The idea of thinking about the future journey of products and packaging is being embraced by Coors Light in the U.S. as it plans to convert its old billboards into beer coolers and damaged beer kegs into BBQ grills for in-store marketing, as reported by Adweek. The brand’s environmental push will be part of it’s summer campaign “Every One Can” where TerraCycle will upcycle the discarded packaging and promotional material into items that will include a tag that reads “I used to be a billboard.” The upcycling program is just another effort from the brand under its “Climb On” umbrella campaign, by 72andSunny, which also includes TV spots that promote the brand’s sustainable contributions, like how it uses massive solar-power systems at MillerCoors’ breweries.

The next 40 days of the Christian season of Lent is a time when we sacrifice guilty pleasures like sweets, alcohol, television, shopping and social media. But, in fact, giving up these guilty pleasures is not really that painful of a sacrifice because it actually benefits us in the long run. Right?   Might I suggest something to give up for the next 40 days that is not easy, requires sacrifice and thought, and benefits the planet in the long run? This Lent, give up plastic.   (Excuse me a minute while I grab the plastic tube of lip moisturizer and freshen my dry lips. Alternative: Raw Cocoa Balm at from Rex Organics)   I know, I’ve harped on plastics since the dawning of the blog and social media. And I know exactly how challenging it is to walk away from plastics. As a matter of fact, I find myself slipping into the plastic habit because sometimes it seems like my pleas wind up in the landfill of unread words.   But I am a realist. And like many, reminders will regenerate those brain cells that will help lead me away from wasteful habits that revolve around plastics.   Why? While plastics were once the dream products for consumers, who knew that plastics would become Planet Earth’s toxic nightmare? The ubiquitous plastic bottle, for example, is something that Americans use 2.5 million every hour. And we throw away 35 billion plastic water bottles every year. Or how about the plastic baggy? We use 540 baggies or 0.84 lbs. of plastic baggies per year.   (Excuse me a minute while I mark off those statistics with my plastic pen. Alternative: Use pencils.)   Plastic grocery bags have become such visual nuisances and costly to city and county waste facilities, that many regions have banned the single-use plastic grocery bag.   Unfortunately, the effort to regionally ban single-use plastics like grocery bags has been banned in Michigan and other states. As you know, plastics are a by-product of the petroleum industry, and a highly profitable by-product. Might I dare suggest that the industry consider giving up their lobbying efforts to ban the bans for Lent?   Why? Consider that in America the average person throws away approximately 185 pounds of plastic per year. Consider that it takes between 500 to 1,000 years for the plastic to degrade, compounded by worldwide plastic waste, compounded by the fact that “plastic chemicals can be absorbed by the body—93 percent of Americans age six or older test positive for BPA (a plastic chemical),” and that “some of these compounds found in plastic have been found to alter hormones or have other potential human health effects,” compounded by the fact that “in the Los Angeles area alone, 10 metric tons of plastic fragments—like grocery bags, straws and soda bottles—are carried into the Pacific Ocean every day,” compounded worldwide and by the fact that “one million sea birds and 100,000 marine mammals are killed annually from plastic in our oceans, and 44 percent of all seabird species, 22 percent of cetaceans, all sea turtle species and a growing list of fish species have been documented with plastic in or around their bodies,” it would seem to me to be the perfect corporate sacrifice for Lent.   But I know that jobs are more important, even if we are killing off ourselves and nature.   (Excuse me while I grab a plastic clippy to pull back my hair. Alternative: Use a cotton headband.)   If I’ve guilted you into giving up single use plastic for Lent, here are some ways I’ve learned to lessen single-use plastics in my life:   Buy condiments like mustard and ketchup in glass containers. Use wax paper to wrap sandwiches. There are also biodegradable and compostable sandwich bags and food wraps available on the market, such as from EcoProducts. Purchase deli products from the deli counter and request that they wrap your purchase in butcher paper. Ask your market’s butcher to wrap your meat order in butcher paper. Not all fruits and vegetables need to be plopped into plastic bags to purchase. Consider not bagging bananas, single fruit or vegetable items, celery, etc. Purchase bread products wrapped in paper. (The benefit here is those breads are much more fresh and yummy than plastic wrapped breads.) Purchase milk in paper cartons. Clean and reuse what you can. (My favorite comes from “grandma El” who cleaned every wax bag from cereal cartons and reused them to pack sandwiches.) Let’s sacrifice for our own good and the planet that gives us life. Your Lenten sacrifice may benefit you in ways you couldn’t imagine.

Why brands are riding the wave of conscious consumption.

This article appears in the March/April 2017 issue of strategy.   Down on her luck, with barely a cent to her name, Emily Bitze needed tomatoes for her noodle dinner. Her cupboards were bare, so she did what any hungry millennial would do: she bummed from her friends online. It worked, sort of – she ended up with hearts of palm instead.   But that wasn’t the end of the story for the creator of Toronto’s famous trading site, Bunz. After that first solicitation, “Mother Bun” – as fellow traders like to call her – started the cashless bartering group on Facebook for her circle of friends. Three years later, in February, the newly rebranded group migrated to its own app, and now helps 100,000 members swap metro cards for Tinkerbell bags, clothing for calculators, and even beer for roadkill (taxidermists in training) on a daily basis.   Bitze is part of a group of adults under 34 (millennials, as we know them) who anthropologist and strategist Johanna Faigelman of Human Branding says is leading the charge in the next evolution of “conscious consumerism.” We’re entering a phase where the second “R” in “Reduce, Reuse and Recycle” is stealing the environmental limelight, with resourceful folk – somewhat ashamed by the trappings of excessive consumerism – bartering once-loved items and upcycling strangers’ trash into their own personal treasure. Beyond bartering with Bunz (which has spawned copycats in cities all over Canada), there’s also Hipcycle, Ikea Hackers, The Upcycling Exchange and others that are fuelling a new kind of post-consumerist world. “We’re being much more conscious of what we’re consuming and how that impacts not only ourselves, but the world around us,” says Faigelman. She says you can trace the trajectory of the social movement by looking at the growth of the sharing economy and the idea of community that’s being built through groups (like Bunz) on social media, not to mention consumers demanding more transparency and ethical practices from companies. Faigelman believes there may be socio-economic factors at work, too. “I think it connects on a deeper level, where there is a certain amount of dissatisfaction from millennials on how much money they have spent on their education with no real clear path for them,” she says, with bartering as a way to feel less reliant on currency. “There’s also a bit of an undercurrent of rebellion against being dictated to in terms of how to consume and be a consumer.” So, how can marketers respond to this sprouting trend? Faigelman suggests not just looking at the products their company produces, but also how they’re packaged. “That’s a dimension people weren’t really thinking about before. We do a lot of innovation around new and clever formats to make it more usable or portable, but in fact, one of the questions that comes up [in our focus groups] is ‘Where is this going to go post-consumption?’” Be more conscious of the product’s packaging and its life cycle by creating reusable food containers that you can eat from today and use for something else tomorrow, she says as an example. “Packaging can be convenient or sexy, but if it doesn’t meet the yardstick on the conscious consumption side of things, you could lose.” Quebec-based Chalifoux Dairy’s Riviera brand is measuring up to the eco packaging standards. Its products, from parfaits and cheese to milk and butter, line shelves in grocery stores across Canada. In dairy aisles, where most products are packaged in plastic, Riviera stands out with signature glass Petit Pots, first introduced as compact, reusable containers in 2015. A local ceramist uses the pots to hold plants in porcelain planters (see top image), which she sells on Etsy, while other artists have repurposed them as candle holders, Christmas ornaments, even light fixtures. The packaging addresses the notion that consumers want “brands to take action beyond self-interest or selling another consumer product to add to the wasteland” — as Faigelman puts it — by providing “1,001 Tips” for reusing the pots, which live on its website and are promoted on-pack and in social posts. The brand is also working with Maison Orphée to create recipes for dips and spreads that people can make at home and store in the jars, which are also sold online (without the dairy contents), alongside accessories to fancify the jars, such as delftware-style porcelain lids. The trend has been gaining steam and there have been more cases, particularly in the past year, where marketers are tapping into ethical consumption. Here we explore programs coming from Canada and the U.S. that have played with the idea of how we pay for things and the reinvention of consumer goods.

Krylon makes old things new again

Krylon stuck out like a sore thumb at this year’s Interior Design Show in Toronto. Most paint brand vendors show up to talk about colour trends and how their paints can achieve a visually balanced look with the latest hues. U.S.-based Krylon, on the other hand, didn’t choose to focus on the 2017 palette, but rather its videos of design blogger Amy Devers taking old household items and revamping them with just a touch of spray paint. The videos were a part of the brand’s global campaign, in which Krylon and its agency Deutsch, followed Devers as she travelled 690 miles and stopped at yard sales along Route 127 in the U.S. to purchase 127 items, from furniture and jewelry to toys and tools. The video demonstrations showed how to make the old items look new again with a lick of Krylon paint, and then put them up for sale on Pinterest. The brand called it the “First Ever Pinterest Yard Sale,” with the videos receiving between 1,000 and 5,000 views each.

We have been fans of Entenmann’s long before this post, they disappear just as quickly as I can buy them! I like the convenient packs for after school when I pick the kids up to shuttle them to an event, along with a drinkable yogurt, it fills my little guy up and ties him over until dinner. Entenmann’s and TerraCycle have teamed up to reward you for making eco-friendly habits by “Making the Pledge”! Read more below on how you can enter to win a classroom party! TerraCycle®, is an international recycling company turns waste into plastic that can be used for products such as park benches, recycling bins, and playgrounds. Through the free recycling program, you can collect waste, like Entenmann’s® Little Bites® pouches, and ship to TerraCycle® for processing using a pre-paid shipping label. Now through March 31, 2017, TerraCycle® and Entenmann’s® Little Bites® want to reward you for making eco-friendly habits by Making the Pledge. If you collect Entenmann’s® Little Bites® pouches on behalf of a K-12 school, you could be placed in the running to win a Classroom Party. It’s easy to participate: make the pledge, send in the waste, and earn more rewards! The Entenmann’s® Little Bites ® Pouch Recycling 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 here: http://www.terracycle.com/en-US/contests/little- bites-pledge.

國際消費品集團P&G近日宣布將開始量產添加25%消費後再生 (post-consumer recycled，PCR)海灘塑膠所製造的洗髮精瓶，P&G宣稱此乃全球洗髮精產業的創舉。這項選環經濟專案乃與歐盟知名回收處理機構 TerraCycle合作，第一批海廢瓶將在今年夏天，優先使用於法國家樂福超市通路販售的海倫仙度絲品牌產品，接下來才會使用在歐盟販售所有的P&G洗髮精品牌商品。

Food storage brand GLAD has teamed up with recycling experts TerraCycle to launch the GLAD To Recycle Contest, offering New Zealanders the chance to win cash prizes for the school or not-for-profit of their choice simply by recycling their used Glad food storage products.

汤姆·萨基，出生于匈牙利，8岁时移民到加拿大。2001年被普林斯顿大学录取，在此之前，他有过几次创业经历。在大一期间，他成立了 TerraCycle，生产出用旧饮料瓶装的蚯蚓堆肥，把它作为有机植物肥料进行销售。从2002年起，他领导的TerraCycle发展迅猛，生产的产 品达到100多种，在1.5万家大型超市销售，有100多万美国人加入其创新的垃圾回收活动。