Americans are good at a lot of things: making cheese, sending astronauts to space, playing football. But we're bad at recycling. We recycle only 34 percent of the paper, glass, plastic and other stuff that we could, according to Beth Porter. She's the climate and recycling director for Green America, a nonprofit organization that supports sustainability.   In January 2018, the United States got a little worse at recycling. China used to buy 700,000 tons of plastic alone from us every year, to make into new products. Then the country stopped buying almost all our recyclables. Suddenly, our bottles, cans and newspapers had nowhere to go.   How did this happen?   "We were lazy and didn't keep up with the latest technology to sort paper from plastic and aluminum at recovery facilities," says Randy Hartmann. He is senior director of affiliate operations for an organization called Keep America Beautiful. We sent everything all mixed up to China. The country couldn't use our "contaminated" trash. China updated its standards. Then, says Hartmann, "we couldn't meet them."   Some cities, such as Eugene, Oregon, couldn't afford to collect certain types of plastic anymore. Other cities, including Phoenix saw an opportunity. Hartmann says Phoenix has created a "circular economy" of its own. It now collects its community's plastic trash and turns it into fuel.   Some businesses have stepped up, too. An Australian paper company called Pratt Industries built a paper mill in Ohio to take mixed-paper recyclables. That includes junk mail fliers that "got hit hardest when China changed their rules," according to Hartmann.   A company called TerraCycle sends out special "zero waste" boxes for collecting lots of products, including plastic bottle caps, action figures or art supplies. After you fill the box, you send it back to the company to recycle everything inside.   Still other companies are turning plastic grocery bags, juice cartons and even cigarette filters into plastic "lumber." Local governments are helping by getting better at teaching people what can and cannot be tossed in the recycling bin.   "They'll come out and look in your cart and say, 'Oops, your gardening hose and holiday lights shouldn't be in here!' " Hartmann says.   Recycling facilities are also starting to update their equipment. Instead of using humans to sort paper, plastic, glass and metal by hand, they are buying machines that can sort things robotically, or even optically - that is, with a camera that can tell the difference between materials.   It's going to take a year or two to get this new equipment up and running. But, says Hartmann, "It's a great time to reset, and a lot of innovative things are happening out there."   We still have a way to go before we are doing recycling just right, Porter says. "Companies must learn from recyclers how to make products and packaging that are recyclable. And they also need to use more recycled materials in making their products," she says.   We need local governments to develop pro-recycling policies, too. And most of all, says Porter, "we need to practice the three R's in order: reduce first, then reuse and lastly recycle." - - - Recycling tips 1. Learn what can be recycled in your own community and stick to it. No "wish-cycling." 2. Learn recycling best practices. Rinse bottles and cans, and cut the super-oily spot from the pizza box before recycling the rest. Learn more from the Recycling Raccoon Squad at recyclingraccoons.org. 3. Print out your local recycling rules and paste them on the bins. That way, everyone in your family can do it correctly. 4. Away from home? Find a recycling bin for your empty water bottle. Better yet, take a reusable water bottle. 5. Get your teachers involved. Have them take your class on a field trip to a local recycling facility. Write letters to local politicians asking them to support the "three R's."

It is in a constant concern for respect for the environment that the Dental Center Deschênes now proceeds to the recycling of various dental products thus avoiding the burial of thousands of them.   "We have always been very sensitive to the environment," says Dr. Isabelle Deschênes, owner of the Dental Center. "We have been recycling paper, cardboard and ink cartridges for a long time now and we are no longer offering individual water bottles to our customers. It was important, however, to do more. "   It is now possible for Deschênes Dental Center clients to drop their used toothbrushes, empty toothpaste tubes and floss containers into a specially designed container directly at the Dental Center. It is the company Terracycle, specialized in the recovery of this type of waste, which will handle the recycling at the Dental Center.   In addition, customers and staff using the Center's coffee machine will also be able to collect coffee capsules. The same goes for all latex and nitrile gloves; which can represent more than 2,000 gloves per month.   Dental Center Deschênes 98 Amyot Street # 130, Rivière-du-Loup, QC G5R 3G3 (418) 860-3368 centredentairedeschenes.net

ESCANABA — Students in the Escanaba area are recycling candy wrappers after Halloween this year instead of throwing the wrappers in the trash, thanks to Escanaba High School’s Environmental Club. The new club decided the first activity it would take on would be the “Trick or Trash” campaign. Members of the club provided drop-off points for high school, Holy Name and Lemmer Elementary students to dispose of unwanted Halloween candy wrappers for recycling.   “We have gotten a lot of wrappers from kids here,” said Escanaba High School Special Education teacher and advisor to the Environmental Club Jessica Garber.   Club members have also picked up wrappers dropped off at Holy Name and Lemmer.   The company Rubion Global launched a “Trick or Trash” recycling awareness program. Garber received information from Rubion Global to educate students about keeping wrappers out of landfills and getting them into a recycling stream. More than 450 teachers signed up for the program. Escanaba High School is one of nine schools in Michigan working with the program to recycle.   The Environmental Club will close the “Trick or Trash” box when it is full and ship it free of charge to TerraCycle, a waste management company.   “We plan on packing the box as full as possible before sending it back,” said Garber.   Students wanted to have a club that did activities to help the environment after a visit to the Lake Superior Youth Symposium during the 2018-2019 school year. Seventh through 12th grade students from schools in the Upper Peninsula explored unique features of Lake Superior through workshops, field trips, and presentations. They met new friends and discussed how they could be good stewards of natural resources.   “This Environmental Club was thought up by a few students last year who went to the Lake Superior Youth Symposium because they saw the impacts of pollution on our Great Lakes,” said Garber. “We had a meeting to gauge interest at the end of last year, but our first meeting of this year was Oct. 15,” said Garber.   Garber decided there was enough interest to start a club for the 2019-2020 school year and is excited to see how it will grow. The club is so new they are in the stage of deciding the type of projects to engage in. “We have a small group of students who are working on the Environmental Club right now, but we are hoping the numbers will grow,” said Garber.   The first project the club tackled was the “Trick-or-Trash” campaign. The next project is to recycle plastic soda bottles to prevent them from going into the trash bins in the high school. The club now has a new bin to recycle bottles with the recycle number 1 or 2 at the bottom.   “All the bottles are going into the trash now,” Garber said.   Starting Nov. 15, the Environmental Club will start recycling plastic bags, bread bags, bubble wrap, dry cleaning bags, newspaper sleeves, ice bags, plastic shipping envelopes, “ziploc” bags, cereal bags, case over-wrap, salt bags, pellet wrap and stretch film, wood pellet bags and produce bags. With each bag they recycle the club members get closer to winning a bench from the TREX Company, Inc., a major manufacturer of wood alternative decking, railings and other outdoor items made from recycled materials. The plastic items will be weighed weekly and the weight will be entered monthly on the TREX website. According to Garber TREX is sending the club bins for the plastic film challenge.   “This is a small jumping off point for us and the students are very excited to be making these small changes for the better,” Garber said.

Boca Raton, FL – On Monday, November 18th, the fourth annual Unwrap the Waves recycling campaign announced that it collected a total of 272,595 candy wrappers, satisfying sustainability and Halloween’s sweet tooth all-in-one. Loggerhead Marinelife Center (LMC) also announced H.L. Johnson Elementary School as the recycling champion during its live broadcast among participating schools from Martin to Miami-Dade County. Thanks to rallying support, LMC exceeded last year’s wrapper count by a landslide and cued greater awareness surrounding sustainable packaging and single-use holiday waste.   The Unwrap the Waves campaign kicked off on Saturday, October 19 and capped off on Monday, November 11, summoning a record number of 34 schools and more than seven community partners throughout four counties. LMC will recycle 100% of the collected candy wrappers through TerraCycle’s Zero Waste Program, which will be repurposed into school supplies, such as pencils and notebooks.   According to Stanford University, Americans discard 25 percent more trash between Thanksgiving and New Year’s than any other time of the year. Unfortunately, the extra waste is estimated to produce an additional 25 million tons of garbage. However, regional and international efforts can reduce this reality.   “Loggerhead Marinelife Center’s candy wrapper push around Halloween goes beyond friendly school competitions,” said Lindsay French, STEM Education Coordinator. “It gives students an up-close visual of the debris that’s generally thrown away after one holiday alone, and provides a narrative that we can enjoy all kinds of celebrations while being conservation-minded to protect Florida’s most treasured ecosystems.”   After announcing the winner, the LMC Education Department challenged students to the next school-wide undertaking called the Blue Holiday initiative. The competition will stir hands-on, STEM-centric lesson plans aligned in Next Generation Sunshine State Standards (NGSSS) for grades K-12. The lesson plan includes two holiday classroom challenges for a chance to win fun sea turtle prizes. One of the prizes for the winning classroom will be a unique opportunity to name a future sea turtle patient at LMC’s Sea Turtle Hospital. Both competitions will have a virtual submission, so any school can participate.   Take learning beyond the classroom! Visit LMC’s website and give the lifelong gift of marine education to a child.   Loggerhead Marinelife Center:   Loggerhead Marinelife Center (LMC) is a nonprofit sea turtle research, rehabilitation and educational institution that promotes conservation of ocean ecosystems with a focus on threatened and endangered sea turtles. The Center features an on-site hospital, research laboratory, educational exhibits and aquariums, and also operates the Juno Beach Pier, which hosts world-class angling and sightseeing. Situated on one of the world’s most important sea turtle nesting beaches, Loggerhead Marinelife Center is open daily and hosts over 350,000 guests free-of-charge each year. The Center’s conservation team works with 90 local and international organizations across six continents to form partnerships and share conservation initiatives and best practices that are core to its mission of ocean conservation. The Center is expanding and has launched its Waves of Progress capital expansion campaign, designed to accelerate and amplify LMC’s conservation and education impact. When complete, the facility will offer one of the world’s most advanced and unique experiences for guests and scientific partners. For more information, visit www.marinelife.org or call (561) 627-8280.    

The Green Vanity accepts empty product containers for recycling People have been programmed to perpetually buy beauty products whether they need them or not, creating a sustainability problem for both consumers and the industry.   That’s according to Nikki Hunter, owner of The Green Vanity.   Hunter said The Green Vanity is a “bridge” to help guide consumers as they try to make the switch to a cleaner and greener beauty routine.   “When you’re trying to discover those clean brands, it can be overwhelming because there’s a lot of messy dialogue and really polarized views on performance and ethics,” Hunter said.   “We don’t believe in trial and error, because trial and error is part of the sustainability issue. We continually fill that box under the sink because of overbuying and misunderstanding.”   She said they provide consultation so that people will only buy the items they need and make sure those products work effectively, so they don’t feel the need to keep buying more products.   Hunter said the boutique is also contributing to a cleaner industry by carrying brands that try to be as close to zero waste as possible.   “Zero-waste doesn’t technically exist. Everything we make as humans has waste but the part that we can talk about the most is our post-consumer waste. So what happens to what we have in our hand and who are we going to give our money to who’s doing the least amount of waste before then?”   Hunter said more and more brands are now considering materials used not only in their products, but also their packaging. She said more brands are using water-treated bamboo containers with refillable product, which makes for non-toxic and low-waste products in general.   But at the end of the day, all that packaging still needs to be taken care of.   “We are a recycle depot. We take plastics, we take glass, we take aluminum. We also have TerraCycle (which converts waste to raw materials for new products).”

The next time you unwrap a candy bar or rip open a bag of chips, think about saving those crinkly wrappers. Recycle boxes are now available for those items at all three schools in the Denali Borough.   The wrappers will be sent to a company called TerraCycle and made into durable plastic products like picnic tables and benches. The company is located in New Jersey and is a global leader in recycling hard-to-recycle materials.   Kesslyn Tench, Tri-Valley School’s technology manager and technology teacher, launched this particular recycling, which falls right in line with the school district’s dedication to the boroughwide Zero Landfill Initiative.   Subaru spearheads this initiative, which seeks to divert solid waste from the landfill. Subaru partners with local agencies and Denali National Park to improve recycling options and helps educate consumers and visitors. Local student ambassadors have been promoting the program since it began a few years ago. Visitors to Denali now find recycling bins throughout the park for aluminum, glass and plastic Nos. 1, 2 and 5.   Denali Education Center was recently awarded the Alaska Tourism Industry Association’s Stan Stephen’s Stewardship Award for the key role they play in managing the program.   In past years, candy wrappers and chip bags were never specifically included as acceptable recycling products and Tench always wondered why.   “I saw an article about this in Illinois or one of the Midwest areas, and I was like, ‘Okay, I wonder if we can do that here,’” she said.   She discovered that a bus tour operator in Denali National Park, collects those items from its bus snack boxes. Doyon/Aramark Joint Venture Concession provides a 100% recyclable snack box, thanks to a partnership with TerraCycle, according to Dawn Adams with Denali National Park. In 2019, Doyon/Aramark Joint Venture Concession collected and shipped 6,815 pounds of crinkly wrappers from snack boxes, to TerraCycle, according to Adams.   Students from the Denali Borough had the opportunity to visit the TerraCycle facility last year, according to Tench. The group attended the national service learning conference in Philadelphia, toured the Subaru headquarters (because of their Zero Landfill Initiative connection) and then traveled to Trenton, New Jersey, to tour the TerraCycle facility. Later, that same group of students participated in a Skype conversation with officials at TerraCycle.   Collection boxes are available now at Anderson School, Tri-Valley School and Cantwell School. There are also collection boxes at McKinley Community Center, Tri-Valley Community Center and In His Shadows Church.   Reach columnist/community editor Kris Capps at kcapps@newsminer.com. Call her at the office 459-7546. Follow her on Twitter: @FDNMKris.  

Sarasota’s Ornata Jewelry partners with TerraCycle recycling program to help eliminate unnecessary waste.

Sarasota-based online retailer Ornata Jewelry is working with innovative recycling company TerraCycle to reduce harmful plastic waste. By participating in TerraCycle’s Zero Waste Box program, the jewelry company recycles the plastic packaging raw materials come shipped in. Disposables, such as plastic bags, that would otherwise be sent to a landfill are now placed in a receptacle box that once full can be shipped back to TerraCycle for repurposing. The Zero Waste Box program is remarkably straight-forward. First, businesses choose which box package and size works best for their waste disposal needs. Dozens of box options are available, including those for a variety of plastic products, worn down shoes, dead batteries, used coffee pods and even cigarette butts. After receiving the box, users fill it to the brim with appropriate debris before mailing it back to TerraCycle. (Return shipping is included in the initial box price.) Now, instead of spending a lifetime in a landfill or requiring incineration these byproducts will be up-cycled and given a second life as a park bench, bike rack or shipping pallet. This recent partnership is just one in a long line of steps Ornata Jewelry has taken to reduce the organization’s environmental impact. Since conception, company leadership has made great efforts to monitor the business’s carbon footprint and minimize waste. Ornata’s reduce, reuse and recycle efforts also include using eco-friendly paper in product packaging, shipping containers that meet Sustainable Forestry Initiative standards, sourcing supplies from ecologically-minded manufacturers and, whenever possible, recycling sterling silver or metal scraps. The leaders at Ornata hope that their efforts will inspire other small businesses to take action over their own environmental impact. The company issued a statement that read, “We believe in our world and understand that its future depends on our actions, both the big and the small. Consciously logging what we use and its effects on the earth heighten our awareness and naturally leads to positive changes in our behavior.” Through teaming with TerraCycle, Ornata is one step closer to achieving its dream of creating a waste-free world and a product customers can feel good about.

Fill and refill — it’s a simple concept. For Eagle County residents, Fill & Refill is a new business in Edwards, taking away the cost of packaging and plastic-waste contribution by offering refillable daily-use, organic products — from body washes, shampoos and conditioners to hand soap, body lotion, menstrual hygiene products, toothpaste tablets and more. With paper, glass and metal refillable packaging for organic, biodegradable products, Fill & Refill is a business cutting into the county’s carbon footprint. “They all work really well,” owner Allison Burgund said of the products vetted at her family of four’s home in Edwards. “They all smell really great and feel really great. Most importantly, they don’t have toxins for your body — or my kids — and the environment.” Brands in Fill & Refill include Bee’s Wrap, Smartliners, Dr. Bronner’s All-One, EO Products, Sapadilla, Wildland Organics and more. The cost of refills ranges from 30 cents per ounce to 70 cents per ounce. Burgund has refillable jars available for purchase, as well as rent. A starter kit features a tote bag, two glass bottles and pumps as well as fills on each bottle for $27. After 20 years in the business of graphic design, Burgund is starting a new chapter with Fill & Refill. “I found a new passion,” she said from her small shop in Edwards, where smells are free. “It’s a small space, but hopefully I’ll make an impact.” In addition to offering refillable daily-use products, Burgund is focused on educational outreach, including adding a box for snack wrappers at Edwards Elementary School, collaborating with Walking Mountains Science Center and working with Knapp Ranch and rental units to provide sustainable amenity kits.

‘I like the concept of refilling’

After a trip to the recycling center near Wolcott with her daughter’s second-grade class two years ago, Burgund decided to collect her family of four’s plastic trash for a month to see how they were contributing. “It was much bigger than I thought,” she said, adding that plastic recycling is essentially trash, citing National Geographic’s report that 91% doesn’t get recycled. She reached out to grocery stores in Eagle and Summit counties asking them to offer refillable products, with no luck. So she started researching and testing products herself, looking at other zero-waste stores that sell products used on a daily basis — hand soap, laundry soap, shampoo, deodorant, etc. One of the first products she tested with her two children was having them make their own bubble baths starting with unscented, organic essential oils and adding scents like lime, orange and grapefruit. Products at Fill & Refill are initially packaged in paper, glass and metal and can be re-used. “I really like local companies because that’s the best support of reducing a carbon footprint — less travel, less gas and less packaging,” she said. Just before Halloween, Burgund teamed up with recycling company TerraCycle to put a Zero Waste Box in Edwards Elementary School, where candy and snack wrappers will go. When the box is full, it gets shipped back to TerraCycle, which turns them into recycled new products, such as benches, bike racks, shipping pallets and more. The school’s Green Team is helping manage the box. “That’s a nice, tidy little way to handle some of that stuff, and I feel like it teaches kids that they can make a difference,” said Burgund, mother of a 7-year-old and 9-year-old herself. With Fill & Refill, Burgund is currently a team of one, but she is looking to expand — with both the product line as well as satellite locations in Vail and Eagle. “I like the concept of refilling,” Burgund said. “I think eventually it should not just be limited to the healthiest products, although that’s what I believe in.”

Jaclyn Hill is relaunching her namesake makeup line Beauty influencer Jaclyn Hill announced this week that she is relaunching her namesake makeup line. Her holiday collection “Catch the Light” will be available for purchase on November 26, and includes three brushes, a luminous powder plus several highlighters. Earlier this week, Hill posted the reveal on Instagram captioned, “The future is bright.” This is coming after her original (and controversial) Jaclyn Cosmetics launch in May where she released a collection of 20 nude lipsticks, some of which had a lumpy formula and contained hair-like fibres. But rest assured—this time Hill is using a different laboratory than she did for her first round of beauty wares. She told WWD that “The first launch sucked, but everybody deserves a second chance … I’m gonna keep going and proving myself.”   BUXOM released a Toronto Raptors-inspired lipstick Beauty company BUXOM is celebrating We The North culture with the release of Full Force Plumping Lipstick in the colour “baller.” Made with beauty and basketball fans in mind, the satin shade of Raptors’ signature red will look amazing on anyone who supports the defending NBA champions. The Full Force Plumping Lipstick is said to visibly smooth and fill lips, while ingredients like avocado oil, jojoba esters and vitamin E condition your pout. We can’t decide what’s better: the long-wear formula, or the fact that it smells like vanilla. Regardless, it is definitely cuter than a jersey. The lipstick is finally available at Shoppers Drug Mart and Real Sports Apparel inside Scotiabank Arena, and will be on Sephora shelves in December.   Jennifer Lopez got a new asymmetrical lob-cut Jenny from the block knows where she came from, but isn’t afraid to evolve. Trying out new hairstyles is not uncommon for Jennifer Lopez, and this week we noticed she was wearing an asymmetrical lob. Celebrity hairstylist Chris Appleton cut Lopez’s locks, and included a deep side part with a few golden highlights to frame her face. This look deserves a *chef’s kiss*.   Deciem launched an empty-container recycling program This week, Deciem announced a new recycling program in an attempt to improve their sustainability efforts. This program allows people to drop off their clean empties from any beauty brand, which will then be sorted by material type before being recycled or repurposed. Partnering with TerraCycle, the brand has placed white cardboard boxes with the words “BEAUTY IS BEING HUMAN” at select Deciem locations in the U.K., U.S. and Canada, including the shop in Toronto’s Exchange Tower. Deciem claims this is a starter solution in their plan for efficient recycling. No complaints here.  

According to the Green Restaurant Association, the average dining destination creates 100,000 pounds of garbage per year. Restaurateurs can divert 90% of that from the landfill with the proper recycling and composting program, the organization says, but Rhodora has taken the concept even further, completely eliminating all waste from its operations.   And to be clear, that means everything. No single-use plastics, no products or packaging that can’t be recycled, upcycled, or composted, and no trash in the kitchen, the dining room…or in the bathroom. Wines are natural and low-intervention, from small farms, and the menu – inspired by the conservas tapas bars of the Iberian Peninsula – is short and sweet, just tinned fish and seafood, pickles and charcuterie, cheeses and simple salads, with ice cream for dessert.   Rhodora is the work of the Oberon Group, a local restaurant group with a focus on community and sustainability, and though it’s the first zero-waste bar in Brooklyn, and likely the first in the US as a whole, it’s not the first in the world. The UK’s Silo, which opened in Brighton in 2014 and relocated to London just this fall, served as an inspiration, and the chef there helped the Rhodora team navigate through unfamiliar waters.   As Grub Street reports, they sought out cheeses sans wax rinds, breads that could be delivered by bike, and oysters that would come in a closed-loop delivery system – i.e., in packaging that goes back to the supplier to be reused. There’s a composter for food scraps, and as for that bathroom issue, there’s TerraCycle, a New Jersey recycling company that handles hazardous waste – one of their collection boxes has been installed in the facilities.  

To read the full story, visit https://www.lonelyplanet.com/articles/rhodora-brooklyn-waste-free-wine-bar.