A quantidade de lixo descartada nos rios do Litoral Norte de São Paulo é um exemplo negativo que tem preocupado especialistas ambientais

Any unused crisp packets will be donated to TerraCycle, another project raising funds for the Crisp Packet Challenge and rainforest charities.

Add a personal touch to holiday gifts for the packaging peeps on your list this year, courtesy of your friends at Packaging Digest. Since a packaging career is often a family affair and camaraderie eclipses competition for the most part, you probably have a packaging professional on your holiday gift list. You can only get them so many funny socks and coffee mugs. And last-minute impulse buying rarely produces a sincere “Oh, thank you! I love it!” response. What to do, what to do. Here are a few ideas that might inspire you to buy one for them and one for you. 1. An industry-related book. (7 reviews!) 2. Personalized T-shirts. (Multiple sayings!) 3. Consumer goods made from recycled packages/materials. (3 options) A quick search on Amazon for books from 2021 about packaging turned up a bunch. Here are a few that caught our eye. (Feel free to shop around for copies available from other sellers.) • “Sustainable Innovations in Food Packaging” (first edition!): According to book’s description, “This book presents eco-friendly packaging strategies to reduce food and plastic waste and address the end-of-life issues of persistent materials. It particularly focuses on the production of biodegradable microbial polymers and the use of by-products and waste from the agricultural and food industries.” • “Don’t Panic! I’m A Professional Packaging Engineer - 2022 Diary”: The Amazon description says, “A funny customized 2022 diary work planner for a busy Packaging Engineer employee and team member. Give this keepsake book to a colleague, friend, or family member, instead of a throw-away greeting card to show how much they are appreciated.” • “The Art and Science of Packaging: A Mini Encyclopedia”: This Kindle book on package design promises to be different. “This book is about all the lessons we’ve learned in over a decade of experience designing a wide variety of packages. But this is also about our peers, the designers, and strategists who create thoughtful packaging solutions with style, panache, and ingenuity in engineering.” • “Secrets to Unforgettable Package Design: How To Get Started With Product Packaging Design (New Edition): The Packaging And Branding”: Oooo, who doesn’t like secrets?! This looks at packaging from a marketer’s perspective: “A product’s packaging is more than simply decoration; it’s all about the customer experience. This is precisely why a designer should make use of the product’s packaging design as a marketing technique in and of itself. Learn how to build packaging that will make customers fall in love with your business by reading about packaging secrets.” • “The Evolution of Products & Packaging: How a Spec-First Approach is Revolutionizing the Way Companies Make Things”: This paperback or Kindle book tackles current issues like product proliferation and complex supply chains. “Over the course of [author Matthew] Wright’s own evolution from packaging executive, to business owner and software startup founder, the answer to this complexity seemed simple: to keep up, the professionals would need to embrace data to make better, smarter, more sustainable products and packaging. …You’ll recognize stories of packaging and product failures, the common pitfalls organizations slip into when it comes to managing their most important data, and a glimpse into the future of how data can drive the answers to some of our most pressing supply chain challenges.” • “Tetra Pak: The Inside Story”: Peek behind the curtain at the world’s largest food and beverage packaging company. “This is a book about a ubiquitous company that everyone on this planet has bought something from them, not just once, but on average 25 times a year. …The rise and fall of Tetra Pak are told by ex-Tetra Pak executives. The author was once a Tetra Paker and from interviews of some forty ex-Tetra Pakers, this book spills the beans of what goes on in this incredible company.” • While not packaging-related, my recommendation for a thoughtful, feel-good book that rewards the reader at the end: “A Gentleman in Moscow” by Amor Towles. It’s so easy to create your own message on a T-shirt! If only there were some clever sayings, like “You know you’re a packaging engineer if…” Turns out there are! Borrow one of these phrases your peers shared in this or this Packaging Digest slideshow. My favorites are “You do impromptu burst tests in the grocery store” or “You can properly pronounce organoleptics and polyethylene terephthalate.” Grab an empty package and say to yourself, “What can I make out of this?!” Or let the creative designers at upcycling company TerraCycle figure that out for you. From the company’s recent press release: “Between Thanksgiving and New Year’s, Americans throw away 25% more trash than any other time of year — amounting to nearly 25 million tons of excess waste each year. This holiday season, international recycling leader TerraCycle is providing consumers the option to buy better with the launch of the TerraCycle Made collection, a small selection of useful products created from recycled and recyclable materials all sourced from various TerraCycle recycling programs.”

Recycling firm TerraCycle is giving consumers the option to “buy better” with the launch of the TerraCycle Made collection, a small selection of products created from recycled and recyclable materials all sourced from various TerraCycle recycling programmes.

An independently owned cannabis store in St. Catharines, Ontario, believes it has found a partial solution to the growing amount of trash created in the booming new industry. The Niagara Herbalist has started paying customers for their empty cannabis packages with store credits, styled after similar programs offering cash for empty alcohol containers. One of the goals is to divert waste that would have ended up in landfills. The store is offering customers a store credit of 10 Canadian cents (8 U.S. cents) for glass jars or bottles and CA$0.05 for plastic jars and other recyclable outer-packaging, including cardboard containers and plastic pre-roll or vaporizer containers. Used vape cartridges and vape batteries are not part of this program, which launched Nov. 15. While recycling programs aren’t new – Canopy Growth and TerraCycle launched a nationwide program in 2019 – this is believed to be the first time a cannabis store is offering financial compensation for empty packaging. “Cannabis packaging is a problem. Right from Day One, there’s been so much of it,” Niagara Herbalist co-owner Kevin Trethowan told MJBizDaily in a phone interview. He said the buyback program is a year-and-a-half in the making, and Niagara College’s Environmental Management and Assessment program helped get it going. The program also accepts plastics that cannot be recycled, then looks for ways to repurpose them. “The problem is that so many of the products in the cannabis industry, not all of them are recyclable. Some of the plastics may look like they can be recycled, but they can’t,” Trethowan said. “So what happens is, customers put all of these products (packaging) into their recycling bin, and when they get to the facility for sorting, you have tons of products which can’t be recycled. “It adds time and cost for those people to re-sort those products, and all of the containers that can’t be recycled go into a landfill.” The addition of a buyback element like that of The Beer Store is what sets this program up for success, The Niagara Herbalist says, because it offers that extra incentive. “People deserve to be rewarded for taking steps towards living more sustainably, and we’re trying to do our part by taking on the costs of compensating our customers for their initiative,” The Niagara Herbalist co-owner Jessica Bonilla said in a statement. Health Canada does not track the amount of packaging used in the nation’s cannabis industry. Industry sources, however, have put the number at more than 10,000 tons. Additionally, roughly 6 million packages of finished cannabis products were destroyed by licensed producers from 2018 through 2020.

Between Thanksgiving and New Year’s, Americans throw away 25% more trash than any other time of year – amounting to nearly 25 million tons of excess waste each year. This holiday season, international recycling leader TerraCycle is providing consumers the option to buy better with the launch of the TerraCycle^® Made collection, a small selection of useful products created from recycled and recyclable materials all sourced from various TerraCycle recycling programs.   Specializes in recycling the unrecyclable, from cosmetics empties, to cigarette butts, to products and packaging from well-known household brands, TerraCycle has reimagined the waste collected in its over 300 recycling programs by the TerraCycle community into new, everyday items consumers can feel good about purchasing. The TerraCycle^® Made collection includes:  

• Wireless Charger: 100% recycled content including materials collected through TerraCycle recycling programs.
• Upcycled Coin Pouch, Travel Case, Tablet Case, and Tote: All made in the US from retired USPS mailbags. These products are officially licensed by the © United States Postal Service. (95% Upcycled material)
• Stackable Organizers, Compost Bin, Divided trash/recycling bin, and other assorted household goods: All made from recycled content including materials collected through TerraCycle recycling programs.

  “Making products responsibly and sustainably means reevaluating the way we think about waste,” says Tom Szaky, CEO and founder of TerraCycle. “At TerraCycle, we believe strongly in reusing, repairing, and recycling what we can and doing our best to buy less whenever possible. The TerraCycle^® Made collection is the result of many decisions and actions at every step along the way, reaffirming our mission of Eliminating the Idea of Waste.”   Every purchase from the TerraCycle^® Made collection reduces the reliance on virgin materials extracted from the planet while creating long-lasting, essential products, to stand up to years of use in the home. By making new items from the materials collected by the TerraCycle community, this valuable resource never goes to waste. The TerraCycle^® Made collection has a free, built-in recycling program to make sure each purchase will never end up in the trash. The recycled-content products are made to last but at the end of their useful life, they can be sent back and recycled again through TerraCycle.  

For more information, visit http://terracyclemade.com/. 

 

Se mesmo após essas dicas você optar por continuar usando as esponjas comuns, busque maneiras de encaminhá-las para a reciclagem. Confira alguns dicas: A Makro possui pontos de coleta para esponjas usadas e a TerraCycle é viabilizadora do Programa Nacional de Reciclagem de Esponjas.

A reciclagem de materiais de embalagem aumentou nos últimos anos, mas as taxas de reciclagem da maioria das embalagens plásticas permaneceram baixas. Em resposta a isso, a Société BIC SA e a TerraCycle se uniram para desenvolver uma iniciativa de reciclagem de instrumentos de escrita para ajudar a combater o problema de desperdício de canetas.

By Patti Roth Purchasing a fresh pack of pretty ornaments to adorn your holiday tree is indeed enticing. Before you reach for your wallet, wait. Perhaps you want to embark on a different approach for bedazzling your branches. From delightful homemade baubles to elaborate works of art, upcycled materials present an opportunity for a wide range of festive ornaments. Whether you’re a DIYer or you’d rather let professional artists do the heavy lifting, upcycled drink pouches, stray puzzle pieces, cans, and other materials offer unique, interesting designs for holiday ornaments. Plus, there are other perks:

• There’s an endless source of supplies — often free.
• Making ornaments is a fun DIY holiday activity for kids and adults.
• Repurposing instead of purchasing reduces waste.
• The purchase of upcycled ornaments supports planet-friendly artisans and entrepreneurs.
• Upcycled ornaments make intriguing and unique presents.
• No excess packaging or shipping is required.

Upcycled can ornament created by ZipperFishUSA artisans

DIY Upcycled Ornaments

Get Crafty With Recyclables

Pick through your pile of recyclables. Sort through your junk drawer. Allow your imagination to fly. If you prefer simple projects, slice an empty food box into rounds or other fun shapes. Or retrieve excess jar lids and round plastic tops from empty oatmeal packaging. Paint your own design. Even easier, squirt a few dabs onto your surface — such as the plastic oatmeal lid in the picture below — and swirl with your fingertip.

 Finger-painted plastic lid ornament. Photo: Patti Roth

If you prefer to skip paint, grab your glue. Decorate lids or paper shapes with favorite photos. Or devise a design with leftover wrapping paper scraps. Or make mosaics from bits of junk mail.

DIY Upcycled Ornament Ideas From TerraCycle

For other DIY ideas, TerraCycle features instructions on its website for upcycled ornaments using toothpaste tubes and drink pouches. TerraCycle is a firm that focuses on recycling waste that is not usually suitable for traditional recycling platforms. If you prefer to skip paint, grab your glue. Decorate lids or paper shapes with favorite photos. Or devise a design with leftover wrapping paper scraps. Or make mosaics from bits of junk mail.

DIY Upcycled Ornament Ideas From TerraCycle

For other DIY ideas, TerraCycle features instructions on its website for upcycled ornaments using toothpaste tubes and drink pouches. TerraCycle is a firm that focuses on recycling waste that is not usually suitable for traditional recycling platforms.

Toothpaste Tube Ornaments

Upcycled toothpaste tube ornament. Source:

Empty toothpaste tubes — with residue removed — are formed into airy spheres that serve as individual ornaments on their own, or stacked in pairs. Instructions from TerraCycle involve flattening the tube and slicing six rings ¼-inch wide rings. Using a needle, poke two holes at opposite ends of the ring. Align the holes and attach the rings with thread. Add beads to enhance the design.

Drink Pouch Ornaments

Upcycled drink pouch ornament. Source: TerraCycle

DIY instructions for shiny ornaments formed with a drink pouch require scissors, a ruler, and tape. The design features a dozen ½-inch-wide strips woven and looped, with the straw hole strategically placed for tying on a thin length of ribbon.

More DIY Ideas From Instructables

• Puzzle piece ornaments
• Recycled wrapping paper ornament
• Recycled laundry detergent lid ornament

Upcycled Ornaments Created by Artists & Artisans

Guitar Strings

Wire ball ornaments made from upcycled guitar strings. Source: Fox Designs Jewelry

Jeanna Fox of Fox Designs Jewelry wraps upcycled guitar strings into wire-ball ornaments. “Each unique one is made from a set of previously played guitar strings that have been saved from the landfill,” according to Fox Designs Jewelry Etsy page. “They are not recyclable through traditional methods because they are made of mixed metals.” Hues for guitar string ornaments include silver from electric guitars and rose gold from acoustic instruments. “I get strings from a few independent music stores near me,” Jeanna Fox says. “They save me the strings when they do repair work.”

Vodka Bottles

Upcycled vodka bottle ornament. Source: Bunzow Glass

Bunzow Glass repurposes vodka empties and other bottles into charming ornaments. “Some of them are cut directly from the bottoms of bottles and some of them are cut from bottle necks and tumbled in a rock tumbler,” according to information from Luke and Nikki Bunzow. “We love working with upcycled glass because the possibilities are endless,” the Bunzows said. “We encourage several of the local bars and restaurants to save their glass bottles for us rather than tossing them out.”

Aluminum Drink Empties

Upcycled beverage can “origami” ornament. Source: Ben Goraj,

Ben Goraj hand folds beverage cans, creating metal “origami” ornaments. He adores upcycling what others regard as trash, even if occasional wounds occur when working with sharp edges. “I form my ornaments by hand with a few simple hand tools. I cut the cans down with razor blades and I fold the thickly layered sections with pliers, but otherwise, it’s all by hand,” he says.

Shipping Pallet Wood

Upcycled shipping pallet ornament. Source:

Snowcapped peaks glisten on Resplendid’s upcycled wooden ornaments sliced from recycled pallet wood. “I think it’s important to divert materials from the waste stream whenever possible,” says Resplendid artist Susan Mattson. “ I really enjoy revealing the beauty of humble pallet wood scraps … The distinct smells of the different wood species always make me smile.” Susan applies thin sheets of gold and other metals on the peaks. “I love how the gleam of the precious metals contrasts with the rustic salvaged wood,” she says.

More Artisan Designs

Check out these interesting upcycled artisan ornament designs made from various upcycled materials.

• Paper
• Food wrappers
• Beverage cans
• Recycled glass
• Lightbulbs

Feature image courtesy of cottonbro, Pexels

Our society has a longstanding relationship with and dependency on single-use products. Businesses and consumers alike are accustomed to its virtues of cost and convenience, making everyday items accessible to more people than ever before. But because of this reliance and focus on a system that takes, makes and wastes products after one use, few guidelines or blueprints for viable, sustainable alternatives — including reuse — exist in a usable format. Reuse models are growing across the modern economy, but they are fragmented such that they cannot achieve impact of scale. Without foundational guidelines to drive collaboration, standardization and defining of best practices, it would be near-impossible for new and emerging reuse models to effectively implement or accelerate for impact. But there’s a case for doing so. Reuse systems can reduce plastic pollution and greenhouse gas emissions; and they are estimated to present a $10 billion business opportunity if only 20 percent of single-use packaging today were converted to reuse. So, how do we ensure everyone gets what they need out of their products — without the waste? Many would argue that ending packaging waste begins with design. Modern packages are lightweight, inexpensive and high-function (the world is used to the spouts, resealable closures, and easy-open tops of single-use containers), and literally designed to go in the trash. Defining the specifications of a package that can be physically and systematically reused is one of the first things to do. Then, determining exactly how many times said package can be cycled around (including collection, cleaning and refilling for the next person to enjoy) before it comes out superior to single-use demonstrates the value. The fewer times, the better; but a recommendation from an industry expert or experienced practitioner in the space can help businesses at different stages in their journey consider how and when reuse will work for them. There are a lot of ideas and concepts out there; but with so much work to do in solving single-use plastic waste, clear and consistent guardrails for reuse will steer the way for scaled, widespread adoption and impact. This is the purpose of the World Economic Forum (WEF) Consumers Beyond Waste (CBW) initiative’s community papers, released in conjunction with the WEF’s Sustainable Development Impact Summit during UN General Assembly week earlier this year. Featuring Design Guidelines, Safety Guidelines and The City Playbook, the documents are authored by a variety of contributors with a stake in the race to a less wasteful world; I am one of them — along with city officials, quality-assurance experts, retailers and many more leaders from the public and private sector. The papers offer a holistic view for reuse in different environments, as well as the different entry points for stakeholders along the supply chain. Offering recommendations based on experience, Loop has our own design guidelines for brands and manufacturers entering the platform — we recommend a product be able to withstand a minimum of 10 reuse cycles to qualify, and be recyclable into itself at the end of its life. Through this approach we have seen tremendous innovation, not just in sustainability but also in packaging design. Through reverse logistics, it’s possible to recover durable packaging forms in combinations of materials that improve functionality above and beyond the convenience of many single-use packages, such as a resealable food container or spring-loaded soap pump. Designing for reuse also includes the architecture of the systems packages flow through. Where Loop is a coalition of major consumer product companies and leading retailers working with trusted vendors to transport, clean, store and refill containers, it's a matter of front and backend design to enable a manufacturer to produce reusables that can be sold at any retailer for a consumer to buy and return anywhere, safely and conveniently. Where today’s largest scaled reuse model is pre-fill, which allows the consumer to buy filled products on a store shelf and return the empties into a bin (think beverages in Germany or propane tanks in the US), the challenge is that the models are incompatible: Empty propane tanks cannot be returned to the same location as an empty beer keg, and vice versa. Creating a “buy anywhere, return anywhere” ecosystem for reusables will make it easy for consumers to access, and businesses to sell. This, too, is a feat of design. Residents in Loop markets can now enter their favorite retailers and find a part of the store dedicated to reuse. With purchase, a deposit is paid, which is refunded in full upon return to any Loop retailer, putting this “waste” into a designated reuse bin versus a trash can or recycling bin. Just before the community papers I mentioned earlier, CBW released the Future of Reusable Consumption Models report, which outlined aspects of a “successful, large-scale, system-wide reuse paradigm.” One of these is consumer experience, where people have access to a variety of reusables that can compete with disposables on a number of scales, including convenience. People purchase consumables in a variety of settings, so it's important they have access to a variety of experiences. For grocery, we have Tesco in the UK; Carrefour in France; Aeon in Japan; and Walgreens and Kroger’s Fred Meyer banner coming soon in the US; and the biggest names in QSR (quick service restaurant): McDonald’s was the first to pilot the model in select stores in the UK, with Tim Horton’s in Canada and Burger King in several countries to follow. Which brings us to the matter of public health and safety, which have a great deal to do with packaging and systems design. Consumers need to know a system that circulates containers is safe and sanitary. Different product categories have different health and safety requirements — the food and beverage industry tends to have stricter standards than body care and cosmetics, for example. Packaging durability is a huge factor in designing for safety, as it impacts cleaning processes, degradation, and consumer safety and ease of use. If a package is cleaned 10 times at a certain temperature, materials must not prematurely degrade aesthetically or functionally; and if the type of material is one that might break with the consumer or along the route, design or logistics must allow it to do so safely; communications can support proper handling and education. Government plays a role in overseeing regulations for public health. As the Governor of the City of Tokyo stated in Loop and the World Economic Forum’s recent United Nations week press conference, “Large cities in developed countries, such as Tokyo, can make a significant impact on the global economy by playing a leading role,” noting reuse was standard in the region for glass bottles for beer, sake and more just 30 years ago. Cities are complex ecosystems that both exacerbate and suffer from the scale of the waste crisis. In the City Playbook, CBW notes some of the greatest challenges cities face are funding, infrastructure and institutional barriers; so, the consensus to pushing initiatives through includes seeking ways to answer big questions about viability and benefit. This is key to developing a roadmap for cities that is socially equitable, environmentally positive and safe. Examples of actions cities might take for the short term include aligning reuse with existing objectives (i.e. job creation and economic development) or testing reusables for city government administration (i.e. food service and cafeteria for public buildings), so as to engage policymakers, NGOs, local businesses, media, residents and the many other internal and external stakeholders towards the vision for a circular city. Points of consensus are milestones in the journey out of the waste crisis. Agreement on key areas of design, safety and city programming minimizes risk, drives collaboration and provides changemakers trustworthy information for stewarding reuse strategies and program development within organizations. There’s so much room for innovation; but to bring them to scale, actors must come together over a shared vision, with the resources to back it up.