An innovative project was officially launched on August 30th at the Cégep de Matane, while the collegiate I students from the Nature Sciences program, in collaboration with the Institutional Environment Action and Consultation Committee, launched an appeal to the entire community. college to recycle their pencils.   With the theme: «PRAY the future! Young people are offering students and campus staff to recycle their pens, markers and pencils of all kinds by depositing them in the different collection boxes available throughout the school.   The collected material will be sent to TerraCycle, which will have the mission to give it a second life. This project was born thanks to the initiative of Mario Lévesque, teacher of the Biology course Evolution and diversity of life in the Science program who had the idea of integrating the project into his class.   "As an educational institution, we generate an incredible amount of pens, mechanical pencils, highlighters and permanent markers that unfortunately end up in the trash. As Bruntland Institution and Cégep Vert, we want to stop this pollution by partnering with the wholesale office TerraCycle program. Today, we have started our awareness campaign and we hope that our fellow students and employees will lend themselves to this form of recovery in addition to that of batteries managed by CACE for two years. (Mario Lévesque teacher)   Eight picking boxes are already in place and seven more will soon be added to the Matane Cégep.    

If you knew what grime, mold, and germs lurked in your makeup brushes, you might never use them again!  You should clean them, but I admit to ruining more than one pricey makeup brush in the process. And, DIY cleansing doesn’t guarantee that they will be free from mold and other pollutants. Enter Beautiac makeup brushes, another alternative to have super clean brushes every single month.

  Beautiac makeup brushes is a new makeup brush subscription company based in Nashville, TN touting interchangeable, sustainable makeup brushes.   There are three subscription options with free shipping. All products are cruelty-free and brush heads can be recycled or mailed back to Beautiac’s headquarters where they will recycle the products for you. It might seem a bit indulgent at first, but it makes sense in many ways.   For starters, since the brush heads and the handles are separate, they fit nicely into a bag so you don’t have to leave them out in the air unless you want to.   If you’ve ever ruined an expensive brush, a subscription delivery of new brush heads on a month to month basis ($20 ) or pre-pay 3 months ($18) or 6 months for $16.50/month, the cost seems to look more reasonable.   The starter kit includes 3 brush handles, 3 brush heads, a blur sponge, a makeup brush stand, an antimicrobial bag, and a recycling return bag.   Sadly, Beautiac makeup brushes are not available in smaller sizes for eyes, liner,  or lips. These tend to get just as dirty (or more so) than facial brushes do. I hope that Beautiac will include these smaller brushes in their offerings one of these days.

Brush Handle:

  Beautiac makeup brushes have universal brush handles that fit all their brush heads. You can just pop them on and off. Bringing the brush heads and using one handle is good for travel.   When you want to upgrade the handle you can send it back via the plastic Beautiac recycling bag. Used handles are cleaned, paired with clean brush heads, and donated to Women’s programs and shelters.  Thumbs up to this!  

Brush heads: 

  The bristles are nicely formed and pick up powder really well. But the cruelty-free bristles are not necessarily recyclable.  Beautiac’s brush head and ferrule are both made of the same material and can be recycled.  

Blur Sponge, Bag, Smart Stand:

  The Beautiac Blur Sponge is made of a non-latex material and can also be recycled through the Zero Waste Box™ participation with Terra Cycle. But sponges are really inexpensive. IT might be more cost effective just to ditch your facial sponge each month and buy another one for a couple of dollars.   The Beautiac Smart Stand is slim and clever. If you don’t have too many makeup brushes or makeup tools, this will be such a nice way to organize them. Alas, the Blur Sponge doesn’t have a steady base to stand on so it balances precariously on the Smart Stand.   The Smart Stand can be placed in the dishwasher or hand cleaned. It can also be can be placed in the recycling bag and sent back to Beautiac, where it will be recycled or upcycled into something else.   The antimicrobial bag is made from a canvas textile comprised of cotton, coated with an antimicrobial solution on the inside to ensure the bag doesn’t grow bacteria. The bag can sustain multiple washings.   My assumption is that if you keep your brushes in it, you should also wash it every month when the new brushes arrive. The Beautiac design team makes products that are designed to be recycled or up-cycled. They’re made from cruelty-free materials.   Every starter kit also receives a recycling bag to mail the used products back to Beautiac headquarters.  As IK mentioned, using TerraCycle’s Zero Waste Box Program, 100% of the accepted products collected for recycling will be recycled into something useful.   Your returned products might end up in a park bench, a picnic table, or some other community beautification product.  

Beautic Makeup Brushes, The Bottom Line: 

  I love the idea of recycling products. I love the idea of getting new, germ-free clean beauty every month.   However, not all the components of the Beautiac makeup brushes can be recycled and a good brush cleaner is a much cheaper alternative.   When it comes to packaging, it’s impressive, but if you are trying to be more environmentally friends, why send a huge cardboard box for these relatively small items with each in a separate tube? Why not save some trees, and just pack the products in one bag? there are a lot of tubes and tops and boxes you must recycle yourself   In addition, the amount of environmental impact it takes to package, transport, recycle and re-fashion pieces of Beautiac makeup brushes is also a  “cost” to the environment.   I don’t see this so much as helping the environment as much as a little indulgence for people who have disposable income and want really clean brushes.  That said, the Beautiac makeup brushes are really cool and well done.   For more information visit the Beautiac Web Site: https://beautiac.com/

Contributed by Hollie Lee, Department of Clinical Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine   Walmart founder, Sam Walton, said, “We’re all working together; that’s the secret.” Let me tell you about our little secret! At Auburn, we are making a difference in waste reduction at the Auburn University College of Veterinary Medicine (CVM) by working together. The CVM has partnered with AU Waste Reduction and Recycling Department (WRRD), AU Risk Management and Safety (RMS), AU Office of Sustainability (OS), as well as our scientific supply vendor, VWR, to minimize our landfill waste. Our collaborative efforts are making a significant impact on waste reduction.   AU’s WRRD has a great program for taking care of our most recyclable products. At our desks, we have blue bins for mixed paper. In more common areas, we have receptacles for plastic containers, as well as aluminum and steel cans. Flattened cardboard is collected by our custodial contractors, ABM®. WRRD provides larger collection bins that are emptied periodically outside the buildings.   AU’s RMS and OS joined forces to provide battery recycling for the CVM. OS provides the receptacles for collection and RMS provides the management and pick up of recyclable batteries. Why wouldn’t we want batteries in our landfills? When batteries begin to degrade, the chemicals may leak into the ground which can lead to soil and water contamination. By recycling batteries, we are able to keep hazardous material from entering landfills as well as using the recycled materials to fabricate new products. Ultimately, we are conserving precious energy resources and the need to collect new, raw materials.   Our scientific supply vendor, VWR, recently began “From the Lab Bench to the Park Bench,” a pipet tip box recycling program. This program offers a convenient opportunity to recycle an abundant source of waste found in every laboratory. With this program, we are diverting hard-to-recycle plastic (typically #5) from the waste stream. This easy-to-use recycling program provides boxes for waste collection, shipment, and recycling for used pipet tip boxes. All brands of plastic pipet tip boxes are accepted. The plastic waste is ground, melted, and pelletized through extrusion by TerraCycle to create recycled resin. The resin is then combined with other recycled plastics to make park benches and other eco-friendly products.   This concerted effort between departments and vendors at AU is phenomenal! It couldn’t happen without essential personnel combining knowledge, enthusiasm, and collegiality for a common purpose. Reducing the amount of waste sent to landfills conserves our natural resources, prevents pollution, and ultimately saves energy.   How do the numbers stack up? TeamPounds of Recycled Materials (Jan-Jun 2019)   Waste Reduction and Recycling Department (all of AU)            670,976 Risk Management and Safety (CVM only)                                    100 VWR/TerraCycle (CVM only)                                                           455   The following team members made this happen:   Joan Hicken, AU Waste Reduction & Recycling Department Michael Freeman, AU Risk Management and Safety Cassandra Kitchens, AU Department of Pathobiology. CVM Hollie Lee, AU Department of Clinical Sciences, DVM Julie Woods, VWR Sales Representative for AU

In today’s Electrek Green Energy Brief (EGEB):  

• Clean electricity has exceeded coal in OECD countries.
• What’s wishcycling? It’s a bad habit we all have.
• UK’s chief environment scientist: Everyone needs to make big changes to cut harmful emissions.
• 10 ways to achieve Zero Waste.

  EGEB: A daily technical, financial, and political review/analysis of important green energy news.   Some good news to start your weekend: The International Energy Agency (IEA) says that “clean electricity has exceeded the amount produced by coal across the countries belonging to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD),” according to Country Life.   The OECD is a 36-country intergovernmental economic organization founded to stimulate trade and economic advancement. So who’s the green energy leader?   The greenest country in the OECD … is Iceland (pictured above), where virtually all electricity came from renewable sources — primarily hydro power and geothermal — both in 2018 and in the first five months of 2019.   The World Economic Forum calls the IEA’s news a green energy production milestone. The WEF sums up the current situation nicely:   Coal is in rapid decline across the OECD, while renewable sources of energy are surging. Gas is now the most common source of fuel for energy production across the OECD. It’s cleaner than coal but still a fossil fuel that contributes to global warming.   But there’s still plenty of room for improvement: Coal increased by 3% in 2018, mainly in China and India. “Coal is still the largest fuel source for generating electricity, accounting for 38% of total global production,” says the WEF. But India and China are canceling and delaying plans for new coal facilities. And “investment in coal-fired power plants declined by nearly 3%, however, to the lowest level since 2004.”  

Our terrible recycling habit

  The perpetual waste question: Is this or is this not recyclable? You look at the guide sticker on your recycling bin, and the thing you’re holding isn’t on the list. So you take your chances and put it in the recycling bin anyway.   As Mother Jones explains, the waste management industry calls this wishcycling.   According to Marian Chertow, director of the Solid Waste Policy program at Yale University, ‘a wishcycler wants to do the right thing and feels that the more that he or she can recycle, the better.’   Currently, 25% of the items Americans put into their recycling bins aren’t supposed to be in there, like dirty items or things that just can’t be recycled. The result of this is rising costs and reduced productivity at recycling facilities.   So what to do? Mother Jones suggests we reduce and reuse, in addition to recycling. And here’s their guide (maybe copy and paste it somewhere that’s easily accessible) to what can and cannot be recycled:   When you do recycle, you should know what belongs in the bin: Rinsed plastic containers and glass bottles, cardboard, and beverage and food cans are almost always acceptable. Plastic bags, electronics, and paper covered with food generally are not. Neither are insulated coffee cups and toothpaste tubes, in most cases. And if you’ve checked your local guidelines to see if an item is recyclable and you still aren’t sure, it’s best to ignore your wishful instincts and throw it in the trash.   (I didn’t know about toothpaste tubes not being able to go in the recycling bin. Huh. We learn something new every day.)  

It’s everyone’s responsibility to cut emissions

  The UK’s chief environment scientist, Professor Sir Ian Boyd, told the BBC in an interview that in order to halt greenhouse gas emissions, everyone is going to have to do their part. He also said that strong political leadership is needed to get the message through to the general public.   Boyd says we all have to do these three things: use less transportation, eat less red meat, and buy fewer clothes.   In other words, walk or bike more (or take public transport, buy an electric vehicle, or carpool), go vegetarian, and keep wearing your 10-year-old favorite sweater  — or hit the thrift stores if you really need to replace a clothing item.  

10 ways to go Zero Waste

  Waste is a big problem in the US. We sent 137.7 million tons of it to landfill in 2015, according to the EPA. It needs to be dealt with effectively, alongside implementing green energy, so we don’t end up looking like the Earth in WALL-E.   We need to keep the momentum going on big action on a global level, but just as importantly, it starts with every single one of us. If we all change our habits, we’ll make a difference.   Real Simple spoke to experts and compiled a list of 10 ways to achieve Zero Waste. Their list is below, and check out their article for further details.  

1. Use what you already have: If you’ve got a plastic item that works, don’t replace it with something more eco-friendly. Because then you have two of the same thing.
2. Refuse first: Don’t take samples and flyers.
3. Rearrange the trash: Make it harder to automatically throw things away. It forces you to think.
4. Pack reusable necessities: You know — coffee cups, straws. Keep them in your car.
5. Borrow before buying: Share things with your neighbors. It keeps down on all the consumption of stuff.
6. Do a trash audit: Check to see what you throw away the most, and make a change to reduce that waste.
7. Don’t feel like you have to make everything yourself: Only make it yourself if you enjoy it. You don’t have to be Martha Stewart.
8. Green your period: Reusable menstrual cups not only save money, they cut down on some serious waste.
9. Raise tiny tree huggers: Teach your kids about green energy and how to take care of the planet. Help them set good habits early. Then they’ll nag you. In a good way.
10. Invest in a TerraCycle bin: “The company TerraCycle accepts many items that can’t always be recycled locally, like coffee capsules, toothpaste tubes, and potato chip bags. It partners with brands … to offer free recycling of their products. Or you can buy a bin or pouch for a specific need.” (Oh, so that’s what I do with my toothpaste tube!)

   

Striving to make the bathroom greener

These zero-wasters have ditched the trash can almost entirely. Pick and choose from their tips for going zero waste to shrink your own waste (plus any eco-guilt).   These days, knowing how to recycle isn’t enough. Zero waste is the sustainability method of the moment, and it’s not just a passing fad: Living with less is one way of preserving the environment and already-dwindling resources, and going zero waste is actually almost (dare we say it) easy.   There’s a lot of garbage out there. The United States sent 137.7 million tons of trash to landfills in 2015, according to the Environmental Protection Agency—and a recent report found we’re on track to run out of space in landfills within the next two decades. China is importing fewer of the recyclable plastics we’ve been sending there. And far too many items don’t make it to landfills or recycling plants in the first place: Think of all the litter along our roads and the sad stories about sea turtles with straws in their nostrils and whales with bags in their bellies.   In some ways, this problem is bigger than any one person. To make a real dent, we’d need our legislators to support more plastic bans, regulate wasteful industries, and be more aggressive about protecting the planet beyond the waste problem. Still, our actions do make a difference. The more consumers and voters start caring about waste reduction in their day-to-day lives, experts say, the more businesses and governments will make it a priority.   “The best thing we can do, environmentally speaking, is not produce waste in the first place,” says Jenna Jambeck, PhD, professor of environmental engineering at the University of Georgia and a National Geographic fellow specializing in solid waste. “I’ve been totally convinced by my research that, taken collectively, small choices make a difference. These choices, even if we aren’t perfect, add up to significant positive impacts over time.”   These choices include everything from utilizing zero waste disposal options to adopting a zero waste lifestyle—making decisions large and small that move the needle in the right direction, even a little. You’ll see the impact in your life too: less clutter, money saved, new peace of mind. You don’t have to take every step experts suggest here—do what works for you, and you just might find life is better with less garbage in it.   Start with these tips for going zero waste, straight from practiced zero-wasters—including the mind behind Zero Waste Home—and you’ll be off to a great start. You may even find yourself surprised by how easy using less can be.  

Use what you already have.

  “I don’t encourage anyone to go out and buy things, like a pretty stainless-steel water bottle or organic-cotton shopping bag, in order to go zero-waste,” says Tippi Thole, founder of the zero-waste website Tiny Trash Can. “We should be buying less, not more! If I have a plastic item in good working condition, I use it as long as I can.” Manufacturing reusable tote bags and water bottles tends to use a lot more resources and energy than manufacturing the disposable versions, so don’t churn through them.  

Refuse first.

  People are constantly trying to give you single-use stuff: a flyer on the street, a sample in the store, a bag of stickers and knickknacks at a birthday party. “No matter how much you reduce, reuse, and recycle, you’re still the target of many items,” says Bea Johnson, author of Zero Waste Home ($11; amazon.com), who says her family of four creates only a pint of garbage per year. “Say no on the spot to stop it from becoming your trash problem down the line.”  

Rearrange the trash.

  Moving the kitchen trash can somewhere inconvenient, like the garage, forces everyone in the house to consider whether items could be composted or recycled instead. “Just by rearranging the bins and shocking everyone out of the habit of tossing something into the can, we halved the amount of garbage we produced,” says Larkin Gayl, who shares zero-waste tips on Instagram at @unfetteredhome.  

Pack reusable necessities.

  Think about the single-use items you pick up most in the outside world (coffee cups? utensils? to-go boxes? straws?) and stash a reusable version in your bag or car so you always have it with you. “We even carry a growler in our car for beer emergencies!” says zero-waster Sarah Schade, an art and design student in Traverse City, Michigan. When you come home, remember to wash your reusables and put them back so they’re ready to go the next day.  

Borrow before buying.

  You borrow books—why not borrow a weed whacker, stand mixer, or circle saw too? Borrowing things like tools and kitchen gadgets saves you from shelling out for something you’ll only use a few times a year. Plus, Lepeltier adds, “connecting with neighbors when you borrow something makes in-life connections and creates community.” Searchmyturn.com and buynothingproject.org/find-a-group, or write a post on Nextdoor. You can also rent tools from many hardware stores and Home Depot locations.  

Do a trash audit.

  It might sound icky, but poke through your garbage can to find your household’s worst waste offenders. (Or just make a note—and ask those you live with to do the same—of what you toss in a typical week.) “Pick the thing that shows up most in the garbage and find a swap for it,” says Gayl. For example, she noticed a ton of granola bar wrappers in her trash and started making batches of grab-and-go snacks instead.  

Don’t feel like you have to make everything yourself.

  “I’ve experimented with sourdough and making kombucha, but I’m not running a Whole Foods at my home,” says Chloé Lepeltier, who blogs about her low-impact lifestyle on the site Conscious By Chloé. The idea is to find habits you can sustain, so only DIY if you enjoy it.  

Green your period.

  If you’re up for it, Schade endorses switching to a reusable menstrual cup. Made out of silicone, it typically lasts a year, replacing the 240 or so tampons you might use during that time. (It also keeps packaging, applicators, and sometimes agrochemical-intensive cotton out of the trash.) Or consider period underwear like the ones from Thinx or Dear Kate—they may not eliminate your need for tampons entirely, but you’ll cut back in a big way.  

Raise tiny tree huggers.

  “Kids are often the best place to start in your waste-reduction journey because they tend to be more sensitive to the problem and don’t have the bad habits we adults do,” says Thole. Ask children to help cook (and therefore eat less food packaged in plastic); fill up at the bulk bins together; and talk about the materials that go into making a plastic toy—and the landfill the toy will end up in. But be warned: Soon enough, they may call out your eco-blunders.  

Invest in a TerraCycle bin.

  The company TerraCycle accepts many items that can’t always be recycled locally, like coffee capsules, toothpaste tubes, and potato chip bags. It partners with brands—including Arm & Hammer, Brita, Garnier, Honest Kids, even Solo cups—to offer free recycling of their products. Or you can buy a bin or pouch for a specific need. It’s pricey (pouches cost $42 and up), but that’s a deterrent to creating trash, says Gayl: “The cost to recycle motivates me to think before I purchase.”

Walking up to the Ethical Bean head office in Vancouver, you would never imagine that their roastery is in the same building. You’re greeted by their awesome cafe, and tucked away behind that is their bright office space. Emily, the Marketing Specialist at Ethical Bean, showed me around; the boardroom that displays pictures of the students that Ethical Bean supported through school was definitely a highlight for me.   We then donned our smocks and hairnets and walked into the very aromatic roastery. As we walked through the production facility, we were greeted by staff busy packaging the beans. It was great to see everything being completed in the warehouse with such care.   After I got the full tour of the roastery, complete with checking out the raw coffee beans, admiring their fuel-efficient roaster, and staring in awe at the sheer amount of coffee beans housed there, Emily and I enjoyed lattes in the onsite cafe and talked about all things Ethical Bean.   Bullfrog: The phrase “just.better.” is very important to Ethical Bean. It’s a simple phrase, but there’s a lot of nuance there—what does it mean to you?   Emily: I love this question, because I think that when people really understand what “just.better.” means to Ethical Bean, they get this spark to learn more and spread the word. To us, “just.” means justice, and “better.” means quality. It’s kind of like the Fedex logo; once you see the arrow in between the “E” and the “x”, you really can’tunsee it. Similarly, once you know that our purpose is justice for coffee farmers and their families, you really can’t read “just.better.” any other way.   I think knowing the story of how Ethical Bean started adds so much colour and context to what we’re doing here. In 1999, our co-founders Lloyd and Kim travelled to Guatemala to adopt their daughter. During their stay, they noticed a large gap between the premium price of coffee at home, and the less-than-desirable reality of the coffee industry in front of them. Believing that there had to be a more equitable way to honor these coffee farmers, they came back to Vancouver and started Ethical Bean Coffee in 2003.   You know, it’s easy to sip a cup of coffee and not think about how it travelled all the way to you—from the grower, to the importer, to the processor, to the exporter, to the roaster, to the retailer, and then into your cool coffee mug with a hilarious coffee pun (just brew it!). I love those mugs, by the way.   I mean, for most of us, coffee is a part of our daily routine. Wake up, coffee, work, second cup of coffee, head home, think about working out, watch a show, brush your teeth, go to bed, repeat.    At Ethical Bean, we do whatever we can to create pause in this routine—to shed light on the volatility and complexity of the coffee industry. That’s why we’re just. And that’s why we’re better.   Bullfrog: I love the layers of meaning behind what you do, and especially when it comes to the environment. Can you walk us through your sustainability efforts?   Emily: With “ethical” in our name, you can imagine that we filter all of our decisions through the lens of sustainability, doing whatever we can to make the right choice for all parties involved—one of those parties being the planet. Here are a few highlights from our environmental sustainability program:  

• We only buy Fairtrade Certified coffee. And to be a Fairtrade Certified co-op, you have to uphold certain environmental standards like biodiversity protection, waste management, and the prohibition of GMOs. Fairtrade co-ops can also choose to invest their Fairtrade Premium into environmental programs, such as reforestation projects or water treatment systems.
• We only buy 100% Organic certified coffee. No harmful chemicals = no negative impact on local water quality, ecosystems, and liveability.
• We partner with Bullfrog Power: Since 2009, we’ve been working with Bullfrog Power to reduce our emissions footprint by purchasing 100% renewable natural gas and green fuel for our head roastery and vehicle fleet. To date, we’ve displaced 938 tonnes of carbon.
• We have a bag return program: We hear it all the time, and rightfully so: “why aren’t your bags recyclable?” Long story short: we’ve yet to find a recyclable or compostable bag that meets our standards of freshness and food safety—and trust me, we’re looking! The good news is that we have a bag return program, so people can send in or drop off their empty bags and we’ll send the bags to Terracycle, a company that specializes in difficult-to-recycle waste streams. They clean, shred, and pelletize the plastic, and then find ways to integrate it into products already in production, like park benches. Plus, when customers send us 12 empty bags, they get a free bag of fresh coffee in return.
• We have 100% certified compostable pods: A couple of years ago we partnered with Purpod to launch K-Cup compatible single-serve coffee pods. Made of 100% renewable, bio-based materials, including coffee chaff (skin of coffee bean), the pods break down in as little as five weeks in commercial composting systems.

  Ethical Bean’s 100% compostable pods are K-Cup compatible.   Bullfrog: We’re so happy to be a part of all the good you’re doing on the daily! Speaking of which, what does a day in the life look like at Ethical Bean?   Emily: For me: Arrive at work. Check emails while sipping on an almond milk americano misto prepared by one of our cafe’s talented baristas (yes, we have a cafe attached to our head office and roastery). Get a pulse on what’s happening on social. Respond to questions and feedback. Take some photos for future collaborations (we’re always looking for ethical companies to partner with). Coffee round 2. Find new ways to optimize our online store experience. Start a new blog post. Head home and smell like a bag of coffee beans for the rest of the night…   Bullfrog: There are worse things to smell like! So I hear Ethical Bean has an app—why does a coffee company need one of those?   Emily: When I think about our app, I think about that episode of Portlandia where they go to lunch and probe their server for more information about the chicken they want to order—“So, how big is the area where the chickens are able to roam free?” “Is that USDA Organic, or Oregon Organic, or Portland Organic?”     Image source.   As funny as this episode was, it touched on something pretty serious. That is, the significance of traceability, and the role evidence plays when working towards equality.    Our app serves to answer any and all questions someone could have about the specific bag of beans they’re holding. Where was it roasted? Like… exactly where? Can I see the co-op’s Fairtrade and Organic certificates? When was my coffee roasted? For how many minutes? At what temperature? Who roasted it? How long have they worked with Ethical Bean? What do they like to do in their spare time? What’s my coffee’s cupping score? How sweet is the cup? Is there a strong aftertaste?       Screenshots from Ethical Bean’s iPhone app   In a sea of claims and certifications, it allows our consumers to make an informed decision and feel confident knowing that we’re doing what we say we’re doing.   Also, on your next coffee break, you should probably watch this 2-minute Portlandia clip about the local chicken.   Bullfrog: That’s a great clip. It’s so outrageous, but it still gets to the heart of the matter: if a company is really doing the right thing, they should be able to prove it.    We’ve already talked about Ethical Bean’s story and about the impact you’re making now. What do you have in store for the future?   Emily: It’s an exciting time at Ethical Bean. As many people know, we’ve recently joined a much larger family—the Kraft Heinz Canada family. With this transition comes many new opportunities to deliver impact at some serious scale. For example, our change in ownership allows us to substantially increase the funds we’re giving to the Fairtrade movement and Fairtrade coffee farmers, which was the reason we started in the first place.   Bullfrog: I’m so glad that you’re able to scale up your positive impact. I have one final question for you: what’s your favourite Ethical Bean roast?    Emily: Ooh, hard question. I have a few. I tend to enjoy a more chocolatey finish, so I’ve obviously fallen in love with our lush medium dark roast.   Here’s a description of lush from our Aaron, our Director of Coffee: A coffee for all seasons. Most popular for a reason. Fruit, smoke, and earth tones. If you drink coffee, you’ll like this.    Bullfrog: Hold up—what’s a Director of Coffee?   Emily: Pretty awesome thing to be a director of, eh? As our Director of Coffee, Aaron manages all things coffee—from sourcing, to buying, to roasting to quality control. He has over 20 years of experience, and is one of Canada’s first Q Graders (think sommelier but for coffee), meaning his sense of smell and taste are top notch.     Ethical Bean’s Director of Coffee, Aaron De Lazzer   I like to say that once you know Aaron, you know Ethical Bean. His passion for our eight different roasts, ethical coffee production, and just coffee in general is truly contagious.  

With a new wave of sustainability, it’s hard not to notice how our everyday habits contribute to the 31 million tonnes of garbage Canada produces in a year.   In our beauty cabinets alone, we’re encouraged to refresh our cosmetics every three months to two years and our applicators every two to three months. Not to mention, even when our hearts our in the right place, sometimes we dispose of our old shampoo and face wash bottles wrong.Often tossed into blue bins without a quick rinse, plastic containers that aren’t cleaned out before they’re recycled can actually cause larger problems, including a leak that contaminates otherwise recyclable things.  

But a new age of sustainability doesn’t only raise awareness, it brings us options as well — including stores like Toronto-based eco+amour.

  eco+amour is fairly new on the scene. The boutique first opened in Scarborough in September 2018 and have been providing earth-conscious shoppers with low-waste beauty and home refills ever since. From Crush and Brush Toothpaste Tabs that come in biodegradable cardboard tubes and reusable cotton swabs, to soil-aiding tea bags and reusable beeswax wraps, everything carried in eco+amour share the core value of creating less waste.   The products that do come in packaging are sold with the intention of being reused or recycled. Take for example, Lines of Elan, whose co-founder, Sarah Marcus, is also one of the founders of eco+amour. While shoppers can purchase pre-filled bottles of shampoo, body wash, and more, they’re encouraged to bring in the same bottles to be refilled. Alternatively, shoppers can bring in their own bottles, or rent refillable containers from the store. And for items that can’t be recycled in the city program (which isn’t very much), they can be returned in-store in eco+amour’s TerraCycle box.   Visit eco+amour at 30 Bertrand Ave. Unit C9 in Scarborough. The store is open Wednesday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., Thursday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., Friday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., or shop them 24/7 at ecoandamour.com.

If you’re an educator who’d like to keep all those markers your kids use out of landfills, take note!   There’s a free recycling program from Crayola that allows students to collect and repurpose used markers from classrooms in K-12 schools across the country and in parts of Canada. The Crayola ColorCycle initiative is designed to help both teachers and students learn about sustainability and make a positive impact on the environment.   To participate, you simply need to sign up your school, collect markers, and send them in. The four easy steps are outlined on the ColorCycle web page.   First, inform your school’s administrators or parent-teacher organization about the program. Any school, kindergarten through 12th grade, in the contiguous 48 United States, is eligible to participate. Some areas of Canada are eligible as well. You can check if your Canadian postal code is covered here.  An adult representative can register the school to participate online. Next, set up a collection site where people can drop off used markers at your school. The markers should then be packed in a cardboard box that has minimal outer markings. Only include markers in the box. All brands of markers are accepted, so they don’t just need to be Crayola markers.   Ensure that each box weighs about 8-10 pounds, and secure it with packing tape. Crayola suggests a minimum of 100 markers and a maximum of 40 pounds per box. The packages should be affixed with a FedEx shipping label, which you can print online. They will be picked up by FexEx Ground, with shipping costs covered by Crayola.   Markers are often not allowed by local community recycling efforts, which more commonly collect paper, plastic, and glass. That makes this program all the more welcome. So what happens to the markers? According to Crayola, the recyclables are sent to a facility that converts old markers into energy as well as wax compounds for asphalt and roofing shingles.   “The process repurposes the entire marker, regardless of the different kinds of plastics or how they are assembled,” the FAQ says.   One school participating in the program is Geneva Middle School in Geneva, Illinois, where a group of students known as “The Green Team” is collecting markers through the program. They also have a deposit box to collect empty chip bags in school’s cafeteria. The club was organized last year in a sixth-grade science class.   Last month, the club brought their first load of empty chip bags to Gerald Ford Subaru in North Aurora, which has a recycling box for TerraCycle, a private recycling business. The school plans to continue the program when the school year gets underway again. If your classroom needs new markers, teachers can purchase Crayola Classpacks, which include a color palette of educator-preferred hues, as well as other bulk items at affordable prices.   We hope plenty of schools are signing up this year!  

Consider an average deodorant tube. Packaged in a hard plastic case, your deodorant contains lots of tiny plastic components for twist-ability that are not recyclable. This means that out of the all deodorants sold in the U.S. last year, most of them were tossed into the trash, with many of them ending up in the ocean. (Yes, garbage often ends up in sewers, rivers, and the ocean on its way to the landfill.) The result? Whales with bellies full of plastic, vanishing coral reefs, and a patch of trash three times the size of France floating in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Plastic waste is so pervasive that it has been found at the furthest depths of the ocean, and as plastic containers break down, tiny plastic fragments invisible to the naked eye (microplastics) end up in waterways and eventually, into the very fish we eat. Still, the plastic containers filling your bathroom cabinet and makeup bag are not the only troublemakers. It’s the ingredients inside the bottles that are also wrecking havoc with the environment. From glitter, which is often made from plastic and washed down the drain, to face wipes, which are virtually indestructible, to the 14,000 tons of sunscreen collecting in the world’s reefs each year, the beauty industry’s environmental footprint is having long-term ramifications. Take sunscreen. Oxybenzone and octinoxate, two of the most common sunscreen ingredients, are toxic for coral reefs. Avobenzone, a common substitute for oxybenzone, could be just as dangerous. Experts estimate that 90 percent of all reefs will be dead by 2050 unless we ban these sunscreens altogether. As for ingredients like parabens and sulfates, well, most chemicals that are washed down the drain are unable to be filtered out in treatment plants, so they end up in our waterways, in our tap water, and eventually the ocean—an important point, considering American women use an average of 12 personal care products, each containing 168 different chemicals.

We Can't Recycle Out of This Problem

You’ll notice that your serums and moisturizers are often kept inside a little bag, which is inside a colored light-protectant bottle, with a special pump and applicator. Most of these different parts (especially colored plastic, along with pumps, which usually contain a metal spring) are considered “non recyclable.” While companies like TerraCycle are changing the game by recycling the "non-recyclable" (from coffee capsules to plastic gloves to toothbrushes and deodorant cases, TerraCycle can recycle almost any form of waste), it’s important to focus on buying brands already committed to clean, sustainable practices. “The packaging thing has become such a hot button issue,” says Follain founder, Tara Foley. “However I want people to remember that it's the ingredients inside the packaging that can make a huge, huge impact very quickly as well. It’s critical to ensure that the whole product, not just the packaging, is clean.” She notes that bio-based plastics and biodegradable plastics, often viewed as green alternatives by consumers, have environmental drawbacks of their own. Indeed, the process in which plant ingredients in your natural beauty products are farmed can affect local communities and ecosystems, as well as the product’s overall carbon footprint. With conventional beauty brands, their packaging might taut recyclability, but the catastrophic environmental impact of the chemicals used to make their products could potentially be worse. It’s also important to note that most beauty products use water in manufacturing and as a main ingredient (usually under the label of “aqua”). Water is a precious energy resource that we need to protect as we tackle climate change.

The Solution

Try an eco-audit of your own daily beauty and grooming regimen. Assess the number of products you buy and how much waste is produced as a result. The first step is to contact Terracycle to find out how to properly recycle the products you are currently using. (To make the process easier for yourself, keep a separate bin for recycling in your bathroom.) Loop, a new innovation from TerraCycle inspired by the old milk man delivery and pick-up system, has already seen companies like P&G, Unilever, and The Body Shop sign onto the pilot program which recently launched in New York, New Jersey, Washington D.C., Pennsylvania, and Maryland. If you need more incentive, Credooffers store credit when you bring in empty bottles. The next step is to slowly start replacing your products with sustainable alternatives. You may have seen brands like Meow Meow Tweet and By Humankind, which offer products like refillable deodorant and mouthwash tabs. You can also switch to reusable cotton pads, refillable makeup from brands like Kjaer Weiss, and package-free products like shampoo bars—all of which significantly cut down plastic and chemical waste. Oh, and ditch the single-use face mask.