*By Amanda Weston*
One packaging company is helping cannabis-lovers go doubly green with sustainable, multi-use containers. The mission of [STO Responsible](https://www.storesponsible.com/) is to combat the cannabis industry's single-use plastic problem ー and boost its sales in the process.
"Packaging drives sales. That's just something we know in all business," Sandra Elkind, co-founder and chief creative officer, told Cheddar Tuesday.
"But it's one of the only industries that has such strict regulations on packaging, that producers have a hard time being able to create packaging for their products, so they are stuck using what's on the market. And in addition, they have very little choices for sustainability."
The company's containers were specifically designed for the the cannabis industry, achieving what Nicole Elkind, co-founder and CEO, called the "first line of sustainability."
"We see the first line of sustainability \[as\] being something that will be multi-use rather than single use, which we've designed it to be exactly that," Elkind told Cheddar.
"In addition, it's recyclable. On top of that, we have partnered up with a product that coats this in basically enzyme food. So when this product ends up in a landfill ー similar to a fish tank where you put the food on the top and all the fish come swimming and are eating the food ー this becomes food to the micro-organisms and the enzymes that are in the landfill."
Sandra said her products' end of life is less than five years ー compared to material that would take up to 500 years to break down.
The Elkinds said they took steps to ensure the packages are child- and pet-resistant.
For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/sto-responsible-creates-eco-friendly-cannabis-packaging).
An independent watchdog within the IRS reports that while taxpayer services have vastly improved, the agency is still too slow to resolve identity theft cases. And National Taxpayer Advocate Erin Collins says those delays are “unconscionable.” Erin M. Collins said in the report released Wednesday that overall the 2024 filing season went smoothly, though IRS delays in resolving identity theft victim assistance cases are worsening. It took nearly 19 months to resolve self-reported identity theft cases as of January, and Wednesday's report states that now it takes 22 months to resolve these cases.
Amazon.com Inc. surpassed $2 trillion in market value for the first time in afternoon trading on Wednesday. The push higher for Amazon’s stock market valuation comes a little more than a week after Nvidia hit $3 trillion and briefly became the most valuable company on Wall Street. Nvidia’s chips are used to power many AI application and its valuation has soared as a result. Amazon has also been making big investments in AI as global interest has grown in the technology. Most of the company’s focus has been on business-focused products.
Climate change doesn’t just mean more extreme weather – it also leads to billions of dollars in lost productivity, tourism, and stresses infrastructure.
It’s an annual tradition: the Fed’s banking ‘stress test.’ A year after the regional banking crisis, there are good reasons to make sure they’re prepped.