When you start living a greener, more sustainable lifestyle, it’s only natural that you’ll start paying extra close attention to the types of skin care products you are purchasing regularly.
And while you may or may not have noticed that many “clean” products are packaged in plastic, isn't this counter-intuitive?
We use plastic containers, here at Max Green Alchemy, but before you make a rash judgement, it’s important to do your research and understand why we chose to go this route.
Why does plastic have such a bad rep?
You likely have a load of plastic in your recycle bin right now, but did you know that not all plastic can be recycled?
Most of the plastic we think we are recycling, actually end up in landfills where they sit for years and years. In fact, plastic bottles take up to 450 years to decompose whereas other types of plastic, including plastic bags, can take up to a whopping 1000 years to break down!
In the US alone, a horrifying 33.6 million tons of plastic is disposed of each year, and a shocking estimated 100 million tons of plastic may be floating in our beautiful oceans, putting our marine life at risk.
So if you are against all plastic then we really don’t blame you, but hear us out.
The problem with glass
You may have seen many products packaged in glass bottles, which are easier to recycle, however there are a few issues with glass that we would like to address.
Firstly, we care just as much about our consumers as we do about our planet.
Having a lineup of glass bottles in your shower is not really practical and can put you at risk of serious injury if they fall and break.
Many companies that use glass will also offer return programs for you to send back your bottle for them to sanitize and reuse, but this has a major negative environmental impact, that they certainly won’t address.
The FDA has strict rules in place regarding proper sanitary packaging, and the cost of these schemes can be extremely prohibitive; you’re not adding a cost to ship the product once, but twice.
This sending of products backwards and forwards certainly does not reduce the carbon footprint from shipping.
Why our plastic is different
Of course we aren’t going to use plastic that is going to put the planet at risk and potentially end up in landfills.
We use PET bottles, which have a large number of recycled uses, including fibers, clothing, non-food bottles etc.
Another important thing to know about PET bottles is that they are also BPA-free, so you’ll never have to worry about nasty chemicals leaching into your products.
We continue to monitor all options, but for now use plastics that are easy to recycle, won’t affect our high-quality ingredients and will ensure you are not put at risk. As a member of greenamerica.org we’re very mindful, learn about their powerful mission here.
