Rubicon Global and TerraCycle, both companies dedicated to managing and eliminating waste, recently teamed up to run a Halloween recycling initiative. The “Trick or Trash” campaign provides free lesson plans about recycling and the circular economy to elementary and middle-school teachers, along with bins, called Zero Waste Boxes, for recycling candy and snack wrappers accumulated by students during their trick or treating forays.   “Were tying it to Halloween because it definitely gets the kids’ attention,” says TerraCycle spokesperson Sue Kauffman. “It’s a perfect opportunity to teach some really important lessons about a topic that is really important to kids.”   While exact numbers of participating teachers haven’t been tallied yet, according to Kauffman, interest apparently has been high. Due to an unexpectedly enthusiastic response, the campaign had to end the box giveaway a few days early. Teachers and principals from more than 40 U.S. states signed up, more than doubling the anticipated number.   Those still interested in owning a Zero Waste Box can buy one on TerraCycle or Rubicon’s web sites. And the free lessons plans are still available. The initiative is being run through Rubicon’s site.   According to Rubicon, a whopping $2.6 billion will be spent on candy this year. Americans buy nearly 600 million pounds of candy for Halloween.   The lesson plans focus on what happens to all that candy waste after it’s tossed into recycling bins—what can and can’t be recycled, why you need to separate different types of waste, the merits of reusable packaging vs. single use, lifestyle changes that can lead to less trash and so on. “For a lot of people, when they throw things in the blue bin, it’s out of sight, out of mind,” says Kauffman. “They don’t really know what happens.”   Students are tasked with dropping off their candy wrappers and related waste after Halloween is over. Once the box is full, teachers can ship the box back to TerraCycle with a prepaid label. The company will then recycle the waste.   Atlanta, Ga-based Rubicon Global is a tech company focused on helping businesses, cities, individuals and haulers manage waste and become more sustainable. TerraCycle is a recycling and waste management pioneer, based in Trenton, NJ. It also recently launched Loop, which works with retailers and manufacturers to sell containers and other receptacles that are reused.   As for the Halloween initiative, according to Kauffman, it’s all about focusing on what students can do to change behavior and reduce waste. “If anything is going to change, you have to change the next generation,” she says.

We need to talk about Halloween candy.   Public awareness of our plastic pollution crisis is at a high, plastic straws and bags are getting banned in cities and states across the country, and yet there has been almost no discussion about the massive environmental problem that Halloween candy creates.   Americans will buy approximately 600 million pounds of Halloween candy this year, spending $2.6 billion on bite-sized candy bars and bags of candy corn. After the holiday, nearly all the wrappers and packages from these confections will end up in landfills, where they’ll sit around for decades or more.   Candy wrappers are very hard to recycle. Like most food wrappers and packages, candy wrappers are not meant to be mixed with bottles and cans and sent to a sorting facility. “They are too small for our equipment to sort,” said John Hambrose, communications manager at Waste Management Inc., one of the largest sanitation companies in the U.S. Most curbside recycling programs prioritize capturing rigid plastics like bottles, jugs and materials that are at least the size of a credit card.   And it’s not just size that’s a problem. It’s what candy wrappers are made from.   “There are so many varieties of candy out there and equally abundant are the types of wrappers,” Jeremy Walters, sustainability manager for Republic Services, another major waste disposal company, told HuffPost in an email. “Though some wrappers feel like paper, they often have a ‘waxy’ or ‘poly-coating,’ leaving it unfit to be mixed with paper for recycling.”   Recycling systems aren’t designed to capture and sort wrappers “because they have little dollar value,” said Nick McCulloch, senior manager of sustainability at Rubicon Global, a waste reduction tech company.   “Recycling is in part about economics — the value of the raw materials you’re collecting needs to exceed the cost of collecting them. Candy wrappers make that math hard because they’re made from low-value plastics,” he told HuffPost. “You’d have to collect tens of thousands of wrappers to help make those economics work.” Nevertheless, a few small efforts exist to curb the waste associated with hard-to-recycle materials like candy wrappers.   In September, HuffPost reported on the launch of the first municipal program in the country that encourages residents to throw flexible plastics, including candy wrappers, in the recycling bin. Eight thousand households in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, are participating so far, and nearby communities will join the experiment by the end of the year. The area uses a recycling facility with the advanced technology to deal with flexible plastics. Most facilities around the country would need millions of dollars to upgrade their equipment.   This month, recycling company TerraCycle and tech company Rubicon Global partnered to launched a “Trick or Trash” program for Halloween candy wrappers. Initially, school teachers and students could request a free recycling box before the holiday; and once the box was full, they’d return it to TerraCycle, which cleans and breaks down the wrappers to be made into new items. But due to overwhelming demand in more than 40 states, the companies had to stop sending out free boxes. Schools can still purchase a recycling box for snack and candy wrappers, but they’ll have to pay TerraCycle $81 to cover the costs associated with recycling these items.   Some food manufacturers have begun to experiment with wrappers made from recyclable materials. In the U.K., Nestlé recently launched its first recyclable paper packaging for a snack bar. The company did not respond when HuffPost asked whether it planned to use this new packaging on other products.   Walters told HuffPost that he worries about this so-called recyclable paper packaging.   “In theory it is a step in the right direction, but ultimately the biggest issue with this packaging is going to be contamination,” Walters wrote. “If you love chocolate as much as I do, you probably have experienced the Earth-shattering disappointment of opening up your chocolate bar and realizing it melted in your bag over the course of the day. Think about the sticky, chocolatey mess inside that wrapper. If that new ‘recyclable’ type of wrapper is soiled with chocolate or other food materials it cannot be mixed with paper grades coming out of the modern-day recycling center.” So what’s an environmentally conscious trick-or-treater to do?   In the zero-waste Facebook group of which I’m a member, I asked if folks had alternatives to Halloween candy wrapper hell. Several members said they went out of their way to hand out plastic-free treats ― like playing cards made from paper, compostable chewing gum from a plastic-free store, or classic Halloween favorites that come in paper containers (like Nerds, Lemonheads and Milkduds).   “If we all make it a point to support companies and brands who are really tackling the problem of disposability and taking steps to find solutions, we can force meaningful change,” said Sue Kauffman, North American public relations manager of TerraCycle.   Waste Management’s Hambrose agreed, saying that people can make a difference “by purchasing products that use less packaging and recycled materials,” and by sharing their concerns with elected officials.   Individual actions won’t get us very far so long as companies keep churning out candy in single-use packaging, according to Greenpeace representative Perry Wheeler. “It’s time to rethink how we are delivering these products while still making it enjoyable for children,” Wheeler said.   “It is overwhelming to enter the Halloween aisle this time of year and think about where all of this plastic will end up — polluting our oceans, waterways, or communities,” he added. “The cost of inaction on our throwaway culture is just too high to ignore.”   One member of the Facebook group said this is not an issue their household bothers to tackle, despite working toward a waste-free lifestyle. “I have no solutions,” they wrote. “We just deal the best we can.” They added that they try to limit the number of houses they visit to collect less candy in the first place.   Another option is extreme action, like banning all unrecyclable food packaging, not just candy wrappers. Such an effort, however, would not only be unpopular, and therefore unlikely to gain political traction; it’d be tough to enact and enforce.   Bans on plastic straws and shopping bags are highly controversial, and there isn’t a consensus yet on how effective they are. Research published earlier this year found that California’s ban on plastic shopping bags might be driving up sales of plastic garbage bags. And bans on plastic straws have proved difficult to implement.   When we asked Hambrose whether a gigantic trash-hauler and recycler like Waste Management would favor a potential ban on candy wrappers, he was aghast.   “Waste Management would never get between a trick-or-treater and a candy bar,” Hambrose said. “We can’t think of anything more horrifying.”   If it matters to you, it matters to us. Support HuffPost’s journalism here. For more content and to be part of the “This New World” community, follow our Facebook page.   HuffPost’s “This New World” series is funded by Partners for a New Economy and the Kendeda Fund. All content is editorially independent, with no influence or input from the foundations. If you have an idea or tip for the editorial series, send an email to thisnewworld@huffpost.com

Halloween, you might think, should be the greenest holiday this side of Arbor Day. Its traditional decorations are heavily berry-based (pumpkins are berries, botanically speaking, and highly compostable), and it celebrates recycling in the form of zombies and Dr. Frankenstein’s monster-making. But one big part of Halloween isn’t eco-friendly.   Most candy wrappers aren’t accepted by municipal recycling programs. But there are specialty recycling firms that handle them. The Iowa City Landfill and Recycling Center recommends New Jersey-based TerraCycle.   TerraCycle sells waste boxes, which are filled and then shipped back to the company for recycling. Unfortunately, the service is a little pricey — from $43 to $218, depending on the size of the waste box. The Recycling Center suggests joining “with your neighbors to fill up a box to send to Terracycle.”   But collaborating with neighbors isn’t always easy. It can lead to shame-filled discussions about how much candy you stole from your kids’ Halloween haul that will make you want to avoid eye-contact with the neighbors for weeks. Or maybe your neighbors are the sort who hand out little bags of popcorn or nickels to trick-or-treaters, so you generally avoid them at this time of year. Or maybe they’re the sort of neighbors you avoid at all times of the year. Regardless of the reason, Little Village is here to help.   Bring your clean, empty candy wrappers (no melted remains, please) to the Little Village office in downtown Iowa City from Nov. 1-15. We’ll buy the appropriate-sized TerraCycle box and then ship your Halloween detritus to New Jersey for recycling. Our office is located at 623 S Dubuque St, and is open Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.   As for pumpkins — the official state fruit of New Hampshire — and other berries, they can be put in the organic waste bin for curbside collection.

Research institutions need to reflect on their attitudes toward plastic waste and make sustainability a priority. Whether it’s encouraging the use of reusable cups, banning plastic straws, or charging customers for plastic bags in grocery stores, it’s clear that some companies and policymakers are beginning to take measures against the growing issue of plastic waste. It’s easy to imagine science as an answer to our current sustainability crisis, as it offers the development of new environment-friendly materials, low emission technologies, and the production of discoveries and evidence that can help us fight climate change. But could those working on the solution also be contributing to the problem?   According to an audit at the University of Washington, disposable gloves, made from nitrile or latex, are a laboratory’s main contribution to landfill waste, making up around a quarter of the waste sent to the trash by scientists. Gloves contaminated with chemicals are considered hazardous waste, and must be disposed of accordingly to ensure public and environmental safety. Some researchers choose to reuse gloves that are still clean after one use, but this is not always possible — gloves can get sweaty, tear, and are sometimes tricky to put on once they’ve come off. Importantly, gloves are mainly a prevention measure and do not always become contaminated, so they are thrown in the trash rather than the hazardous waste bin, ending up in a landfill. Instead, gloves could be recycled.   In the last five years, the University of Edinburgh’s School of Chemistry has diverted one million gloves — 15 metric tons of plastic — from landfill waste. The department was the first in Europe to sign up to the KIMTECH Nitrile Glove Recycling Program, also known as RightCycle, run by Kimberly Clarke Professional, a multinational consumer goods corporation, and TerraCycle, a company that specializes in recycling unconventional items. The scheme is operated not only in the United Kingdom, but also in the United States, with laboratories at the University of California Santa Cruz, University of Illinois, University of Texas Austin, and Purdue University signed up to the program. Between 2011 and 2017, more than 360 metric tons of waste — about 24 million gloves — were diverted from landfill because of the program. The nitrile gloves are turned into plastic granules that, after blending with other recycled plastics or being milled into a powder, form composite raw materials that can later be processed and turned into bins, garden equipment, furniture, or even rubber flooring and ground covering for sports facilities.   Tim Calder, Waste Management Officer for the University of Edinburgh’s School of Chemistry, came across the scheme when talking to a Fisher Scientific representative who mentioned the nitrile glove recycling program. Calder bought 200 collection boxes in February 2014 and notified laboratory staff that they could take one to their lab on request. Since then, when the boxes are full, they are taken down to a larger collection point in the school’s stores facilities, which are emptied every six to eight weeks by TerraCycle. “I was involved with sustainability at the University and looking for new opportunities,” says Calder. He believes the initiative has been successful because “the staff and students here have been happy to do their bit.”   According to a 2015 estimate, around 5.5 million tons of plastic are produced in bioscience research facilities alone every year — so why aren’t recycling programs more popular? The reason why many single-use plastic products, including laboratory gloves, are not conventionally recycled, is that doing so is not usually economically viable. Collecting and processing them through regular streams costs more than the value of the material left at the end. However, this particular recycling scheme works because TerraCycle collects a range of hard-to-replace plastics, from a variety of institutions, which are processed and then combined to make composite materials that can be processed into useful products. Participating laboratories only have to pay for the transport of the gloves to their nearest collection warehouse location.   The School of Chemistry is currently the only department at the University of Edinburgh to take part in the RightCycle program, despite sharing a campus with other science facilities. Even when individuals have the initiative to adopt more sustainable practices in their labs, it is difficult to know where to start, or how to design programs that can be upheld in the long-term and will be embraced by students and staff. Each university or research institution has different protocols for how laboratory waste streams are handled, so a collective effort between building managers, laboratory staff, and department heads is crucial for the success of such initiatives. The implementation of the glove recycling scheme in current universities has often relied on the initiative of staff or students, which is often rare as researchers are often already too busy to spend their time developing sustainable policies for their departments. Institutions should instead fund a position dedicated to supervising the management of waste, someone who can liaise between their institution and recycling companies, as well as looking at how to make sustainability a priority in the department’s policies.   In fact, there are other laboratory materials that recycling programs could target: researchers go through plenty of other single-use plastic items daily, such as pipette tips, petri dishes, and vials. Currently, chemical contamination limits the amount of material that can be recycled, but future efforts should focus on finding ways to neutralize equipment contaminated with common solvents to enable their recycling. To reduce plastic waste, facilities could also look at replacing plastic equipment with reusable glassware where possible, or recycling the plastic packaging in which chemicals are purchased.   The question of sustainability in the lab goes beyond plastic waste, with increasing efforts to adopt a “circular economy” approach by recovering used solvents for reuse, sharing leftover chemicals between departments, and creating chemical management systems to ensure an efficient distribution of resources. As these lab practices become more widespread, they will serve to not only minimize waste, but also save funds and materials.

Some time ago, I discovered  TerraCycle , a company that offers to collect non-recyclable materials otherwise to give them a second life. They sell boxes to harvest these materials, online or at Wholesale Office. TerraCycle was founded by Tom Szaky in 2001. While a student at Princeton University, he founded the company to divert waste from landfills. Quickly, TerraCycle has become the world leader in the collection and processing of hard-to-recycle waste.   Solutions for Halloween   Halloween after Halloween, I really wanted to find a solution for the candy packaging that ended up in large quantities in the trash. Even though my kids do not spend Halloween for quite some time, I know this is a need for many other parents.   I then made the link between my need and the company TerraCycle. PH effect was the perfect answer!   Refusing and reducing  should be the priority, but for many children, picking candies is one of the great pleasures of life! So, I think giving people the opportunity to divert candy wrappers from landfills is a great idea.   That's why Effect PH has partnered with various companies to pick up these candy wrappers after Halloween. All candy wrappers are accepted as well as pastilles, chocolate bars, small snacks, gums and even small bags of potato chips.   All you have to do is collect the candy wrappers and carry them to one of the collection points.   If your business, school, or child care service wishes to work with us on this project, contact us at helene@effetph.com   Pickup points Here are our pickup points where you can go carry candy wrappers during their opening hours, from November 1st to November 21st, 2019.  

• Célestine Café  : 868 King Street West, Sherbrooke
• Silo - Organic Grocery Bulk  : 385 Rue King Est, Sherbrooke
• L'écolo Shop  : 655 King Street East, Sherbrooke
• Boutique Folles from here  : 24, Place Bourget Nord, Joliette 349, L'Ange-Gardien Boulevard, L'Assomption
• KryceeDesign  : Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu (contact her via Messenger to bring her the packaging)
• Shop Artemire / Frip'o diapers / Purple Pineapple Purple : 291 Rue Alexandre, Sherbrooke
• 123Zero - Zero Waste Grocery : 2389 Main West, Suite 140 Magog
• Jouvence : 131 Way of Youth, Orford
• Avrac A'davrac Grocery Store Zero Waste : 4844, Boulevard Bourque Sherbrooke
• Students from École Gareau de l'Assomption  can bring their packaging to the school.
• The children and parents of the  CPE Magimo  (both facilities) as well as the childcare services of the coordinating office (educators and parents users) can bring their packaging to the  CPE Magimo .
• Students from École Des Aventuriers, 78, Cardinal, Sherbrooke , will be able to bring their packaging to school.
• The children and parents of the Carosse Citrouille as well as the childcare services of the coordinating office (educators and parents users) can bring their packaging to CPE Carosse Citrouille .
• The children and parents of the CPE Manche de Pelle will be able to bring their packaging.
• Students and parents of L'Orée School of the Bois de Saint Lazare can bring their packaging to the school. Two boxes will be made available to people. One will be located in the school for the students. A second box will be outside the school to pick up candy wrappers from people in the community who do not attend school.
• The students of the Séminaire de Sherbrooke will be able to bring their packaging to the school in the undergraduate hall through their new option Citizens of the World.
• Students from École des Deux Rives in Sherbrooke (Bromptonville) will be able to bring their packaging to the school.
• Students at the Maisonneuve School in Sherbrooke will be able to bring their packaging to the school.
• Students at Desranleau School in Sherbrooke will be able to bring their packaging to school.

When I first started working in general practice after graduating I realised how detrimental the impact of providing veterinary care is to the environment. The amount of waste generated, the harmful chemicals used and the vast amount of energy consumed for day-to-day running of a practice was disconcerting.  As a profession known for our compassion of living creatures and the natural world, I felt like this was counterintuitive - surely veterinary work and environmental sustainability should go hand in hand? Achieving carbon neutrality and zero waste production as a veterinary practice will certainly be challenging, but with these goals in mind I began thinking about what steps we should be taking to move in the right direction.   Together, as a team of green-minded individuals, we set about becoming more environmentally sustainable as a practice. First we implemented easy wins; simple changes in behaviour that cost nothing but reduce our energy consumption. Energy saving mode is programmed on the printers and computers, the washing machine is only run if there is a full load, lights and computer monitors are routinely turned off when not in use and washing is hung on the line rather than tumble dried. Whenever a light needs replacing, we swap it for an LED bulb which is up to 75% more energy efficient and has a much longer lifespan. I'd argue that replacing traditional bulbs with LED bulbs is one of the most simple yet effective eco-friendly habits you can adopt both at home and at work!   Keen to recycle as much of our non-hazardous waste as possible, we sought quotes from waste disposal services to find out that recycling collection was just as expensive as general waste collection which may prove too expensive for small businesses like ours to invest in. At present our cardboard and paper waste is collected by the council, however we collect mixed recycling for my boss to dispose of at home in her domestic wheelie bins. We also signed up to become a collection point for the Terracycle pet packaging recycling scheme; they collect and reuse “non-recyclable” waste that would otherwise end up in landfills or being incinerated.   Clinical waste is one of the biggest challenges to reducing total waste as, by law, it has to be incinerated and cannot be recycled. We have tried to reduce the amount we generate by using re-useable scrub caps, gowns and drapes. A paper has recently been published concluding that there is no disadvantage to using reusable cloth drapes from an infection control standpoint, which was our main concern. Another change we made was switching to smaller clinical waste bins so people have to think twice about what is genuinely clinical waste and what can be recycled. Cardboard-based clinical waste bins (such as the Bio-bin) are a good alternative to the usual plastic bins but we could not justify the additional cost in a small practice, so as a compromise we re-fill the plastic bins, and only dispose of the bin bags once full.   To reduce our water consumption, we have switched to Sterillium to achieve surgical sterility (this also reduces waste, as there is no need for packaged sterile scrub brushes and towels). Another way we minimise our water consumption is by only running the washing machine on a full load.   In an effort to reduce the paper used at the practice, the anaesthetic monitoring chart is printed on the back of the patient admit form, we always print double sided, and we look at urine results and blood results on the computer rather than printing them out. We make sure any paper we buy is PEFC certified so that we know any paper being used is ethically sourced. We also encourage clients to receive reminders by email or text rather than by post to further reduce the waste produced as well as saving on postage.   When we have lunchtime CPD, we request that the visiting companies provide lunches that are plastic free and ideally locally sourced. This often results in us receiving delicious salads and sandwiches from the local delicatessen in paper boxes…perhaps one of the best perks of our eco-friendly efforts!! We also have a large stash of re-useable cups with the practice logo on for staff and visitors to use rather than disposable cups.   Veterinary practices have a lot of power through procurement (obtaining equipment and supplies), and we decided to put this to good use to drive change in the market. We support green-minded suppliers and have swapped many consumables with eco-friendly alternatives; syringes made from renewable energy, biodegradable examination gloves and recyclable autoclave bags, amongst others. We now also stock pet toys specifically made from materials other than plastic, it's amazing what you can find out there when you look for it!   We had a discussion about further energy reduction measures such as replacing the old boiler for a more efficient model (as recommended by an energy consultant), switching to a green energy supplier or generating our own electricity on-site through renewable technology. Being a small independent practice these are unfortunately out of our budget for now, but if funds allowed in the future, this would definitely be the next step. It is likely that these changes would even make a return on our investment through reduced energy bills in the future. We did however invest in applying Solar Sentry window films to the windows in the waiting room and consult rooms, which reduce heat loss in winter and prevent excessive heat gain (and glare) in summer, thereby reducing both our heating and air-conditioning bills.   My practice is by no means perfect, and there is a lot more we could improve on, but we are trying to do everything within our means at this point in time. Our aim was to do our bit for the planet to help prevent further global warming. Clients really appreciate our eco-friendly business ethos and we have cut our energy bills too! Becoming environmentally sustainable certainly has many perks, and the eco-conscious mind-set is more contagious than the flu. I wanted to write this blog to inspire other practices to embark on eco-friendly ventures as I believe that every practice has scope to reduce its environmental impact, whatever the size or budget. It would be incredible to see the veterinary profession leading the way in taking responsibility for our environmental impact, and setting an example for other industries to follow!   I am forever on the lookout for new ideas for how we could further develop our sustainability efforts, so please get in touch at brookfieldvets@hotmail.com if you have any suggestions, I would be very grateful.   

As shoppers weigh the environmental impact of their purchases, companies are realizing the ancillary benefits of going green. It wasn't too hard to make the Package Free store in Brooklyn, New York, an environmentally friendly space. Lauren Singer, Package Free's CEO, opened the store in 2017, which sells various health, beauty and lifestyle products aimed at reducing waste.   To shape the store with the environment in mind, she worked with a friend to find the materials needed, including woodwork from sustainable wood, milk paint and energy-efficient light bulbs with fixtures from a vintage lighting store.   The store tests vendor's products before selling them to shoppers and seeks out products that replace single-use items and don't have plastic packaging. The store has partnered with recycling firm TerraCycle to introduce recycling bins into the store where shoppers can recycle electronics, personal care, oral care and other waste, per the company's website.   The idea behind founding the store, Singer said in an interview with Retail Dive, was "to provide products and solutions for people who are wanting to reduce their waste and make it easier for them to do it."   While up-and-coming retailers like Package Free can be nimble in their sustainability efforts, research from U.S. Green Building Council suggests larger retailers are creating environmentally-responsible brick-and-mortar stores, too. Beyond wanting to do their part to safeguard the planet, retailers also see environmentally-responsible storefronts as both a cost-savings tool and a marketing opportunity to reach savvy shoppers, multiple sources told Retail Dive.   LEED, short for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is a voluntary rating criteria for assessing the environmental health and performance of new structures, existing buildings and add-ons, according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency. According to the "LEED in Motion" report from USGBC, America drives the top 10 countries and territories with LEED certified retail projects, followed by Canada, Mainland China, Thailand and Brazil. In the U.S., California is the top state for LEED certified retail spaces, followed by New York, Florida and Texas, per the report.   Generally, retailers can improve on a range of areas including energy-efficient lighting and equipment, better waste management and overall location, said Stefanie Young, vice president of technical solutions at the USGBC. Consumers, whether for environmental or political reasons, are becoming more conscious about the way they shop and are evaluating their purchase decision, she said in an interview with Retail Dive.   Retailers could, for example, locate their stores in public transit-adjacent locations so that shoppers and employees can easily access them without a car, according to Young. Doing so could reduce vehicle air pollution, she said, adding that the organization has noticed retailers focusing on their proximity to transit.   Anthony Abate, vice president of operations and chief technology officer at AtmosAir Solutions, said his firm has worked with retailers for their air purification systems in their brick-and-mortar locations. The company provides clients with air purification systems that clean up and recirculate existing indoor air rather than bringing in and distilling air from outside, a technique that not only saves on energy but also can keep employees and shoppers healthier, Abate said.   Aside from wanting to obtain LEED certification and becoming more sustainable, retailers have come to the company for air filtration systems for various reasons, Abate said. For retailers in the supermarket sector, for example, they need to reduce bacteria and molds to minimize food waste and prevent employee or customer illness.   "It comes [back] to those LEED Green Building certifications … That's something that retailers are using to really talk to their customers and say, 'We're environmentally-conscious and building sustainable sites,'" Abate said.   The organization has seen an uptick in high-end retailers with an international footprint looking to make their stores more sustainable in the U.S. and abroad, particularly in regions like Asia where the effects of climate change are more acutely felt, Young said.   Just as consumers are paying attention to retailers who are building sustainable spaces, retailers are looking for landlords who provide environmentally friendly spaces, too. Finding landlords who align with their water, energy, green-cleaning and other sustainability goals requires retailers to coordinate across their legal, sustainability and tenant coordination teams, Young said.   "We're seeing a bit more efforts from the top down versus waiting for consumers to make their decisions on where they're spending their pocketbook," Young said.   Package Free's physical store started as a pop-up shop, Singer said. Given New York City's tight real estate market, Singer said she didn't have much of a choice in selecting a physical location with built-in eco-friendly features. However, she was free to customize the interior with environmentally-mindful materials.   When it comes to brands building sustainable storefronts, "it's a lot easier to start from scratch," Singer said. "I think what has contributed to our success so much is that our values and our mission were very clear from the beginning."   Showcasing sustainability efforts varies from retailer to the next, Young said. While many retailers want to focus more on their products and services rather than the environment, they recognize that they have to demonstrate to discerning shoppers what role they're playing in preserving the planet, she remarked. Those efforts seem to be paying off, because Package Free recently revealed that it raised $4.5 million in funding, which Singer said will go toward boost the company's marketing efforts and develop their own products.   When Singer started Package Free, customers typically sought out the retailer for a way to reduce their waste, but she now notices customers who happen to come across the store and appreciate its mission. While she thinks everyone should take part in leading an environmentally-conscious lifestyle, Singer said retailers hold a great deal of power to influence their vendors to consider the planet in manufacturing and shipping processes.   "I believe the burden of waste should never fall on the consumer; it should always fall first on the manufacturer and then, too, on the reseller or the retailer," Singer said. For vendors that don't meet its packaging criteria, she said, "it's doing a disservice to your own brand, because the way that we dictate that our vendors ship to us will only help them in the future."

At every link in the supply chain, improving the sustainability of the coffee trade has become an urgent task. But all too often, we focus only on the farm and the coffee shop, and forget about the roasting.   Coffee roasting can be quite efficient compared to other stages, but it still uses a lot of energy and generates large amounts of solid waste. According to one study , roasting, packaging and distribution of coffee represent about 15% of the total carbon footprint of coffee on its journey from seed to cup.   Improving the environmental sustainability of your coffee roasting operations does not have to be difficult. Let's review some practical ways for roasters to deal with energy consumption and solid waste, with information provided by coffee professionals.

Reduce Energy Consumption

  The obvious starting point for any toaster that wants to use less energy is its machine. While overloading it could lead to quality control problems, think twice before loading it too little. Make sure you reach an optimal lot size for your toaster and the sales volume of your toaster.   With luck, you are already keeping your machine in good condition and clean ; This will help it work optimally. For larger roasting operations, it is worth considering a regenerative thermal oxidizer (RTO). While a typical auxiliary burner incinerates pollutants in the toaster air before releasing them into the atmosphere, an RTO reuses heat from this stage in the toaster, lowering energy costs.   For smaller toasters, this type of recirculation technology is available in toasters such as Loring, while Diedrich infrared burners are famous for their cleaner exhaust pipes, compared to traditional gas burners.   Peter Mark, owner of Kuma Coffee in Seattle, tells me that he used to roast in a 12 kg machine that was heated with flame before moving on to a 35 kg Loring. He says: “Now, we use only 25% of the amount of gas we used to use, although the machine is three times larger. It is considerably more efficient. ”   After all, your business needs will determine what you can do immediately with the toaster you have. You can operate it as efficiently as possible until the time comes when you have to move to a new machine. When it's time to update, then you can turn energy efficiency into one of your requirements.

Reduce Monouse Objects

  Although you recycle the monouso products you use, they still leave a great environmental footprint. From manufacturing and transportation to recycling, all this requires energy. The best thing you can do is try to find replacements for all your monouso products. Consider the internal headphones: replace them with headbands and you will reduce your annual waste considerably.   That said, sometimes there are monouso elements that we simply cannot replace. The best we can do is limit their quantity and then recycle them. Companies like TerraCycle receive items that would be difficult to recycle in another way, such as nitrile gloves.

Reuse Jute and Cascarilla

  The two types of solid waste that roasters cannot avoid are husks and jute sacks. However, they can find a second life in agriculture.   The husk is a good addition to compost piles, since they provide fluffiness and texture, and also nitrogen. Be sure to turn it well. If you do not, it tends to form lumps on the surface when it is moistened with water, which creates a hard shell that then does not allow water to penetrate the ground in the future.   Jute bags are also ideal for farms. They are tough, versatile and perfect for transporting various things.   The real problem of eliminating the husk and jute sacks from waste streams is not so much about their lack of value, but that many roasters simply produce too many to handle the waste themselves. But the solution could be in the community. Contact farmers and gardeners in your area to find out if they are served. You may find it useful to set a specific date for public collections.

Recycle GrainPro Bags

  Another stream of waste that roasters can face are used GrainPro bags. Unfortunately, the LDPE # 4 plastic that makes them perfect for coffee storage is being accepted in less and less at municipal recycling centers.   Ron Hitztaler, operations manager at the The Green Room special coffee distribution center in Seattle, Washington, tells me: “A lot of the plants will not accept it… It must be handled and decomposed in a very special way, only by the compounds that are added. "   Even when they accept them, GrainPro president Jordan Dey tells me that "the minimum requirement for LDPE # 4 [is] significant." This has always been a problem for special coffee roasters.   However, GrainPro has recently partnered with The Green Room to find a solution. Toasters found in the US UU. They can now send their used bags from GrainPro to The Green Room, which stores the used bags until they have enough to send them to the recycling plant. Ron says: "You can [send] amounts as small as FedEx or huge amounts, in what we call Gaylord Boxes, on pallets." And he adds that large roasters can send their bags several times a week, if necessary.   Jordan says: “I simply thank you so much for your generosity in offering your storage space and staff time to help collect GrainPro bags . In addition, they are adding a logistics solution. There is the opportunity to send the bags of GrainPro or the van of The Green Room, which happens to collect them, if you are in the Greater Seattle area. ” In addition, GrainPro introduced an option to recycle with TerraCycle , which will accept 280–300 bags at a time. Alfonso Carmona, marketing director of Sustainable Harvest , tells me that Sustainable Harvest collects used bags from GrainPro from its customers and then sends them to TerraCycle to process them.   “Jute bags and GrainPro have always been a source of waste for our customers. We are excited to offer a viable solution for coffee roasters in Portland. While the climate crisis continues to accelerate, every step we take to improve the sustainability of the supply chain counts, and this will be a necessary step in the right direction. ” Many of the systems and products used by roasters are designed with ease of use in place of waste reduction. This means that toasting thinking about sustainability can sometimes seem like swimming against the current.   But, luckily, the industry is slowly realizing the need to reduce waste and emissions, and this means that more and more initiatives are being launched. Then, sign up for recycling programs like TerraCycle and The Green Room. Reduce the use of single elements as much as possible. And work with your community to find new ways to use solid waste.    

JUNO BEACH, Fla. (CBS12) — Loggerhead Marinelife Center's "Unwrap the Waves" program is back for this Halloween season.   The center and several other organizations in the area will be collecting candy wrappers to 100 percent recycle.   According to the Environmental Protection Agency, plastic packaging accounts for 30 percent of the U.S.’s solid waste every year.   The center will collect candy wrappers and send them to TerraCycle, who will recycle the wrappers since a majority of recycling centers don't accept candy wrappers.   Last year, the "Unwrap the Waves" program collected 19,000 wrappers.   Wrappers can be dropped off at Loggerhead Marinelife Center, Manatee Lagoon, FAU Pine Jog Environmental Education Center, Gumbo Limbo Nature Center, Inc., and Sandoway Discovery Center.   Twenty-nine Palm Beach County schools are also collecting wrappers   Candy wrappers are being collected now through November 11.

Research institutions need to reflect on their attitudes toward plastic waste and make sustainability a priority in laboratories. Whether it’s encouraging the use of reusable cups, banning plastic straws, or charging customers for plastic bags in grocery stores, it’s clear that some companies and policymakers are beginning to take measures against the growing issue of plastic waste. It’s easy to imagine science as an answer to our current sustainability crisis, as it offers the development of new environment-friendly materials, low emission technologies, and the production of discoveries and evidence that can help us fight climate change. But could those working on the solution also be contributing to the problem?   According to an audit at the University of Washington, disposable gloves, made from nitrile or latex, are a laboratory’s main contribution to landfill waste, making up around a quarter of the waste sent to the trash by scientists. Gloves contaminated with chemicals are considered hazardous waste and must be disposed of accordingly to ensure public and environmental safety. Some researchers choose to reuse gloves that are still clean after one use, but this is not always possible — gloves can get sweaty, tear, and are sometimes tricky to put on once they’ve come off. Importantly, gloves are mainly a prevention measure and do not always become contaminated, so they are thrown in the trash rather than the hazardous waste bin, ending up in a landfill. Instead, gloves could be recycled. In the last five years, the University of Edinburgh’s School of Chemistry has diverted one million gloves — 15 metric tons of plastic — from landfill waste. The department was the first in Europe to sign up to the KIMTECH Nitrile Glove Recycling Program, also known as RightCycle, run by Kimberly Clarke Professional, a multinational consumer goods corporation, and TerraCycle, a company that specialises in recycling unconventional items. The scheme is operated not only in the United Kingdom, but also in the United States, with laboratories at the University of California Santa Cruz, the University of Illinois, University of Texas Austin, and Purdue University signed up to the program. Between 2011 and 2017, more than 360 metric tons of waste — about 24 million gloves — were diverted from landfill because of the program. The nitrile gloves are turned into plastic granules that, after blending with other recycled plastics or being milled into a powder, form composite raw materials that can later be processed and turned into bins, garden equipment, furniture, or even rubber flooring and ground covering for sports facilities.   Tim Calder, Waste Management Officer for the University of Edinburgh’s School of Chemistry, came across the scheme when talking to a Fisher Scientific representative who mentioned the nitrile glove recycling program. Calder bought 200 collection boxes in February 2014 and notified laboratory staff that they could take one to their lab on request. Since then, when the boxes are full, they are taken down to a larger collection point in the school’s stores facilities, which are emptied every six to eight weeks by TerraCycle. “I was involved with sustainability at the university and looking for new opportunities,” says Calder. He believes the initiative has been successful because “the staff and students here have been happy to do their bit.”   According to a 2015 estimate, around 5.5 million tons of plastic are produced in bioscience research facilities alone every year — so why aren’t recycling programs more popular? The reason why many single-use plastic products, including laboratory gloves, are not conventionally recycled, is that doing so is not usually economically viable. Collecting and processing them through regular streams costs more than the value of the material left at the end. However, this particular recycling scheme works because TerraCycle collects a range of hard-to-replace plastics, from a variety of institutions, which are processed and then combined to make composite materials that can be processed into useful products. Participating laboratories only have to pay for the transport of the gloves to their nearest collection warehouse location. The School of Chemistry is currently the only department at the University of Edinburgh to take part in the RightCycle program, despite sharing a campus with other science facilities. Even when individuals have the initiative to adopt more sustainable practices in their labs, it is difficult to know where to start, or how to design programs that can be upheld in the long-term and will be embraced by students and staff. Each university or research institution has different protocols for how laboratory waste streams are handled, so a collective effort between building managers, laboratory staff, and department heads is crucial for the success of such initiatives. The implementation of the glove recycling scheme in current universities has often relied on the initiative of staff or students, which is often rare as researchers are often already too busy to spend their time developing sustainable policies for their departments. Institutions should instead fund a position dedicated to supervising the management of waste, someone who can liaise between their institution and recycling companies, as well as looking at how to make sustainability a priority in the department’s policies.   In fact, there are other laboratory materials that recycling programs could target: researchers go through plenty of other single-use plastic items daily, such as pipette tips, petri dishes, and vials. Currently, chemical contamination limits the amount of material that can be recycled, but future efforts should focus on finding ways to neutralise equipment contaminated with common solvents to enable their recycling. To reduce plastic waste, facilities could also look at replacing plastic equipment with reusable glassware where possible, or recycling the plastic packaging in which chemicals are purchased.   The question of sustainability in the lab goes beyond plastic waste, with increasing efforts to adopt a “circular economy” approach by recovering used solvents for reuse, sharing leftover chemicals between departments, and creating chemical management systems to ensure efficient distribution of resources. As these lab practices become more widespread, they will serve to not only minimise waste but also save funds and materials.