Circular Economy

Not if Starbucks' Ben Packard, the vice president of Global Responsibility, and his running mate, Jim Hanna, the director of Environmental Impact, have their way. They think it's not only worth the effort and the money, but essential to recycle the coffee company's cups - and they invited 30 cup, cupstock and coating manufacturers, recyclers, waste managers and university researchers to Seattle this week to have a chat about it. Read More

Coca-Cola has developed a bottle that is made with up to 30 percent plant-based materials, can be recycled through typical systems and puts out fewer carbon dioxide emissions than all-plastic bottles. Read More

A new EPA ruling, and a nearly unrelated court ruling, highlight the challenges the country faces in trying to weed out the use of harmful chemicals in food, products, and manufacturing. Read More

The furniture maker was given the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries' 2009 Design for Recycling award for its years of work on using more recyclable materials, eliminating certain materials and creating Cradle-to-Cradle products. Read More

Waste upcycler TerraCycle has entered a partnership with Frito-Lay to turn trash from Doritos, Fritos and other snacks into tote bags, pencil cases and, eventually, building materials. Their first goal: Collect 5 million snack bags. Read More

(Episode 85): Marc Gunther talks with Dominique Conseil, the president of cosmetics company Aveda, about the first-ever Cradle to Cradle certification for personal care products, how innovations in packaging can shift markets, and why he's found no tensions between the company's environmental and economic goals. Read More

An Australian research organization is experimenting with taking waste feathers (11 billion pounds of which are produced each year) and turning them into usable fiber instead of feedstock or landfill trash. Read More

Researchers in Japan have found that pellets make of water and carbon dioxide frozen and bonded together uses less water and releases less CO2 than some fire-suppression methods. Read More

Beauty product company Aveda has earned Cradle-to-Cradle certification not only for seven of its products, but it's also earned the designation of a Cradle-to-Cradle company for its operations-wide efforts on energy, materials, recycling and environment. Read More

A variety of research shows that green products are staying strong throughout the recession, with companies ranging from Seventh Generation to Kimberly-Clark benefitting from, or betting on, consumers' focus on environmental concerns. Read More