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These days, when you head to a shop to buy clothes, most brands package your purchases in a recyclable paper bag, which looks more eco-friendly than plastic. But behind the scenesin back rooms that most customers never seeevery single clothing retailer has enormous piles of flimsy plastic bags (sometimes called poly bags). These bags keep clothes clean as they travel across the complex global supply chain before arriving at the store. We need to keep clothes in good condition as they move from factories to shipping containers to trucks, says Candan Erenguc, chief operations officer at Anthropologie. [Photo: WM/Anthropologie] Most local recycling facilities don’t have the equipment to recycle poly bags, which are more complicated to break down than more solid plastics like water bottles. So most retailers simply send them in the regular waste stream where they will end up in a landfill. Since plastic does not biodegrade, these bags will break down into tiny fragments of microplastic that will end up in our waterways and food. Anthropologie has been on a mission to find a way to recycle the poly bags it collects across its 215 retail stores. Over the past 18 months, it has partnered with Waste Management (WM), the largest recycling company in the United States, to develop a solution. Now, store associates collect these bags and send them to special facilities that are equipped to recycle them into other plastic products, extending their life. Anthropologie has already recycled more than 60,000 tons of poly bags, which have been transformed into pellets that will be used to create other plastic items, including trash bags. It has been a very seamless process, and we want to make sure other retailers know they can do it as well, says Erenguc. That said, things like trash bags cannot be further recycled, so they will eventually end up in a landfill. So it is still incumbent on brands to find ways to reduce the amount of plastic they consume and discard. For decades, flimsy plastic bags have been a challenge for municipal recycling facilities that collect household waste. If you accidentally put them in your curbside recycling bin, they can clog up the recycling equipment, shutting the system down. As a result, people have been encouraged to simply dispose of these bags in the regular waste stream, where they will be landfilled or incinerated. However, recycling technology is quickly improving, according to Tara Hemmer, chief sustainability officer at WM. For one thing, WM is now investing in robotics and computer vision technology that can better catch plastic bags that end up in the waste stream and separate them from the rest of the trash, so they don’t cause a major disturbance. And perhaps more impressively, there are now several industrial recycling facilities across the U.S. that are specifically designed to recycle poly bags. Some of these plants are owned by WM. But there are also independent recyclers that partner with WM. We work with our customers to make sure they can direct their waste to the right facility in our third-party network, says Hemmer. [Photo: WM] Erenguc wanted to find a way to collect poly bags and ship them to these locations. However, as a major retailer, this presented a logistical challenge. It was also important for the process to be easy for employees to understand and follow. Each of Anthropologie’s 215 stores is staffed with dozens of employees who must be trained on best practices when it comes to waste disposal. Moreover, it was unclear where the nearest recycling facility would be for each store. We didn’t want to be transporting poly bags back and forth across the country, because that isn’t good for the environment either, Erenguc says. But this is where WM could help. Anthropologie brought in members of the WM team to study the situation and come up with a solution that would be easy for retail employees to adopt. WM identified the address of the closest recycling facility for each store. Retail associates now collect plastic bags and when they have achieved a certain volume, they ship them out to a designated facility. The recycling plants turn poly bags into pellets that can than be used to create other products. It’s such a streamlined solution, Erenguc says. It was so easy to execute, but we’ve already managed to divert 60,000 pounds of plastic from landfills. [Photo: WM] Hemmer says that many retailers are eager to divert waste from landfill. While there’s been a narrative that companies have abandoned their sustainability goals, that hasn’t been her experience. We’ve found that companies still have goals and are marching towards them, she says. And consumerproduct companies are trying to increase the amount of recycled content that goes into their products. Hemmer says that recycling technology is improving every year. WM is currently working to make it possible to recycle plastic bags in residential areas, beginning with a plant in Chicago that will reach about 3,500 households. But often the obstacle to bringing about change at scale isn’t technologicalit’s logistical. People, as well as companies, are more likely to adopt new processes if they’re simple. Part of our job is to help troubleshoot, says Hemmer. But diverting waste from landfill is actually a lot easier than you’d imagine.
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E-Commerce
Elon Musk’s foray into government has proven disastrous for his business life. Since taking up work for President Donald Trumps’ so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Musk’s electric car company Tesla has seen sales slide and has become a target for protests. Now some believe that damage could be terminal and that Musk poses a risk to companies outside of his own. The Reputation Risk Index looks at reputational threats facing companies and organizations. It recently found that being associated with Musk posed the second biggest threat to companies, between the harmful or deceptive use of artificial intelligence and backtracking on DEI. The index, which is based on a survey with 117 public affairs leaders and former heads of state, found it’s not just being associated with Musk that’s risky, but being singled out and publicly criticized by him. In an aerial view, brand-new Tesla cars and Cybertrucks sit parked in a lot at a Tesla dealership on April 02, 2025, in Corte Madera, California. [Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images] With his controversial omnipresence in the media landscape, 28% of the council identified this association as a top reputational risk, highlighting Musks impact on businesses that extend well past his own, Global Risk Advisory Council chair Isabel Casillas Guzman said in the report. Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives predicted in a note Sunday that even if Musk were to quit DOGE and get back to his car company there will be permanent brand damage.” And if Musk stays in government, brand damage could grow for Tesla, calling it a code red situation for the company. Musk “needs to leave the government, take a major step back on DOGE, and get back to being CEO of Tesla full-time,” Ives wrote. Musk’s hard turn to DOGE has shown that mixing business with politics can backfire, especially for a public CEO of a company that relies on customers who in large part don’t share his views. If Musk wasn’t planning on leaving his post as a special government employee after the 130-day limit comes up, he might find a more persuasive business reason that it’s time to get back to his day job.
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E-Commerce
As a particularly cold winter sputters to an end, Pennsylvanias Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), which helps residents pay their heating bills, closed on Fridayseveral weeks earlier than expected. Funding for LIHEAP has dried up because federal workers who administer the program were recently laid off by the Trump administration, said Elizabeth Marx, the executive director at the Pennsylvania Utility Law Project, a legal advocacy group that assists people struggling to pay their utility costs. About $19 million has yet to be sent to the state. The state Public Utility Commission sent a letter to Congess this week about the shortfall and called the fund a lifeline for Pennsylvanias most vulnerable households. Marx said the delay in federal funds couldnt happen at a worse time. April is known as the start of termination season, she said, when her organization sees an uptick in the number of households whose electricity or gas is turned off. State regulations prohibit winter disconnections before April 1. Every year we have a spike in calls to our emergency hotline because, all at the same time, people are receiving termination notices, Marx said. This is a time when the demand for LIHEAP increases dramatically. LIHEAP is among dozens of aid programs caught short by mass firings in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Part of broad budget cuts by the Trump administration, the entire staff that allocates funds for LIHEAP was eliminated two weeks ago. HHS did not respond to a request for comment. Administered largely by states, LIHEAP distributes more than $4 billion a year to 6.2 million low-income households nationwide to help with heating and cooling costs. Last year, LIHEAP provided assistance to 346,000 Pennsylvanians, including 55,000 people who were in danger of having their heating cut. About $400 million in LIHEAP funding has yet to be sent to the states. In 2025, Pennsylvania had so far received $71 million by early April. Marx said that no one has explained the delay. The funding hasnt yet been cut. We just havent gotten it, Marx said. We have no idea when the remaining amount of funds are going to come to Pennsylvania. Sanya Carley, the faculty director at the University of Pennsylvanias Kleinman Center for Energy Policy, said the gutting of the staff is behind the funding interruption. With the layoffs at HHS, that means that nobody is there to allocate the remainder during the more extreme, excessive heat months, she said. LIHEAP is one of our cornerstone social assistance programs, said Juanita Constible, a senior advocate for environmental health at the nonprofit Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). It can mean the difference between a family being able to afford to stay in their home or not, or to feed themselves or not, she said. Even if funds were sent this week, the program wouldn’t be able to reopen immediately. You cant just turn a program like that on a dime, Marx said. The delay could also mean bad news this summer and beyond. Without help from LIHEAP to pay debts to utility companies that accumulated over the winter, thousands of households could lose power, leaving them with limited access to electricity this summer. The pause in payments will likely drive up demand for aid in the fall, advocates said. LIHEAP also covers maintenance and repair to home furnaces. Utility disconnections can lead to other losses for families scrambling to make ends meet. (Think of a refrigerator full of spoiled groceries.) They can spur evictions and, in some cases, cause children to be removed from homes deemed unsafe. And as Pennsylvania and the rest of the country face increasingly hot summers because of climate change, air-conditioning is no longer a convenience but a life-saving necessity. Prolonged heat exposure exacerbates chronic conditions including asthma, diabetes, and hypertension and can endanger pregnant women, children, and the elderly. LIHEAP was among the programs seen as most critical for helping families in Philadelphia at a climate justice event hosted by Drexel University last week. The federal government is disinvesting in data to understand health disparities, data to understand climate risk, funding for energy solutions. The LIHEAP program is now at risk, said Mathy Stanislaus, the executive director of Drexels Environmental Collaboratory. Now more than ever, we really need to figure out how we can link up community-based leadership and priorities for state and local solutions, Stanislaus said. The event brought together four community groups, called the Philadelphia Climate Justice Collective, to present recommendations for a just climate transition plan for the city. Finding solutions for neighborhoods with an atypically high heat index were part of the collectives report. The governments disinvestment and dismantling casts a long shadow, Stanislaus said in an interview, referring to the fallout from federal cuts led by DOGE, Elon Musks Department of Government Efficiency. For example, the North Philadelphia-based nonprofit Esperanza lost a $500,000 grant for Hunting Park that would have covered the cost of weatherizing homes and planting trees. Hunting Park is a neighborhood where summer temperatures routinely register 10 to 15 degrees higher than wealthier and greener areas of the city. Despite the funding cuts, the collectives leadership said they will continue working to help Philadelphias most underserved residents. The federal government is completely erasing the history of environmental justice. The EPA administrator issued a memo two weeks ago that says were not going to consider the burdens of communities of color and low-income neighborhoods, Stanislaus said. We need to push back. One of the participating organizations, the Overbrook Environmental Education Center, lost a promised $700,000 federal grant. Were disappointed, but were not devastated, said Jerome Shabazz, its executive director. Are we going to rely on these folks to define for us what our dignity should look like, who we should protect and who we should love and who we should give consideration to? How are we going to have an attitude where the most vulnerable amongst us are not the people we want to serve? he asked. Thats not acceptable. If were talking about climate and environmental justice, then we must be just. More than 70% of LIHEAP recipients come from households with at least one senior citizen, person with disabilities, or child under the age of 6. Constible, of the NRDC, said if LIHEAP disappeared there would be a lot more evictions. Wed see a lot more potential deaths or serious physical harm. I think ed see a lot more families trying to make a decision between heating and eating, or stalling medical care that they need, she said. Marx said the disruption to LIHEAP funding is occurring as more people are losing access to consistent electricity, water, and gas service. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, last year one in four Pennsylvania households said they had trouble paying their energy bills. Even before this winter, LIHEAP funding had fallen since the 2021-2022 fiscal year, when Pennsylvania received more than $480 million. This year, the state was allocated around $200 million. Now, experts say the situation is dire. People will die, Carley said. People will die this summer if they cannot cool their homes and they cannot pay their bills. This article originally appeared on Inside Climate News. It is republished with permission. Sign up for their newsletter here.
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