Responding to Beth's insider expose of Starbuck's wastefull-ness, I realized I had a lot to say as a maker of body products (I cringe when I say cosmetics). I make body products for RaindanceCosmetics.ca, for Eco-Gear.ca, for a small number of unique local stores and for my own practice. I pride myself on reducing the use of new packaging; I package only in metal, glass and vegetable cellulose - admittedly with plastic and bakelite caps - and provide convincing incentives for my clients to fill their own containers or refill mine. I tell clients I am not in the business of selling packaging. I obstinately list the prices of my wares in bulk, without packaging and compel customers to order the packaging separately. All to say "Hey! This stuff isn't free! Packaging isn't disposable! It's valuable, and I will show you exactly how valuable." I push my clients and suppliers out of their comfort zone, but..
But every time Beth posts a challenge to record and measure plastic waste, I balk. While I may not produce much plastic waste personally or for my family, my business still does. A few clients sheepishly leave behind take out containers and coffee cups, but that's only a small portion. By far the most plastic I become responsible for is packaging from my suppliers. Plastic tape. Plastic shipping envelopes. Hundreds of big, medium sized and little plastic bags. The cut ends of pump straws. Gallon jars and jugs. And mountains of bubble wrap. I have a destination for it all: freecycling bubble wrap, bringing the straws, tiny bags, gallon jugs and bottles to Arts Junktion http://www.tdsb.on.ca/_site/ViewItem.asp?siteid=11&menuid=21610&pageid=1... where these are redistributed to educational and arts and crafts programs for kids. The bags I reuse to pack ingredients that I resell, from cocoa butter to clays. Oily non refillable bottles, uncleanable bottles in the recycle bin. And still my clinic garbage is full of broken, ultra thin, messy messed up plastic. I am trying my darndest and I am not free of the karma of plastic consumption.
What you need to know as consumers is that behind the scenes - behind everything you buy ready made - is a tragic pile of plastic. That's what the Starbucks discussion kept reminding me of. That is why the focus of my business is teaching people how to make things themselves. There is always less waste on the back end when you buy ingredients and DIY.
Here a pyramid of regrettable colourful plastic shopping bags -not mine - awaits reuse.
Let me reveal to you the tragedy of my waste count. I am using the term tragedy consciously - it is an avoidable, bad thing. Let's say I order 25 kgs of natural soda aka baking soda. I will repackage it by the kilo in reused jars and bags, so there's no harm there. Yet between the layers of paper is a bizarre layer of ultra thin perforated plastic! And the giant double layer paper bag is shipped to me in a cardboard box lined with 2 plastic bags. For strength? Apparently not because these are the flimsy now banned in China ultra light bags. It's that way because of perception aesthetics alone. People feel that plastic is "clean" apparently, although to me it's filthy, and ever so slighty and creepily likely contaminated with lead and radioactive particles.
Here a pile of flimsy plastic sits awaiting landfill, or worse, water somewhere.
So I reuse the flimsy bags to pack excess recycling because they are clear and I would never ever buy plastic recycling bags. And I politely ask my suppliers to stop using so much/new/unnecessary plastic. And they tell me people like it. They tell me plastic "protects" even "cushions" the items. I am persistent. I am loved. I am worth tens of thousands of dollars every year to one supplier. This supplier NewDirectionsAromatics.ca agreed to refill customer's jugs at the warehouse. I have, by teaching monthly cosmetic making workshops for them, and using only glass and metal containers increased their sales of glass and metal packaging. But *sigh* the double bagging persists.
Here, alcohol is bottled in glass and shipped in divided crates...old school!
Another apparently innocent example: I order a case of metal bottles. They are 100% recyclable, 99% recycled aluminum. That saved 14,000 times the energy it would take to make new; so far so good. And they come packed in a corrugated cardboard box. Excellent. Without warning, the manufacturer took out the cardboard separators and replaced them with individual plastic bags inserted over the open tops of every bottle. 20 bottles = 20 bags. I know that the manufacturer did this and not my supplier. My supplier does not take apart the small boxes of 10-25 containers. And back at the warehouse of my supplier, the cases of bottles were in bigger boxes that were wrapped top to bottom on skids with plastic strapping and cling wrap. Interestingly enough, most of that 2% of plastic that is recycled in North America is that violently toxic cling wrap used to secure pallets of stuff. I get the sense that my supplier is at the mercy of the manufacturer and "The System" in the same way as I feel at their mercy.
Here are skids of bags and boxes of items all wrapped up in plastic.
So I reuse the bags to package the dry bulk items people order - clays and minerals etc. I donate excess bags to Arts Junktion for educators. I freecycle bubble wrap. But alas, behind every metal bottle is a bag. A new bag, And no amount of reusing, redistributing and recycling can take away from the fact that my business is indirectly driving the production of all this new plastic.
By teaching people how to make their own shampoos, hair conditioners, toothpaste, mouthwash, soaps, lotions, sunscreens, creams and so forth, I hope that I am helping to spare the planet of a mountain of new plastic bottles and jars that my clients would otherwise have bought. When I teach people how to make stuff, I also pass on what I've learned about packaging and the value of glass, metal and biodegradable vegetable cellulose - the beauty, the common sense, the economy, the healthiness, the opportunity to express green values and demonstrate integrity. But truth be told, I hate the hours I spend cleaning bottles and jars two or three times over, the dirty ones cluttering my counter, cleaning my professional dishwasher with a toothbrush, sterilizing, saving caps, carving corks (okay, I actually enjoy that)... I have a cabinet filled with clean, reusable containers. I burn with un-expressable anger when clients bring me dirty bottles and jars for refund - refilling I'm okay with! I feel that my time is disrespected. I feel that to respect my time cleaning I'd have to charge for reused containers. And I have reason to believe that most clients would not pay, because I've tried!
Because we are ravens at heart. We humans like shiny, new things. We love a deal. And paying for my labour for a reused container? Very few people buy it. Literally.
And I am saying all this because I want you to know that there is always a back end to what we are consuming. I was surprised one day when I saw employees in a clothing store unpacking new clothes to put on racks. Plastic was everywhere! Of course, I ought to have known that new clothes came in plastic bags inside plastic bags inside boxes strapped together with plastic cling wrap. But I hadn't seen it.
My supplier could be a freak like me who asks, cajoles, complains and embarasses her suppliers, but ultimately we need our whole society to put its collective foot down. Flimsy plastic bags that are used to keep products "clean" cost billions of dollars worldwide as they clog up machines in recycling and waste processing plants, all the way to clogging sewers and leading to flood damage. This is why China has banned the flimsy bags. Take that in. CHINA HAS BANNED WHAT WE CAN'T SEEM TO GET ENOUGH OF. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/01/business/worldbusiness/01iht-plastic.2... And I know that waste management here in Toronto, as in other cities http://stlouis-mo.gov/government/departments/street/refuse/recycle/plast... would love to get plastic bags out of the waste stream. Virtually every stoppage in the plants is due to bags stuck in the gears and thing-ys.
Here are the gears of a machine in a waste disposal plant ground to a halt by plastic bags just like string and elastics in a vacuum cleaner.
So what's the hold up? Many people feel that plastic is clean, that it keeps things safe. Stores are used to the "convenience" of clam shell packages that hang on spokes from holes in the packaging. And manufacturers like me are people, too. Maybe without little plastic baggies and plastic tape, my bottles and jars might need cleaning before use. So change may be inconvenient, it may be messy, it may take more time. Packaging will be more expensive. But then, it will be valued more. And I need to get up the gumption to ask politely and persistently for change on my end with my suppliers.
I asked 5 of my suppliers a series of questions about plastic reduction for this post. I feel pretty upset about this exchange from a small family business:Q. Are your customers concerned about plastic waste in your business? What have customers asked you to do? How have you been able to accommodate them? A: Some request pendants without the bags but that only means we have to use more plastic between the layers in the box to keep it tights so it’s really not a sensible option. More plastic because I asked for less!?! I don't understand. How exactly were zip lock bags protecting the items from breaking? Why couldn't paper be used to hold them in the box tightly? I feel that this supplier just called me not sensible, accused me of increasing plastic waste, and doesn't want to think through possible solutions to the problem of new plastic. I promised to mail her some vegetable cellulose bags to possibly use instead of plastic ziplock. And when I calm down, I am going to call her to brainstorm... Because she is a nice person, and I think I got her on the defensive. This is one of those times I think: "I wish I were delightfully diplomatic like Beth."
Ramin of NoPlastic.ca was completely forthcoming in answering my little questionnaire: I asked: Q: Are you concerned about plastic waste in your business? What have you done to minimize it? Do you have a company policy or program? A: Yes, I ask suppliers to reduce the use of plastics in their product packaging, where possible. Also, in many instances I buy and use previously used boxes. Also, there are a couple of business that I am in touch with that from time to time I get used plastic bubble wrap. So instead of the bubble wrap ending in the garbage after a single use, I make further use of it. Ramin packs orders himself, and uses paper exclusively to pack my orders. And nothing I've ordered has ever broken or even been dented! I then asked Ramin if he'd ever pushed his suppliers to reduce plastic waste. And he does: I know that some other (withheld) products that used to have plastic in the packaging now have less. I have talked to (withheld) about this and she definitely wants to reduce the use of plastic packaging but I know from time to time the factories promise but don't deliver on it. Aha! I thought as much! But isn't it great to know that the chain of no plastic, please requests moved all the way up to the source, the manufacturer?
What would I do as a manufacturer and reseller if I didn't have all those plastic bags to repurpose? I'd have to help you accept products in reused containers, or non see through paper, or more costly new containers. People always say - what is the alternative? I say human beings have existed for tens of thousands of years eating, drinking, storing and trading. Look to what we used before plastic became the norm. It's not so long ago.
Here is a wooden box of dynamite fire starters.
Bring back the world of the jelly jar with the crimped metal lid, the crates insulated with saw dust, the parcel wrapped in old newspaper, local manufacturing and the realization that if it came all the way from the other side of the planet it will rightfully cost more. Bring back the knowledge of how to make our own cleaning products, body products and delicious foods! Bring back the old, the repurposed, the previously loved. And know that behind everything new is a pile of plastic. Until we change that. Until it is no longer acceptable at any level to produce plastic waste.
Here are some collectible jelly jar glasses.
Okay, rant over. Complain persistently and lovingly. Thanks for listening. Now sing with me Brown paper packages tied up with strings! These are a few of my favourite things!
PS Then maybe we can spend the next 1,000 years using the plastic waste we've created these past 150 years. Like make houses! http://www.treehugger.com/sustainable-product-design/lawyer-turned-archi...
Here is a photo of people making a stuffed pop bottle and mortar house.