Deanna Taylor-Heacock of the Good Bottle Refill Shop Many people think that most plastic is recyclable, but 79 percent of all the plastic ever made has ended up becoming waste. As a result, 18 billion pounds of plastic waste enter the world’s oceans from polluted coasts each year. As of Friday, the very uphill battle against all this waste has a new frontier: New Jersey’s very first bottle refill shop, a place where customers can bring a container and fill it up with bulk household products and pay by weight. Such shops have popped up around the country – and indeed, the very concept of bulk shopping has long existed in co-ops and grocery stores such as Whole Foods – but Deanna Taylor-Heacock said the Good Bottle Refill Shop in Maplewood will fill a gap here that she discovered while seeking out a more zero-waste lifestyle. Bulk food shopping is easy to find, but very few shops have refill stations with an extensive collection of household products. “I felt like I could use one hard plastic bottle of Gain my entire life, but I’m buying one each month,” Taylor-Heacock told the Village Green days before the launch of the store, which is part of the General Store Coop’s new flagship location on Springfield Avenue. The store is stocked with numerous products, including hand soap, laundry detergent, dish gel, shampoo, natural hair products, lotion, toilet cleaner, air freshener, massage oil, bath salt, shea nut butter, and even dog shampoo. Taylor-Heacock researched and tested the products to ensure that she was carrying brands that are environmentally friendly and effective. Although she has become very concerned about plastic waste, Taylor-Heacock said her journey began primarily out of concern for her budget. She was constantly going to retail stores to pick up something she needed, and in the process, picking up things she didn’t need. A more disciplined approach to buying, including bulk purchasing when possible, helped her family save $10,000 last year compared to the year prior. “I felt like I was just going from store to store and I hated it,” she said. “I would basically fill my cart and think, ‘I am buying my trash. Everything in here is going to be thrown away.’” Good Bottle comes as momentum for reusable containers grows. Even mainstream companies are looking at ways to reduce plastic waste and testing reusable options. Nestlé has set a goal of making 100 percent of its packaging recyclable or reusable by 2025. Walmart has laid out a zero-waste vision and is working with its operators to reduce disposable packaging. And another New Jersey company, Trenton-based TerraCycle, is behind an effort with P&G, Unilever and other major companies to marry refillable containers and home delivery. Loop customers can order products such as Tide laundry detergent, Pantene shampoo and Häagen Dazs ice cream to be delivered in glass and steel containers to their house. Empty containers are picked up and refilled by the service, which is currently available in nine states, including New York and New Jersey, as well as Washington, D.C. “The real issue isn’t just plastic – it is the concept of disposability and the ‘take, make, waste’ mentality,” Michael Waas, global vice president of brand partnerships at TerraCycle, told the Village Green. “Truly solving the waste crisis requires designing new, circular systems.” While the company is not releasing sales figures yet, Waas said they have seen “a major increase in the number of people and companies participating in our programs over the last year.” The impact such efforts make is immediate, if initially small. During a soft launch preceding its Friday opening, Good Bottle saved customers from buying 154 plastic bottles – and Taylor-Heacock is continuing to add to that number each day. She hopes that customers will be drawn to a local option where they can come in, take as much of whatever product they need, and return when they need more. She is also curating innovative eco-friendly products such as portable reusable cutlery, a towel roll for reusable napkins and silicon replacements for zip-top bags that people may not know exist. Her biggest challenge is competing with big-box retailers on cost. Even though she is purchasing products in bulk, she has to keep larger margins as a small business than companies such as Amazon.com’s Whole Foods that operate at a much bigger scale. What she offers in return is flexibility: Customers are welcome to bring in their own containers, however small, and test tiny amounts of products before making larger purchases. And as a local business owner, she is available on hand to offer tips such as which products can be diluted with water to help them stretch – to save customers money and get them in the mindset of using less stuff. “You use one ounce instead of a whole cupful,” she said. “It’s a different mindset.” This story was produced in collaboration with the New Jersey Sustainability Reporting Hub project.

Beautiac founder and CEO Drea Gunness-Groeschel shares her journey to startup success, along with advice for other female founders.

Drea Gunness-Groeschel is serial entrepreneur with a passion for product optimization. She recently founded Beautiac, a makeup brush subscription service known as the “Dollar Shave Club” of beauty. The company sends customers a starter kit with brush handles and removable, replaceable makeup brush heads that use a pop-on, pop-off design like a razor. Then, customers receive new brush heads monthly in order to keep their skin clean and clear – without the hassle. Beautiac then collects old makeup brush heads and sends them to Terracycle, a global leader in recycling, to be turned into community beautification objects like park benches and planters.   The Nashville, TN-based entrepreneur created Beautiac to cater to a variety of needs. In addition to makeup lovers and those looking for blemish-free skin, Gunness-Groeschel discovered early on that her product also helps women who have motor skill troubles that make washing brushes nearly impossible. We sat down with her to learn more about her history, her journey with Beautiac and her advice for other female founders. Thank you so much for joining us! To start, can you tell us what brought you to pursue an entrepreneurial career path? Thank you for having me!  Ever since I was a little girl, I was always a negotiator.  I had a clear understanding of what I wanted and I would go after it, constantly looking for ways around the “no” until I hit a “yes.”  This was probably pretty tough on my mother! But my parents are entrepreneurs and they constantly encourage me to pursue big ideas and unique opportunities, and not to settle for the easy path.  Cash flow, marketing, employees, and other entrepreneurial subjects were common conversations at the family dinner table. Nothing was off limits and it was all about my parents facing different challenges over the years as they grew their business.  So you could say I’m cut from the same cloth and I’ve been around startups since I was born.   Can you tell us about your company, Beautiac, and what you think makes it stand out from other companies in the beauty industry? Beautiac is an exciting new concept in the online beauty space.  I invented a makeup brush system that “closes the loop” in a skincare routine by providing a recyclable makeup brush with a replaceable head.  With all the money we spend on great products and cosmetics, it’s important to ensure that when we apply our makeup, we’re using a great brush that isn’t harboring blemish-causing bacteria.  I was getting breakouts and found that clean brushes were the key to healthier skin, but didn’t have the time to wash my brushes and wasn’t sure that when I did they were actually truly clean.  So I invented the brush system and accessories to help others like me. I’m also not the full glam kinda gal, I believe in simple beauty and that we shouldn’t spend hours in front of the mirror.  It can be stressful and there are other things I’d rather be doing, but I still want to look great and be “me” at the same time. This belief gave Beautiac the culture it has today. Some of us are glammy, some of us are more basic, some of us fall in the middle – and Beautiac’s focus is to provide great innovative products that can help everyone with their everyday beauty routine by making it faster, simpler and healthier.  We are the first producer of this cool product and proud to see so many people who are happy we brought this concept to life!   What is the most exciting thing that has happened to you since you founded Beautiac? Getting real customers – of course!  Any startup goes through this moment when you think you’re onto something, but there is always a tinge of doubt looming: “what if people don’t get it, or don’t like the product?”  But since we launched we’ve seen super positive reactions. We also have a product that has the ability to truly help people in their daily lives. People with motor skill trouble often struggle to wash their brushes thoroughly enough to maintain their makeup hygiene.  This was an unexpected value to the product that has really struck a chord with me. We started receiving emails and DMs from customers that thanked us for making a product that was easy to use, so they could have clean brushes and feel proud of their makeup routine. Nothing is more motivating than to help other people feel better about themselves and continue to support their journey for independence and good personal care.   Every founder makes mistakes. Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting & what lesson you learned from that? Oh gosh where do I start!  Entrepreneurs make mistakes all the time, but the trick is to be flexible and quickly recognize when a mistake is made so it can be corrected as soon as possible. I will say that sometimes a mistake can be classified as a mindset.  A negative mindset can be the most common mistake that happens without anyone even realizing it! Often a startup is so difficult that it mentally can wear on you, long hours, learning curve, lack of life balance. There might be days when you wonder why you are doing what you’re doing.  Going down that rabbit hole can often be a mistake. So I try to recognize when I begin thinking negatively and force myself to not have conversations with myself, especially negative ones. I’ve trained myself to catch my thought process and steer it back to a positive subject when I begin to criticize myself.  Often those negative self conversations aren’t true, aren’t real and are based on made-up stories about self criticism and “what ifs.” Quickly gain control of your thoughts and push them towards something positive fix to your negative thoughts. It will bring your energy up, and days later you’ll realize the conversation with yourself was nothing but you giving yourself bad advice.  Think big, be positive.   What advice would you give to other female leaders on how help their team to thrive? Have meetings, lots of meetings.  People tend to get tied up in what they are doing, especially when working as a startup can be long hours jam packed with “to do” lists that feel never ending.  Communication can often get lost and it’s the most important aspect of any startup as procedures aren’t fully in place and decisions can change day to day. By having meetings daily, you will ensure everyone is on the same page and it will help a team gel and run smoothly.  Not to mention that as a female leader, I think I can connect on an emotional level. This is a great skill that women tend to possess and often something that is thought of as a negative female trait in business. I disagree and believe it’s a huge positive. It makes me relatable and approachable by my team.  Which is important in the early stages as the startup ride can have several ups and downs emotionally and everyone needs to support one another through the thick and thin as the business builds. There is always a place for passion in my company. I encourage it.   None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are?  My family is truly my rock and the reason behind my successes.  They are a great source of honest advice, good soundboards and my cheering squad when things get tough.  I’m lucky because everyone in my family is a business owner, and has amazing insights to share when I ask for advice, and even when I don’t!  But there are two people in particular for Beautiac that helped me get where I am today. Brad Borne is our product technical advisor. He has several decades in development of scalable product and manufacturing techniques, and he is simply the best of the best.  What I believe separates Brad from the rest is that Brad goes the extra mile. He went to China with me to find the right factory. He even went back to China to ensure our production was being handled correctly, when I was unable to go due to my pregnancy. He did this without a question.  He is a major player on this team and I’m grateful for the relationship. My uncle, Andrew Adler, is the other. Andrew is a serial entrepreneur with big wins under his belt. He has an exceptional eye for marketing and has the unique ability to identifying future market shifts. A bit of a business crystal ball reader as well.  He is an expert business mentor and investor, and is by my side as we chase the next unicorn.   What are five things you wish someone told you before you founded your own company, and why?  I’m not sure I have five things I wish someone would have told me.  The reason I say this is that I’m sure someone did tell me, and I probably didn’t listen!  Often we need to learn lessons on our own, or get to a certain place in our expertise where we know what questions to ask and how to discern advice.  After all, not all advice is good advice. When I think back to my beginnings as an entrepreneur, one of the lessons I may have missed would be sometimes you just can’t out-work a problem.  Some challenges, no matter how much time you put in, just can’t be solved without additional resources. I worked so hard in my last company, my personal life suffered greatly. In hindsight, I didn’t need to neglect my personal life as much as I did and I still would have found myself in the same place.  Learning what challenges to prioritize and knowing what you have or don’t have as resources to meet those challenges is a major lesson for success.   Lastly, can you tell us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote” and how that has been relevant in your life as the founder of Beautiac?   “Don’t Expect a Thank You” – my sister once said this to me.  She said if your expectation is to always receive a “thank you” when you do something nice or you put in the extra effort, you will often be disappointed and may even hold resentment when it doesn’t come.  Do it instead for yourself. Being a leader and an entrepreneur is often a thankless job. We are at work first and last to leave, we work nights and weekends, and make huge sacrifices. But ultimately I wouldn’t want it any other way.  I do it for my soul, not because I expect a thank you from my employees, investors, or vendors. Freedom from self-inflicted expectations is an amazing thing! — Published on September 24, 2019

In anticipation of the Global Climate Strike, final documents were drafted to establish a new Eco Belles club on Wednesday, which aims to encourage Belles to make sustainable choices and lead recycling and other sustainability initiatives on campus.   Rebecca Klaybor, a Saint Mary’s junior and president of Eco Belles, said she was inspired to start the club after she took a costume shop class taught last semester by Melissa Bialko, professional specialist in costume design in the SMC Program of Theater and now faculty advisory for Eco Belles.   “This class discussed ethics in the fashion industry so that’s what sparked my true interest in the environment along with climate change complications,” Klaybor said.   Saint Mary’s junior and Eco Belles vice president Emily Emerson said she noticed a lack of sustainability clubs on campus and wanted to change that.   Emerson, Klaybor and Bialko began to work together last year to develop sustainability initiatives for the Saint Mary’s community, which eventually culminated in the founding of Eco Belles.   “We’re working with a group called TerraCycle,” Emerson said. “They have a whole bunch of free recycling programs, and eventually we would like to be able to use their boxes, where you can put anything besides food waste in and they will figure out a way to recycle it for you.”   She said though the program is great, buying and shipping boxes is expensive and they are trying to raise the money to participate in the box program. However, other recycling initiatives led by the group are already active on campus.   “We’re also currently working with Nike and H&M,” Emerson said. “Nike will take any kind of shoes in any condition and make them into different clothes, new shoes and even basketball courts. H&M recycles fabrics and is working with the theater department because we use a lot of different fabrics and we have a lot of scraps.”   TerraCycle has multiple different recycling programs that Eco Belles are participating in, she said, including programs to recycle used Brita filters, contact lenses, razors, oral hygiene, clean makeup products, personal products and the packaging in which all of these items are sold.   “You don’t really think about [the waste] until you see that there are ways you can recycle [these products] instead of just throwing them in the garbage,” Emerson said. “I hope this makes the campus much more sustainability-minded and recognize where things are being just thrown in the trash when they don’t need to be. And just being more conscious of how much waste we produce as a campus is huge. This is a necessary step to take as a school, because it can be broadened across the tri-campus community and to other colleges across Indiana.”   The main way that Saint Mary’s students can get involved, Klaybor said, is to start collecting items to donate and recycle. On campus, there are bins outside of the costume shop where students can bring donations or recyclable items. Eco Belles will then organize and send that collection to the proper place.   Eco Belles meetings are every other Wednesday at 8 p.m. in the Saint Mary’s costume shop in Moreau. Klaybor invites everyone to bring their own mugs for coffee and tea, as well as whatever donations and recycling they may have.   “I hope that people will learn that being eco-friendly is easier than what people think,” Klaybor said. “People just need to be taught how easy it is to recycle throughout their day. I hope that campus can learn that being eco-friendly isn’t that difficult, and there are small things that can make a big difference in the long run.”

TWO Ocean Grove mums with a passion for reducing waste have joined forces to launch the Bellarine's first micro sustainability hub.   Jackie Matthews and Lana Purcell's mission to help people adopt a plastic-free and low-waste lifestyle saw them open the doors of Susty Hub Bellarine in Ocean Grove five months ago.   The hub, which has already attracted a loyal following, offers a refill station for cleaning and personal care products, is a drop-off point for a range of recyclable items and is the new home for Repair Café Bellarine.   The duo has plans to develop the business into a community education centre where families and businesses can learn how to live well and produce less waste. Currently, the Susty Hub collects soft plastics for recycling through Redcycle, milk bottle tops through the Lids for Kids program, plus toothbrushes and empty toothpaste tubes through Terracycle.   They've also joined the Simply Cups initiative, Australia's first coffee cup recycling program that collects and recycles single-use coffee cups.   A scrap metal trailer is permanently on site for metal tins, aluminium cans and household scrap metal.   They can also accept larger items such as fridges and washing machines if you ring ahead to arrange. All metals are transported to Melbourne for shredding and reuse in manufacturing new products.   The refill station has been a big success with more than 140 litres of quality detergents and soaps already sold.   Repair Café Bellarine will be on site again this month where volunteers skilled in sewing, electrical repairs, bike maintenance and furniture making will be on hand to breathe new life into your favourite items for a small donation. The café will be open from 10am on Sunday 6 October.   Jackie and Lana are regularly adding new features to meet demand from customers and have big plans for the future including introduction of a small chicken run, a working bee hive on the rooftop, and composting of food waste from the on-site café.   'We want to create a one-stop sustainable hub that people can visit and enjoy an educational experience about how to reduce waste,' Jackie said.   'Our ultimate vision is to set up a successful business model that could be recreated in other towns and suburbs across the Bellarine and Geelong region to tackle waste management on a larger scale.'   Susty Hub Bellarine is located at 24 Sinclair Street, Ocean Grove and is open from 9-3pm from Monday to Friday.

Andrea Arria-Devoe, a longtime editor at Daily Candy, is the executive producer of Straws, a documentary about how ditching plastic straws can make a massive difference to the environment. In her column for goop, Arria-Devoe shares her extensive knowledge about the best countertop composter, how to shop bulk, and other hacks to living the chicest, greenest life possible. Start as you mean to go on.   I received this advice from my mommy-and-me group eleven years ago. I was trying to establish good sleep habits for my son, which at the time seemed impossible. (I’m happy to share that he sleeps through the night now…mostly.) These days, I find that same advice just as relevant in helping me be more mindful when dealing with the crazy amount of plastic and waste that can come with raising children.   Because plastic is everywhere—from food packaging to toys to containers—you can’t escape it completely. (When your five-year-old insists, loudly and persistently, on a packaged treat in the checkout aisle, admit defeat and move on.) But with a little gumption, you can reduce the amount of plastic in your little one’s life. Stick to your guns and choose plastic-free reusable products whenever possible. By modeling these healthy values, you’re making better choices for their health and the planet’s. These ten steps will help you get started.   1. Diaper change. About 20 billion disposable diapers are dumped in landfills each year, according to the EPA. And disposable diapers can take an estimated 250 to 500 years to decompose. If you can, choose cloth diapers. There are a number of laundering services, like Diaper Kind, that do the dirtiest work for you. If the idea of cloth diapering doesn’t appeal, look for nontoxic disposables from the Honest Company or Bambo. If you live in the Bay Area, check out Earth Baby. It offers cloth options as well as a professional composting service for disposables purchased through its site.   2. Bottle up. BPA-free doesn’t mean chemical-free. The chemicals used to replace BPA can be just as harmful as BPA itself. Choose glass or stainless steel bottles, like Pura, and make sure the nipple is medical-grade silicone.   3. Wipe right. Wet wipes can be a lifesaver. But they also contain tiny plastic fibers that do not biodegrade and can make their way into the ocean, get ingested by sea creatures, and even wash up on beaches. The antibacterial chemicals in the wipes have also been linked to endocrine disruption and the creation of superbugs. Go for organic cotton cloths or napkins for runny noses and sticky hands. If you absolutely cannot do without wipes, choose a chemical-free version, such as Caboo or Natracare—and use sparingly.   4. Table it. Skip the disposable changing-table pads. The Peanut Changer is nontoxic, it’s easy to wipe down, and it stays still even when your baby doesn’t. A folded-up towel also does the trick.   5. Rethink the puréed food pouch. They’re easy, I know. But they’re made from multiple layers of materials that are hard to recycle—and they contain BPA. When possible, opt for mashed banana or avocado, or make your own purées and store in a reusable pouch. And if you can’t part from the pouch, TerraCycle makes boxes that offer a recycling option for some of the brands.   6. Heat smart. Warming food in plastic containers allows the materials to leach chemicals faster. Choose glass or ceramic for reheating. For everyday kid-friendly dishes, try old-school enamelware—tough enough for stove-top, grill, and outdoor use.   7. Hand-me-down hookup. UpChoose curates the safest and most sustainable preloved baby basics. Once your babe outgrows her onesies, send them back and get a discount on the next size up. If fashion equals self-expression for your little one, check out the kids’ shop on The RealReal for secondhand designer dresses and such.   8. Snack pack. Put snacks (ideally purchased in bulk) in reusable metal containers and cotton pouches. Encourage “naked” snacking by having kids make their own trail mix of dried fruits and nuts. Bulk sections often sell sweets, like gummy bears and chocolates, which can win over mini skeptics.   9. Less is more. Toys made with PVC are particularly toxic. Avoid soft plastic bath toys and books, for example, and choose natural rubber instead. Even if you say no to plastic toys, they can still make their way into your home via well-meaning grandmothers and school treasure boxes. I keep a zero-waste toy box from TerraCycle in my garage to make sure broken plastic doesn’t end up in a landfill or the oceans.   10. Model behavior. If you remember to bring your own coffee cup, takeout containers, straws, and bags when you’re out, your kids will get into the habit, too.   For more information and resources, check out the Healthy Baby Guide, a collaboration between Made Safe and the Plastic Pollution Coalition.

It’s no secret that eating out produces a ton of waste. The restaurant industry loses around $162 billion annually in food waste costs, and that’s just for the edible stuff. Add onto that containers the food comes in, packaging for delivery orders, and paper for receipts, and there’s a whole lot of trash being generated every day by millions of restaurants around the country.   We’ve seen various efforts put towards fighting this growing mountain of trash — bans on plastic straws and disposable cutlery, for example — but one New York restaurant is taking the battle to a new extreme. Mettā, in Brooklyn’s Fort Greene neighborhood, is reopening in the fall as New York’s first zero-waste restaurant, and it could provide an important road map for restaurants in the future.   Grubstreet profiled the restaurant earlier this week and found that zero waste in this context applies to everything about the business. The restaurant, which was already carbon-neutral, sources ingredients that come in compostable or reusable packaging, uses electrolyzed water that “eliminates” the need for dish soap, and composts any food scraps left on customers’ plates. Even the cheese rinds are upcycled.   Mettā is one of a handful of restaurants around the world pushing the zero-waste, trash-free business model. Silo, in the UK, is another notable example. Meanwhile, in Sweden, a project called Restauranglabbet is using a combination of tech, science, academic research, and design to create a waste-free restaurant of the future. Other establishments here and abroad are experimenting with ways to do zero-waste cooking, using all parts of the plant and sourcing ingredients locally.   If it all sounds terribly expensive, it is. For example, Mettā works with a New Jersey-based company called TerraCycle, who does curbside pickup for hard-to-recycle items like cooking oil and batteries. According to the Grubstreet article, Mettā will have two boxes for TerraCycle — each at $800 a pop.   It’s also terribly necessary that restaurants like these exist. While the concept might today be unattainable for most businesses, this wildly expensive and rather inconvenient model for a restaurant could actually pave the way for more affordable solutions in the future — ones that other restaurants could incorporate into their own operations.   It’s not unlike Tesla. The company’s high-performance, all-electric cars have historically come with a price tag that’s out of the question for most buyers, due in part to the vehicles’ high-tech design and expensive components like batteries. But by getting those who could afford the cars to cough up the cash, Tesla created a demand for this sort of vehicle that’s having a ripple effect on the auto industry. Automakers once reluctant to dabble in the world of all-electric vehicles are now coming to market with their own offerings. Meanwhile, the demand Tesla created eventually enabled the company make a more affordable (albeit still expensive) model whose components could be easier cheaper for other carmakers to iterate on.   When it comes to restaurants, your average mom-and-pop joint will probably not be able to pay $800 to recycle its cooking oil, but the mere fact that such an option exists for restaurants could lead to some company eventually coming to market with a cheaper solution. In the meantime, Mettā, Silo, and others also have more-affordable components of their operations that could be implemented by others now, like digital receipts and compostable packaging.   We’re not going to see restaurants like Mettā opening en masse any time soon. But the hope is that we’ll see some of the elements they introduce make their way into other restaurants and help move the industry towards a more sustainable way of doing business.

By Pamela Silvestri | silvestri@siadvance.com   STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- In a rough-and-tumble business environment, where entrepreneurs battle minimum wage increases and fluctuating costs, one Brooklyn eatery has come up with a unique business plan, according to a recent report.   The idea for soon-to-open Rhodora, according to an article in Grub Street, is to eliminate the chef position -- and trash. And, yes, that would be garbage -- such as food packaging, bathroom rubbish and other verboten disposables that cannot be recycled.   On the chef matter, Rhodora will have a menu format, as the article notes, that “lands between substantial bar snacks and light dinner fare — oysters and seafood conservas, cheese and charcuterie, sliced bread, a few other basic items like a bitter-greens salad and pickled vegetables.” So a staff of about a dozen basically pools tasks and runs the show collectively for a piece of the profits.   On the trash matter, the food service company that owns the restaurant, Oberon Group, has gone to lengths to generate zero waste, a business model they’ve spun successfully in other projects. The company, on its website, says it has been “carbon neutral or negative as of 2018.” Bathroom waste would be disposed of in TerraCycle boxes which are costly -- the article puts the price at $800 per box -- but do the environmentally sound trick.   Said the Grub Street piece, “Oberon has sourced wines in compostable boxes, dropped liquor brands that use unrecyclable caps (that’s more than you might think), found a dishwasher that uses electrolyzed water to eliminate the need for soap, gotten rid of paper receipts, tracked down a nonprofit called ReCORK that turns used wine corks into shoe soles, and, at least for now, has retired the Francis Mallmann–inspired oven.” (Mallmann is an Argentinian chef known for grilling.)   WOULD IT WORK HERE?   A South Shore restaurant owner was dubious of such a concept. Even with carting costs at an average of $500 per month, he said the idea is a tough one on Staten Island.   “There’s a lot of waste in restaurants. You can serve really top-quality food in small portions and people will balk,” he said, adding that Staten Islanders expect value (i.e. large portions) for their dollar.   “When you have these large portions you generate a lot of waste. To-go containers, plastic knives and forks...I just don’t see how it can work,” he said. “Eliminating a chef, and having the staff shuck oysters, slice cheese, mix drinks? All sounds nice but is that really a restaurant anymore?”   Mike Colameco from “The Bite” on Create TV had an interesting little tidbit recently on how in about 20 years people will be eating bugs. And, he predicts grasshoppers will be part of the cuisine. He compared it to non-Asians approach to sushi years ago, “gross” by some camps back then, but it’s certainly a flourishing concept now.   Do you think our restaurants should be more environmentally conscious? Or do you care when you eat out?

Yosemite, California’s renowned national park, is getting a facelift.   Yosemite Climbing Association is putting on their annual cleanup, Yosemite Facelift, from September 24–29. In addition to organizing a park-wide cleanup, Facelift incorporates panels, concerts and raffles and provides camping for 500 people throughout the week.   “[Facelift] gives people a chance to invest in their part,” says Ken Yager, who founded Facelift and coordinates the Yosemite cleanup every year. “We always hear the national parks belong to the people but until you’re there taking care of it, it doesn’t really feel that way.”   Facelift takes place between National and World Cleanup Day on September 21 and National Public Lands Day on September 28. The cleanup started in 2004, after Yager, a long-time climber who worked as a climbing guide in Yosemite, was embarrassed about the state of the national park.   “Any time you got off the road there was toilet paper everywhere,” he says. “I finally thought I can turn this around and get some friends together — we will go out and clean it up.” The first cleanup had about 120 volunteers. Today, Facelift averages about 600 people a day — not including participants of evening activities — and partners with dozens of companies, including Patagonia, North Face and Subaru. The National Park Service stated that in 2017, Facelift volunteers collected 6,790 pounds of trash and debris and put in more than 11,000 hours over the week. Most of that trash was cigarette butts, paper, aluminum cans and plastic water bottles, says Yager.   Facelift volunteers recycle what they can, sending metal to scrap yards and even partnering with recycling company TerraCycle to place boxes around the cleanup site. Terracycle can recycle harder-to-recycle materials like Styrofoam.   In addition to coordinating a cleanup every year, Yager is now pushing for more awareness in our consumption and waste habits.   “If nothing else, people are thinking about [their footprint], and I found that maybe they will be a little bit better when they are out in the woods,” he says. “[Facelift] helps raise awareness, but we still need to do more.”   That means using less plastic, much of which ends up in landfills, and taking accountability for our waste when we enter national parks. Given the success of Facelift in Yosemite, Yager hopes to expand the program to other national parks, like Shenandoah, Rocky Mountain, Joshua Tree and the Grand Canyon.     Austin Downs, Earth Day Network’s global cleanup coordinator, thinks Facelift represents more than just a cleanup.   “Yosemite Facelift is a strong illustration of how a cleanup can be part of something larger,” says Downs. “Facelift hits upon lots of other cool environmental actions that can be traced back to trash removal.”   Saturday, September 21, is World Cleanup Day and National Cleanup Day. Learn more about Earth Day Network’s Great Global Cleanup and End Plastic Pollution campaigns, and this Saturday, join forces with other volunteers to cleanup parks, trails, beaches and mountains in your community.

After a particularly bad bout of breakouts three years ago, a friend told Drea Gunness-Groeschel that her dirty makeup brushes could be to blame. Like most friends, Gunness-Groeschel’s was right, and she pledged to wash the brushes regularly to keep them from getting grubby.

  The best-laid plans of makeup users often go awry, though. Then CEO of a candle and home décor company, Gunness-Groeschel was frequently on the road and couldn’t maintain the brush-cleaning routine. Dermatologists recommend washing makeup brushes every 10 days, she says, but Gunness-Groeschel wasn’t doing so nearly enough.   “There’s no way! I’m traveling all over the world and, when I’m on the go, I’m not going to clean my brushes, never mind that, but the cleaners you can buy, I don’t want to lug them around,” she says. “I was like, ‘There’s got to be a better way.’” Pondering a possible better way, she mused, “If it was just like a razor blade, and I could pop on a new head, that would make my life so much easier, and that [was] really the aha moment.” After studying the market and asking the opinions of women she ran across, including strangers at restaurants and stores, Gunness-Groeschel concluded there was a genuine void for an interchangeable alternative to standard cosmetics brushes. So, she quit her day job and got to work.   Gunness-Groeschel’s previous supply-chain management experience and roughly $1 million in seed funding expedited the development timeline. Once she began to turn her idea for replaceable makeup brush heads into merchandise, it took nine months to create Beautiac, Gunness-Groeschel’s new brand. The nine-month process, however, wasn’t perfectly smooth. There were plenty of hurdles.   “If it was just like a razor blade, and I could pop on a new head, that would make my life so much easier.”   “To be honest with you, I underestimated what reinventing a makeup brush would be like,” says Gunness-Groeschel. The biggest challenge was pinning down a universal handle that would adapt to several brush heads, a dexterity that makeup brushes never had before. Gunness-Groeschel says, “I had literally a team of five guys on it that were struggling. Eventually, they threw up their hands.”   A second team, which boasted 50 years of experience engineering beauty consumer goods, couldn’t execute it either. “I was very discouraged,” admits Gunness-Groeschel, who thought, “Maybe that’s why it hasn’t be done. Maybe it’s just too difficult, but you just keep barreling forward if you have the vision and you have the gut for it. Following the first two teams’ failed attempts, she connected with a plastics engineering team in Ohio. Fortunately, the third team was the charm. Its members understood her vision. The next challenge was identifying the right brush manufacturer. To do so, Gunness-Groeschel headed to China. Unimpressed by conditions in many of the beauty product manufacturing facilities she toured, Gunness-Groeschel decided to take her search out of the beauty market completely. She landed on a Chinese factory that services Tesla and Quip. Part of the reason finding the right manufacturer proved to be difficult was due to the way Gunness-Groeschel sought for the brushes to be made.   “We wanted to make the hairs of the brush out of the same material that we make the ferrules, which is the cuff that the hairs sit in,” explains Gunness-Groeschel. “This creates a single material item that is 100% recyclable.”   “We wanted to make the hairs of the brush out of the same material that we make the ferrules, which is the cuff that the hairs sit in. This creates a single material item that is 100% recyclable.”   Beautiac has teamed up with recycling specialist TerraCycle on its zero-waste box program. A recycling bag comes with the brand’s starter kits that can be sent back to it with products that it makes sure are recycled by TerraCycle. Components can also be tossed into the recycling bin with routine household recyclables.   “A lot of beauty companies are using TerraCycle because literally they 100% guarantee that, if it is sent back, they will recycle it,” says Gunness-Groeschel. “For our particular product, they’re able to chip them [the old brush heads] down, and they re-melt them into planters, picnic tables, park benches [and] community beautification project items. So, dirty brush heads are getting a full circle.” Beautiac offers a VIP Kit to online subscribers for $16.50 to $20 per month. It contains three makeup brush heads, a makeup sponge, three makeup brush handles, a stand and a bag.   Beautiac’s brush sets are sold online via subscriptions priced from $16.50 to $20 per month. Its VIP Kit includes three brush refill heads (one for foundation, one for powder and one for blush), one Blur Sponge, three Universal Handles, one Smart Stand to hold the brushes and one Safe Bag. Beautiac plans to introduce a customized system soon allowing customers to alter delivery dates based on their shipment scheduling preferences. By Jan. 1, customers will also be able to choose the exact brush heads they want replaced. The brush heads currently come as a full set.   Gunness-Groeschel projects Beautiac’s sales will cross the six-figure mark by the end of the year. For 2020, the brand’s goal is to explore retail and draw 15,000 direct consumers. That’s a lot of Beautiacs. On the topic of the brand name, Gunness-Groeschel’s husband came up with it. “He thinks us ladies are a bit nuts when it comes to our beauty routines and that we are maniacs about our beauty products,” she says. “Then, to be funny, he said, ‘You all are Beautiacs.’ We both looked at each other, and I was like, ‘On my God, that’s an awesome brand name!’”

THE OXFORD STREET BRANCH OF THE BODY SHOP HAS BEEN TRANSFORMED INTO AN “ACTIVIST WORKSHOP” AS PART OF THE ETHICAL BEAUTY RETAILER’S PLEDGE TO REVIVE ITS EARLY CAMPAIGNING SPIRIT.

  The new central London concept store encourages customers (Body Shop calls them “visitors”) to explore and recycle products and discover how they “can fight for a fairer and more beautiful world”.   The tone is set by the many sustainable store fixtures that have been incorporated into the new fit-out. Recycled plastic and reclaimed wood are used throughout while external cladding is made from eco-friendly zinc (which uses less energy to produce than other metals and is fully recyclable). Meanwhile, worktop surfaces are manufactured from 100% recycled materials destined for landfill, and stools are made with reclaimed steel.   At the activists corner customers can find out about The Body Shop’s activist roots and how they can get involved and take a stand on green issues themselves.   Other special features include a refill station, where customers can buy a refillable 250ml aluminium bottle to fill up with a range of shower gels and creams, and a recycling bin (operated by recycling specialist TerraCycle) and a water station.   The interactive theme continues more conventionally with a gifting station, where customers are encouraged to get creative and personalise gifts with stamps, ribbons and recyclable paper.