Once Upon a Farm, the beloved kid nutrition brand that makes organic, cold-pressed baby food, smoothies, and applesauce, has expanded their partnership with international recycling company TerraCycle® to offer consumers a free, easy way to recycle packaging from their entire product line.

Participate in Once Upon a Farm Recycling

Participation in the Once Upon a Farm Recycling Program is easy. Simply sign up on the TerraCycle program page and mail in the packaging using a prepaid shipping label. Once collected, the packaging is cleaned and melted into hard plastic that can be remolded to make new recycled products. Additionally, for every pound of waste shipped to TerraCycle, collectors can earn $1 to donate to a non-profit, school or charitable organization of their choice. The Once Upon a Farm Recycling Program is open to any interested individual, school, office, or community organization. For more information on TerraCycle’s recycling program, visit www.terracycle.com.

ABOUT ONCE UPON A FARM

  Headquartered in Berkeley, California, Once Upon a Farm was founded with the dream of providing yummy and nutritious “farm-to-family” food to children of all ages. The company currently offers lines of baby food, applesauce and smoothies that are cold-pressed (HPP) to better lock in nutrients, taste and color compared to shelf-stable alternatives. Once Upon a Farm is B-Corp certified and committed to nurturing our children, each other, and the earth in order to pass on a healthier and happier world to the next generation. For more information, please visit www.onceuponafarmorganics.com.  

ABOUT TERRACYCLE`

  TerraCycle is an innovative waste management company with a mission to eliminate the idea of waste®.   Operating nationally across 21 countries, TerraCycle partners with leading consumer product companies, retailers, cities, and facilities to recycle products and packages, from dirty diapers to cigarette butts, that would otherwise end up being landfilled or incinerated. In addition, TerraCycle works with leading consumer product companies to integrate hard to recycle waste streams, such as ocean plastic, into their products and packaging. TerraCycle has won over 200 awards for sustainability and has donated over $44 million to schools and charities since its founding 15 years ago. To learn more about TerraCycle or get involved in its recycling programs, please visit www.terracycle.com.   *Photos courtesy of Once Upon a Farm

Hundreds and hundreds of candy and candy wrappers will have a second life, thanks to the initiative of a Sherbrookoise. In about forty collection points, people are invited to drop the packaging of chocolates, sweets and candies in boxes provided for this purpose. Mother of two children who no longer spend Halloween, Hélène Boissonneault is well placed to know that this popular festival has an important ecological footprint. Her research led her to TerraCycle, an American company that gives life back to this waste, which is not recyclable. The co-founder of Effect Ph, also a speaker, will send all the content collected to the company by mail. The packaging could, at the end of the process, turn into park benches and watering cans, Ms. Boissonneault notes. The one who is also a speaker follows several zero waste groups. People want to reduce their footprint on Halloween is present, she says, adding that his initiative has quickly attracted interest. "In Estrie, we have more than 40 points of fall. The list continued to rise yesterday (Thursday) morning. We wanted to test whether it was going to work. The test works! Commented the one who co-founded the company with Pascal Fredette. The company's mission is "to inspire people to gradually adopt a minimalist lifestyle, to move towards zero waste and benefit from decluttering."   Among participating schools, the Deux-Rives school in Sherbrooke, in the Brompton area, decided to make a collection point. Teacher Nancy Harrison heard about the social media initiative and decided to involve her school; she, too, is well placed to see the mountains of paper that can accumulate the day after Halloween. The initiative also raises students' awareness, notes the school's vice-principal, Daniel Bédard. The school is one of the participating schools in a pilot composting project. A tray will be installed in each class. In particular, snacks and dinner leftovers will be able to avoid landfill. "We will have to do education, explain what goes in the compost bin and what is wrong," says Bédard. "The students will do most of the management. They are the ones who will collect the compost. "   The project will first be launched in the Academy Pavilion of the Sacred Heart, where are the major from fourth to sixth grade. "It will start in the Academy pavilion at first. We'll see how we can export it to the other pavilion. "   A new committee has been created to work on this project and to educate children about environmental values. This committee is composed of Mr. Bédard, parents and teachers. "It is rare for committees to be composed of parents and teachers other than the governing board and the OPP (parent participation organization). "   The school has approximately 536 students, including some 237 students at the Académie Sacré-Cœur Pavilion.

A new maker space for artists, the season debut of New Jersey’s only indoor skate park, and contemporary creativity from current members of Trenton’s oldest African-American Baptist congregation – Hanover Creative, Freedom Skate Park and Shiloh Baptist Church will all be first-time-ever participants in Art All Day, Trenton’s open studio and creative space tour, from noon to 6 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 2. Other returning favorite sites include TerraCycle, site of the Jersey Fresh Graffiti Jam, the Latin American Legal Defense and Education Fund (LALDEF), showcasing artists in its historic headquarters in Trenton’s vibrant Hispanic Chambersburg neighborhood, the Trenton Photo Club at the historic Mill Hill Saloon, and Blacksmith of Trenton, operating continuously at the same site in Trenton since 1863. New murals, art installations and artistic crosswalks, painted at several intersections throughout the city, as well as the recently restored 1993 public art installation by world-famous video artist Nam June Paik, are highlighted in walking, bicycle and trolley tours throughout the day. Art All Day’s hallmark of live mural painting and artist demonstrations will continue at multiple sites this year. Art All Day is for all ages, with live children’s activities at the New Jersey State Museum, Roberto Clemente Park and the Trenton Community A-Team studio. A reception at Artworks’ galleries, featuring the Art All Day participating artist group show and a solo show by Trenton photographer Habiyb Shu’aib, will follow the tour, from 6 to 8 p.m. On Nov. 2, visitors can park for free at Artworks, pick up a map/program and explore sites themselves, or sign up for guided tours. A mobile site map and information on the event, and participating artists and sites, is available at artworkstrenton.org/artallday.

In most ways, being a consumer of beauty products is inherently at odds with being friendly to the environment. With its single-use plastics and abundance of packaging materials—that even when made from recyclable materials are simply too small to recycle—the beauty industry is one of the major culprits of waste. Thankfully, there are plenty of ways to get your beauty fix while still minimizing your impact on the environment. Becoming a more mindful consumer by choosing brands that are committed to environmentally-conscious practices is just one of the many avenues for making your love for beauty more sustainable.   Beyond minimizing their imprint through eco-friendly packaging, some beauty brands are even taking the lead to make an impactful change at the end of the product life-cycle. Vegan skincare and beauty brand Town & Anchor just teamed up with L.A.-based sustainable handmade jewelry brand CLED for a collaboration that boldly reveals the beauty in repurposing your empties. CLED upcycles to create all of its jewelry. For this collab, the ethical jewelry company has repurposed Town & Anchor's empty face oil bottles to turn them into one-of-a-kind statement earrings. The bottle glass was melted down and then reshaped into an organic oval. The original bottles' biophotonic glass lends a unique black violet shade to the earrings and presents a striking contrast against the gold vermeil posts. Since each piece in The Black Sea Earrings line is handmade, size, color, and shape will vary slightly, making each earring truly unique.   Even as we strive to become more sustainable consumers, the end of the product life-cycle is often not given as much attention as the first step of purchasing consciously. This can be especially detrimental considering the general lack of awareness for how to recycle your beauty products and the fact that more often than not, tossing your empties into the blue bin simply doesn't cut it. If you've already made a habit of buying from eco-friendly brands, you can still make your beauty consumption even more sustainable by committing to more intentional recycling—and upcycling—practices. "Since sustainability is a crucial part of the brand ethos at Town & Anchor, customers can also ship empty bottles back to us to be upcycled into jewelry or be refilled with their preferred face oil and receive 20% off," notes Morris. For those looking to purchase already upcycled wares, 10% of all earring proceeds from The Black Sea Earrings go to the Environmental Defense Fund.   If you feel inspired by these upcycled earrings, there are a handful of ways you can easily upcycle your empty glass bottles at home:  

• Dropping off beauty product empties at a nearby TerraCycle bin
• Repurposing bottles into one-stem vases
• Housing at-home tincture for cocktails or reusing them as incense holders
• Simply refill an empty bottle with your favorite bulk carrier oil
• 

Rubicon Global announces that the company’s first-ever Halloween campaign designed to help educators from across the United States teach their students about the importance of recycling and keeping candy wrappers out of landfills was a success, with more than 450 schools in 49 states signing up for the free program.   The campaign was in keeping with Rubicon’s mission to end waste. According to industry data, $2.6 billion will be spent on candy in 2019⁽¹⁾, and Americans purchase nearly 600 million pounds of candy⁽²⁾ for Halloween.   Throughout the month of October, Rubicon ran its first-ever “Trick or Trash” campaign, offering educators across the United States a recycling and circular economy lesson plan, as well as a Candy and Snack Wrappers Zero Waste Box through TerraCycle for students to discard their Halloween candy wrappers within. All of these items were provided free of charge.   Educators were able to download the lesson plan immediately upon sign-up, after which more than 450 Candy and Snack Wrappers Zero Waste Boxes were shipped out to schools across the United States. Once delivered, educators set up their boxes in their classroom, cafeteria, or hallways, and are encouraging students to deposit all of their Halloween candy wrappers in them. Once the boxes get full, educators can simply seal the box and ship it off free of charge using the prepaid shipping label.   “We are absolutely thrilled by the energy and engagement that teachers across the country have demonstrated since we launched the Trick or Trash program, as well as the positive feedback, photos, and posts we have seen on social media as the program has taken flight,” said Michael Allegretti, Chief Strategy Officer, Rubicon Global. “This unique Rubicon Global program showcases to children and teachers across the U.S. that every single person can play a critical role in creating a more sustainable future for our planet by keeping waste out of landfills.”  

For more information, visit www.rubiconglobal.com.

Trick-or-treating may be over, but you probably have enough candy to last until Christmas. Just how much do you really know about those fun-sized sweets?   Author: Lynna Lai Published: 12:15 AM EDT October 31, 2019 Updated: 12:20 AM EDT November 1, 2019   NORTH ROYALTON, Ohio — As the little ghosts and goblins bring home a huge haul for Halloween, Dr. Amberlee Taylor of North Royalton Pediatric Dentistry is making sure those treats don't come back to haunt them.   "Chocolate is going to be the best candy, because when you place it in your mouth, it's going to melt away," Dr. Taylor explains. "Anything that's going to stick in your teeth and stay there for a long period of time is pretty much what you do want to avoid."   That makes candies like Blow Pops a double whammy.  The long-lasting sugar of hard candy, plus the chewy center.   Then there's Sour Patch Candy, a triple-threat of enamel-eating sour acids and sugar plus sticky.   And it matters not just which candy kids eat, but when. The best time is right after mealtime.   "When we eat, our saliva builds up and now you're going to go ahead and wash away the chocolate," says Dr. Taylor.   So now that it's practically raining candy in your house, what should you do with all that sugar?   Cleveland Clinic Child Psychologist Dr. Kate Eshleman says to set expectations and adds that it's helpful to give them warnings.   To give you some idea of how much kids can eat, pediatricians recommend a daily limit of 25 grams of sugar for children. That's four mini-Twizzlers, three Twix minis, or two fun-sized Snickers.   Did you know that you can recycle candy wrappers? Well, sort of. At Ganley Subaru in Wickliffe, you'll find a drop-off box to collect candy wrappers that are shipped to a company called TerraCycle, which specializes in recycling hard-to-recycle material.   Sweet ways to make Halloween candy a little less scary for us all.

October 31 has come and gone, but its sticky, sweet remnants live on. Americans buy an estimated 300,000 tons of candy every Halloween—and chances are, at least a pound of it is sitting in your kitchen right now.   From the popular classics like M&M's and Reese's Cups to lesser-celebrated treats like Lemon Heads (which, fun fact, are the most common Halloween candy you'll find in the state of Louisiana), there are always a variety of prizes that follow trick-or-treaters home. Some of them get gobbled up quickly, but there's always that sad, picked-through pile that sticks around until January.   That's the pile you probably end up throwing in the trash. But this year—in the name of cutting back on food waste—we're sharing some smart tips to help you keep your sugary stash out of the landfill:  

1. Give your kids a quick talk about food waste before they head out.

  First things first: Before your trick-or-treaters head out for the evening, remind them to take what they like and politely decline the rest. "Have a chat with your kids beforehand, so they're aware of the inevitable waste," recommends Olivia Youngs, the mom of three behind the Simply Liv & Co. blog. "[They] can do their part to only choose candy they love so that you're not left with a bunch of candy they can't eat or don't like."   The same goes if you're the one giving out the treats: Only buy candy that you actually like, so you can finish up any leftovers. (Here are some ways to do it without spiking blood sugar!)    

2. Keep your candy around to be turned into something else.

  Where some see a forgotten candy pile, Tracy Wilk, a lead chef and recipe editor at the Institute of Culinary Education in New York City, sees endless dessert inspiration. "Anything that's a chocolate-based candy can be chopped up and reused in something such as a frosting, cookie, or brownie," she says. More jelly-based candies like Starbursts and Jolly Ranchers are trickier to recreate, but if you're feeling festive you can use them to infuse your favorite light liquor with a sweet flavor.   Keep in mind that candy tends to have a long shelf life, so you can keep it around for a while until the urge to bake strikes. "By nature, anything that's high in sugar does not go bad quickly. It's just a matter of if water gets in there. Keep it dry and covered, and it will take a pretty long time to expire." You can also store your candy in the freezer and thaw when you're ready to eat.   Once Thanksgiving rolls around, Wilk says that Halloween candy can make a nice dessert or starter on your dinner table: "Halloween candies and Thanksgiving sku's are essentially the same—they use the same colors. Leftover candy corn will still look cute on your Thanksgiving grazing board."   And if it's still lying around come Christmas, Laura Durenberger (www.instagram.com/reducereuserenewblog), the eco mom behind the Reduce, Reuse, Renew blog (www.reducereuserenewblog.com), recommends turning it into a gingerbread house decoration.    

3. Host a candy swap.

  Have a kid who loves Snickers but hates Twizzlers? I'm sure their inverse lives somewhere in the neighborhood. Hosting a candy swap for siblings, friends, and neighbors is a fun way to make sure everyone is happy with their Halloween haul.  

4. Look out for collection and donation boxes around town.

  If all the swapping, baking, and freezing in the world can't get to the bottom of your candy pile, consider bringing leftover sweets to a local food drive.   "Some dentists and businesses put up a candy collection box after Halloween. Kids can stop in and exchange their candy for something else (a coupon, money, or specific item). Usually, the businesses then donate the candy to an organization that will send it overseas to U.S. troops," says Durenberger. She likes to look for participating businesses on Halloween Buyback, and lists Operation Shoebox, Soldier's Angels: Treat for Troops, and Operation Gratitude as organizations that send donations to U.S. troops overseas.   "Additionally, you can contact your local food shelf or soup kitchen to see if they will take candy donations," she adds. "Be sure to include your kids in helping decide where to donate the candy. This can be a great conversation-starter about the importance of being involved and giving back in your area."    

5. Recycle the wrapping.

  For every piece of candy consumed on Halloween, there's a wrapper left behind that can't be recycled. The small, flimsy plastic that most seasonal treats come wrapped in usually can't be recycled. However, recycling company TerraCycle offers a collection box that you can fill with wrappers and send in to them to be broken down and reused.   While the service does cost $84, Durenberger recommends sharing the box with your local school or other community organization and splitting the cost.   See? Leftover candy doesn't have to be so spooky after all. Make this the year you dress up as a sustainable hero and keep it out of the trash.

In early October, Rubicon launched its first ever "Trick or Trash" campaign, a free education campaign designed to keep those Halloween candy and snack wrappers. The idea was to provide teachers and educators with a recycling and circular economy lesson plan, as well as a Candy and Snack Wrappers Zero Waste Box through TerraCycle to help keep all of those Halloween candy and snack wrappers out of landfills and divert them into some sort of recycling stream. According to industry data, Americans will purchase nearly 600 million pounds of candy for Halloween. That's a lot of wrappers.   Rubicon is announcing that more than 450 teachers and educators in 49 states plus the District of Columbia signed up for the program. Gemini Middle School in Niles was one of those that signed up.   Seventh-grade teacher Beverly Mendoza said "There are over 1,100 sixth, seventh, and eighth graders in my middle school. Students chew gum daily. They go through tons of wrappers within a week, and most of those wrappers end up in the trash. We do a lot within our school to recycle paper, plastic bottles, and are even collecting bottle caps to send to a company that will create a bench out of them for the school. This Trick or Trash program from Rubicon is a great extension of our existing recycling and sustainability efforts and we are excited to be a part of it."   According to Rubicon, the demand exceeded its expectations and was thrilling to see.   "We were absolutely thrilled at the excitement and energy that teachers from across the United States were showing when we launched the program -- and then the positive feedback, photos, and posts we have seen on social media as the program took flight," said Charles Zinkowski, Director of Communications for Rubicon. "This program showcases to children across the U.S. that every single person can play a critical role in helping the sustainability of our planet and keeping waste out of landfills."

We need to talk about Halloween candy.   Public awareness of our plastic pollution crisis is at a high, plastic straws and bags are getting banned in cities and states across the country, and yet there has been almost no discussion about the massive environmental problem that Halloween candy creates. Americans will buy approximately 600 million pounds of Halloween candy this year, spending $2.6 billion on bite-sized candy bars and bags of candy corn. After the holiday, nearly all the wrappers and packages from these confections will end up in landfills, where they’ll sit around for decades or more.   Candy wrappers are very hard to recycle. Like most food wrappers and packages, candy wrappers are not meant to be mixed with bottles and cans and sent to a sorting facility. “They are too small for our equipment to sort,” said John Hambrose, communications manager at Waste Management Inc., one of the largest sanitation companies in the U.S. Most curbside recycling programs prioritize capturing rigid plastics like bottles, jugs and materials that are at least the size of a credit card.   And it’s not just size that’s a problem. It’s what candy wrappers are made from.   “There are so many varieties of candy out there and equally abundant are the types of wrappers,” Jeremy Walters, sustainability manager for Republic Services, another major waste disposal company, told HuffPost in an email. “Though some wrappers feel like paper, they often have a ‘waxy’ or ‘poly-coating,’ leaving it unfit to be mixed with paper for recycling.”   Recycling systems aren’t designed to capture and sort wrappers “because they have little dollar value,” said Nick McCulloch, senior manager of sustainability at Rubicon Global, a waste reduction tech company.   “Recycling is in part about economics — the value of the raw materials you’re collecting needs to exceed the cost of collecting them. Candy wrappers make that math hard because they’re made from low-value plastics,” he told HuffPost. “You’d have to collect tens of thousands of wrappers to help make those economics work.” Nevertheless, a few small efforts exist to curb the waste associated with hard-to-recycle materials like candy wrappers.   In September, HuffPost reported on the launch of the first municipal program in the country that encourages residents to throw flexible plastics, including candy wrappers, in the recycling bin. Eight thousand households in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, are participating so far, and nearby communities will join the experiment by the end of the year. The area uses a recycling facility with the advanced technology to deal with flexible plastics. Most facilities around the country would need millions of dollars to upgrade their equipment.   This month, recycling company TerraCycle launched its first “Trick or Trash” program for Halloween candy wrappers. Initially, school teachers and students could request a free recycling box before the holiday; and once the box was full, they’d return it to TerraCycle, which cleans and breaks down the wrappers to be made into new items. But due to overwhelming demand in more than 40 states, the company had to stop sending out free boxes. Schools can still purchase a recycling box for snack and candy wrappers, but they’ll have to pay TerraCycle $81 to cover the costs associated with recycling these items.   Some food manufacturers have begun to experiment with wrappers made from recyclable materials. In the U.K., Nestlé recently launched its first recyclable paper packaging for a snack bar. The company did not respond when HuffPost asked whether it planned to use this new packaging on other products.   Walters told HuffPost that he worries about this so-called recyclable paper packaging.   “In theory it is a step in the right direction, but ultimately the biggest issue with this packaging is going to be contamination,” Walters wrote. “If you love chocolate as much as I do, you probably have experienced the Earth-shattering disappointment of opening up your chocolate bar and realizing it melted in your bag over the course of the day. Think about the sticky, chocolatey mess inside that wrapper. If that new ‘recyclable’ type of wrapper is soiled with chocolate or other food materials it cannot be mixed with paper grades coming out of the modern-day recycling center.”   So what’s an environmentally conscious trick-or-treater to do?   In the zero-waste Facebook group of which I’m a member, I asked if folks had alternatives to Halloween candy wrapper hell. Several members said they went out of their way to hand out plastic-free treats ― like playing cards made from paper, compostable chewing gum from a plastic-free store, or classic Halloween favorites that come in paper containers (like Nerds, Lemonheads and Milkduds).   “If we all make it a point to support companies and brands who are really tackling the problem of disposability and taking steps to find solutions, we can force meaningful change,” said Sue Kauffman, North American public relations manager of TerraCycle.   Waste Management’s Hambrose agreed, saying that people can make a difference “by purchasing products that use less packaging and recycled materials,” and by sharing their concerns with elected officials.   Individual actions won’t get us very far so long as companies keep churning out candy in single-use packaging, according to Greenpeace representative Perry Wheeler. “It’s time to rethink how we are delivering these products while still making it enjoyable for children,” Wheeler said.   “It is overwhelming to enter the Halloween aisle this time of year and think about where all of this plastic will end up — polluting our oceans, waterways, or communities,” he added. “The cost of inaction on our throwaway culture is just too high to ignore.”   One member of the Facebook group said this is not an issue their household bothers to tackle, despite working toward a waste-free lifestyle. “I have no solutions,” they wrote. “We just deal the best we can.” They added that they try to limit the number of houses they visit to collect less candy in the first place.   Another option is extreme action, like banning all unrecyclable food packaging, not just candy wrappers. Such an effort, however, would not only be unpopular, and therefore unlikely to gain political traction; it’d be tough to enact and enforce.   Bans on plastic straws and shopping bags are highly controversial, and there isn’t a consensus yet on how effective they are. Research published earlier this year found that California’s ban on plastic shopping bags might be driving up sales of plastic garbage bags. And bans on plastic straws have proved difficult to implement.   When we asked Hambrose whether a gigantic trash-hauler and recycler like Waste Management would favor a potential ban on candy wrappers, he was aghast.   “Waste Management would never get between a trick-or-treater and a candy bar,” Hambrose said. “We can’t think of anything more horrifying.”   If it matters to you, it matters to us. Support HuffPost’s journalism here. For more content and to be part of the “This New World” community, follow our Facebook page.   HuffPost’s “This New World” series is funded by Partners for a New Economy and the Kendeda Fund. All content is editorially independent, with no influence or input from the foundations. If you have an idea or tip for the editorial series, send an email to thisnewworld@huffpost.com   This article originally appeared on HuffPost.

Wishing to divert candy wrappers from landfills, a Sherbrookoise has set up about fifty collection points across the province in order to develop them.   The initiator of the movement, the co-founder of PH Effect, Hélène Boissonneault, said she was surprised by the enthusiasm aroused by her approach begun just four days ago.   Many schools of the school board have embarked with us. I find it extraordinary, because I want to spend a lot with children. That way, they are challenged and see that there are things to do with their candy wrappers , she says.         The Sherbrookoise has teamed up with Terracycle, an American company that specializes in the revaluation of materials deemed normally difficult to recycle.   The company we do business with will park benches, watering cans, flower pots ... they use the papers to make recycled plastic , summarizes Ms. Boissonneault. Sherbrook residents wishing to dispose of their treats packages in an environmentally friendly way can do so at the Ecolo Boutique, Celestine Café and Artemire. Collections are also held at the 123Zero zero waste grocery store in Magog, as well as in the eco-centers of Waterloo and Granby, among others.   Twenty schools in Sherbrooke and Magog also participate in the gathering.   We have a new extraordinary option called citizen of the world, so we want to take action for others, for our planet. This is a super simple gesture and super concrete and we are very motivated to participate , says Kathleen Dussault, teacher at Séminaire de Sherbrooke.         Collection points are also in place in Gatineau, Joliette, Saint-Jean-Sur-Richelieu, L'Assomption and Laval.   The collection will end on November 21st.   -With the information of Brigitte Marcoux