Category: Recover More

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Recover More

Water Use as a Result of Recycling: Is it Worth It?

As children we are all taught a few of the fundamental ways to act environmentally friendly, including turning off the lights when you leave a room, turning off the faucet immediately after use, shutting doors and windows when the air conditioner is running, and recycling as much as possible. But what do we do when one of these sustainable acts negates the other?
People recognize recycling as a simple way to protect the environment. Unfortunately, depending on the material being recycled, the act of recycling can expend a large amount of water. For example, appropriately recycling plastics often means using a lot of water to ensure the package is decontaminated before putting it in the bin. On the How2Recycle Label, we provide instructions such as “Rinse Before Recycling,” “Rinse Tray,” and “Rinse and Replace Cap” to remind consumers to remove contamination before recycling the package.
In regions such as the Western United States, people might opt to conserve water and throw away a package rather than waste a resource that is currently insufficient in the area. Recycling to conserve materials versus not recycling to conserve water… it’s quite the apples to oranges comparison. I’m hoping a few at-home experiments, will give us a better feel for how much water it takes to recycle different plastic packages.
I used a couple items from my lunch today for the experiment:
1) A spaghetti frozen meal packaged in a polypropylene tray. A meal that left quite a bit of food residue on the package after consumption. It took me about 3 cups (.7 liters) of water to clean this item enough to recycle it appropriately.
Spaghetti_recycling
2) Yogurt in a polypropylene tub (don’t worry, I didn’t eat the whole tub…). Due to the product’s soft texture the yogurt did not stick to the sides of the tub much, and I was able to clean the package out for recycling with about 1.5 cups (.35 liters) of water.
yogurt_recycling
Using the anecdotal evidence from my at-home lunch experiment, preparing truly recyclable packages to be recycled doesn’t have to be wasteful at all. In fact, you know all of the water you used to wash your big frying pan? Don’t let it immediately go down the drain. Instead, reuse the water to rinse out your packages. Remember, packages don’t need to be sparkling clean, they simply need to be clean enough to avoid contaminating the recycling stream.
 

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Eliminate Toxicity GreenBlue Recover More

Sustainable Materials Management – A Precursor to a Circular Economy

Since the dawn of the industrial revolution, production has followed a linear path of take, make, use, and discard in a system that wastes a majority of resource and energy inputs. While this model is continuously improved for efficiencies, many of the improvements only serve to accelerate the flow of materials and products to the landfill. This is because the linear economic model is fundamentally, if unintentionally, designed to create waste. A wholesale redesign of our materials-based economy is needed and is thankfully emerging.
The circular economy (CE) is a relatively new business model that is intentionally and deliberately designed as an interactive system of value-creating and regenerative loops as diagrammed below by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation (EMF).
circular economy
The most exciting aspect of a circular economy business model is that it is not a doom and gloom scenario of doing less with less. It is economic model that allows for increasing prosperity and access to goods and services, while keeping valuable resources in productive cycles and out of landfills. Collaborative studies commissioned by EMF and led by the management consulting firm McKinsey estimate an annual net material cost savings of up to $630 billion, based on only a subset of the durable goods manufacturing sectors. The studies further estimate as much as $700 billion in savings is available in the global consumer goods market for food, beverages, textiles, and packaging via a shift to a circular business model.
Taking a deep dive into circular economy literature shows that it is a powerful synthesis of several strategies, among them:

  • Design for environment (DfE) to include a variety of nontraditional or less common attributes such as modularity, upgrade-ability, refurbishment, disassembly, re-manufacturing, etc.,
  • Industrial ecology or symbiosis, which is based on the premise that the waste from one industrial system or process becomes a resource or material input for another,
  • Products of service, whereby a producer retains ownership of a product and leases its utility, taking back the asset at end of useful life or when the lessee no longer wants or needs it; then upgrading, refurbishing or re-manufacturing it into a next generation service-product,
  • Reverse logistics, the process by which products and materials are effectively collected and maintained in a closed loop supply chain.

While not explicitly called out in the CE literature, sustainable materials management (SMM) offers another possible pathway to a closed loop business model. Since materials of all types are the basis of our global consumptive economy, SMM provides the critical building blocks that can enable a company to prepare and position itself to become a CE business.
At GreenBlue we promote the adoption of SMM practices to help companies become more sustainable enterprises based on three core principles: Use Wisely, Eliminate Toxicity and Recover More. All three are tied to design, which is the most critical element in a circular economy. Use Wisely governs the selection, sourcing, and optimization of resources and sets the stage for re-utilization. Eliminate Toxicity, removes potential barriers to product recovery, component separation and material revalorization, ensuring those molecules can stay in play in either a technical or biological cycle as depicted in the EMF diagram, above. Recover More requires development of the technologies and infrastructure, to track product assets, collect and efficiently transport them to a revalorization facility. As companies become adept at these three core principles they can develop design strategies, industrial synergies, logistics, information, financial accounting systems, and performance metrics that will allow them to make the ultimate paradigm shift to a fully circular business model.
Watch this blog for further discussion of the three core principles and building blocks as GreenBlue proceeds to develop a detailed roadmap and rigorous step-by-step implementation framework for best sustainable materials management practices.

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Durable Litter: A Profile from a River Walk

A couple of weekends ago a group of us celebrated summer’s end on the banks of the Shenandoah River in Virginia at the Watermelon Park Music Festival. It was a car-camping affair with family clans arranged in loose camps under the clear blue day sky and starry nights. The three thousand or so people gathered for near non-stop merrymaking involving music, food and fun in the river. In that there was success!
On Saturday morning I led a river clean up along the accessible banks within the festival grounds. The idea was to see what we could find in 45 minutes and talk about the durability of materials, the flow of litter into oceans, and rate of decomposition of common items. Of course, the rates of decomposition are not precise, but serve as a good reminder of how durability of a material is called upon to serve many one-time-use purposes in our convenience-based consumptive economy. It was a chance to also discuss how uncontrolled disposal can create macro pollution in one place that can contribute to micro pollution in distant places, such as the accumulation of plastic fragments in the oceans.
On a cool, foggy Saturday morning, the clean up volunteers met at the beautiful Shenandoah River and set off on their quest for river trash. Among the group were a few little people who were the most excited by the treasure hunt. The wee ones were thrilled to have their own giant latex gloves. We joked that the little ones were the detail crew finding smaller bits while the adults moved rapidly to comb the riverfront. The adults, too, were diligent. After 45 minutes, the total recyclable booty included two plastic grocery bags full of cans, can tops, and plastic and glass beverage bottles. The recyclable items were predictable since this riverfront park is routinely used for family camping and as a tubing destination. The trash part of the litter filled four grocery bags.
The trash included two diapers, fishing line, plastic beverage holders, a ‘styrofoam’ cup (properly called expanded polystyrene or EPS), garment fabric, a sock, two golf balls, lots of cigarette butts, a sturdy dog frisbee, a child’s sand scoop, assorted pieces of metal, ceramic tile shards, two left-foot flip flops, a baseball cap, and a bunch of junk fragments of containers, packaging, and fabric. The recyclables and the trash were pretty beat up by the water action over shallow rocky river bed. The result of such degradation is fragmentation of litter (macro pollution) into ever smaller bits (micro pollution) that become unrecoverable permanent pollution. The type of pollution that floats out to sea, and can be confused by wildlife for food, or can cause general environmental damage through accumulation. The material refuse represents significant technical and financial investments employed for one-time uses.
Since the river condition offers variable current strengths and a relatively rocky riverbed, many types of materials deteriorate faster than if the same litter were to be found in a ditch beside a highway. The graphic below estimates the lifespan of many of the items listed above in marine conditions and serves as a guide for this discussion.
How long until it's gone?
Graphic by NOAA
The durability of most of the materials used in common items we collected is startling, and highlights the need for material stewardship policies that apply to the whole society and positively affect the behaviors of both product producers and citizens. It also identifies the critical role of the citizen in making sure litter is avoided and collected when found. Sustainable material management depends on you and me to do our part to use materials wisely through considered consumption habits; by understanding that materials have inherent toxicity (if not directly to us than indirectly through the food chain and the environment); by practicing material recycling and composting at home and work places; and picking up trash instead of ignoring it and walking by. Together there is a chance to reverse the trends of growing material consumption and improving material stewardship.
Learn more: An article on the demographics of litter flows. | Information on marine debris | Plastic marine debris | U.S. EPA’s annual report on solid waste in the United States.

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Recover More Sustainable Packaging Coalition

Collaboration as a Tool for Advancement

During the Sustainable Packaging Coalition’s recent event, SPC Advance, I couldn’t help but notice the underlying theme of collaboration among attendees and their respective organizations.
Discussions and sessions made it clear that collaboration is necessary and frequent among organizations practicing sustainability regardless of their role in the supply chain. The Value of Forest Certification working group elaborated on the need for big-name brand owners to have an affiliation with forest-friendly NGOs in order to push their business forward. Partnerships with forest certification systems assist brands in building the trust of their consumers and the rest of the supply chain, especially at times when the environmental ethics of large corporate practices are put into question.
The same interaction is evident in the plastics industry, as identified by the sessions on the current and future state of flexible packaging recovery. Shari Jackson of the American Chemistry Council called on retailers to join WRAP, a campaign aimed at educating consumers and facilitating plastic film recycling. Wegmans Food Markets was identified as an exemplary campaign partner, as new signage and marketing materials has successfully engaged their customers in film recycling, resulting in a 20% increase between Earth Day 2013 and Earth Day 2014. During Jackson’s presentation attendees participated in the conversation and encouraged the WRAP campaign to engage more logistical partners to help with commercial film backhaul, as the opportunities in film recycling expand beyond brand owners and retailers.
In such a competitive business, it’s impressive and inspiring to see major corporations engage one another to derive best practices. From the mingling in the hotel lobby to the late night chats following the pub crawl to the inspirational case studies detailed in the sessions, there is no question that SPC Advance attendees recognize the value of collaboration in advancing sustainability.

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Recover More Sustainable Packaging Coalition

Funding for Material Recovery Services: A Critical Piece for Packaging Sustainability

Shifting from a mindset of waste management to sustainable materials management will require many industry actors to re-calibrate their definition of success from quick, one-time victories to extended time frames. Considerable differences exist across the vast United States with regards to handling of solid waste, policy incentives, infrastructure, access to services, and fees and penalties. This is a complex system with many gaps and will require collaborative and cooperative efforts to develop consistent services across a diverse population. Nobody is obliged to own the whole system but everyone along the path is obliged to participate fully for the system to work well.
While talking about material sustainability in the context of packaging, the conversation ultimately rest where the perceived focus sits – at the end of its useful life. In the discussions at SPC Advance in Minneapolis, Minnesota, we devoted significant effort on composting of food waste and food service packaging, on recycling infrastructure and access to collection and sorting services, on energy recovery, on labeling for recovery, and honest and meaningful marketing claims. All these conversations are ongoing themes within the packaging community and significant progress is anticipated in the coming years in the form of design for recovery, material innovations, impact measurements and data sharing, and collaborative efforts to raise awareness.
Conspicuously absent in this rich dialogue is the critical and desperate need to enhance the recovery infrastructure – access to compost facilities for organics (including some forms of packaging), balancing the portfolio of end of life treatments to include energy recovery, anaerobic digestion and pyrolysis for instance. This heady topic inevitably comes to a dead stop when ownership and responsibility enters the discussion. Almost instantly the conversations come to a crawl and the critical pieces of funding, policy advocacy, and ownership of traditional externalities associated with the management of the annual packaging waste generated are omitted.
There is a critical need at this juncture to expand the concept of design in a grand way to include mechanisms that answer the ongoing challenge of inconsistent, and at times, outdated material management solutions. It is illogical to innovate at the material and package/product side, and expect that rapid rate of development to be matched at the material collection and reclamation side because the two ends operate independently and under very different market and policy drivers. Designing a well-rounded material recovery technology portfolio hinges on a critical need for funding and policy instruments that support innovations in material manufacturing and end of life collection. Such efforts must put the focus on material development and material stewardship with an eye for the big picture and long term viability through improved material management options.
Industry with its e-NGO and government agency partners have to come together and develop a working plan to support sustainable materials management. Those who benefit directly must rise to the occasion and secure the seed funding to cover a reasonable fraction of the costs of leveling the recovery playing field. One such example is represented by the Closed Loop Fund, a collaborative approach to make funds available via loans for the development of recovery services.
This is a laudable kick-start program and likely much more will be needed to accommodate deficiencies among population centers across the United States. A material consumption system where recovery is entirely externalized to municipalities is inherently unsustainable. With packaging inextricably tied to efficient and effective recovery, maintenance of this status quo system limits the overall progress for material sustainability in all material categories across all population centers across the country. And, product and package sustainability claims remain tenuous at best since the system is far from being sustainable.
Learn more about material recycling at How2Recycle.info | U.S. EPA’s Solid Waste Site |

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Having a BIG Conversation on the Future of Plastics

This is exactly how Plasticity, a one day forum in NYC I recently attended, was billed, and it delivered. Throughout the day, the speakers and panelists, of which I was one, remained focused on the big picture and solutions for the future; and with good reason. The sustainability advocacy NGO, As You Sow estimates that “over $8 billion in value from packaging alone is left on the table when plastic packaging is sent to landfill.”
With impressive representation from around the globe – from Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, Indonesia, the UK, Canada, Costa Rica – the approximately 150 speakers and attendees approached the topic of plastics from a range of perspectives, but with a common starting point: plastics are a valuable resource that are versatile, affordable, convenient and likely inextricable from our everyday lives. In other words, this was not a bash plastics and ban polymers event. Instead, it was a call to recognize plastics as having a considerable role in our materials economy, and a clarion call to stop designing plastics to be thrown away. It was also an exciting exploration of the challenges,  opportunities and emerging solutions businesses, NGOs and governments are collaborating on to create the very necessary closed loop for both polymers in the market today and those that will be in the market tomorrow (e.g., biopolymers).
Doug Woodring, founder of The Ocean Recovery Alliance and Plastics Disclosure Project hosted the event. Notables in the sustainability, plastics and recovery arenas such as Bill McDonough, Cradle2Cradle; Steve Russell, American Chemistry Council; and Mike Biddle, MBA Polymers, topped the roster of speakers, which also included a former president of Costa Rica, the head of UK-based TruCost, a lead innovator from Ecovative, and an amazing waste to product (and even buildings) designer from Miniwiz, among others.
The event showcased ideas and latest developments in:

  • Using waste as a resource
  • Scalable, best practice innovations
  • Use of new materials
  • Designing for sustainability and
  • Solutions for reducing the plastic footprint

As part of a panel on designing for recovery, I kicked off the session by sharing the Sustainable Packaging Coalition’s (SPC) Definition of Sustainable Packaging, which can apply seamlessly to products as well. I also discussed the extended parameters designers need to consider beyond the more traditional criteria of cost, performance, quality, aesthetics, and regulatory compliance. These included optimizing resources, responsible sourcing, material health and resource recovery. My copanelists Stephan Clambaneva representing the Industrial Designers Society of America, and Arthur Huang, CEO and Founder of Miniwiz, picked up on the theme of expanded parameters. Huang has even applied expanded parameters to structures, using his company’s trash-to-product material, POLLI-BRICKS to construct a waste recycling facility in Taiwan.
Cool and sexy waste-to-product goods from Waste2Wear, Ekocycle, and Miniwiz were on display, including Miniwiz’s “made from 100% trash” sunglasses that attendees sported to tame the evening sun glare and enjoy views of the new Freedom Tower from the rooftop reception venue.
miniwiz_recycled_sunglasses
Consumer education was another theme of the event, as we all play a major role in closing the loop on all materials. Waste2Wear’s child educational video was a great example.
The NYC Forum was the 3rd annual Plasticity event. Woodring promises to key the dialogue going and is considering Barcelona, Spain as the next locale. I sure hope to catch up with some of you there.

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Recover More Sustainable Packaging Coalition

Sustainable Materials Management: Externalized Packaging Material Stewardship

“How can packaging become sustainable when end of life treatment is externalized to municipalities?” This was a tweet I sent out during a session on solid waste handling at the recent Sustainable Packaging Coalition spring conference in Seattle, Washington. Industry, local governments, environmental organizations, educators and citizens invest a great deal of effort and money to improve recycling rates and access to recycling services across the United States. My own organization, GreenBlue, is dedicated to sustainable materials management (SMM), which focuses on using materials wisely, eliminating toxicity, and recovering more value from the material waste stream. Yet, the solutions to comprehensive sustainable material management remain elusive, here and globally.

MRF Tipping Floor

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Highlighting Seattle Resource Recovery and Packaging End of Life Management

Resource recovery and revalorization seems to be just about the hottest topic in the packaging sustainability community these days. It’s hard to pick up any packaging publication – print or online – without some reference to the need to expand packaging recyclability, and the opportunities and challenges involved. GreenBlue’s Sustainable Packaging Coalition made sure to emphasize this important topic as we developed the agenda for our 2014 Spring Conference, with tours and sessions that highlight the newest developments in resource recovery and end of life management.

The Pacific Northwest region leads the country in recycling and composting. We recently talked with Conference speaker, Dick Lilly, Manager for Waste Prevention and Product Stewardship at Seattle Public Utilities, about Seattle’s cutting edge sustainability efforts, specifically its composting and recycling efforts. Seattle is the first U.S. city to require that all single-use food service packaging be either compostable or recyclable, helping the city move toward its goal of a zero waste future. Lilly explained that in this shift to using all compostable or recyclable packaging, the city holds meetings with restaurants and manufacturers regularly to discuss what does and doesn’t work, and what needs to happen to make these regulations more successful. “One things that I would applaud about the restaurant industry is that they have been tremendously innovative and have made a great effort to come up with new products. The industry has changed dramatically in terms of the products made today that will help restaurants move in the direction of more compostables or reusables and less disposables,” said Lilly.

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A Story of Branded Trash

I am sure all of us at one time or another have taken a walk down a nature trail and found a bit of trash that stood out among the plants or on the path. More often than not the Budweiser_Trashitem is recognized almost instantaneously by its color scheme, shape or material combination – its branding.

We may be irritated by the unsightliness, we may not give it a second thought and meditatively and instinctively pick up the litter for proper disposal later, or we may keep walking. This time of year in a deciduous wood with only brown dried leaves on the ground, even a small item may stand out. Among more urban landscape the litter might just be part of the environs along the roadside or highway entrance. We may scarcely notice it while zipping by in our automobiles. Yet litter as a collection of transactions is quite complex and the pathways that result in the deposited item in places other than the trash bin are many. The composition of the litter too is quite diverse and context specific.

Continue reading “A Story of Branded Trash”
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Sustainable Packaging Coalition Celebrates America Recycles Day with a Look at How2Recycle Milestones

On this America Recycles Day, GreenBlue’s Sustainable Packaging Coalition (SPC) celebrates America’s commitment to recycling by taking a look at How2Recycle Label milestones. Sustainability is a journey that relies on good design, accessible infrastructure, and consumer understanding of what, where, and how to recycle.

Sustainable Packaging Coalition member companies and staff identified a need for consistent on-package communication about recyclability of a package. Though consumers want to recycle, our studies found that many consumers are confused about what they can and cannot recycle, and desire clear recycling information on the package itself. The How2Recycle Label Program helps fix this problem by clearly communicating how and where certain materials should be recycled.

 Packages donning the How2Recycle label first entered the market in December, 2011. Since then, How2Recycle has grown from 11 founding participants to 20 with more to be announced soon. Press releases and website updates in the coming weeks will unveil the exciting new participants that will move with How2Recycle into its third year. SPC staff estimate at least 600 different products with How2Recycle Labels will be on shelf by the end of the year.
SPC staff continue to build relationships with partner organizations and consumers to expand the program. This includes collaborative projects with the Flexible Films Recycling Group of the American Chemistry Council, ongoing interactions with government agencies, participation in critical industry conversations, and responding to feedback from consumers.
Through a How2Recycle survey, consumer testing, and social media feedback, the public has expressed their overwhelming support of the program and its participating companies. For example, when referring to how the label made them feel about the company using it, one respondent said, “The company is obviously trying to reduce their carbon footprint and I think that is awesome and commendable.” Another noted, “It shows me the company is taking an active interest in recycling for the future of sustainability and the environment.”

About 75% of survey respondents had a positive experience with the label and about 80% thought more positively of companies if they used How2Recycle. 85% of survey respondents found How2Recycle easy to understand, a critical goal of the program. According to one respondent, “More products should do this!! It takes away the guessing game out of recycling.” Another respondent showed the educational benefit of the label, “I didn’t know that in-store plastic bag drop-offs also accept other types of plastic package film, so now I will start recycling those.”

How2Recycle’s success would not be possible without the pioneering participating companies. Their commitment to clear and concise on-package recycling labels make them leaders in their industry. Melissa Craig of Kellogg’s notes: “Consumers need clear, concise communication when it comes to recycling, so materials that can be reclaimed don’t accidentally end up in landfills. This label helps ensure all packaging components are recycled as intended, to further reduce the environmental impact of our products and promote conservation.”
GreenBlue and the SPC look forward to another successful year helping consumers and companies fulfill their America Recycles Day pledges through the How2Recycle Label Program. Our goal is to have How2Recycle Labels on the majority of consumer-facing packaging by 2016.
Let us know what you’re doing for America Recycles Day, and what you think about our How2Recycle Label on Twitter @How2Recycle or @GreenBlueOrg!