Join the fight against retail waste through outreach and activism.
Global population growth and rising prosperity are creating billions of new consumers. We are working to minimize waste from the consumer economy by encouraging retailers and consumers to reduce, reuse and recycle. We cannot do it alone. Learn how you can help.
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From Our Blog
Dunkin’ Donuts sells more than 1.8 billion cups of coffee around the world each year. Unfortunately, most of those are still served in polystyrene (aka “styrofoam”) cups - a practice which Starbucks and McDonald's abandoned in favor of using paper cups. The company claims to be actively searching for a replacement, but it has been slow to do so. While the company searches for the perfect solution, it continues to wreak havoc on the environment. The time has come for Dunkin Donuts to make the switch. Here's why...
Green Retail Alliance's efforts to encourage retailers and consumers to work together to reduce retail waste were highlighted in an article published today by Susan Bloom in the Daily Record newspaper. We are really happy with this coverage as it will help build awareness for our efforts to find common sense solutions that benefit retailers, consumers, and the planet.
Apple Pay will likely revolutionize the security and convenience of paying for goods at retail, but it doesn't yet do much to reduce the incredible amount of waste created by the retail payment process. We are hopeful that the current version of Apple Pay will one day evolve into a green payment system. Here is what needs to happen.
Scott Paper, the company invented the brown cardboard tube around which toilet paper has been rolled since 1890, has reversed course and removed the tube from its Scott Naturals Tube-Free line of toilet paper. This creative way to conserve has spawned a green movement in the sleepy $9B market for toilet paper.
Delbarton Mothers’ Guild now uses Squareup.com, an automated credit card processing company that allows its customers to receive receipts through email. The DMG saw a more innovative way to do business that was also better for the environment thereby linking customer satisfaction with a greener way to do retail business.
It used to be that a trip to the mailbox was exciting. You never knew when you might receive a postcard or letter from a friend. Unfortunately, with the invention of email, nearly all of the good things that used to arrive in the mailbox have moved online. As a result, all that one finds in the mailbox each afternoon are bills and junk mail...lots and lots of junk mail.
This week Governor Jerry Brown signed signed bill SB270 making California the first state to ban grocery and convenience stores from packing purchased items in single-use plastic bags starting in mid-2015. The law does not apply to bags used for fruits, vegetables or meats, or to shopping bags used at retailers other than grocery and convenience stores. The law also permits retailers to charge a fee of 10 cents (or more) for paper bags.
Starbucks sells reusable BPA-free plastic cups for only $1.00 as part of their Bring Your Own Mug (BYOM) program. Starbucks recognizes that every time a customer re-uses their cup, it keeps one more cup from ending up in a landfill. To make this sustainable behavior even more enticing, Starbucks will even wash your cup and take 10 cents off your coffee purchase.
I want to make you feel guilty. Every time you go to the grocery store and, without a second thought, let the retailer pack your groceries in either plastic or paper bags, I want you to have “bag guilt.” I want you to feel guilty and have a bit of self-consciousness about using all of those bags that are destructive to the environment.
No...I am not making this up. Retail receipts could be toxic.
Surprisingly, the ink used to print paper receipts often contains Bisphenol-A (BPA) an endocrine-disrupting chemical used in plastics. The extent to which this chemical is toxic on receipts is undetermined at this time because most of the studies with BPA have been looking at exposure through ingestion of BPA.
Why are retailers still printing receipts and issuing so many cash register coupons in this high tech era? Receipts are printed on paper made from trees, and trees are so vital to our planet's ecosystem. Most people have an email address where they can easily receive and permanently store paperless receipts.
Did you know that most people I surveyed throw away almost all of the condiments that Chinese restaurants regularly put inside each takeout order? Did you know that in this country there are approximately 41,000 orders of Chinese take out made daily? Did you know that you could fill Yankee Stadium with all of the condiments customers throw away in just 5 short years?
As communities across the globe are becoming increasingly "eco-friendly," we have to realize that there is still more work to be done. History has proven time and time again that change often comes from unexpected places.
Several environmental standards such as ENERGY STAR© and LEED© emerged in the early 1990's in an effort to encourage less wasteful design practices in the consumer electronics/appliance and building industries, respectively. Fortunately, the ENERGY STAR and LEED standards were broadly adopted, which has led to significant savings in energy and materials used to source, manufacture, transport, use, and recycle these products and reductions in pollution and toxic byproducts. For example, according to the EPA, ENERGY STAR prevented more than 277 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions in 2013 alone. The time has come for a similar standard to be developed and adopted to promote sustainable retail packaging.