DONATE YOUR MASCARA WANDS TO HELP WILDLIFE
If you recently finished your favorite mascara, and you don’t know what to do with the container — and you’re determined to keep it out of the landfill — Appalachian Wildlife Refuge has the answer for you: They want your used mascara wands for the animals in their care. And no, before you ask, they aren’t looking to achieve longer, darker, or more voluminous lashes for the animals in need. But mascara wands do make for an ideal grooming situation.
For the past two years, the Appalachian Wildlife Refuge has collected used mascara wands as part of their Wands for Wildlife program, which began after they realized that the fine-toothed bristles made mascara wands the perfect tool for caring for the animals in their care.
As Appalachian Wildlife Refuge cofounder Kimberly Brewster explained to Green Matters, the wands are used in various ways with the animals, such as removing fly eggs and larva from feathers and fur of wild animals; grooming an area on an animal to remove dust, dirt, sand, sawdust, etc.; assisting the wildlife rehabilitator in examining for injuries; and cleaning the syringes used for feeding the animals.
Brewster added that “because the bristles are soft and so close together, they reduce the risk of potential injury to the tiny patients — especially squirmy babies.”
On March 10, 2017, Brewster’s fellow cofounder Savannah Trantham posted a call of action on Facebook, explaining the need for used mascara wands — and the response to the viral post was so astounding that today, Wands for Wildlife receives so many donations that they’re able to donate to other wildlife rehabs and facilities, furthering the impact of the donations beyond Appalachian Wildlife Refuge.
Actually donating the wands is easy as could be; once your product is ready to be donated, Wands for Wildlife advises you to clean them in warm, soapy water to remove any product and residue from the wands. Along with the form on their website, you can ship the wands to Appalachian Wildlife Refuge, who will either use it in their own facility or donate it to other organizations who work with animals in need.
In order to truly minimize your impact when it comes to getting rid of your mascara — and keeping your empties out of the landfill — you can also recycle your would-be-hard-to-recycle mascara tube with TerraCycle’s Personal Care and Beauty Recycling Program.
If you don’t wear mascara, there are still countless other ways to help the cause; Appalachian Wildlife Refuge currently has a wishlist of items that would assist them in helping the animals, and — of course — monetary donations are always appreciated as well.
In an email to Green Matters, Brewster explained how moved she’s been by the incredible response their initiative has received.
She wrote, “The response to a simple request for mascara wands has been astounding. I honestly have trouble wearing mascara now — the outpouring of compassion brings tears to my eyes almost daily as i read messages, notes, and comments from people all over the world who care about animals, the environment, and just want to help. The world is full of good people wanting to do some good!”
At the World Economic Forum in Davos about a month ago, we launched Loop, which is our third business unit. It’s entirely focused on how we solve waste at the root cause, which comes down to rethinking disposable items.
Could you elaborate on how Loop works?
Loop is really an engine for brands and retailers. For brands, Loop enables them to develop durable versions of their products, like making Tropicana bottles in extremely durable glass instead of cartons.
There’s an ecosystem of products that most of the world’s biggest producers are involved in, from Unilever to P&G and many others, so that consumers can access the materials.
As a consumer, you would be able to go into your favorite store, see your favorite products, but instead of in disposable packaging, it’s in this beautiful, premium, reusable package. And instead of having to clean it yourself, to wash it out and refill it, we do that for customers. At Loop, we enable the benefits of disposability without the negatives.
How did you approach designing a process that would fit into consumers’ lives and integrate recycling into them seamlessly?
The first question we asked when we came up with the idea for Loop was, “Why does garbage exist?” We landed on, “Well, disposability.” But you can’t just vilify disposability. We wanted to think about, “Why are people, even today, just absolutely in love with the concept of disposability?”
The answer is that it brings unparalleled convenience and affordability. To solve the problem, we have to look at the positives, at what the value of it is for consumers, as problematic as it is. The thesis for Loop was, “How do we solve for the negatives of disposability while maintaining its positives?”
We realized it came down to ownership. One of the strange things about the products we buy, anything from our coffee cup to our shampoo, is that we really want the content, but we end up owning the package at the end. I’d argue, none of us really wants to own the package. If the manufacturer could own the package forever, they would be motivated to make it long lasting and durable. Suddenly, everything clicks.
How did you approach shifting that ownership from consumers to the retailers?
It started with the producers of the products. It begins with the visible part, the package design, and making it into something durable. There are two ways to make something physically durable: One is to make it out of strong materials, but the other is to allow it to age. Actually allowing something to age dramatically increases the total number of times it can go around, which is a different concept in a world where everything is always brand spanking new.
Then, it needs to be cleanable, strong enough to endure being cleaned many times, and needs to be refillable. Those elements are the first major hurdle.
The second is integrating it for retailers. The key learning here is that retailers are very limited on resources these days, so they can’t do a lot of development. The want to enable a packaging-free aisle, if you will, a popular idea right now. At Loop, the goal is to enable this while forcing them to change as little as possible in their ecosystem.
The benefit of working with existing brands and existing retailers is they don’t have to convince consumers to buy their products—they’re already being sold effectively at a location where consumers already shop. The difference is just offering the option to have it in disposable and durable packaging.
The last piece is sustainability.We very quickly learned that durability brings about not just reuse, but also an amazing increase in luxury—in design based on the materials required. What happens is, then we can appeal not just to those concerned about the environment, but also to those who just want a better-looking product.
Did retailers and the partners you work with understand the benefit right away? Did Loop have to convince them?
Our very first partner was Procter & Gamble. We’ve been working with them through TerraCycle for many years. It did take a phenomenal amount of discussion, convincing and meetings because it’s a risk, on their time as well as money.
The second one was NestlÈ, and then Pepsi, Mars and Unilever, and things became progressively easier. Once those were established, it was a whirlwind. Almost every week a new partner is joining.
You mentioned the side benefit of durable packaging is that it can create a better overall product experience. Could you expand on this? Did this appeal to retailers?
With Loop, one of the things we focus on is helping retailers make distinguished packaging. The benefit to them is that it’s still the same product from the same brand, but with upgraded packaging.
How have consumers reacted to the concept?
The response has been overwhelmingly positive. It’s phenomenal how many people have signed up for it. One of the things consumers are hoping for is that Loop scales quickly. We’re going to be starting in Paris, then New York, then London and Toronto, but they’d like to see it in more and more places. They also want a range of goods.
It’s good that we were able to start with the really big retailers, but based on consumer feedback we’re also going after some of the smaller startups to enable a diversity of products. Consumers understand that there’s a garbage problem. While some prioritize the environmental aspect, others really like the design aspect, and some really like the convenience aspect. When you put all that together, it’s a pretty big ecosystem of benefits. It doesn’t really
matter which side of that consumers are on, as long as they get on board.
Could you explain the timing of your launch?
The world is really strong right now for a system like this. People have woken up to the problem of garbage, as have retailers. They have made big commitments, big pledges, big promises. The companies that have to take part are ready to go, and that wasn’t the case two, three years ago.
How have consumer expectations for at-home delivery and online shopping influenced your work?
It absolutely helps. A lot of what Loop relies on is existing supply chains, and by having a lot of ecommerce drivers already in place, we’re not putting more trucks on the road. Consumer comfortability with ecommerce supports us. Overall what is important to us is that customers feel that Loop is as convenient if not more convenient than the way they already consume.
What can we expect for your launch this spring?
May is when New York and Paris go live. We’ll be announcing the U.S. retailers at that time. There’ll be even more products than what’s already available. Every day more and more companies join and leverage more products. What’s also great is that they’re pushing each other, competing to foster innovation.
Could you speak about the future avenues for product reuse that Loop has the potential to open as it changes consumer behavior toward recycling?
Establishing relationships with consumers related to reuse unlocks huge layers of opportunity. For example, if you go into a normal retailer like Amazon.com, you can see your order history. That’s pretty straightforward, and you’ll be able to see your order history in Loop as well, but you’ll get one more thing. Because we know what you bought and also when you returned it, we know what’s in your house. By definition, that’s everything that you bought but haven’t returned yet.
That is really interesting for the consumer because imagine if suddenly you have someone in your family that is allergic to peanuts. You can suddenly click one button and it would say, “Here is everything in your home that has peanuts in it.” Instead of having to go on the back of every product and figure it out yourself, can you imagine if with one click it would just highlight for you everything that’s a problem? Then with a second click, you could send that all in and substitute it for the non-peanut versions of the same type of product. There’s a lot of potential there.
Another is a feature that’s enabled right at the beginning: Shoppers can set their account so that their empty product triggers a reorder. They shop with their used product, which means they never get the wrong amount. If you think about it, what are the challenges with subscription models? Consumers love them, but one of the big complaints is it’s a box every month, and what if they go on vacation? What if they stop using that product? If they set it by having their used items trigger their reorders, then it’s by definition perfectly timed.
Another example of something we’re developing now is diagnostics.
Imagine, since we know it’s your used motor oil container when you send back your used oil in your oil container, we could diagnose it for you by measuring the engine scrapings that are left diluted in your oil. That could then tell you what the health of the inside of your car are.
Imagine cat litter. If we take the used cat litter, we could diagnose it and tell you about the health of your cat. What about a used dirty diaper and the health of your child?
There is a lot uncharted territory in knowing that a used product came from a certain consumer. Those are just a few examples of where that relationship could go in the future.
Tom Szaky.
