26.10.10

(Ecology) Why We Don't Use Plastic Bottles-- Not Even Recyclable Ones

We package our formulations in glass because it is better for you and the environment. Why not plastic bottles, you ask, as most companies do (as in, the photo below)?



Get In My Belly (or Skin)

Even your typical "safe" plastic PET bottles can leach toxic antimony and endocrine-disrupting phthalates in normal conditions (or in prolonged storage or heat exposure). Moreover, many food and body products have ingredients (our would be essential oils, organic alcohol, etc.) that can cause mild corrosion when left pure on surfaces-- think about what they do to the bottle!

Plastic And The Planet: Manufacturing and Recycling

We don't think it makes sense environmentally either. You can never entirely recycle a plastic bottle, you downcycle it (you need to add new virgin plastic). Why is that bad? Because plastic comes from petroleum-- a non-renewable resource (plus extracting it from the earth is polluting and carbon-intensive, and its production and transportation is as well). Using a plastic bottle until your shampoo runs out, throwing it out for recycling, and subjecting it to another round of production really makes no sense! Glass is so much better-- a thorough cleaning, sterilization, and a new cap is much lighter on the environment if your supply chain is local (though we are looking for non-plastic caps, it's difficult!).

Recycling rates are much lower than you think, and when they do get recycled, THIS is what happens (though the video is from China, I'm sure you see junk shops around the metro-- not so different!).

Plastic And The Planet: Pollution

I dont' think I even need to go through the effect of plastic bottles and their relatives on the environment. Remember Ondoy? Remember swimming at the beach and getting a Hany wrapper in your eye? Yes, plastics do not disappear. They may be hauled to a dump out of your sight, but every bit of plastic you have encountered still does exist-- if they don't, they have been burnt, giving way to cancerous dioxins and other noxious gases.

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