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The scene of trash cans overflowing with discarded drink cups is familiar to anyone who’s ever seen the aftermath of a music festival, football game or other live event. Turn also provides some aluminum and stainless steel models. A lifecycle assessment of reusable and single-use cups by the nonprofit Upstream found that reusable stainless steel and polypropylene cups were the first- and second-most sustainable choices, respectively — assuming they were washed and reused at least six times.

The fact that most corrugated containers make their way into the recycling stream is a plus, but that isn’t always the optimal outcome from a lifecycle standpoint. “When we see core business models that are not just about reducing, but are about building revenue streams that are sustainable, circular and therefore viable long-term, that's where things start to get really exciting,” Goldmark sees boxes as a potential focus area for major companies pursuing zero waste goals or looking for ways to minimize their footprints. [...]those companies’ missions line up with the broader industry’s sustainability goals.

PET— frequently used to make water bottles and polyester clothing — is the fourth-most common resin found in MSW, after linear and low-density polyethylene, polypropylene and high-density polyethylene. A paper published in Nature this past April modeled an enzymatic process, called FAST-PETase, which broke down whole pieces of 51 types of thermoformed PET — such as packaging materials and cookie trays — in anywhere from a few hours to one week at 50 degrees Celsius. “Lower temperatures certainly help in reducing overall costs and energy inputs (thus making this an even more environmentally favorable process),” wrote the paper’s corresponding author Hal Alper, executive director of the Center for Biomedical Research Support at the University of Texas at Austin, in an email.

According to Newman, the reusable packaging Returnity’s top three customers have ordered from the company to date will displace 20 million pieces of single-use packaging. The first is supplying reusable bins to PayPal’s Happy Returns program, where Newman said products returned by customers are normally moved in an “insane” number of single-use cardboard boxes between warehouses and retail locations. Each insulated bag lasts for 300 uses. Since they’re double the size of a normal bag, the company says each one keeps 600 single-waste plastic bags out of the waste stream.

According to Newman, the reusable packaging Returnity’s top three customers have ordered from the company to date will displace 20 million pieces of single-use packaging. The first is supplying reusable bins to PayPal’s Happy Returns program, where Newman said products returned by customers are normally moved in an “insane” number of single-use cardboard boxes between warehouses and retail locations. Each insulated bag lasts for 300 uses. Since they’re double the size of a normal bag, the company says each one keeps 600 single-waste plastic bags out of the waste stream.

According to Newman, the reusable packaging Returnity’s top three customers have ordered from the company to date will displace 20 million pieces of single-use packaging. The first is supplying reusable bins to PayPal’s Happy Returns program, where Newman said products returned by customers are normally moved in an “insane” number of single-use cardboard boxes between warehouses and retail locations. Each insulated bag lasts for 300 uses. Since they’re double the size of a normal bag, the company says each one keeps 600 single-waste plastic bags out of the waste stream.

Los Angeles interior designer Justina Blakeney has built up her following—1.4 million on her largest Instagram account alone—through an exuberant embrace of color, a love of foliage and natural materials, and by opening up about her life experiences as a Black woman. All the things I already felt—we should invite nature into our homes more, we need more natural light and fresh air and plants—are exacerbated in the context of staying home. What are some common stumbling blocks to creating a more livable space? I see people struggling with home decor; we were all sick of our homes before and now we’re staring at the walls and can’t leave.

Invertebrate conservation organization Xerces Society offers home gardeners guidance in nurturing the familiar orange-and-black pollinators: choosing pesticide-free nurseries; sourcing milkweed, the insects’ primary forage plant; timing tasty blooms to match monarchs’ migration calendar; and more. VanZile, a Master Gardener in Florida who writes for outlets including the Spruce, offers creative, low-cost ideas (using toilet paper tubes as seed-starting containers) and advice (how to train and support vines) aimed at sparking enthusiasm and building confidence. Suggested sustainable practices include making compost, which reduces greenhouse gases generated by food scraps otherwise sent to landfills; planting hedges to filter out car emissions; and building bioswales, or channels to collect and filter rainwater.