SUNY Oswego students and faculty have started collecting exhausted writing utensils — markers, pens and even mechanical pencils — and sending them to a recycling company in the latest of many efforts the campus community has taken to go green.   Six students in a technology class of Daniel Tryon launched the effort, manufacturing 212 wooden collection boxes last semester from old Swetman Gymnasium bleachers.   “Each box has a laser-engraved finish to add design details on the top, inside and front panels,” said Erika Wallace, a senior in technology education who helped manufacture the boxes. The boxes are “designed to be easy to use, light weight and magnetic to fit right into the school environment.”   Sustainability advocate Kate Spector, mathematics specialist with the Office of Learning Services, plans to work with students to continue distributing the boxes. They will mount the boxes on magnetic whiteboards in classrooms and other likely spaces around campus — the Tutoring Center, Penfield Library and others — where empty dry erase markers and other writing implements routinely have been tossed in the trash. The wooden boxes, fronted with a slotted acrylic panel, hold 15 to 20 dry erase markers each, more for smaller implements.   After routine collection, students will empty the utensils into a well-labeled green cardboard recycling box — TerraCycle refers to it as a “zero waste box” — just outside the College Store on the mezzanine level of Marano Campus Center. The larger box holds about 5,000 depleted implements.   Eliminating waste   Spector believes the presence of the boxes and the recycling effort will add one more action item for students and faculty in the college’s effort to promote sustainability. All campus members are encouraged to use the TerraCycle central collection box for their worn-out writing utensils.   “The primary goal of this project is to re-direct a segment of our waste stream, giving a second life to these materials,” Spector said. “In a larger sense, this project aims to spark conversations about shifting from a throwaway culture toward one that creates zero waste.”   TerraCycle, a private U.S. recycling business headquartered in Trenton, N.J., operates on the slogan, “Eliminating the Idea of Waste.” Besides the national effort to collect used writing utensils, the company runs a volunteer-based curbside collection program to gather heretofore non-recyclable pre-consumer and post-consumer waste, and then partners with corporate donors to turn it into raw material to be used in new products.   “The collected waste is mechanically and/or manually separated into metals, fibers, and plastics,” TerraCycle says on its website. “Metals are smelted so they may be recycled. The plastics undergo extrusion and pelletization to be molded into new recycled plastic products.”   Materials accepted in Oswego’s TerraCycle project include pens, pen caps, mechanical pencils, markers, marker caps, permanent markers and permanent marker caps, according to the company.   SUNY Oswego’s sustainability efforts are reflective of a pledge college President Deborah F. Stanley signed in 2007, the American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment, to demonstrate both regional and national sustainability leadership by modeling the campus as an example of ways society can reduce its carbon footprint.   Under the leadership of the Office of Sustainability, SUNY Oswego’s students and employees have helped drive initiatives that move the sustainability needle in ways large and small: Save the Trees to reduce paper use, substituting paper straws for plastic ones in campus dining halls and other locations, the Perk Up program to utilize reusable cups, Tap In to promote reusable water bottles, Bike Share to invest in a green way of transportation and the student-programmed Bus Share web application to encourage use of mass transit on and around campus.   Wallace said she wanted to leave her mark for future students, much like the ones she teaches locally. The recycling project served as her capstone for the technology course, her senior project under Tryon’s mentorship. “In the future, I want students, like my own, to be able to utilize energy more efficiently,” Wallace said.   Being a part of the marker recycling project serves as a positive reminder to Wallace. “Do something special, so that in 10 years you can look back and say, ‘I made a difference.’”   For more information, contact the Office of Sustainability at oswego.edu/sustainability, call 315-312-6601 or email sustainability@oswego.edu.

 

More than half of Americans admit they throw away beauty products. Keep your out of the landfill with these simple changes. Many companies are making the switch to eco-friendly packaging and incorporating more plant-based ingredients into their products. But there's also another side of green beauty, and it has to do with keeping unwanted purchases and used-up packaging from piling up on our planet. Here are five ways to shop smarter and give back to Mother Earth in the process.

Use Every Last Drop

Can’t reach the serum in the bottom of the jar? If a cotton swab doesn’t get it, consider a tool designed to keep products from going to waste. One to try: Recoup Beautiscoop, a wand with two spatulas that fit through the neck of small bottles. But don’t try to thin out the formula. “Water seriously impacts a product’s efficacy,” says Annie Jackson, cofounder of clean beauty brand retailer Credothis link opens in a new tab. Better to turn a bottle over, give it a shake, then let gravity do the rest Buy It: Recoup Beautiscoop, $11this link opens in a new tab

Recycle Your Empties

Plastic bottles with an imprint of the number 1, 2, or 5 within a triangle are typically recyclable. Their caps, however, may not be. “Cosmetic packaging with mixed materials like metal and plastic are notoriously difficult to recycle,” says Ashlee Piperthis link opens in a new tab, an ecolifestyle expert. Happily, stores like Origins and Credo will recycle caps, empty tubes, and compacts—no purchase necessary. Some brands (like Burt’s Bees, L’Occitane, and Eos) have free recycling programs through TerraCyclethis link opens in a new tab, a company that creates new products from old packaging.

Give Away Old Products

Contact a local shelter to see if it will accept unopened or gently used products. Or send them to Project Beauty Sharethis link opens in a new tab, which will distribute lightly used products (depending on the kind) to marginalized women. Piper recommends disinfecting anything that has been in contact with your skin with a mist or two of rubbing alcohol. (Put it in a spray bottle for mess-free cleaning.)

Reconsider the Packaging

Avoid hard-to-recycle materials by looking for items with minimal packaging, such as bar soaps that often come wrapped in recyclable paper. Lush sells solid bars of skin-care staples like cleansers, toners, facial oils, and serums. If you’re stuck with nonrecyclable packaging, repurpose it. A small plastic tub that held eye cream, for instance, could hold jewelry, other tiny items, or even beauty products when you travel. “I clean small containers and fill them with my face cream when I’m traveling instead of going out and buying travel-size containers,” Piper says.

Learn the Beauty Aisle Lingo

Knowing the meaning of the words on product packaging can help you make better-informed shopping decisions. Here's a guide.

• Organic: Products labeled “organic” contain at least 95 percent organic agricultural ingredients. Those claiming “made with organic ingredients” must have at least 70 percent.

• Clean: There’s no regulated definition, but it most often means the formula is free of controversial ingredients, including parabens (a common preservative), sulfates (a cleansing agent), and phthalates (often found in synthetic fragrances).

• Vegan: No animal by-products, such as honey and lanolin, are in vegan products.

• Cruelty-Free: This indicates that the formulas and ingredients weren’t tested on animals. The gold standard is the Leaping Bunny Programthis link opens in a new tab, which audits brands’ supply chains. PETA’s cruelty-free seal requires a written statement affirming the company doesn’t test on animals.

O Parque Ecológico de São Carlos “Dr. Antônio Teixeira Vianna”, realizou na tarde desta terça-feira, 12, no auditório do Paço Municipal, a premiação das escolas com o maior índice de coleta de esponjas de limpeza (dupla face) dentro do Projeto Elimine a Ideia de Lixo – Conservação do Meio Ambiente – Brigada de Esponjas Scotch Brite. Também foi premiada a escola que mais usou as redes sociais para divulgar o projeto e a mais criativa para aumentar a coleta.

You want to look great while respecting the planet, right? April Long Mar 15, 2019       Beauty products can have some ugly effects on the environment, choking landfills with trash and polluting our waterways. Thankfully, companies large and small are stepping up their sustainability game, prioritizing the responsible sourcing of ingredients, implementing earth-friendly manufacturing processes, and experimenting with inventive recycling programs. But we all have a role to play. Even the tiniest gestures make an impact, right down to the number of styling products we use in our hair. Here, how you can help.  

The issue: squandering our resources.

  The way plant ingredients in your creams and shampoos are farmed affects local communities and ecosystems—and a product’s overall carbon footprint. One of the most egregious examples is palm oil, whose derivatives appear in a whopping 70 percent of cosmetics. Indiscriminate building of palm oil plantations in Indonesia and Malaysia has decimated rainforests, and research indicates that deforestation releases more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than all the cars and trucks in the world combined. Also, most personal care products use water in manufacturing and as a main ingredient—and the availability of clean, drinkable water is expected to nose-dive by 2050, thanks to climate change, pollution, and increased demand.  

What’s being done?

  Mega-companies are making major changes. L’Oréal, which has committed to being deforestation-free by 2020, and Estée Lauder are working closely with the global nonprofit Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil to ensure that their cultivation methods and sourcing have minimal negative environmental impact.   So is Unilever—the parent company of Dove, St. Ives, and Pond’s—which released its entire supply chain to the public, promising to source all its palm oil sustainably. That’s a big deal, given that Unilever brands go through more than a million metric tons of the stuff per year. In addition, Unilever and L’Oréal are putting resource efficiency front and center, devising innovative ways to use less water in production and with products themselves (low-water-use shampoo, fast-rinse conditioners).   One of the most exciting developments, though, is brought to us by biotechnology, which companies are using to create environmentally responsible ingredients. The skincare line Biossance makes its squalane, a naturally occurring oil traditionally derived from shark livers or olives, from renewable sugarcane, and the brand Algenist’s key anti-agers, alguronic acid and microalgae oil, come from sustainable algae.  

What can you do?

  At home is start by being mindful of your water use. Turn off the shower while shaving, and skip a shampoo occasionally. If you want to go full-on farm-to-face, choose green beauty standouts like Jurlique, Juice Beauty, Dr. Hauschka, and Tata Harper—they all grow botanicals on their own farms. Otherwise, look for labels such as Ecocert, which guarantees the use of renewable ingredients.           Seed Phytonutrients founder Shane Wolf, who worked to develop the first-ever shower-friendly paper bottles, made from 100 percent recycled material and used for the brand’s shampoo, conditioners, cleansers, and hand wash. More than 60 percent of paper is recycled, while less than 10 percent of plastic is, “Any move away from plastic toward paper is a move in the right direction,” says Wolf. And hidden inside each bottle is a packet of seeds, which can be planted to grow heirloom herbs.    

The issue: emissions and pollution.

  Global fossil fuel–related emissions of carbon dioxide reached an estimated record high of 37.1 billion metric tons in 2018, which is putting us on course for a very hot and smoggy planet. Consumers—that’s us!—are calling for accountability and action, and brands are responding.  

What’s being done?

  The big guys are effecting big change. Several items in Garnier’s SkinActive linehave earned Cradle to Cradle certification, which measures environmental impact over the life of a product, and parent company L’Oréal USA has pledged to achieve carbon neutrality for its plants and distribution centers this year by switching to renewable energy. (Fun fact: The Maybelline Great Lash mascaras sold in America are made with 100 percent renewable electricity.)   And remember those plastic microbeads from face scrubs and cleansers that were turning up in lakes and oceans (and fish bellies) a few years ago? They’ve been banned from rinse-off personal care products in the U.S. Small brands are making a difference, too. Most of Tata Harper’s packaging is made from easily recyclable glass (more than one ton of natural resources, like sand or limestone, is saved for every ton of glass recycled), and the plastic used for its tubes is derived from corn rather than petroleum.  

What can you do?

  Try an eco-audit of your own daily beauty regimen, assessing the number of products you buy and how much waste is produced as a result. The Nature Conservatory’s carbon calculator (nature.org) helps you determine your footprint, then offers tips on what you can do to decrease it. One thing you shouldn’t do: Clean your face with a non-biodegradable wet wipe—and you really shouldn’t flush it down the toilet. Why? Just Google “fatberg.”   Former fragrance exec Marcella Cacci launched the skincare line One Ocean Beauty in 2018 with a simple mission: to help protect the health of the oceans. The brand harnesses “blue biotechnology,” which involves reproducing marine extracts from algae, kelp, and seaweed in the lab rather than harvesting them from the sea. This means there’s no impact on the ocean’s natural bounty. “We never hurt the biodiversity,” says Cacci, who adds that the brand has also donated $250,000 to Oceana, the largest global nonprofit focused solely on ocean conservation.  

The issue: waste.

  A staggering eight million metric tons of plastic ends up in the ocean every year, with countless pieces of bottle caps and straws in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, which is actually two large masses between Japan and the U.S. West Coast. If current trends continue, it’s predicted that by 2050, plastic will outweigh fish in our oceans, and 12 billion metric tons of it will sit in landfills. The beauty industry, which produces billions of plastic packaging units annually, has a lot to answer for.  

What’s being done?

  Plenty! Unilever and L’Oréal have committed to using 100 percent recyclable or compostable packaging by 2025; Procter & Gamble, the übercompany behind Pantene, Head & Shoulders, and Herbal Essences, has pledged the same by 2030. Beginning this year, haircare brand Kevin Murphy is going all in, sourcing its packaging from reclaimed ocean plastic, a move that will save more than 360 tons of new plastic annually. Since 2011, Garnier has partnered with TerraCycle to tackle previously unrecyclable beauty packaging, diverting approximately 11.2 million empties from landfills. And at the World Economic Forum in January, a consortium of brands, including REN Clean Skincare and the Body Shop, announced participation in Loop, a shopping program that will offer products in durable packaging that can be returned, sanitized, and reused (like old-school milk bottles). It’s set to launch in the New York City area and France this spring.  

What can you do?

  Excuse us for shouting, but...RECYCLE! According to the Environmental Protection Agency, recycling just ten plastic bottles saves enough energy to power a laptop for more than 25 hours. Since products used in the bathroom tend to have a low recycling rate (people typically keep their bins in the kitchen), make it easier for yourself by keeping a ready receptacle next to the shower. Need more incentive? Kiehl’s, Lush, and MAC offer freebies when you bring in empties, and others, including Origins and Tenoverten (with nail salons in New York City, Los Angeles, and Austin), will accept containers from other brands as well. When shopping, gravitate toward items without excess packaging (or none at all—Lush’s new Naked concept stores offer bath products, haircare in bar form, and facial soaps with no packaging whatsoever), or look for a label that specifies 100 percent recycled content.   Since its inception in 2013, Beautycounter has become one of America’s most trusted sources for cleaner skincare and makeup. Founder Gregg Renfrew’s top goal is ingredient safety (the company’s do-not-use list includes approximately 1,500 chemicals), and she views sustainability as intrinsically linked to that mission. “We’re committed to making decisions that are based on scientific research, but given the large data gaps around safety and sustainability, it’s extremely complicated,” Renfrew says.   To help close those gaps, Beautycounter partners with researchers and universities, and has screened more than 1,000 ingredients for their effects on our health and the environment. Meanwhile, Renfrew is advocating for increased federal oversight to help clean up cosmetics: She and her team have met repeatedly with D.C. lawmakers to lobby for legislation like the Personal Care Products Safety Act, which would give the FDA the power to, among other things, regulate potentially harmful ingredients.  

The issue: animal testing.

  This practice may not be directly related to the environment, but should concern anyone who cares about our fellow living creatures. While the U.S. is inching toward a ban (California will prohibit the sale of cosmetics that have been tested on animals starting next year, and New York and Hawaii have introduced similar legislation), many companies have implemented their own prohibitions on testing. The EU has forbidden it outright, but it’s actually still required for foreign products sold in China. For an international corporation that wants to do business there, this is a problem.  

What’s being done?

  Multinationals and smaller brands alike are pushing for change in China and countries that still permit animal testing; in 2018, the Body Shop and Cruelty Free International (CFI) brought a petition with 8.3 million signatures they’d gathered worldwide to the UN, calling for a global ban.  

What can you do?

  Check labels for a little rabbit; it signifies that CFI’s Leaping Bunny program has certified a product as cruelty-free. If in doubt, check Leaping Bunny’s website or head to PETA to find the rigorously vetted Beauty Without Bunnies list, which ensures that neither brands nor their ingredient suppliers are spritzing hairspray in any animal’s eyes.  

Mercer Elementary School of Hamilton won Entenmann's® Little Bites® “Small Bites, Big Collections” recycling contest by collecting a total of 5,874 empty Little Bites pouches. With help from recycling pioneer TerraCycle®, the accumulated waste will be cleaned, processed, and reshaped by for use in new plastic products.   As the winner, Mercer Elementary School will receive 50,000 TerraCycle points, school supplies, four custom collection boxes, and 50 boxes of Little Bites for their efforts. TerraCycle points are redeemable in the form of a cash donation to a non-profit of the winner’s choice.   The Entenmann's® Little Bites® “Small Bites, Big Collections” contest launched September 1 and ran until December 31 nationwide for schools, clubs and community groups participating in the Entenmann’s Little Bites Recycling Program, a free recycling program operated by Entenmann's Little Bites and TerraCycle.   “The sustainability of our future and environment is so important for the children of generations to come,” said Kim Bremer, Director of Marketing for Entenmann’s Little Bites. “Entenmann’s Little Bites feels honored and proud to stand next to TerraCycle in such an important global issue.”   Mercer Elementary School and other collectors participating in the Entenmann's® Little Bites® Pouch Recycling Program have diverted a considerable amount of plastic waste from landfills. To date, the program has recycled 4,217,634 pouches and donated over $68,000 to schools and charities. The program is open to any individual, school or organization interested in reducing local landfill waste. To learn more about the Entenmann’s Little Bites Pouch Recycling Program, please visit www.terracycle.com.   The full set of rules for the 2018 Entenmann's® Little Bites® “Small Bites, Big Collections” can be viewed at: https://www.terracycle.com/en-US/contests/small-bites-big-collections.

Canada's legal cannabis industry is starting to come to grips with its waste problem: an avalanche of pot packaging that's good at meeting regulatory demands, but tricky to recycle. Federal cannabis regulations don't directly tell producers what materials to use in their packaging, but they do require marijuana containers be opaque or semitransparent, guard against contamination, keep cannabis bud dry, and keep children out. Those requirements make it hard to use biodegradable packaging options, according to Dan Sutton, chief executive officer of Tantalus Labs.

  "The first step is certainly nationwide recycling programs, which will make the waste cycle similar to beverage products we consume every day," he wrote by email. Cannabis industry colossus Canopy Growth Corp. is underwriting such a container recycling program through its Tweed retail brand. The program is administered by New Jersey-based company TerraCycle, and accepts containers collected by any licensed cannabis retailer in Canada, whether or not they're affiliated with Canopy Growth. Individual consumers can also mail used weed vessels directly to TerraCycle for recycling. Canada's cannabis containers tend to use what TerraCycle's director of brand partnerships, Gina Herrera, described as "complex plastics," which are harder to process than the polyethylene terephtalate and high-density polyethelene often used in consumer goods packaging. TerraCycle and its subcontractors will take those containers, clean them, and melt them down into plastic pellets, which can then be manufactured into new products. (Herrera gave the examples of picnic tables or park benches, which would usually be made of "virgin" plastic. TerraCycle can also process other materials used in Canadian cannabis packaging, such as metal and foil, she said.) "Essentially anything that comes in through TerraCycle, through the program, is always recycled and never landfilled," said Herrera. Although TerraCycle has started collecting cannabis containers at an Ontario facility, Herrera said the actual recycling process has yet to kick off. First, it will need to accumulate enough material to make the process economically feasible — between 10 and 40 tons of weed packaging, according to Herrera. High Tide Inc., which operates 10 Canna Cabana stores in Alberta, has signed up for TerraCycle's program and installed recycling bins in its stores. Spokesman Jason Kostiw said the company took interest in recycling containers after hearing "lots from customers about the sheer amount of packaging."  

  "So far, our stores have sent back 18 shipments to TerraCycle, which equals approximately 162 kilograms of recycled product," said Kostiw. "It's been a hugely successful campaign so far." Some of Canna Cabana's Alberta locations are still waiting for their provincial licence to sell cannabis, which have been placed on hold due to product shortages in that province. In the meantime, those stores are only selling cannabis accessories, such as vaporizers and pipes. "We're actually really surprised that even our accessory stores that don't sell cannabis, people will just go out of their way to return (empty packaging) to the store," he said. A smaller Alberta retailer-in-waiting has launched its own homegrown recycling program for cannabis containers. Lake City Cannabis in Chestermere, Alta., is also selling accessories while it awaits its provincial sales licence, and is offering a 10 per cent discount on accessories for shoppers who bring in used containers for recycling. Owner Ryan Roch likens his discounts-for-recycling campaign to the incentivizing deposit from returning a beer bottle, and said it's already drawing interest from customers. Roch plans to take the containers to the local recycling depot on his own, although he's not yet sure whether they'll accept them.

Canada's legal cannabis industry is starting to come to grips with its waste problem: an avalanche of pot packaging that's good at meeting regulatory demands, but tricky to recycle. Federal cannabis regulations don't directly tell producers what materials to use in their packaging, but they do require marijuana containers be opaque or semitransparent, guard against contamination, keep cannabis bud dry, and keep children out. Those requirements make it hard to use biodegradable packaging options, according to Dan Sutton, chief executive officer of Tantalus Labs.

  "The first step is certainly nationwide recycling programs, which will make the waste cycle similar to beverage products we consume every day," he wrote by email. Cannabis industry colossus Canopy Growth Corp. is underwriting such a container recycling program through its Tweed retail brand. The program is administered by New Jersey-based company TerraCycle, and accepts containers collected by any licensed cannabis retailer in Canada, whether or not they're affiliated with Canopy Growth. Individual consumers can also mail used weed vessels directly to TerraCycle for recycling. Canada's cannabis containers tend to use what TerraCycle's director of brand partnerships, Gina Herrera, described as "complex plastics," which are harder to process than the polyethylene terephtalate and high-density polyethelene often used in consumer goods packaging. TerraCycle and its subcontractors will take those containers, clean them, and melt them down into plastic pellets, which can then be manufactured into new products. (Herrera gave the examples of picnic tables or park benches, which would usually be made of "virgin" plastic. TerraCycle can also process other materials used in Canadian cannabis packaging, such as metal and foil, she said.) "Essentially anything that comes in through TerraCycle, through the program, is always recycled and never landfilled," said Herrera. Although TerraCycle has started collecting cannabis containers at an Ontario facility, Herrera said the actual recycling process has yet to kick off. First, it will need to accumulate enough material to make the process economically feasible — between 10 and 40 tons of weed packaging, according to Herrera. High Tide Inc., which operates 10 Canna Cabana stores in Alberta, has signed up for TerraCycle's program and installed recycling bins in its stores. Spokesman Jason Kostiw said the company took interest in recycling containers after hearing "lots from customers about the sheer amount of packaging."  

  "So far, our stores have sent back 18 shipments to TerraCycle, which equals approximately 162 kilograms of recycled product," said Kostiw. "It's been a hugely successful campaign so far." Some of Canna Cabana's Alberta locations are still waiting for their provincial licence to sell cannabis, which have been placed on hold due to product shortages in that province. In the meantime, those stores are only selling cannabis accessories, such as vaporizers and pipes. "We're actually really surprised that even our accessory stores that don't sell cannabis, people will just go out of their way to return (empty packaging) to the store," he said. A smaller Alberta retailer-in-waiting has launched its own homegrown recycling program for cannabis containers. Lake City Cannabis in Chestermere, Alta., is also selling accessories while it awaits its provincial sales licence, and is offering a 10 per cent discount on accessories for shoppers who bring in used containers for recycling. Owner Ryan Roch likens his discounts-for-recycling campaign to the incentivizing deposit from returning a beer bottle, and said it's already drawing interest from customers. Roch plans to take the containers to the local recycling depot on his own, although he's not yet sure whether they'll accept them.

P&G brand and TerraCycle create limited edition recyclable bottles made of 25% beach plastic.

Sustainable Cosmetics Summit will return to NYC for 10th year

14-Mar-2019 By Deanna Utroske The green beauty conference event hosted by ecovia Intelligence is set to take place in New York City again this May and will feature an array of expert speakers from innovative brands like Pinch of Colour, material recycling ventures like TerraCycle, natural ingredient suppliers like Down Under Enterprises, and more.