Dutch Supermarket Introduces Plastic-Free Aisle

“There were bottles, cocktail sticks, coffee cup lids, razors, toothbrushes," recalls Rachel Yates, a Penzance community member, in describing the looks of a Cornish beach she volunteered to clean up with marine conservation charity Surfers Against Sewage. Shortly after, she joined the charity and led the Cornwall community to achieving plastic-free status through awareness and campaigning efforts, unifying the town in the fight against single-use plastics.

Recirclable provides reusable takeout boxes that customers can return to a participating restaurant within two weeks to avoid being charged a fee, which allows restaurants to cut down on disposable containers that harm the environment. So far Recirclable is working with 14 restaurants and has had thousands of customers select the reusable option, but the effort is difficult to scale up because reuse requires more effort on the part of the consumer and there’s not yet sufficient infrastructure to streamline the process.

Chanja Datti, a social enterprise in Nigeria, turns recyclables into commercially viable products to sell for manufacturing, like pellets and bales. The company collects waste from various organizations and pays locals who collect trash and turn it in.

The town of Athens, Georgia has committed to a 100% renewable energy pledge. Both the local government and local businesses are working towards it by implementing sustainable practices such as solar panels and wastewater pretreatment systems.

Eschewing packaging reduces waste. Cleenland, a store in Cambridge, Massachusetts, encourages low-waste shopping by selling household items like soap, cleaner, and detergent in bulk. Customers bring their own containers and purchase the products by weight. The store is among the first in the country to offer package-free shopping.

S’Well, the namesake of trendy water bottles, was founded on the environmental principle of reducing single-use plastic bottles throughout the world. As part of their mission, the company is donating a water bottle to every New York City high school student in order to promote this environmental awareness.

Coffee pods produce a lot of waste, which is a concern for the environment. In Singapore Nespresso is introducing a model of collecting the pods and using the recycled grounds for fertilizer and compost to support organic farming.

Thread is a social enterprise out of Pittsburgh taking a two-for-one approach to the issues of both poverty and pollution in Haiti. They help take plastic waste out of the environment by turning it into durable fabrics that are sold to clothing and accessory companies looking to source responsible materials, and they create sustainable jobs for Haitians who collect and process the plastic waste.

A brewery and a winery in Oregon are setting the standards and building the infrastructure for a reusable glass bottles system to reduce their environmental impacts. They sell their products in bottles that customers are incentivized to return so they can be cleaned, refilled, and sold again.

Sometimes bolstered by state tax credits, oyster recycling projects across the United States are encouraging restaurants to save their oyster shells, which are used to restore reefs instead of ending up as waste.