Plastic

Marilyn Lauderdale had been working at an IKEA store in Renton, Washington, for 15 years when she transferred to their in-house furniture assembly team.

In her new position, she quickly noticed that cardboard and plastic packing materials were recycled, but other packaging – including copious amounts of expanded polystyrene foam – was not.

An innocent question about whether it could be recycled led her, she says, “down...