{"id":4370,"date":"2023-03-22T11:16:55","date_gmt":"2023-03-22T17:16:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev.pirg-test.com\/colorado\/resources\/products-without-plastic-innovating-for-a-packaging-free-future\/"},"modified":"2023-03-29T14:33:23","modified_gmt":"2023-03-29T20:33:23","slug":"products-without-plastic-innovating-for-a-packaging-free-future","status":"publish","type":"resource","link":"https:\/\/dev.pirg-test.com\/colorado\/resources\/products-without-plastic-innovating-for-a-packaging-free-future\/","title":{"rendered":"Products without plastic: Innovating for a packaging-free future"},"featured_media":46962,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":false,"_yoast_wpseo_opengraph-title":"","_yoast_wpseo_opengraph-description":"","_yoast_wpseo_twitter-title":"","_yoast_wpseo_twitter-description":""},"campaign_tax":[],"display_option":[],"issue_tax":[],"resource_type":[88],"region_tax":[],"state":[2],"topic_tax":[145],"class_list":["post-4370","resource","type-resource","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":{"details":{"helper_taxonomies":{"topics":[145],"collection":false,"press_type":false,"person_type":false,"resource_type":88,"event_type":false,"campaigns":false,"department":false,"level":false,"states":[2],"act_option":false,"display_option":false,"primary":{"topic":145}},"subtitle":"","excerpt":"Reducing the amount of plastic we dump into our environment demands a radical rethink of the way we package our stuff. But a growing number of entrepreneurs are asking an even more fundamental question: Instead of rethinking the packaging, why not rethink the product itself?","featured_image":46962,"caption_override":"","updated_on":null,"sidebar_action":"","related_event":"","hide_hero_image":false,"location":"internal","external_link":{"publication_name":"","url":""},"file":null,"sidebar_action_query_string":""},"helper_people_group":{"title":"Authors","entities":[{"type":"dynamic","dynamic_person":{"site":3,"people":"102"},"information":{"name":"","image":null,"role":"","biography":"","contact":{"twitter":"","facebook":"","email":"","phone":""}}}]},"helper_downloads":{"title":"Downloads","files":null},"page_layout":[{"acf_fc_layout":"layout_wysiwyg","_acfe_flexible_toggle":"","component_wysiwyg":{"content":"This article is part of a series looking at the increasing availability of alternatives to plastic packaging. To read about the \u201crefill stores\u201d pioneering new models of packaging-free retail, <\/em>click here<\/em><\/a>. To find out about the startups developing new takes on the concept of returnable packaging, <\/em>click here<\/em><\/a>.<\/em>\r\n

* * *<\/p>\r\nIn 2012, a university student named Brianne West<\/a> began making shampoo in the kitchen of her apartment in Christchurch, New Zealand. Appalled by the volumes of plastic waste being created by the cosmetics industry, and bathroom essentials particularly, she started out by making small batches of solid shampoo \u2013 designed without water, and thus with no bottles \u2013 and selling them online.\r\n\r\nWest is one of a generation of entrepreneurs who have successfully tapped into what has turned out to be considerable popular demand for environmentally responsible alternatives to plastic packaged products. A decade later, the company she founded, Ethique<\/a>, makes a wide range of shampoos, deodorants and other haircare, skincare and body care products in solid form. Its products are stocked in more than 6,800 stores in 25 countries around the world<\/a>.\r\n\r\nGrowing public concern about the global plastic waste crisis has led to a variety of responses from manufacturers and retailers. Many major brands have made small, incremental changes to reduce the plastic content of their existing packaging. New types of businesses, such as refilleries<\/a> and the various startups developing new models of returnable packaging<\/a>, have emerged to create more comprehensive solutions that reuse packaging to cut down on single-use plastic. Ethique, however, is one of a growing number of companies asking an even more fundamental question: Instead of rethinking the packaging, why not rethink the product itself?\r\n\r\nMany liquid products sold in stores \u2013 dish soap, shampoo, laundry detergent and more \u2013 consist predominantly of water. Remove the water and you remove the need for those products to be sold in bottles at all. Though they\u2019re still a relative rarity in mainstream stores, solid versions of traditionally liquid products \u2013 particularly cosmetics and toiletries \u2013 are becoming increasingly widespread.\r\n\r\nSearch for \u201cshampoo bar\u201d online and you\u2019ll find hundreds of options from a range of companies all over the world, from now-major brands like Lush cosmetics<\/a> right through to individuals and small companies selling often homemade products via Etsy<\/a> and other e-commerce platforms. French company Lamazuna<\/a> makes a wide variety of solid shampoos, among other body care products, as do Bars over Bottles<\/a> (Brazil), Amor Luminis<\/a> (Australia) and others. These companies make products including shampoos and conditioners designed for all different hair types (and species types: Zookie Bars<\/a> from Canadian company Etee<\/a> are among the various shampoo bars on the market made especially for dogs).\r\n\r\nToothpaste, likewise, only needs to come in its current packaging because it consists of up to 40% water<\/a>. A host of companies, including major brands like Colgate<\/a>, have developed toothpaste in the form of dry tablets that turn into a paste when chewed. Bite<\/a>, Huppy<\/a> and Unpaste<\/a> are among the many companies producing toothpaste in these and other plastic-free forms<\/a> that can be shipped in recyclable or reusable containers rather than single-use tubes that consist of multiple materials and can\u2019t be recycled.\r\n\r\nColorado-based company\u00a0EcoRoots<\/a> and other zero-waste cosmetics brands<\/a>, including Brooklyn Made Natural<\/a>, Etee<\/a>, Katie Mae Naturals<\/a> and Miel Botanicals<\/a> all specialize in solid versions of traditional toiletries, from shampoo and conditioner to deodorant, lotion,\u00a0sunscreen and more. But it\u2019s not just cosmetics. Solid forms of household cleaning products are on the rise too. Even a cursory web search brings up a range of different dish soap bars, for example, from brands like No Tox<\/a> Life, Etee<\/a>, Mamaforest<\/a> and others<\/a>. Other reimagined cleaning products include dissolvable cleaning tablets from German company Everdrop<\/a>. These tablets are mixed with water in reusable bottles at home to make the final product. Within months of starting out, Everdrop had sold more than 1 million tablets<\/a>.\r\n\r\nThe rise of e-commerce platforms like Etsy has given the many small businesses producing these kinds of products a global reach, while also providing a fuller picture of the range of plastic-free product possibilities than might be apparent from looking at the shelves of mainstream stores. But these products have been gaining a foothold offline too. Lush<\/a>, for example, now has almost a thousand stores across the world, as well as its online business. Since 2007, Lush has sold more than 38 million shampoo bars globally.\r\n\r\nWhile many major cosmetics brands have been keen to be seen to be moving toward more sustainable packaging<\/a>, in practice this has often meant only minor changes, like incorporating a certain percentage of recycled materials into their plastic bottles. While a positive step, these concessions are unlikely to have any significant impact on the plastic waste crisis. If, on the other hand, the large corporations that dominate the cosmetics market were to follow the lead of companies like Ethique, Lush and the growing number of small producers across the e-commerce landscape and invest their R&D dollars in reimagining their products so they didn\u2019t have to be sold in bottles at all, it would be a different story.\r\n\r\nShifting the design of a product is not always a simple matter, and all kinds of considerations come into play \u2013 from how to list a product\u2019s ingredients and directions without a label (Lush has an app<\/a> that allows users to scan a product with their phone to get the information they would normally find on a label), to convincing consumers that these products are as effective as their liquid equivalents. Some of us already know they are, of course. Such products have long been a staple of the travel<\/a> section in many pharmacies. And to outdoor enthusiasts, solid toiletries<\/a> are nothing new<\/a>. There\u2019s no reason why the qualities that make these products logical for travel and outdoor activities \u2013 the fact that they\u2019re convenient, compact, lightweight and do the job just as well as their liquid counterparts \u2013 should be any less appealing to indoor enthusiasts than outdoor ones.\r\n\r\nThe fact that so many companies are already making packaging-free products \u2013 not to mention the proven demand for, and profitability of such products (as evidenced by the success of companies like Ethique and Lush) \u2013 raises the question of why more companies aren\u2019t pursuing a similar path.\r\n\r\nTaking these products to scale will certainly require innovation, as well as the adoption of policies that encourage that innovation. It\u2019s not as though the corporations who most urgently need to shift toward package-free products lack the resources to do so. What\u2019s lacking is an adequate incentive structure to coax these companies into allocating their resources in responsible ways. Those incentives come from a combination of consumer demand and public policy, and in particular, measures to ensure that producers are held accountable<\/a> for dealing with the long-term impact of the products they create.\r\n\r\nFor now, it\u2019s the smaller innovators who are leading the way, making good products that people want to buy, and in so doing, illuminating the possibilities for a future of products without plastic.","":null}},{"acf_fc_layout":"layout_large_image","_acfe_flexible_toggle":"","component_large_image":{"width":"wide","image":"","caption_override":""}},{"acf_fc_layout":"layout_wysiwyg","_acfe_flexible_toggle":"","component_wysiwyg":{"content":"","":null}},{"acf_fc_layout":"layout_featured_action","_acfe_flexible_toggle":"","component_featured_action":{"action":"","action_query_string":""}}],"site_specific_content":""},"yoast_head":"\nProducts without plastic: Innovating for a packaging-free future<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Reducing the amount of plastic we dump into our environment demands a radical rethink of the way we package our stuff. 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