We all have to make difficult choices with conflicting points of view or bodies of evidence. No decision in my business life has been more challenging than when it came down to the time to decide what material we were going to use for our packaging. We believed our packaging had to be as green as our formulas and yet be able to share our message to consumers on our brand image. We had to consider the environment, safety and our position as a company that cares about the planet, nature, and you. We know our brand is Eco-Nature Care and we had to make sure the packaging also spoke the brand image.
We looked at glass. It offered the natural qualities that we wanted, was easy to recycle, easy to mold, and it was inexpensive. It all came down to three major issues. First, we were concerned about the carbon footprint of shipping the heavy glass bottled products from the manufacturer to the stores. Secondly, we were concerned about the consumer safety — slippery glass bottles in the shower or bathtub sound like a bad idea. And finally, another heath related concern for us was the use of silica in making glass. While natural, silica has been linked to lung cancer in both the mining and manufacturing phases.
The health effects of silica have been documented:
Silicosis is the disease most associated with crystalline silica exposure; it is incurable but preventable. This debilitating and often fatal lung disease persists worldwide despite long-standing knowledge of its cause and methods for controlling it.
We eliminated glass because of safety.
We also considered plastic for our packaging. Plastic was the most inexpensive and lightweight material. It was durable, pliable and can be formed into any shape, size or color you want. The downside was that it is derived from petroleum and can be challenging to recycle depending on your community and the different types of plastic.
At the end of the day, we decided we needed something easy to recycle in every community. There are also concerns on types of plastics and the health effect here as well. Here in Oregon, we are generally concerned that there is too much plastic is making it into our oceans.
Finally, we considered aluminum. Aluminum was our most expensive alternative and offered us the least flexibility in shapes. We liked the attributes of being easy to recycle, the lower cost of shipping aluminum versus glass and that fact that aluminum can be recycled indefinitely were some major reasons for us to consider the use of this material. While there are concerns that aluminum is linked to diseases we have looked at the leaching of aluminum into our products. To avoid the possibility of leaching we are using the same barrier as soda cans.
While I know there is never a perfect solution and as my father use to say: “that is why there are 31 flavors of ice cream…. Because you cannot please everyone.” We elected to satisfy our beliefs. We know that there will be people who disagree and we respect their opinions. We have made our decisions NOT based on costs but what we believe are better for the planet, nature and you. We have also made a hard stand on not using mixed materials in our products to avoid difficulty in recycling; you will not see any pumps on our products. One type of material makes recycling easier and aluminum is the number one most recycled material.
The argument will go on for another century on what is best … I only know that we made our decision based on the best information available at the time, our aspirations as a brand, and our family’s integrity. For more information check out http://www.recycling-revolution.com/recycling-facts.html
Mike
President/Founder Eco-Nature Care
The greatest thing about the kids in the video is that they all are just down to earth kids who take pleasure in the simple things in life such as skateboarding. They don’t care about money or making it big and selling out, they just want to have a good time doing what they love. Eco Nature Care does our best to keep a similar mentality and stay true to our morals of helping the planet rather than false labeling ourselves to simply make more money.
