Live at SPC Impact: Collaboration's the Key to Unlocking Circularity

Intelligent alliance

GreenBlue's Paul Nowak (left) and The Recycling Partnership's (TRP) Keefe Harrison.At Sustainable Packaging Coalition (SPC)'s Impact today, GreenBlue's Paul Nowak and The Recycling Partnership's (TRP) Keefe Harrison revealed early pilots of a digitally active How2Recycle (H2R) label, tapping into TRP's database of 9,000 municipalities across the U.S. We remember a Packaging World cover story on TRP's RecycleCheck not too long ago, and hearing about the foundation of this sensible alliance between SPC and TRP in late 2023.

EPR, DEI and hackers, oh my

From left, Sanjana Paul, Ezinne Okoro, and McKenna MorriganIf you travel in extended producer responsibility (EPR) circles and haven't yet heard of Seattle Public Utilities' McKenna Morrigan, it's just a matter of time. She batted clean-up at Impact today in a rapid-fire trio of disruptive women near the intersection of packaging and sustainability. Morrigan was preceded by Inclusion, Diversity, & Equity Corporate Strategist Ezinne Okoro on the power of DEI and Sanjana Paul of MIT's Department of Urban Studies and planning, on hacking into hackathons for environmental change.

"Cities got into the waste management business to protect public health and improve sanitation, not to deal with packaging." ... "Seattle is known as a city with a strong recycling program, and it's true. We have a long-standing and very successful recycling program. But most people don't know that its origin comes from a dollars and cents assessment, not a green ethos," Morrigan said today, highlighting the economic underpinnings required for circularity on her way to making the case for EPR.

Turn your single-use plastics into reusables with recyclable refill bottles

Dr. Bronner's Karina Tettero.Recycling might've been the hottest topic at SPC Impact today, but reuse takes precedence in the hierarchical reduce, reuse, recycle model. Dr. Bronner's Karina Tettero explained the genesis of the brand's new printed paperboard cartons, which are meant to refill its more shower-friendly 32-oz 100% rPET bottle. The 32-oz refill carton represents an 82% reduction in plastic from the durable bottle it's meant to refill many times over. The remaining 18% of carton material consists of a plastic cap, and a barrier liner containing PE and aluminum, she said. The whole structure still is considered widely recyclable, since according to the Carton Council of North America, more than 60% of the U.S. has access to curbside recycle this style of paperboard carton. More broadly, Tettero notes her company was once a niche hippie darling brand with a toehold in the natural products market. "But now, our biggest growth is happening in the mass market, which is showing that there's a shift happening with consumers. They want to be able to buy their natural brands in places such as Target, Walmart, and Costco Wholesale," she said today.