TERRACYCLE NEWS
ELIMINATING THE IDEA OF WASTE®
Posts with term ZWB PPE X
Disposable Face Mask Success
Should You Recycle Your Disposable Mask?
World Series spotlight on heroes, voting
Major League Baseball has devoted much of its pregame pageantry at the World Series to honoring real-life heroes who have helped navigate the country through a trying year. As Game 1 of the Fall Classic between the Dodgers and Rays commenced Tuesday night at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas, healthcare workers from nearby regions were recognized on the field with ceremonial first pitch honors.
Four individuals participated in the Game 1 first pitch ceremony:
• Jamie Edens and Ryan Ward, a married couple who resigned from their nursing jobs in Tulsa, Okla., and drove to New York to help on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic. At the end of July, they drove to Texas to do the same for COVID-19 patients in that area.
• Erika Combs, an oncology and kidney transplant nurse at a Dallas hospital, who voluntarily switched units to serve in the COVID-19 unit for more than a month.
• Brittney Burns, a nurse practitioner who left her home in San Antonio to work in New York at the onset of the pandemic. After 101 days there, she came back to her hometown, where she aided patients for another 100 days.
We Earthlings: Recycle Your Disposable Gloves
HOW TO RECYCLE YOUR DISPOSABLE MASKS
Covid-19 has created an entirely new, massive wastestream. Terracycle has found a way to recycle PPE and prevent this garbage from polluting our waterways.
Covid-19’s spread is merciless. The disease has now infected nearly 36 million people worldwide, killing more than 1 million, including 210,000 Americans. Thankfully, we know one thing slows it down: face masks. Studies show face masks can help reduce the spread of Covid-19 by up to 85 percent and help save lives. The director of the CDC says masks are our best defense against the disease, and that if all Americans wore them, Covid-19 would be controlled in 6 to 12 weeks.
Needless to say, face masks are essential to protecting human life, but they have a downside — an overwhelming amount of waste that will take hundreds of years to decompose. The Guardian recently reported there were more face masks in our seas than jellyfish.
Massage Clinic Takes Action Against Disposable Mask Waste
PORT MOODY, BC. / AGILITYPR.NEWS / September 29, 2020 / MASSAGE CLINIC ADDRESSES PPE WASTE WITH INNOVATIVE RECYCLING SOLUTION
Esposito Massage® Recycles The Unrecyclable With The Help of Zero Waste Boxes from TerraCycle®
Esposito Massage, a clinic owned and operated by Elizabeth Esposito, has teamed up with TerraCycle to divert their hard-to-recycle waste from landfills through the Zero Waste Box program.
By placing the Safety Equipment and Protective Gear Zero Waste Box by the clinic’s front entrance, clients can conveniently remove and recycle their personal protection equipment (PPE) after their appointments. The recycling solution helps the clinic safely address the uptick of disposable mask use in their office.
This traditionally unrecyclable waste would otherwise be landfilled, incinerated, or contribute to the pollution of marine habitats. Using TerraCycle, the collected waste can now be recycled into a variety of new products such as park benches, bike racks, shipping pallets and recycling bins.
TerraCycle, the world’s leader in the collection and repurposing of complex waste streams, created the Zero Waste Box program to provide solutions for difficult-to-recycle waste that cannot be recycled through TerraCycle’s brand-sponsored, national recycling programs or via standard municipal recycling.
The Zero Waste Box program aligns with Esposito Massage’s mission to enact sustainable measures across their clinic and eliminate as much waste as possible from their business.
"Small steps are important in recycling because if everyone made one small change, then our oceans wouldn't be littered with products not meant to be there,” says Elizabeth Esposito, founder of Esposito Massage.
More information regarding Esposito Massage can be found by visiting their website, http://www.espositomassage.com. All collected materials from the Zero Waste Box program are sent to TerraCycle for recycling, where they undergo a series of treatments before getting turned into new items. For more information on TerraCycle, please visit www.terracycle.ca.
TerraCycle offers Zero Waste Boxes for nearly every category of waste. By purchasing Zero Waste Boxes, companies and consumers save trash from landfills and help reach TerraCycle’s goal of creating a waste-free world.
ABOUT US
Esposito Massage
Esposito Massage offers various treatments: rehabilitative massage, deep tissue massage, Swedish techniques, relaxation massage, prenatal, postnatal and infant massage, and sports massage. The clinic has worked with people from all walks of life: elderly, bi- and paraplegics, students, infants, and pregnant women, and sports athletes. Whatever the condition — headaches, backaches, low back pain, carpal tunnel syndrome, TMJ, sports injuries, muscle spasm, computer-related injuries, repetitive strain injuries, ICBC or MSP claims — Esposito Massage is confident that massage therapy can improve their patient’s condition.
TerraCycle
TerraCycle is an innovative waste management company with a mission to eliminate the idea of waste. Operating nationally across 21 countries, TerraCycle partners with leading consumer product companies, retailers and cities to recycle products and packages, from dirty diapers to cigarette butts, that would otherwise end up being landfilled or incinerated. In addition, TerraCycle works with leading consumer product companies to integrate hard to recycle waste streams, such as ocean plastic, into their products and packaging. Its new division, Loop, is the first shopping system that gives consumers a way to shop for their favorite brands in durable, reusable packaging. TerraCycle also sells Zero Waste Boxes that are purchased by end users to recycle items in offices, homes, factories and public facilities. TerraCycle has won over 200 awards for sustainability and has donated over $44 million to schools and charities since its founding more than 15 years ago and was named #10 in Fortune magazine’s list of 52 companies Changing the World. To learn more about TerraCycle or get involved in its recycling programs, please visit www.TerraCycle.ca.
Maven Moment: Kitchen Gloves
Mom always kept a pair of brightly colored kitchen gloves by the sink when I was growing up. Made of latex or rubber, they protected her hands when she washed dishes with hot soapy water or scrubbed the sink with scouring powder.
She also used kitchen gloves when she had to wash something with bleach or to wring out a dirty mop. She used them over and over until they got a hole, and then she would get a new pair.
I always have a pair or two of kitchen gloves at home. Although I usually don’t use them for dishes, they are great for protecting my hands when I scrub a messy grill or pot. I keep a pair under the sink to wear when cleaning out the mop or scrubbing the tub with something abrasive like baking soda paste. And you can’t beat latex gloves for giving you a good grip when opening stubborn jar lids.
Even when the gloves get a hole in them, they can still be useful. You can keep a pair in the car to wear when pumping gas or clearing snow from the windshield. Put a little duct tape over the hole and, although it’s not pretty, you will have a nice, watertight seal.
I also keep a pair in the gardening bag I take to the community garden. I can easily rinse them off when they get too dirty.
Trade Show Updates and More Service News
Bathroom Benefits
Nonprofit GEM LEGACY has announced a new kids-focused initiative that aims to provide proper sanitization, air filtration, and plumbing for 10 new toilets at the Sanawari Primary School in Tanzania. Gem Legacy is dedicated to supporting education, vocational training, and local economies in East African gemstone mining communities. gemlegacy.orgOnly Natural Diamonds
The DIAMOND PRODUCERS ASSOCIATION is now the NATURAL DIAMOND COUNCIL (NDC), an industry authority dedicated to promoting desirability of natural diamonds and supporting the integrity of the diamond jewelry industry. The NDC launch includes a digital platform called Only Natural Diamonds for both consumers and retailers. naturaldiamonds.comClean Body, Clean Earth
Recent months have seen a huge increase in masks, gloves, and other limited use PPE items that can’t be recycled through the usual methods. TERRACYCLE’s Zero Waste Box program will safely process and recycle your discarded PPE. terracycle.com#BaltShow
The BALTIMORE ART, ANTIQUE, AND JEWELRY SHOW has announced new dates for 2020. The event will be returning to its traditional home at the Baltimore Convention Center Nov. 12-15. baltimoresummershow.comAutumn in Atlanta
The ATLANTA JEWELRY SHOW has announced that there will be a 2020 fall show at the Cobb Galleria Centre on Oct. 24-25. The event will be preceded by a pre-show conference on Oct. 23. atlantajewelryshow.comResearchers Figured Out How to Recycle Coronavirus PPE Into Liquid Biofuel
Every month that the coronavirus passes, humans are using an estimated 200 billion units of single-use face masks and gloves. Personal protective equipment (PPE) is life-saving for medical professionals, and it's essential that they use all the PPE they need to stay safe during the COVID-19 pandemic. Unfortunately, that results in a lot of trash — but a team of researchers has discovered a way to recycle used PPE into renewable liquid biofuel.
The research comes from a group of experts at The University of Petroleum and Energy Studies in Dehradun, India, and it was published in the Taylor & Francis journal Biofuels. The researchers studied the composition of various PPE, including gloves, face masks (including N95 masks), goggles, face shields, and gowns.
A lot of those items are made from non woven polypropylene, which is traditionally difficult to recycle, but the researchers found that used and defective PPE kits can be recycled using pyrolysis, a process in which high temperatures are applied to break a material down. Putting PPE in a pyrolysis thermal reactor for one hour will convert the material into liquid biofuel, the researchers found.
“This conversion will not just prevent the severe after-effects to humankind and the environment but also produce a source of energy,” the authors explain, noting that the PPE would be transformed into biocrude, a type of synthetic fuel with similar properties to fossil fuels. “Thus, the challenges of PPE waste management and increasing energy demand could be addressed simultaneously by the production of liquid fuel from PPE kits.”
As mentioned earlier, a recent report from ACS Publications' Environmental Science & Technology journal estimated that we’re using 129 billion face masks and 65 billion plastic gloves per month as we face COVID-19. Most of that is going into landfills where it will release greenhouse gases while taking decades to decompose; however, plenty is also becoming litter on our streets, beaches, and oceans, which threatens wildlife.
The good thing about PPE is that it is life-saving for medical professionals who need to keep a sterile environment — but humans have never used quite so much as we have over the past few months.
“Presently, the world is focusing to combat COVID-19, however, we can foresee the issues of economic crisis and ecological imbalance also,” said lead author Dr. Sapna Jain in a statement. “We have to prepare ourselves to meet the challenges which are forcefully imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, so as to maintain sustainability.”
Dr. Bhawna Yadav Lamba, who co-authored the study, believes the recycling process the team discovered is far more sustainable than incinerating or landfilling used PPE, even though once the biofuel is put to use, it will release greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
“Pyrolysis is the most commonly used chemical method whose benefits include the ability to produce high quantities of bio-oil which is easily biodegradable,” Dr. Lamba said in a statement. “There is always a need for alternative fuels or energy resources to meet our energy demands. The pyrolysis of plastics is one of the methods to mitigate our energy crisis.”
Dr. Bhawna Yadav Lamba, who co-authored the study, believes the recycling process the team discovered is far more sustainable than incinerating or landfilling used PPE, even though once the biofuel is put to use, it will release greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
“Pyrolysis is the most commonly used chemical method whose benefits include the ability to produce high quantities of bio-oil which is easily biodegradable,” Dr. Lamba said in a statement. “There is always a need for alternative fuels or energy resources to meet our energy demands. The pyrolysis of plastics is one of the methods to mitigate our energy crisis.”