities. Diapers are another confusing culprit. Their inclusion in the color-coded bins might only be explained by the likelihood that too many households use the recycling bin simply as a second garbage can.   Read: Fast shipping isn't great for the environment-- 7 ways to cut the carbon footprint on your Amazon deliveries (link)   9. Flexible packaging not a panacea. Changing the way that products are wrapped, including cutting down on rigid containers, using, as an example, detergent pods or refillable bottles using concentrates, has gained traction. But recycling center experts say flex packaging, for instance if a smaller package still requires multiple layers of covering including a foil layer for safe shipping, are challenging for their facilities. On Friday, two members of Congress and a coalition of businesses and trade groups in plastics, waste management and other materials advanced a $500 million federal legislative proposal that they see funneling more money to upgrading the recycling infrastructure (link), such as upgrades to material recovery facilities to better handle flexible film and other new kinds of packaging.