The City is pleased to announce there are now cigarette butt receptacles located across the downtown area. The intention is to maintain and beautify our Downtown Core Area and to reduce the environmental impact associated with chemicals found in cigarettes. Acceptable material that can go in the receptacles include:

1. Extinguished cigarettes
2. Cigarette filters
3. Loose tobacco pouches
4. Outer plastic packaging
5. Inner foil packaging
6. Rolling papers
7. Ash

All acceptable materials collected in these receptacles will be recycled through Terracycle. Terracycle sterilizes the waste, then shreds and separates it by material type. Tobacco and paper are composted and filters are turned into plastic pellets. These pellets are used in a variety of industrial applications, including the production of recycled plastic products. For more information, please click here. See map below for locations of all the cigarette butt receptacles.

Almost all companies are looking for ways to reduce their environmental impact and to become more efficient in the process. What if you could turn your harvest residuals or production scrap into your own pallets, thus eliminating the need to consume other resources needed to make pallets and have them delivered to you? This post looks at some surprising pallet materials you might not have heard about.   With continued interest in the circular economy, there is growing interest. One of the ways to bridge sustainability and efficiency for pallet usage, according to Dr. Mark White, president of White & Company, is to explore the opportunity for pallets made from various natural constituents that are recyclable and biodegradable. Increasingly, entrepreneurs and researchers are looking to agricultural crops and residuals as potential pallet stock.   To take a step back, wood pallets have long dominated pallet usage, and for good reason. They are relatively inexpensive and strong, providing a viable solution for many supply chains. Plastic pallets are highly valued in several applications (and growing at a faster rate than wood), as are niche options such as presswood, paper and metal.  Nevertheless, there always seems to be a new pallet guaranteed to raise eyebrows. Back in 2012, TerraCycle made headlines by announcing it was using recycled cigarette butts to make pallets. Another company makes pallets from recycled carpeting. Chances are, you haven’t seen any of those innovative pallets carrying merchandise in your supply chain. The quest continues, however, and agricultural fibers are garnering an increasing amount of attention.   “Fibers from banana trees and hemp, for example, are from sources that grow quickly and offer higher yields than trees,” Dr. White told Logistics Management Magazine in 2018. “…once banana trees stop producing they are otherwise useless, and hemp can be rotated every six months,” White explained. “Companies are molding these alternative fibers with or without adhesives into pallet form then testing to essentially try to improve on Mother Nature.”

 

Banana Pallets

As Dr. White noted, banana stems can be produced into pallets. Yellow Pallet is a Netherlands-based company that creates production systems designed to press or extrude banana waste into materials that can be assembled into pallets. The company recently reported that its banana fiber pallet blocks have now meet EPAL (European Pallet Association) technical standards. Given that 21 million pallets of bananas are shipped annually, there is a ready potential market for those pallets. The company is currently installing a production facility in Costa Rica. Note the video from Yellow Pallet.

 

Coco Pallets

According to CocoPallet International, a Netherlands-based producer of pallets made from coconut waste, 70 billion coconuts are produced annually, while less than 15 percent of the husk material is utilized. Present applications for husks include flooring and brushes. Around 85 percent of waste material remains, however. As such, this residual presents the opportunity for coconut-based pallets. The material is molded, using a natural binder to help form the pallets.   Founded by Dutch entrepreneur Michiel Vos, the initiative is based on technology developed by scientists at the University of Wageningen, the Netherlands. Vos recently appeared on a supply chain podcast to tell the story of Coco Pallet.  Vos was recently interviewed on the Let’s Talk Supply Chain podcast.

Big businesses are some of the world's largest producers of waste, and they're under mounting pressure to craft strategies to address the issue. Experts advise that actions speak louder than words.

Sarah Levy (left) worked with customer Helena Hughes at Levy’s store, Cleenland, in Cambridge. She weighed Hughes’s re-usable containers before filling them.(SUZANNE KREITER/GLOBE STAFF) CAMBRIDGE — On a recent afternoon, Sarah Levy picked up an empty pickle jar from a shelf in her storefront, sniffed it, and then suggested a customer fill it with soap. There’s a take-a-jar, leave-a-jar policy at Cleenland, Levy’s new “low-waste, no-shame” store that lets shoppers stock up on cleaning supplies using their own bottles. And as an early adopter of an emerging shift in American consumption habits, she has become adept at getting the gherkin smell out of glass. “This is not a trend; it’s a resurgence of interest in re-using instead of recycling,” said Levy, who opened Cleenland in Central Square in June. After weighing her customers’ jars, she commiserates with them over global environmental challenges. “We’re not going to recycle our way out of this problem,” said Ksenija Broks, a teacher from Roslindale. As consumers such as Broks seek to limit the waste they create, more local entrepreneurs like Levy are stepping in to serve them and have begun opening storefronts — physical, mobile, and online. The Boston General Store is selling a growing assortment of zero-waste accessories. Make & Mend sells secondhand arts and crafts supplies in Somerville’s Bow Market. The Green Road Refill bus tours Cape Cod selling plastic-free alternatives to home and body products. Last month, Sabrina Auclair launched Unpacked Living, an online storefront that she says is the only plastic-free store in Massachusetts. Recent changes in the Chinese recycling industry have upended the way America deals with waste. China had processed US recyclables for decades but is now rejecting “foreign garbage” as part of a broader national antipollution campaign. The decision has reverberated in municipalities across the United States, forcing Massachusetts authorities to place new restrictions on materials they accept curbside in recycling bins. In so doing, it’s also forced more consumers to reconsider the amount of waste they create. Julia Wilson, who tracks corporate sustainability efforts for the Nielsen research firm, says 73 percent of consumers are looking to shift their consumption habits to reduce their environmental impact, and she predicts that they’ll spend $150 billion on sustainable goods by 2021. Young consumers in particular lack the brand loyalty of their parents, she said, meaning they’re willing to make purchase decisions that align with their values. And that presents an opportunity. “It opens the door for new entrepreneurs and upstart products and brands who are thinking about things differently,” she said. Some entrepreneurs are using a “circular economy” model in which goods are delivered in durable packages and sent back when they’re empty. Boston-based ThreeMain launched earlier this year selling cleaning products in reusable aluminum bottles. The most well-funded endeavor, Loop, which expanded to Massachusetts last month, sells 100 major brands including Haagen Dazs, Crest mouthwash, and Clorox wipes in reusable containers. Re-usable glass jars are available at Cleenland, in Cambridge’s Central Square.(SUZANNE KREITER/GLOBE STAFF) Tom Szaky has spent over 17 years processing hard-to-recycle materials as the founder of TerraCycle, and said the challenges in the recycling economy led him to launch Loop. “Waste has really moved from a problem to a crisis in the last 24 months,” he said. “And the real root cause of waste is the idea of disposability, which was really only invented in the 1950s.” Loop’s goal, he said, is to make buying items in durable, reusable containers as “incredibly convenient and incredibly affordable” as the ones we’re currently buying — and tossing — when we’re through. “Our goal is that it feels to you as disposable as possible,” he said. “I want you to feel like it’s a throwaway lifestyle.” The service has been operating in Paris and New York for the past few months and will have as many as 500 products by the year’s end, Szaky said. Partnerships with Kroger and Walgreen stores will launch next year. To the enlightened observer, these entrepreneurs aren’t so much trying to reinvent commerce as they are trying to take it back to a more traditional form of selling goods. Levy recognizes the difficulty involved with changing consumer habits, but she said the model works because she’s selling necessities. “You don’t go a week without hand soap,” she notes. And she’s hopeful, as the popularity of zero-waste shops has exploded abroad in the United Kingdom, Canada, and particularly in Australia, where the nonprofit Plastic Free Foundation launched the #PlasticFreeJuly campaign, which has become a global phenomenon. Auclair’s path to entrepreneurship started in the shampoo aisle of a Market Basket. The Colombia native has lived in Massachusetts for over a decade and grew to hate the American habit of buying everything in plastic. Because her apartment building in Beverly doesn’t recycle, she felt frustrated by the amount of waste she created. “If I buy a shampoo plastic bottle, I’m buying trash,” she said, recalling her Market Basket revelation. “I vowed that day that I was going to quit plastic.” Auclair found a community of like-minded consumers online and began to document her attempt to live plastic-free on Instagram. She created the Facebook group Zero Waste Massachusetts before launching Unpacked Living. The site sells such items as bamboo toothbrushes, metal lunch tins, and lip balms in cardboard containers. It’s a small endeavor — she has invested about $2,000 on the products, and her warehouse is her guest bedroom — but she said it’s a start. Area food suppliers say concerns about plastic waste are driving a steady increase in bulk buying, particularly following the closure of the Harvest Co-op last year. Matt Gray has seen sales of his bulk section and bottled milk soar in his Somerville storefront, Neighborhood Produce. Alys Myers is working to build Supply, a bulk delivery business out of Dorchester, and Roche Bros. recently added a bulk section in its Downtown Crossing store. And since taking over the store’s operations last summer, Greg Saidnawey, the 26-year-old fourth-generation owner of Pemberton Farms market in North Cambridge, said he has doubled the amount of items the store sells (it now offers 120 bulk bins, 65 spices, three oils, four soap products, six pet foods, and 12 beverages). “The demand was there,” he said, “and we took the opportunity and ran with it.” Gergana Nenkov, a marketing professor at Boston College who studies how consumers engage with messages around sustainability, said these entrepreneurs are responding to the shifting attitudes of younger consumers. “There’s a big concern about ‘What are you doing for the world?’ ” she said, a message that “startups are leading the way on, and big companies will follow.” Until then, for consumers like Julia Burrell, living a low-waste life can still feel a lot like a full-time job. In January, the self-described “environmental atrocity” made a decision to rid her life of plastic, documenting her effort on Instagram as The Crazy No Plastic Lady. It’s still hard to buy meat and cheese in plastic-free packaging, she said, and she’s been slapped on the wrist while attempting to use her own containers in the bulk aisle of such stores as Whole Foods. “Living this lifestyle requires a lot of research,” she said, sitting in front of a collection of empty glass jars that line the mantel of her East Boston home. “And a lot of seeing what you can get away with.” But Burrell is hoping her Instagram account might lead to a new career coaching organizations on taking steps toward reducing their waste. “If I focus my energies into this, I think I could parlay this into a successful business,” she said. “It would be the most meaningful job I have ever had.”

If you’re an educator who’d like to keep all those markers your kids use out of landfills, take note!   There’s a free recycling program from Crayola that allows students to collect and repurpose used markers from classrooms in K-12 schools across the country and in parts of Canada. The Crayola ColorCycle initiative is designed to help both teachers and students learn about sustainability and make a positive impact on the environment.   To participate, you simply need to sign up your school, collect markers, and send them in. The four easy steps are outlined on the ColorCycle web page.   First, inform your school’s administrators or parent-teacher organization about the program. Any school, kindergarten through 12th grade, in the contiguous 48 United States, is eligible to participate. Some areas of Canada are eligible as well. You can check if your Canadian postal code is covered here.  An adult representative can register the school to participate online. Next, set up a collection site where people can drop off used markers at your school. The markers should then be packed in a cardboard box that has minimal outer markings. Only include markers in the box. All brands of markers are accepted, so they don’t just need to be Crayola markers.   Ensure that each box weighs about 8-10 pounds, and secure it with packing tape. Crayola suggests a minimum of 100 markers and a maximum of 40 pounds per box. The packages should be affixed with a FedEx shipping label, which you can print online. They will be picked up by FexEx Ground, with shipping costs covered by Crayola.   Markers are often not allowed by local community recycling efforts, which more commonly collect paper, plastic, and glass. That makes this program all the more welcome. So what happens to the markers? According to Crayola, the recyclables are sent to a facility that converts old markers into energy as well as wax compounds for asphalt and roofing shingles.   “The process repurposes the entire marker, regardless of the different kinds of plastics or how they are assembled,” the FAQ says.   One school participating in the program is Geneva Middle School in Geneva, Illinois, where a group of students known as “The Green Team” is collecting markers through the program. They also have a deposit box to collect empty chip bags in school’s cafeteria. The club was organized last year in a sixth-grade science class.   Last month, the club brought their first load of empty chip bags to Gerald Ford Subaru in North Aurora, which has a recycling box for TerraCycle, a private recycling business. The school plans to continue the program when the school year gets underway again. If your classroom needs new markers, teachers can purchase Crayola Classpacks, which include a color palette of educator-preferred hues, as well as other bulk items at affordable prices.   We hope plenty of schools are signing up this year!  

Whether your travel plans are for work or leisure, one thing's for certain - travel is easier when you're organized and comfortable.   To help make your next trip as easy and stress-free as possible, we've rounded up our favorite must-have products to have on hand while traveling. Shop these products from US websites and ship with MyUS for international delivery in as little as 2-4 days!   Travel Wallet $17.95   One of the biggest causes for stress and anxiety while traveling is the thought of losing money, credit cards, and important documents like passports. Give yourself peace of mind by investing in a travel wallet that can be worn around your neck and under clothing, like this travel wallet with RFID Blocking from Venture 4th. Designed for the savvy traveler, this lightweight and water resistant wallet will keep your documents safe and secure while you travel and has multiple compartments to keep you organized too!   'If you want to keep your important documents, credit cards and cash safe during traveling, this is a perfect neck pouch. Not too big, but good size for passport storage (three weeks in Europe). I kept credit cards, cash, metro tickets, train tickets, purchased tickets for museums and tickets for other events while traveling in Europe.' says Dan in his product review.   3D Sleep Mask & Ear Plug Set $14.95   Sleeping while traveling can be challenging, but this sleep mask and ear plug set makes it easier. The sleep mask is made with an opaque, high density memory foam that allows it to completely block light while remaining thin and lightweight, and its '3D' eye shades have large cavities, so there's no pressure on your eyes and it won't smudge your makeup. This set includes two sleep masks, 2 high-quality earplugs to block out noise, and a silk travel pouch!   'These masks are the best I have ever bought! Soft and not bulky. The nose cutout was a perfect fit! Blocks 100% of light from entering eye area!' says Jerry McCoy in his five-star review.   Cabeau Evolution Memory Foam Travel Neck Pillow $29.99   Save yourself from a sore neck while traveling with the Evolution Memory Foam Travel Neck Pillow from Cabeau. It cushions vital points in the head and neck with high-grade memory foam and has front clasps and a unique design to cradle your head and neck in any position for 360 degree comfort.   'I bought this for an international flight. I'm middle aged and have an extremely hard time sleeping on planes without waking up in pain. This neck pillow worked fantastic. Very supportive without being tight or binding. The material didn't get super hot like other neck pillows I've had after being around my neck a few hours.' said Eric Sorensen in his Amazon review.   Anker PowerCore+ Mini Portable Charger $19.99   Portable chargers are essential, but they can be heavy and bulky, making them less-than-ideal for carry-on bags and backpacks. Unless you have Anker's PowerCore+ Mini! About the size of a lipstick and weighing just three ounces, this handy portable charger adds over one charge to an iPhone 8 or at least 80% to the Galaxy S8 and other flagship smartphones, making it the perfect travel companion.   'I absolutely trust this charger. With a surplus of portable chargers on the market, it's difficult to identify and separate the good from the junk. I've tried over 8 different ones and can't say enough about this extremely reliable, user friendly, and ergonomically distinct product that can fit in your pocket.' says Braxton Aldrich in their product review.   Colgate Max Fresh Wisp Disposable Mini Toothbrushes $4.79   Whether you're traveling for an hour or 10 hours, by the time you've arrived at your destination, chances are your mouth feels less than pleasant. Freshen up anytime (and fast!) with these ingenious little Max Fresh Wisp Disposable Mini Toothbrushes from Colgate. They're tiny, single use brushes that can be used anywhere, no rinsing required! Even better, they can be safely upcycled through the Terracycle recycling program!   'I love these! You can take these with you at all times. These are just like those flosses/toothpick size. The fact that you can actually also brush your teeth is awesome! You don't need any toothpaste. This has a little bead in the brush head that sort of activates ones you start brushing with it. Freshens your mouth when you need it! ' said LMH in their five-star review.   Spa Luxetique Shea Butter Hand Cream Travel Set $11.20   Traveling, especially by plane, can make skin dry and rough. Protect your skin and keep it hydrated with this Shea Butter Hand Cream Travel Set from Spa Luxetique. Made with luxurious natural ingredients, including shea butter, aloe, and vitamin E and packages in travel-friendly tubes of 1.02 ounces each, these hand creams will keep your hands silky soft and rejuvenated.   'Love this set! Beautiful fragrance and feels great on dry winter hands. Perfect to keep in purse, car, coat pocket or handy in the kitchen. Great gift set, too!' says Selena in her product review.   Nomader Collapsible Water Bottle $24.95   Stay hydrated no matter where your travel takes you with this Collapsible Water Bottle from Nomader. Made of thick and flexible BPA-free silicone, this handy water bottle maintains its sturdy feel for a comfortable drinking experience, but it conveniently rolls up or squashes down when space is tight. Available in eight colors.   'Great water bottle for travel. It is durable, compact when not in use and versatile. One of the main reasons I like this collapsible bottle over others is the sliding band on it. It allows you to hold it firmly without squeezing the bottle and squirting the contents out of the top and all over the place. I bought mine and a friend liked it so much, she bought one.' says Vivian in her Amazon review.   Fire 8 Tablet $109.99   Long flights and delays are easier to bear when you're entertained, making the Fire 8 Tablet an on-the-go essential. With it you can watch movies, play games, read books, take pictures and videos, and listen to music while taking up very little space in your bag.   'I use my Fire HD tablet to read books, listen to audio books and watch TV & movies. I really like how quick & easy it was to get the new tablet up & running. Great sound and picture' says an Amazon Kindle customer in their glowing review.   Shop these travel-friendly products today and ship worldwide and US tax-free when you become a MyUS member.

You don’t need the last name Paltrow, a standing gua sha appointment, or a shelf full of powdered mushroom extracts to care about the ingredients in your beauty products. From parabens, phthalates, and sulfates to oxybenzone, triclosan, hydroquinone, and artificial fragrances, these dirty beauty words are fear inducing enough to elicit a Marie Kondo-style purge of your entire bathroom cabinet, even in the most apathetic among us. But what does clean beauty even mean? Can you trust all-natural labels? And are nontoxic products important?   Nearly 50 percent of women are already using clean beauty products, according to a Harper’s BAZAAR poll of more than 1,000 women across all ages, races, and ethnicities, and more than 60 percent of women would be willing to splurge on one. But with more options than ever before—you don’t need to stray far from the drugstore to find a natural version of your favorite skin care, makeup, and hair care products—there comes more opportunity for greenwashing. Not only is the beauty industry self-regulated (meaning anyone can make a “clean beauty” claim with no oversight), but America’s cosmetic regulations for safe products is 81 years old—older than most modern beauty companies. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has no authority to recall toxic beauty products unless a manufacturer volunteers. And while the European Union has banned more than 1,000 chemicals common in personal care products, the United States has banned just 11. Should you be concerned? And where do you even start on a path to a cleaner beauty routine?   To separate science from science fiction, we spoke with leading beauty experts; pored over studies and data; and swiped, swatched, and spritzed hundreds of clean hair and skin care products to get to the root of what it really means to be clean and natural in the realm of beauty.  

Where Do I Start?

  We believe in taking a common sense approach to clean beauty: If a product is intended to stay on your skin all day (like a moisturizer) and/or it’s covering a large surface area (like body lotion), then you should try to switch to a cleaner alternative. Start by finding a natural replacement for your daily sunscreen, hand soap, body lotion/wash, and deodorant. Then slowly graduate to cleaner shampoo, conditioner, skin care, and makeup products. You can find our favorite product picks for each in the corresponding guides above.

Ingredients to Avoid

  Clean beauty is a spectrum, but a case can be made that some ingredients should be avoided altogether. Below, the most common beauty ingredients of concern and the reasons why they’re so notorious.  

PARABENS | FRAGRANCES | ALUMINUM COMPOUNDS | ETHOXYLATED AGENTS | FORMALDEHYDE | REFINED PETROLEUM | HYDROQUINONE | TALC | TRICLOSAN | SILICA | OXYBENZONE

PARABENS

  Parabens are a group of preservatives and antimicrobial chemicals that prevent the growth of nasty things like bad bacteria and mold in your beauty products.   The problem: Studies confirm that parabens mimic estrogen in the human body, with evidence linking them to reproductive organ harm, thyroid disruption, hormone-related cancers, and obesity. Exposure to parabens through beauty products was recently linked to early onset puberty in girls, according to a study published in Human Reproduction. They’re also easily absorbed: Pregnant women who used more personal care products had a greater amount of parabens in their urine, according to a 2014 study published in Reproduction. The authors of the previous study noted that “toxicological risk assessments in humans do not take into account simultaneous exposure,” meaning the risks to the fetus are still unknown. A 2019 study also found a link between paraben exposure and gestational diabetes mellitus.   The European Commission banned several types of parabens for use in personal care products: isopropyl-, isobutyl-, phenyl-, benzyl-, and pentylparabens. All five are still approved for use in the United States. FDA scientists have reopened investigations into parabens and cosmetics several times and continue to monitor new data, but their conclusion remains, “At this time, we do not have information showing that parabens as they are used in cosmetics have an effect on human health.”  

FRAGRANCES AND PHTHALATES

  The word fragrance is a catchall term that can disguise up to 3,000 synthetic or natural chemicals used to make a beauty product smell delicious. Fragrances are considered a trade secret and, therefore, do not have to be disclosed. On a related note, phthalates, which help fragrances last longer, are a group of chemicals used to keep materials and products (nail polishes, hair sprays, plastics) pliable. You’ll find them on an ingredient list abbreviated as DEP, BBzP, DBP, and DEHP.   The problem: Where there is the vague ingredient fragrance, there are phthalates—most of the time, anyway. Phthalates have been linked to reproductive and hormonal harm in children and men. Some studies have linked phthalate exposure to obesity, type 2 diabetes, reduced sperm count, breast cancers, reproductive malformation, infertility, and cardiovascular events. A study from 2017 found that 70 percent of perfume and cosmetics salespeople had exceeded the cumulative risk of phthalate exposure. Fragrance on its own can also be a trigger for allergies and asthma attacks, since we don’t know exactly what ingredients are being used in both short- and long-term exposure. Cosmetics giants Unilever, Procter & Gamble, and Johnson & Johnson have all committed to fragrance transparency in the last several years.  

ETHOXYLATED AGENTS

  Ethoxylated agents include polyethylene glycols (PEGs), ceteareths, oleth, and sulfates. Sulfates are responsible for the bubbles and lather in cleansers like shampoo. Some sulfates are synthetic, while others are derived from sulfur and petroleum, as well as natural sources like coconut and palm oils. PEG compounds are used as thickeners, solvents, and softeners in hair products, as well as some moisturizers and base products.   The problem: Sodium lauryl sulfate is a harsh cleanser, which is why it gets a bad reputation in the world of hair care. It will strip your hair, but it’s not inherently toxic. To save your hair, sodium lauryl sulfate is sometimes converted into sodium laureth sulfate through a process called ethoxylation. A by-product of this process is 1,4-dioxane, a chemical the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) lists as a likely human carcinogen. On the FDA website, it’s noted that the agency “periodically monitors the levels of 1,4-dioxane in cosmetics products” and that “changes made in the manufacturing process have resulted in a significant decline over time in the levels of this contaminant in these products.” A 2018 FDA survey of 82 randomly selected personal care products marketed toward children found that only two had levels of 1,4-dioxane above 10 ppm, which is significantly lower than in the surveys conducted from 1981 through 1997. The agency also notes that 1,4-dioxane evaporates quickly, lowering the risk of transdermal absorption “even in products that remain on the skin for hours.” As of July 2019, Sephora is requiring brands to test for the presence of 1,4-dioxane.  

FORMALDEHYDE

  The most notorious preservative in history, formaldehyde is commonly found in keratin smoothing treatments that rely on the chemical to lock the hair’s broken disulfide bonds into a straighter position.   The problem: Formaldehyde is recognized globally as a human carcinogen, and that’s why it (and its offspring) have been eliminated from most common cosmetic products, like nail polish. Salon keratin treatments often claim to be free of the f-word too. Except they’re not: What they contain instead are ingredients like methylene glycol, formalin, methanal, and methanediol, which release the carcinogenic compound when mixed with water during the treatment. This presents a risk to you, of course, but it’s most dangerous for the salon technician who styles hair in an enclosed space day in and day out. The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) lists sore throat, nosebleeds, and itchy eyes as common side effects to formaldehyde exposure. The FDA also warns that formulas and products can claim they’re natural, organic, and/or formaldehyde free when that’s not true. The agency encourages consumers to always read the label, ask hair professionals for an ingredient list, and report all negative reactions.  

REFINED PETROLEUM

  Mineral oil (petrolatum, paraffin) is a widely used moisturizing agent sourced from petroleum and is often found in lip balms and face creams.   The problem: There are about a thousand reasons to avoid petroleum products from an environmental standpoint. But there are health concerns as well: A 2011 study found mineral oil to be the largest contaminant present in the human body due to accumulation over time possibly from cosmetics. A 2016 study called for the reduction of the amount of mineral- and petroleum-based ingredients “in the majority of cosmetic lip products” that are ingested. Untreated or mildly treated mineral oils used in manufacturing (not the cosmetic-grade kind found in your lip balm) are listed as carcinogens by the World Health Organization.  

HYDROQUINONE

  A topical bleaching agent, hydroquinone is found in skin-lightening creams and serums, and used in the treatment of hyperpigmentation. It’s sold over the counter in two percent concentrations, but stronger formulas are available by prescription.   The problem: Hydroquinone was approved by the FDA in 1982, but several years later, it was temporarily pulled from the market due to safety concerns (it turns out the products in question had mercury in them, so the adverse effects weren’t because of the skin-lightening ingredient). However hydroquinone itself been linked to certain cancers, decreased immune response, abnormal function of the adrenal gland, and a skin condition known as ochronosis. It’s because of the perceived risk that the European Union alongside Japan and Australia have banned the ingredient.  

TALC

  A common ingredient in face powders and eye shadows, talc is a mineral made from magnesium, silicon, hydrogen, and oxygen.   The problem: Talc that hasn’t been purified can be contaminated with asbestos, a known human carcinogen. In early 2019, eye shadow and contour palettes marketed to girls from Claire’s stores were recalled after the FDA found asbestos contamination during routine talc monitoring. Following the incident, the agency called on Congress to pass reformed cosmetics safety regulations. In December 2018, Reuters published an investigation claiming Johnson & Johnson knew for decades that asbestos was detected in its talcum-based baby powder products. Juries have awarded millions of dollars in high-profile cases that linked Johnson & Johnson baby powder products to cases of ovarian cancer and mesothelioma.  

TRICLOSAN

  An antibacterial and antimicrobial chemical, triclosan can be found in sanitizing hand and body soaps, mascara, and formerly in toothpaste.   The problem: Triclosan hasn’t just been linked to liver fibrosis, skin cancer, hormone disruption, and the development of bacterial superbugs, it’s also just not any more effective than soap and water. In April 2019, the FDA issued a final rule banning OTC hand sanitizers from using triclosan. “In today’s final regulation we finalized the FDA’s previous determination that 28 active ingredients, including triclosan and benzethonium chloride, are not eligible for evaluation under the FDA’s OTC Drug Review for use in consumer antiseptic rubs,” Janet Woodcock, director of the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, said in a release at the time. The agency added, “FDA has not received evidence that triclosan provides a benefit to human health. At this time, FDA doesn’t have evidence that triclosan in OTC consumer antibacterial soaps and body washes provides any benefit over washing with regular soap and water.”  

SILICA

  Also known as silicon dioxide, silica is used as an absorbent, anticaking, and abrasive agent in everything from oral care products to foundation. Silica is naturally occurring, but the kind approved for use in cosmetics is amorphous silica, not crystalline silica (also known as quartz dust).   The problem: The science concerning silica is confusing, to say the least. Only one kind of silica is approved for use in cosmetic formulations: amorphous silica. So why is crystalline silica, a known human carcinogen, popping up in particles of respirable size in laboratory tests of various bath products and cosmetics? Some studies suggest that amorphous silica can be contaminatedwith the crystalline kind, which would help explain why it’s still detectable in beauty products. There are environmental concerns as well, particularly with the slippery silica by-product found in every beloved face primer: silicone. Refined silicones are not biodegradable.  

The Buzz on Buzzwords

  Clean, organic, cruelty-free—when it comes to beauty products, the FDA has yet to regulate how brands can use these words. Definitions are subjective and often change from company to company, package to package, making it nearly impossible to navigate—or decipher—the truth from greenwashing. Here, we break down the most common buzzwords for some much-needed clarity.  

WHAT DOES CLEAN MEAN?

  Safe for people and the planet, clean means that a beauty product should have considered human and environmental health, using a nontoxic element as a baseline and plant-based ingredients for active results. Much like eating clean rejects the idea of processed foods and focuses on nourishing, plant-based produce that delivers all the vitamins and antioxidants needed for a healthy immune and digestive system, the same is true for clean skin care.  

WHAT DOES GREEN MEAN?

  The word green should mean that the product does no harm to the environment. For instance, a reef-safe sunscreen with biodegradable packaging would be labeled green. However, this is a wishy-washy term with no true definition and is usually used as an umbrella for any product that claims to protect the planet’s resources.  

WHAT DOES ORGANIC MEAN?

  Personal care products that are certified to be at least 95 percent organic will bear an official USDA Organic Seal. Products bearing the USDA Organic Seal must also comply with handling and manufacturing specifications, and the use of genetically modified organisms is prohibited. In an effort to avoid pesticides, the clean beauty industry has begun to use organic, plant-based ingredients in products wherever possible. However, the certification is expensive, so many smaller brands will independently label ingredients that are organic on packaging, despite not carrying an official seal.  

WHAT DOES NONTOXIC MEAN?

  Water and oxygen can be toxic in the wrong dose. So when a beauty product is labeled nontoxic, it likely means that the ingredients have not been shown to cause adverse health effects at the levels found inside the formula and for the intended use. This is true of every beauty product currently sold in the United States. In the clean beauty space, nontoxic means that a product shouldn’t include any ingredient that’s been deemed toxic at any dose by a third-party resource like the European Union or Environmental Working Group.  

WHAT DOES SUSTAINABLE MEAN?

  Sustainable goes hand in hand with green. It means that the ingredients on the inside of the package—including how those ingredients were sourced—and the packaging itself should not be harmful to the planet. When you use any product, the ingredients go down the drain and into the water system, which, thanks to exfoliating microbeads and preservatives like BHA, is causing a marine environment health crisis. Likewise, many conventional beauty products are made from petroleum jelly and are packaged in plastic, both created from the oil industry. Truly sustainable ingredients are those that are ethically sourced and proven to be safe for the environment, with sustainable or no-waste packaging being defined as glass packaging, biodegradable packaging, post-consumer recycled packaging, or the ability to recycle empty bottles appropriately through a TerraCycle program.  

WHAT DOES VEGAN MEAN?

  A beauty product is vegan if it doesn’t contain any animal by-products or ingredients sourced from animals. Common non-vegan ingredients found in clean beauty products include beeswax, honey, lanolin, and tallow. Many people associate vegan with clean, but this is not the case. A product can be vegan and still contain chemical ingredients of concern.  

WHAT DOES CRUELTY-FREE MEAN?

  A beauty product is cruelty-free if it has not been tested on animals anywhere along the manufacturing line or before being sold. It can also mean that any animal-derived ingredients were not extracted at the expense of an animal’s welfare (like natural-fiber makeup brushes). A beauty product can be cruelty-free but not vegan, and vice versa.    

Natural Doesn't Always Mean Better

  For you or the environment.   Essential oils are extremely potent plant compounds, often used as pharmaceutical-grade natural remedies, and they are not regulated by the FDA. Considering that one drop of undiluted peppermint essential oil is equivalent to about 28 cups of peppermint tea, this can be extremely problematic when it comes to skincare.   “People just throw together a few essential oils with a carrier oil and call it their daily moisturizer, but essential oils are crazy-strong plants,” says holistic aesthetician Britta Plug. “Putting that on every day [without the proper formulation] is going to mess up your skin barrier.” This could mean anything from experiencing mild skin irritation to suffering from an allergic reaction to dealing with breakouts.   In addition, essential oils from disreputable sources may be ‘cut’ with fillers, processed with chemicals, unethically sourced, or grown using pesticides. Greenwashing is also a problem. A 2008 study by the Organic Consumers Association found undisclosed carcinogenic petrochemical ingredients in more than 40 percent of products tested that claimed to be natural. And in 2016, the Federal Trade Commission filed complaints against four companies that marketed their personal care products as “all natural” or “100 percent natural” when the products contained a number of synthetic ingredients.  

SYNTHETIC INGREDIENTS CAN ACTUALLY BE SAFER—AND MORE EFFECTIVE

  There are the obvious natural culprits to steer clear of, like talc (see Ingredients to Avoid), and then there are products to be wary of, like clay, which may be contaminated with toxic heavy metals. But aesthetician Kristina Holey says it’s also imperative to look at the processing and sourcing of natural ingredients to ensure that they will be received by the body without a negative impact. Your expectation of a natural product may not always match the manufacturers’ use of the term, and with essential oils like lavender and tea tree, which have been linked to possible endocrine disruption, sometimes it can be more beneficial to opt for a safe synthetic ingredient.   “When it comes to synthetics versus natural, there are certain cases where a synthetic will not only prove to be ‘cleaner,’ but provide results in a more effective way than a non-isolated natural compound that is not 100 percent pure,” explains Holey, who uses the synthetically derived form of vitamin C, L-ascorbic acid, as an example. But it’s important that any synthetic ingredient is being formulated by people who are knowledgeable in quality control and the whole chain of sourcing, she says, “to really ensure that whatever is going into your product is healthy. And if there are synthetics used in a product, they need to have a purpose for the skin.” (Rather than act as fillers, stabilizers, or preservatives.)   Aesthetician Britta Plug adds that when it comes to the efficacy of all-natural products, it’s also important to know when the ingredients were bottled. An expiry date of six to 18 months after opening is something to strive for when shopping for natural products. “Even if something is natural, oftentimes it's made with ingredients that have been sitting on the shelf for years—like, actual years,” Plug explains. “[It could be made from] dried herbs that have been hanging out in a lab and no longer have that nutrient density.” Translation: It won’t actually work.  

CONSIDER THE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT OF "NATURAL"

  The perils of palm oil is a great example. Palm oil, used in everything from lipstick to shampoo, is a natural ingredient that comes from the fruit on tropical palm trees. However, producing palm oil wreaks havoc on the environment. To build palm oil plantations, trees are often cleared in tropical rain forests, causing deforestation and loss of animal habitats. According to the World Wildlife Fund, areas the size of approximately 300 football fields are cleared each hour for palm oil production, with orangutans and Sumatran tigers at risk of extinction.   But boycotting palm oil isn’t necessarily the solution. As with any natural resource, palm oil can be produced responsibly, and exchanging palm oil—the highest-yielding vegetable oil—with other vegetable-based carrier oils could actually worsen environmental problems. For instance, soybean, rapeseed, and sunflower oils require significantly more land to produce the same volume, according to a report by the World Wildlife Fund, which could cause greater impact to habitats, biodiversity, and the environment.   The answer? Certification (by the likes of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, or RSPO) and strong governmental regulations play an important role in ending irresponsible production of palm oil, and irresponsible production of other natural ingredients used by the beauty industry. (It takes 256 pounds of peppermint leaf to make one pound of peppermint essential oil, for example.)   “Anything can lead to deforestation,” says Tara Foley, founder of Follain, “we have to just approach it in a more sustainable, thoughtful way.” Foley notes that sandalwood is another natural ingredient currently being depleted by the beauty industry, but brands committed to the definition of clean beauty (safe for people and the planet) will simply use something else. “Right now, there's limited resources for sandalwood…It’s basically getting a little depleted," says Foley. "But it's the same thing: We need to figure out a way to do it in a more sustainable fashion. Until then, the clean brands are just going to use it less." And it's important to note, she adds, that the alternatives for plant-based ingredients are usually petroleum-based products—which is the “core of so much conventional beauty … and is not good on any level.”

Consider an average deodorant tube. Packaged in a hard plastic case, your deodorant contains lots of tiny plastic components for twist-ability that are not recyclable. This means that out of the all deodorants sold in the U.S. last year, most of them were tossed into the trash, with many of them ending up in the ocean. (Yes, garbage often ends up in sewers, rivers, and the ocean on its way to the landfill.) The result? Whales with bellies full of plastic, vanishing coral reefs, and a patch of trash three times the size of France floating in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Plastic waste is so pervasive that it has been found at the furthest depths of the ocean, and as plastic containers break down, tiny plastic fragments invisible to the naked eye (microplastics) end up in waterways and eventually, into the very fish we eat. Still, the plastic containers filling your bathroom cabinet and makeup bag are not the only troublemakers. It’s the ingredients inside the bottles that are also wrecking havoc with the environment. From glitter, which is often made from plastic and washed down the drain, to face wipes, which are virtually indestructible, to the 14,000 tons of sunscreen collecting in the world’s reefs each year, the beauty industry’s environmental footprint is having long-term ramifications. Take sunscreen. Oxybenzone and octinoxate, two of the most common sunscreen ingredients, are toxic for coral reefs. Avobenzone, a common substitute for oxybenzone, could be just as dangerous. Experts estimate that 90 percent of all reefs will be dead by 2050 unless we ban these sunscreens altogether. As for ingredients like parabens and sulfates, well, most chemicals that are washed down the drain are unable to be filtered out in treatment plants, so they end up in our waterways, in our tap water, and eventually the ocean—an important point, considering American women use an average of 12 personal care products, each containing 168 different chemicals.

We Can't Recycle Out of This Problem

You’ll notice that your serums and moisturizers are often kept inside a little bag, which is inside a colored light-protectant bottle, with a special pump and applicator. Most of these different parts (especially colored plastic, along with pumps, which usually contain a metal spring) are considered “non recyclable.” While companies like TerraCycle are changing the game by recycling the "non-recyclable" (from coffee capsules to plastic gloves to toothbrushes and deodorant cases, TerraCycle can recycle almost any form of waste), it’s important to focus on buying brands already committed to clean, sustainable practices. “The packaging thing has become such a hot button issue,” says Follain founder, Tara Foley. “However I want people to remember that it's the ingredients inside the packaging that can make a huge, huge impact very quickly as well. It’s critical to ensure that the whole product, not just the packaging, is clean.” She notes that bio-based plastics and biodegradable plastics, often viewed as green alternatives by consumers, have environmental drawbacks of their own. Indeed, the process in which plant ingredients in your natural beauty products are farmed can affect local communities and ecosystems, as well as the product’s overall carbon footprint. With conventional beauty brands, their packaging might taut recyclability, but the catastrophic environmental impact of the chemicals used to make their products could potentially be worse. It’s also important to note that most beauty products use water in manufacturing and as a main ingredient (usually under the label of “aqua”). Water is a precious energy resource that we need to protect as we tackle climate change.

The Solution

Try an eco-audit of your own daily beauty and grooming regimen. Assess the number of products you buy and how much waste is produced as a result. The first step is to contact Terracycle to find out how to properly recycle the products you are currently using. (To make the process easier for yourself, keep a separate bin for recycling in your bathroom.) Loop, a new innovation from TerraCycle inspired by the old milk man delivery and pick-up system, has already seen companies like P&G, Unilever, and The Body Shop sign onto the pilot program which recently launched in New York, New Jersey, Washington D.C., Pennsylvania, and Maryland. If you need more incentive, Credooffers store credit when you bring in empty bottles. The next step is to slowly start replacing your products with sustainable alternatives. You may have seen brands like Meow Meow Tweet and By Humankind, which offer products like refillable deodorant and mouthwash tabs. You can also switch to reusable cotton pads, refillable makeup from brands like Kjaer Weiss, and package-free products like shampoo bars—all of which significantly cut down plastic and chemical waste. Oh, and ditch the single-use face mask.

If you’re an educator who’d like to keep all those markers your kids use out of landfills, take note!   There’s a free recycling program from Crayola that allows students to collect and repurpose used markers from classrooms in K-12 schools across the country and in parts of Canada. The Crayola ColorCycle initiative is designed to help both teachers and students learn about sustainability and make a positive impact on the environment.   To participate, you simply need to sign up your school, collect markers, and send them in. The four easy steps are outlined on the ColorCycle web page.   First, inform your school’s administrators or parent-teacher organization about the program. Any school, kindergarten through 12th grade, in the contiguous 48 United States, is eligible to participate. Some areas of Canada are eligible as well. You can check if your Canadian postal code is covered here.  An adult representative can register the school to participate online.   Next, set up a collection site where people can drop off used markers at your school. The markers should then be packed in a cardboard box that has minimal outer markings. Only include markers in the box. All brands of markers are accepted, so they don’t just need to be Crayola markers. Ensure that each box weighs about 8-10 pounds, and secure it with packing tape. Crayola suggests a minimum of 100 markers and a maximum of 40 pounds per box. The packages should be affixed with a FedEx shipping label, which you can print online. They will be picked up by FexEx Ground, with shipping costs covered by Crayola.   Markers are often not allowed by local community recycling efforts, which more commonly collect paper, plastic, and glass. That makes this program all the more welcome. So what happens to the markers? According to Crayola, the recyclables are sent to a facility that converts old markers into energy as well as wax compounds for asphalt and roofing shingles. “The process repurposes the entire marker, regardless of the different kinds of plastics or how they are assembled,” the FAQ says. One school participating in the program is Geneva Middle School in Geneva, Illinois, where a group of students known as “The Green Team” is collecting markers through the program. They also have a deposit box to collect empty chip bags in school’s cafeteria. The club was organized last year in a sixth-grade science class.   Last month, the club brought their first load of empty chip bags to Gerald Ford Subaru in North Aurora, which has a recycling box for TerraCycle, a private recycling business. The school plans to continue the program when the school year gets underway again. If your classroom needs new markers, teachers can purchase Crayola Classpacks, which include a color palette of educator-preferred hues, as well as other bulk items at affordable prices. We hope plenty of schools are signing up this year!

People are awake to the issue of waste. Three years ago, people didn’t understand the issue of ocean plastic, and now they do. In our day-to-day lives, plastic is everywhere, but with China no longer buying our recyclables, every piece placed in our blue bin or purchased at the convenience store has even greater potential to add to the ocean gyres and microplastics making their way into our food chain. Though it may seem like the right thing to blame the existence of the material itself for these issues, plastic in and of itself is not the problem — it’s the fact that it is so often treated as if it is disposable, designed to be used once and is not typically widely accepted for recycling. We know plastic never fully breaks down. Wasting plastic isn’t just a loss of time, energy and finite natural resources, but active degradation of our planet and voluntary contribution to the climate crisis. Creating value for it is key to ensuring it doesn’t just get thrown “away.” Here are just a few of the innovations eliminating the idea of [plastic] waste.

Reduce, reuse — and reduce some more

At TerraCycle, we may be known for “recycling the unrecyclable,” but reduction prevents waste from occurring in the first place. For consumers, this may mean buying less and looking to borrow or reuse instead of buying new. For brands and industry, this means creating consumption models that require fewer plastic resources. Ride- and car-sharing services such as Lyft and Zipcar may not immediately come to mind, but these examples of sharing-economy models offer access to goods without ownership, offsetting the need to purchase. One less car on the road equals less of the gas, maintenance and water required to produce it, let alone drive. And since plastic makes up roughly 15 percent of the average car by weight, it fits.

Design differently

Packaging design is changing minute by minute, and many upgrades are doing away with plastic entirely. S’well and Klean Kanteen are popular brands of stainless-steel beverage containers replacing the disposable water bottle, also moving away from other reusable plastic bottles on the market. But again, plastic isn’t the problem. TerraCycle’s new circular shopping platform, Loop, features hundreds of consumer goods housed in durable versions of their previously single-use packaging. The products are offered in a combination of glass, stainless steel, aluminum and engineered plastics. The durable plastics are designed to last up to 100 uses; and when they do wear out, we recycle them, cycling the value of the material continuously.

Go naked

Farmer’s markets and craft fairs still sell their wares “naked” before they offer you a plastic bag, but there was a time where the consumer was responsible for bringing their own containers. The point of packaging is that it makes it easier and more convenient to buy goods, in addition to allowing inventory to be distributed, so reducing or doing away with packaging needs to create value (aka sell and be profitable) in order to work and be sustainable. Lush Cosmetics makes little to no packaging work as an extension of its brand identity. In addition to reusable metal tins, colorful cloth knot-wraps, and 100 percent post-consumer recycled plastic pots (some of it ocean plastic), 35 percent of Lush products are sold “naked,” allowing consumers to touch and smell in a retail experience that harks back to the shops of yore. Competitive with premium natural care brands, going package-less illustrates Lush’s ethos and serves as a model for others in the industry.

#RecycleEverything

Everything can be recycled — it’s just a matter of someone being willing to pay for it, which is why so many plastics aren’t. To solve for their plastics, some producers of consumer goods work with us to sponsor the collection, logistics and processing for TerraCycle’s variety of national recycling programs, made free to consumers. Through these programs, individuals and groups send in items including food and drink pouches, cosmetics packaging — even cigarette butts, the most littered item in the world. But with so many complex plastics in the world, there isn’t always a sponsor for its solution. Our highly customizable Zero Waste Box™ (ZWB) platform is another way for brands and businesses to offset their plastic impacts by offering it as part of their product lines at retail. Events, factories and public facilities also use it to supplement waste-reduction efforts for visitors and employees, solving for common streams such as packing and shipping material, breakroom items, and research disposables (i.e. gloves, disposable clothing, pipet tips). In areas of the country where recycling is entirely lacking, or certain plastics are not accepted (dark and colored plastics are not recyclable most places [more on that shortly], and some places don’t accept #5, for example), ZWBs are a solution for residents and businesses looking for the public system to catch up.

Invest in recycling technologies

Recycling more plastic is hindered by the fact that most recyclers don’t want it. Using post-consumer recycled (PCR) materials can present challenges with color, aesthetics and feel. In manufacturing, there is a need to find more end markets for colored and opaque plastics, as these are considered difficult to recycle because they are less versatile than clear, or virgin, plastic. Chemical recycling (depolymerization) is one option to decolor recycled plastics, but that certainly requires more infrastructure investment. These processes have the ability to remove pigments, dyes and additives to produce “virgin-like resins” that are competitive with virgin raw material. For example, Procter & Gamble recently invented the PureCycle Process and licensed it to PureCycle Technologies to open a plant to restore used polypropylene (PP, or #5 plastics) to “virgin-like” quality and remove colors and contaminants.

Explore new “plastics”

There is promise in exploring new materials — such as bioplastic derived from natural, renewable feedstocks instead of petroleum; and biodegradable plastics that supposedly break down in the natural environment, with considerations. Consumers certainly connect with the concept of a plastic made from plants, but before we go any further, humanity has pretty much maxed out agricultural land. Offsetting demand for petroleum-derived plastics with plant-derived bioplastics would call for millions of additional acres of agricultural space. The technology exists for things such as fruit juice waste, sewage, algae, pine trees and straw, but the infrastructure isn’t there. Moving on to biodegradable bioplastics, the compostability of compostable plastics is akin to the recyclability of plastics in general. All can be effectively processed, but most compostable plastics need an industrial facility. They won’t break down in your backyard pile, let alone the ocean or in a landfill, and there are only a handful of composting facilities in the United States. What’s more, many composters don’t want this in their piles, because most so-called biodegradable plastics don’t break down into nutrient-rich material as, say, food scraps or yard clippings do. What producers can do in this area is ensure their exploration of new materials is in line with the system as it is currently. Club Coffee — a major Canadian roaster, manufacturer and distributor of packaged coffee — created the world’s first 100 percent compostable, BPI Certified, plant-based coffee capsule, an item once called the “environmental boogeyman.” The pods break down in as little as five weeks without releasing toxins in the earth, or a composter’s product. This innovation, like all of the best innovations in plastics, account for the inputs of all stakeholders. Governments can certainly drive change by subsidizing research and incentivizing environmentally preferable use of material to ease the financial risks. What’s key here is the creation of value for consumers, governments, businesses and investors around solutions for the plastic pollution crisis, to ensure it works in the world as it is, to create the space for even greater systems change.