Since we started this family’s attempt at more sustainable living about 6 years ago, there has always been one huge impediment to taking care of ourselves and our homes: everything sold in stores comes in single-use plastic that does not get recycled. Yes, you can stuff your recycle bin with used plastic bottles and jars, but know only about 9% of all plastics in the United States gets recycled. However, that leaves 91% of plastics that do not get recycled. Instead, they get sent to landfills or the oceans where they help raise ocean temperatures, shed micro-plastics into the water and ruin our eco-systems, marine life and our bodies.
We have been asking this question for a few years now — why can’t Proctor & Gamble, L’Oreal, Coca-Cola, Unilever, Nestle etc use eco-friendly packaging? It’s readily available, it helps the environment exponentially by reducing plastics circulating around the globe and produces good will among customers.
Short answer; money. Long answer; money. These corporations only exist to optimize profits and be damned with everything else. And plastic is cheap, super cheap.
Think about the price increases over the past four years on all goods we purchase and what have you, as a consumer, gotten for it? Sustainable packaging? No. More product? No, shrinkflation still rules the day. What you got was a way to give shareholders more money, help with stock buy backs and a kick in the pants to boot.
But what happens when smaller companies listen to their potential customers? They take action. Babo Botanicals, Everist and Dirty Labs are a few companies that have taken their packaging, and the future health of our planet, seriously.
