We have written before about recent attempts in the UK to introduce more eco-friendly milk packaging and about the great perils and global environmental crisis caused by plastic pollution and food packaging. Here is a fresh and innovative idea that is bound to resonate and leave a positive ecological mark in the world of packaging. Ecologic Brands is a company which aims to create simple and robust green packaging for the world.
Are you listening supermarket chains?
Founder & CEO Julie Corbett who is a mother of 2, found herself confronted with the huge amounts of waste her family was producing daily and was also faced with the increasing concerns about the food choices available for her children. Conscious about making educated and healthy food choices for her family’s table, she felt frustrated at the lack of choice in the packaging this “healthy” food was actually delivered in. She then decided to do something about it, and so Ecologic Brands was born.
Image © Ecologic Brands
Inspired by the Canadian milk pouch – a clear lightweight pouch placed in a reusable carafe – Julie decided to create a bottle that used a lot less plastic to provide a lot more sustainability. The outer shells are made from recycled cardboard and old newspapers, and can be recycled again and again. The inner pouches use minimal plastic and 100% recycled materials.
The molded fiber shell is made from 70% Old Corrugated Cardboard boxes (OCC) and 30% Old Old Newspapers (ONP). The inner pouch and spout are made from #4 Low Density Polyethylene (LDPE) plastic. The dosing cap is made from #5 Polypropylene (PP) plastic.
A simple idea, which as we’ve explored before is only prevented today from going mainstream by deeply rooted consumer psychology and outdated marketing thinking. The world at the turn of the last century survived and thrived without the need for plastic. The discovery of fossil fuels, abundance of oil and their apparent cheap derivatives gave birth to the widespread use of plastics. As humans winning the lottery, we went crazy for plastics and are only now beginning to realise that perhaps plastic is not as cheap or convenient and is actually costing us a lot more than we originally seemed to have bargained for. If alternative methods of product delivery were explored then or even traditional ones kept, the world might be contemplating a much less polluted present. Unfortunately product marketing practices driven by cost and appearances triumphed over any other methods and plastics became the most widely used cheap option for many products. Again this is now deeply rooted in industry and even more so in consumer psyche.
Lets hope big supermarket chains, manufacturers and consumers start to listen to companies like Ecologic Brands which are trying to tell us that eco-friendly can be cheap and robust. Lets hope they can not only see environmental benefits but also economic sense in switching their packaging to environmentally friendly green options and hope everyone starts to take responsibility for feeding the world the vast amounts of waste that pollute our planet.
More about them » Ecologic
