TWO HARBORS, MN

Here’s to leaving nature better in 2020. New year, same mission. Granite Gear rings in 2020 with its fourth class of Grounds Keepers leading the charge in leaving our trails, parks and waterways better. Since 2017, Grounds Keeper members have removed over 10,000 pounds (and counting) of trash from our public lands. In 2020, Granite Gear introduces the Grounds Keepers “Legacy Team” including 11 rockstars from previous Grounds Keeper teams, alongside 19 new team members. This year’s diverse crew of 30 Grounds Keepers will be supported by the following sponsors: Astral, Big Agnes, Food for the Sole, Klean Kanteen, Kula Cloth, Public Lands Coffee, Recover Brand and UCO. Granite Gear is thrilled to see the growing coalition of brands supporting this initiative.   Out of hundreds of applicants, the Grounds Keepers were chosen based on their passion for the outdoors, cleanup goals and outdoor experience. With the collective mission to leave our planet better, the new 2020 team includes: Ari Leach, Ashley Bredemus, Ben Vaughan, Cat Curtis, Cliford Mervil, Daniel White, Danny Murphy, Devin Holmes, Hannah Edstrom, Hatie Parmeter, Jen Potts, Kelsey Semrod, Marlee Jennings, Paul Katz, Reece Thompson, Sarah Wilson, Suzanne Hassanein, Todd Lee and Tyler Lau. The 2020 Legacy Team includes: Alex Wehrle, Andrew Forestell, Britany Freeman, Jenny Bruso, Jen Thiesen, Julie Hukriede, Leland Kolson, Paul Twedt, Seth Orme, Steven Snyder and the Sunshine State Seekers.   “Granite Gear is proud and honored to assemble another amazing Grounds Keepers team. The 2020 Grounds Keepers are a diverse group of arse-kickers who are matched only by our kick-arse new and returning sponsors. Trash, get ready to have your arse-kicked (and picked…up),” says Granite Gear’s General Manager, Rob Coughlin.   New for 2020, Grounds Keepers will be encouraged to go a step further in their Leave No Trace efforts and recycle their collected waste streams via TerraCycle‘s services. TerraCycle supports the Grounds Keeper passions, goals and mission fully and looks forward to being a resource for Leave No Trace practices.   Visit www.thegroundskeepers.org to learn more about the team and follow along at #TheGroundsKeepers and the Grounds Keepers Instagram. Granite Gear and all brand partners share stories from the Grounds Keepers often. For more information on the Grounds Keepers program, please email Julie Bacon at jbacon@granitegear.com.

The Pen Centre is challenging local artistic talent to build a team to create a masterpiece using recycled gift cards with a chance to win big money.   Artists in Niagara schools are invited to get creative to plan and design a one of a kind art piece using mostly recycled gift cards and a few recycled items. This is the first time The Pen Centre (TPC) has offered this exciting opportunity called The Pen Centre Gift Card Cycle Challenge for students in hopes of raising awareness around recycling and sustainability. According to Helen Edwards, marketing director for TPC, the idea began a few years ago when a Fonthill group called the Fonthill Nurdles approached the administration about the number of gift cards that end up in landfills. As they inquired further into the issue they found out that even though the card may be made of recycled materials not all municipalities can recycle the gift cards.   “[The gift cards] were still just being tossed out. If you think about how many billions of gift cards are out there, it broke our hearts. Shopping centres, as a whole, are a big producer of those so we thought we are going to turn this around and find a way they can be recycled properly,” said Edwards.   This started the gift card collection program. The community can bring old gift cards to customer service at TPC where they are then sent to a third party.   “We ensure they go to a company called Terracycle. They turn them into things like lawn furniture and other outdoor products and they are repurposed,” said Edwards.   Now with this challenge they are hoping to recycle and reuse even more gift cards. The participants are encouraged to start their own gift cards collection from family and friends to make their artwork.   “We really figured if we could inspire them to go out and get a collection as well, whether it be in their school or from their friends and family, we figure everybody benefits from that,” said Edwards.   To participate in the challenge, classrooms and/or school teams will fill out an application and provide a design sketch when the site goes live on Thursday January 16, 2020. The applications and design sketches are due by March 1, 2020. The Pen Centre will then notify the design teams that they can start to create their art using their collected gift cards from the community and observing the rules of the challenge. Then they will go on display at TPC to be judged and voted on by the community.   There will be three categories: elementary, secondary and post-secondary. The final judging will be done in May. The team that wins in each category will receive $1,000 for the team and $1,000 for their school.   This challenge is a great opportunity for classrooms or groups of artists to create something spectacular.   “We are hoping that teachers use it as an opportunity that if they know they have some students that are really strong when it comes to arts, they can inspire them to pull a team together.  This is a great way for a classroom to do a project to unite everybody for a common goal,” said Edwards.   Not only is this challenge keeping gift cards out of landfills, it is promoting creativity and bringing the community together through art and environmental awareness.   “For the community really the biggest hope is that it is going to highlight the amazing talent we have in the community ranging from a six year old to a university student that could be 40 to 50 years old because I think that is a strong part of who we are in St. Catharines,” said Edwards. “For the mall it is really getting the message across that we are trying to do our part to help the planet and the environment to get these gift cards out of [landfills] and if it inspires other people to think that way as well that’s the icing on the cake for us.”   Edwards and TPC have issued the challenge. Now it is time for Niagara students to put their best artistic skills to the test.

You’ve finally decided to part ways with your old Samsonite. Over the years, it’s accrued stains, scuff marks, and tears of all kinds; an upgrade is long overdue. But before you dump that luggage in the garbage, you should know that even a used suitcase has plenty of recyclable value.   As Recycle Bank writes, suitcases are made of several valuable materials that are recyclable, including the zippers, plastic handles, and rubber wheels. The problem, however, is that your local curbside recycling program likely won’t accept the bag as is—you’d have to disassemble it on your own and then research whether the individual components can be recycled via your curbside program. You’re probably not going to do that.   Instead, contact your local recycler to see if they have a bulk pickup program that will offer to recycle your suitcase on your behalf. If that fails, TerraCycle, a consumer-waste recycle program, has its own luggage and travel bag recycling program. To participate, you’ll have to pay for a TerraCycle box to ship it (which won’t come cheap, as small boxes start at roughly $89). According to their website, however, they’ll separate the metals, fibers, plastics, and fabrics and recycle them for you, saving you from the effort of having to disassemble it on your own.   If these options don’t work, you do have plenty of other easy (and cheaper) solutions to the problem of your leftover suitcases—that might even do some good. Ebags, an online suitcase retailer, recently partnered with GoodWill to accept suitcases for donation. The process is free; just print out a free shipping label on their website and ship it in a box of your choosing. (You’ll also receive $25 off toward a purchase of a suitcase on their website.) For your bag to be eligible, all wheels, handles, and zippers must be in working condition to be donated, so it can’t be totally ruined by the time you need to offload it.   Here’s another tip, courtesy of a recent Reddit thread: If your bag’s still in good condition, do an online search for nearby foster care agencies, in addition to local emergency shelters. “Guests often need luggage to transport the belongings they’ve accumulated during their stay,” u/tradingthoughts writes. “They also end up using garbage bags to carry their essentials around.” Be sure to contact them in advance and ask whether they need suitcases before making the trip. While you’re at it, you might also check local Facebook groups for other organizations and non-profits that could benefit from your used suitcase.

You’ve finally decided to part ways with your old Samsonite. Over the years, it’s accrued stains, scuff marks, and tears of all kinds; an upgrade is long overdue. But before you dump that luggage in the garbage, you should know that even a used suitcase has plenty of recyclable value.   As Recycle Bank writes, suitcases are made of several valuable materials that are recyclable, including the zippers, plastic handles, and rubber wheels. The problem, however, is that your local curbside recycling program likely won’t accept the bag as is—you’d have to disassemble it on your own and then research whether the individual components can be recycled via your curbside program. You’re probably not going to do that.   Instead, contact your local recycler to see if they have a bulk pickup program that will offer to recycle your suitcase on your behalf. If that fails, TerraCycle, a consumer-waste recycle program, has its own luggage and travel bag recycling program. To participate, you’ll have to pay for a TerraCycle box to ship it (which won’t come cheap, as small boxes start at roughly $89). According to their website, however, they’ll separate the metals, fibers, plastics, and fabrics and recycle them for you, saving you from the effort of having to disassemble it on your own.   If these options don’t work, you do have plenty of other easy (and cheaper) solutions to the problem of your leftover suitcases—that might even do some good. Ebags, an online suitcase retailer, recently partnered with GoodWill to accept suitcases for donation. The process is free; just print out a free shipping label on their website and ship it in a box of your choosing. (You’ll also receive $25 off toward a purchase of a suitcase on their website.) For your bag to be eligible, all wheels, handles, and zippers must be in working condition to be donated, so it can’t be totally ruined by the time you need to offload it.   Here’s another tip, courtesy of a recent Reddit thread: If your bag’s still in good condition, do an online search for nearby foster care agencies, in addition to local emergency shelters. “Guests often need luggage to transport the belongings they’ve accumulated during their stay,” u/tradingthoughts writes. “They also end up using garbage bags to carry their essentials around.” Be sure to contact them in advance and ask whether they need suitcases before making the trip. While you’re at it, you might also check local Facebook groups for other organizations and non-profits that could benefit from your used suitcase.

At NRDC we choose quality goods and services that reflect our values and support companies that align with our mission. Even with the best of intentions it can be difficult to understand who to purchase from and what to look for.   Upon reading a recent study, we found pyramid shaped tea bags, like the ones we were using, are leaking billions of microplastics. We decided investigate further the impact of bioplastic in the hopes of findings a better option.

What is bioplastic?

It is made from plants or other biological materials, and most commonly created by converting sugar from corn or sugarcane to polylactic acids (PLAs).

Is bioplastic compostable?

Bioplastic, even if it is certified ASTM D6400 compostable, cannot be composted at home and most municipal composting facilities rarely accept or are able to process this type of material. For it to biodegrade it takes a very specific environment of 122 degrees Fahrenheit and 80 percent humidity.

How is bioplastic disposed of?

Ideally, the bioplastic item is sent to a compatible compost facility. The more likely routes though are the item is either:

• Tossed in municipal recycling. Here bioplastic will contaminate the petroleum-based plastic that is in the process of being recycled causing the entire batch to be sent to the landfill or incinerator.
• Ending up in our ocean. Once there, it will not biodegrade instead it will break down into micro-sized pieces, lasting for decades, and presenting a danger to marine life.

Who is our new tea supplier and why?

We decided to begin purchasing from Numi Tea because their company:

• Aligns closely with the NRDC Catering Policy which means catering purchases (like tea) must reduce damage to the environment, exploitative labor, and food shortages for others. More specifically Numi Tea:
  • Creates tea that is Fair Trade Labor Certified and Certified Organic.
  • Is a Certified B Corporation. This means it meets the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability to balance profit and purpose.
  • Purchases carbon offsets for its corporate office, staff travel, and tea, spice and herbal materials shipments.

How do we dispose of our new tea?

In Vision 3 of the NRDC Sustainable Operations Plan, we make a commitment to achieving zero waste. With this in mind, it is very important we understand the post-consumer life of the tea: The natural hemp-based unbleached filter-paper tea bag can be composted in at home bin or by any commercial facility. The outer packaging can be discarded in a TerraCycle box. While we try to avoid purchasing items packaged or made with hard to recycle material that requires TerraCycle, Numi Tea’s outer packaging is printed with soy-based ink, packaged with no plastic shrink wrap, and made from 85 percent post-consumer waste. By purchasing goods that utilize post-consumer waste we are helping to support the recycling industry.

Seeing Your Purchases Through a New Lens

Take a look around your home and ask yourself if your purchases support your health and the health of planet. One of the first steps could be learning more about materials in your home that are hiding hazardous chemicals. Together, as consumers, we can begin to prioritize purchases that support the future we want.

At NRDC we choose quality goods and services that reflect our values and support companies that align with our mission. Even with the best of intentions it can be difficult to understand who to purchase from and what to look for.   Upon reading a recent study, we found pyramid shaped tea bags, like the ones we were using, are leaking billions of microplastics. We decided investigate further the impact of bioplastic in the hopes of findings a better option.

What is bioplastic?

It is made from plants or other biological materials, and most commonly created by converting sugar from corn or sugarcane to polylactic acids (PLAs).

Is bioplastic compostable?

Bioplastic, even if it is certified ASTM D6400 compostable, cannot be composted at home and most municipal composting facilities rarely accept or are able to process this type of material. For it to biodegrade it takes a very specific environment of 122 degrees Fahrenheit and 80 percent humidity.

How is bioplastic disposed of?

Ideally, the bioplastic item is sent to a compatible compost facility. The more likely routes though are the item is either:

• Tossed in municipal recycling. Here bioplastic will contaminate the petroleum-based plastic that is in the process of being recycled causing the entire batch to be sent to the landfill or incinerator.
• Ending up in our ocean. Once there, it will not biodegrade instead it will break down into micro-sized pieces, lasting for decades, and presenting a danger to marine life.

Who is our new tea supplier and why?

We decided to begin purchasing from Numi Tea because their company:

• Aligns closely with the NRDC Catering Policy which means catering purchases (like tea) must reduce damage to the environment, exploitative labor, and food shortages for others. More specifically Numi Tea:
  • Creates tea that is Fair Trade Labor Certified and Certified Organic.
  • Is a Certified B Corporation. This means it meets the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability to balance profit and purpose.
  • Purchases carbon offsets for its corporate office, staff travel, and tea, spice and herbal materials shipments.

How do we dispose of our new tea?

In Vision 3 of the NRDC Sustainable Operations Plan, we make a commitment to achieving zero waste. With this in mind, it is very important we understand the post-consumer life of the tea: The natural hemp-based unbleached filter-paper tea bag can be composted in at home bin or by any commercial facility. The outer packaging can be discarded in a TerraCycle box. While we try to avoid purchasing items packaged or made with hard to recycle material that requires TerraCycle, Numi Tea’s outer packaging is printed with soy-based ink, packaged with no plastic shrink wrap, and made from 85 percent post-consumer waste. By purchasing goods that utilize post-consumer waste we are helping to support the recycling industry.

Seeing Your Purchases Through a New Lens

Take a look around your home and ask yourself if your purchases support your health and the health of planet. One of the first steps could be learning more about materials in your home that are hiding hazardous chemicals. Together, as consumers, we can begin to prioritize purchases that support the future we want.  

It’s that time of year when many of us want to be starting something new—whether it’s a job, workout routine, or getting rid of some household items and making space for bright beginnings. While I’m all for freshening up a living room with a newly acquired rug or standing lamp, there’s never been a more urgent time to conscientiously consider how we buy our goods and what we do with them once their lives are over. That’s why we’ve rounded up New York City’s best options to recycle and dispose of common household goods.   “Keep in mind the waste hierarchy: refuse, reduce, reuse, recycle,” says Nicole Grossberg, co-founder of the Zero Waste NYC Workshop Series, held monthly on various topics, all focused on how we can better shift our daily practices to produce less waste. “If you’re going to recycle an item, make sure that you’re recycling properly and not ‘wish cycling’. It counts to go the extra mile to make sure you are disposing of something properly.”   There’s another reason to be proactive about our waste: New York City’s residential recycling rate is just 18%, an abysmal number for a major city. (Seattle and San Francisco’s rates are three times ours.) Until New York does its part to mandate certain recycling programs like food waste, it’s up to us to pick up and recycle the slack.   Organic waste, both food and yard scraps, makes up a third of our city’s waste stream. When left in the trash that’s sent to landfills, the rotting rubbish emits methane, a more noxious greenhouse gas than carbon monoxide.   GrowNYC and their compost drop-off sites are hoping to change that. With over 150 residential food scrap drop-off sites, this is one of the easiest changes you can make in your life when it comes to living greener and disposing of your household waste in a meaningful way.   There’s also a curbside compost collection option if you live in one of these districts where you may have noticed small brown bins next to your regular trash and recycling ones. But the city has yet to make good on its promise to mandate composting, so GrowNYC is the foolproof way to get your compost into the right hands, regardless of where you live in the city. “There’s a gap in the education piece of the brown bins,” says Grossberg, “but the dropoff program is amazing. That’s what I utilize, I make it part of my routine.”   GrowNYC has another great drop-off component, for textiles! They note that “NYC residents discard nearly 200,000 tons of textiles every year, at a cost to taxpayers and our environment.” (One of the reasons why we should only purchase 3 new items of clothing a year.) So while there aren’t as many as drop-off locations for textiles as there are for compost, you’ll find one at each Greenmarket across New York, currently totaling 30 sites. There’s even an option to get a refashionNYC collection bin placed in your office or apartment building (as long as it has ten or more units).   Another local option for getting rid of your clothing, shoes, and accessories is to donate or sell them to second-hand shops like Buffalo Exchange, Housing Works, Beacon’s Closet, or smaller ones in your neighborhood. One important thing to find out before dropping your clothes at these locations is if your items aren’t sold, will they be properly donated to be recycled as textile waste?     The Freecycle Network is a grassroots movement run by volunteers in communities all over the globe, based on the idea that people want to give and receive things for free (from clothing to electronics to art supplies to furniture). There’s a large Brooklyn community that all are welcome to join for free. As you let go of furniture on this site, you may even find your next item here too! “We often forget about the upstream and how things are produced,” says Grosberg. “The production of that item (a couch, for example) is probably using coal and oil in the factory to produce it. You’re affecting the supply chain when you choose to buy used items.”   Other organizations that may provide free pick-up service in your neighborhood are Habitat for Humanity, Housing Works, and The Salvation Army.     Unfortunately, unlike other textiles such as clothing, towels, and linens, most rugs and carpets contain materials that aren’t recyclable or are made of multiple materials that can’t be pulled apart. New York doesn’t have a simple solution for properly recycling rugs yet, but there are a few places to do research if you have a large area rug or wall-to-wall carpet.   Carpet Cycle in New Jersey is finding uses for post-consumer carpets and may be able to pick up your residential carpets. And Earth911 provides more insight into the types of recycling centers that may take carpets or carpet pads.     DonateNYC is my favorite New York City-based tool when it comes to finding places to drop off more miscellaneous items in close proximity to my apartment. Especially for so many of us who don’t have cars, it’s the perfect solution to skipping the movers or renting a truck yourself. They have a directory based on an address you type in of where you can donate or receive pretty much anything from automotive supplies to home appliances to books.   One of its partners, Big Reuse in Brooklyn, will accept donations of appliances and home renovation supplies, and offer a “deconstruction” service whereby professionals will come and dismantle a kitchen or bathroom slated for renovation, often at no or low cost to resell at the shop.   There are also many of DonateNYC’s bins set up in residential and retail buildings. They even host classes multiple times a day all over the city on topics such as mending clothes, write helpful resources, host drop-off days for specialty items, and have developed a new event, ReFashion Week NYC 2020, coming up in February that I’m excited to attend.   For all your old toothpaste tubes and personal care items like toothbrushes, haul them to the Package Free Shop in Williamsburg and Chelsea Market, which use uses TerraCycle. The Park Slope Food Coop accepts a few random items too, like toothpaste and Brita water filters.     There are a couple of easy and responsible ways to get rid of those pesky dead batteries or overused electronics that have probably been hanging around your apartment for some time.   To get rid of batteries and other hazardous waste like paint, hold on to your dead AAs until the city hosts one of its biannual SAFE Disposal events, hosted by NYC’s Department of Sanitation, which happen in the spring and fall. These events accept electronics too.   For electronics recycling year round, a few options include Staples, which accepts all those extra cords, chargers, and cracked tablets you don’t know what to do with. The Package Free Shop in Williamsburg and Chelsea Market uses TerraCycle to collect electronics, too.   You can also ask your employer to sponsor electronics recycling through TerraCycle, so you could bring in home electronics on your morning commute.   While the options for recycling and repurposing goods is expanding, it’s key to keep zero waste as a goal, even if it’s just about making micro improvements to your daily routine. “In general, it’s becoming more of a conversation, even trendy, if you will,” says Grossberg. “That gets me excited. As much as I think we have a long way to go, I’m seeing so much interest. It gives me a lot of hope.”   You can attend the next Zero Waste NYC Workshop on Wednesday, January 22nd at LMHQ in Downtown Manhattan. Click here for tickets.

It’s that time of year when many of us want to be starting something new—whether it’s a job, workout routine, or getting rid of some household items and making space for bright beginnings. While I’m all for freshening up a living room with a newly acquired rug or standing lamp, there’s never been a more urgent time to conscientiously consider how we buy our goods and what we do with them once their lives are over. That’s why we’ve rounded up New York City’s best options to recycle and dispose of common household goods.   “Keep in mind the waste hierarchy: refuse, reduce, reuse, recycle,” says Nicole Grossberg, co-founder of the Zero Waste NYC Workshop Series, held monthly on various topics, all focused on how we can better shift our daily practices to produce less waste. “If you’re going to recycle an item, make sure that you’re recycling properly and not ‘wish cycling’. It counts to go the extra mile to make sure you are disposing of something properly.”   There’s another reason to be proactive about our waste: New York City’s residential recycling rate is just 18%, an abysmal number for a major city. (Seattle and San Francisco’s rates are three times ours.) Until New York does its part to mandate certain recycling programs like food waste, it’s up to us to pick up and recycle the slack.   Organic waste, both food and yard scraps, makes up a third of our city’s waste stream. When left in the trash that’s sent to landfills, the rotting rubbish emits methane, a more noxious greenhouse gas than carbon monoxide.   GrowNYC and their compost drop-off sites are hoping to change that. With over 150 residential food scrap drop-off sites, this is one of the easiest changes you can make in your life when it comes to living greener and disposing of your household waste in a meaningful way.   There’s also a curbside compost collection option if you live in one of these districts where you may have noticed small brown bins next to your regular trash and recycling ones. But the city has yet to make good on its promise to mandate composting, so GrowNYC is the foolproof way to get your compost into the right hands, regardless of where you live in the city. “There’s a gap in the education piece of the brown bins,” says Grossberg, “but the dropoff program is amazing. That’s what I utilize, I make it part of my routine.”   GrowNYC has another great drop-off component, for textiles! They note that “NYC residents discard nearly 200,000 tons of textiles every year, at a cost to taxpayers and our environment.” (One of the reasons why we should only purchase 3 new items of clothing a year.) So while there aren’t as many as drop-off locations for textiles as there are for compost, you’ll find one at each Greenmarket across New York, currently totaling 30 sites. There’s even an option to get a refashionNYC collection bin placed in your office or apartment building (as long as it has ten or more units).   Another local option for getting rid of your clothing, shoes, and accessories is to donate or sell them to second-hand shops like Buffalo Exchange, Housing Works, Beacon’s Closet, or smaller ones in your neighborhood. One important thing to find out before dropping your clothes at these locations is if your items aren’t sold, will they be properly donated to be recycled as textile waste?     The Freecycle Network is a grassroots movement run by volunteers in communities all over the globe, based on the idea that people want to give and receive things for free (from clothing to electronics to art supplies to furniture). There’s a large Brooklyn community that all are welcome to join for free. As you let go of furniture on this site, you may even find your next item here too! “We often forget about the upstream and how things are produced,” says Grosberg. “The production of that item (a couch, for example) is probably using coal and oil in the factory to produce it. You’re affecting the supply chain when you choose to buy used items.”   Other organizations that may provide free pick-up service in your neighborhood are Habitat for Humanity, Housing Works, and The Salvation Army.     Unfortunately, unlike other textiles such as clothing, towels, and linens, most rugs and carpets contain materials that aren’t recyclable or are made of multiple materials that can’t be pulled apart. New York doesn’t have a simple solution for properly recycling rugs yet, but there are a few places to do research if you have a large area rug or wall-to-wall carpet.   Carpet Cycle in New Jersey is finding uses for post-consumer carpets and may be able to pick up your residential carpets. And Earth911 provides more insight into the types of recycling centers that may take carpets or carpet pads.     DonateNYC is my favorite New York City-based tool when it comes to finding places to drop off more miscellaneous items in close proximity to my apartment. Especially for so many of us who don’t have cars, it’s the perfect solution to skipping the movers or renting a truck yourself. They have a directory based on an address you type in of where you can donate or receive pretty much anything from automotive supplies to home appliances to books.   One of its partners, Big Reuse in Brooklyn, will accept donations of appliances and home renovation supplies, and offer a “deconstruction” service whereby professionals will come and dismantle a kitchen or bathroom slated for renovation, often at no or low cost to resell at the shop.   There are also many of DonateNYC’s bins set up in residential and retail buildings. They even host classes multiple times a day all over the city on topics such as mending clothes, write helpful resources, host drop-off days for specialty items, and have developed a new event, ReFashion Week NYC 2020, coming up in February that I’m excited to attend.   For all your old toothpaste tubes and personal care items like toothbrushes, haul them to the Package Free Shop in Williamsburg and Chelsea Market, which use uses TerraCycle. The Park Slope Food Coop accepts a few random items too, like toothpaste and Brita water filters.     There are a couple of easy and responsible ways to get rid of those pesky dead batteries or overused electronics that have probably been hanging around your apartment for some time.   To get rid of batteries and other hazardous waste like paint, hold on to your dead AAs until the city hosts one of its biannual SAFE Disposal events, hosted by NYC’s Department of Sanitation, which happen in the spring and fall. These events accept electronics too.   For electronics recycling year round, a few options include Staples, which accepts all those extra cords, chargers, and cracked tablets you don’t know what to do with. The Package Free Shop in Williamsburg and Chelsea Market uses TerraCycle to collect electronics, too.   You can also ask your employer to sponsor electronics recycling through TerraCycle, so you could bring in home electronics on your morning commute.   While the options for recycling and repurposing goods is expanding, it’s key to keep zero waste as a goal, even if it’s just about making micro improvements to your daily routine. “In general, it’s becoming more of a conversation, even trendy, if you will,” says Grossberg. “That gets me excited. As much as I think we have a long way to go, I’m seeing so much interest. It gives me a lot of hope.”   You can attend the next Zero Waste NYC Workshop on Wednesday, January 22nd at LMHQ in Downtown Manhattan. Click here for tickets.

Two Harbors, MN — January 6, 2020 — New year, same mission. Granite Gear rings in 2020 with its fourth class of Grounds Keepers leading the charge in leaving our trails, parks and waterways better. Since 2017, Grounds Keeper members have removed over 10,000 pounds (and counting) of trash from our public lands. In 2020, Granite Gear introduces the Grounds Keepers “Legacy Team” including 11 rockstars from previous Grounds Keeper teams, alongside 19 new team members. This year’s diverse crew of 30 Grounds Keepers will be supported by the following sponsors: Astral , Big Agnes, Food for the Sole, Klean Kanteen, Kula Cloth, Public Lands Coffee, Recover Brand and UCO . Granite Gear is thrilled to see the growing coalition of brands supporting this initiative.   Out of hundreds of applicants, the Grounds Keepers were chosen based on their passion for the outdoors, cleanup goals and outdoor experience. With the collective mission to leave our planet better, the new 2020 team includes: Ari Leach, Ashley Bredemus, Ben Vaughan, Cat Curtis, Cliford Mervil, Daniel White, Danny Murphy, Devin Holmes, Hannah Edstrom, Hatie Parmeter, Jen Potts, Kelsey Semrod, Marlee Jennings, Paul Katz, Reece Thompson, Sarah Wilson, Suzanne Hassanein, Todd Lee and Tyler Lau. The 2020 Legacy Team includes: Alex Wehrle, Andrew Forestell, Britany Freeman, Jenny Bruso, Jen Thiesen, Julie Hukriede, Leland Kolson, Paul Twedt, Seth Orme, Steven Snyder, Sunshine State Seekers.       “Granite Gear is proud and honored to assemble another amazing Grounds Keepers team. The 2020 Grounds Keepers are a diverse group of arse-kickers who are matched only by our kick-arse new and returning sponsors. Trash, get ready to have your arse-kicked (and picked...up),” says Granite Gear’s General Manager, Rob Coughlin.   New for 2020, Grounds Keepers will be encouraged to go a step further in their Leave No Trace efforts and recycle their collected waste streams via TerraCycle 's services. TerraCycle supports the Grounds Keeper passions, goals and mission fully and looks forward to being a resource for Leave No Trace practices.   Visit www.thegroundskeepers.org to learn more about the team and follow along at #TheGroundsKeepers and the Grounds Keepers Instagram . Granite Gear and all brand partners share stories from the Grounds Keepers often. For more information on the Grounds Keepers program, please email Julie Bacon at jbacon@granitegear.com.