sustainable packaging… can we let go of plastic in the shower?

While we’ve always used recyclable glass packaging for our skincare, body oils, and creams, we’ve relied on PET plastic for our shower and bath products due to the concern about the possibility of glass breaking while bathing. It remains my goal, however, to radically reduce the amount of plastic we use, across the board; I just cannot continue to be a part of the problem of generating so much waste… even if some of the PET plastic does make it to the recycling center and we continue to refill some of our customers plastic bottles!

I’ve learned that 80 billion plastic shampoo and conditioner bottles are thrown away every year worldwide and plastic is filling up our oceans at an unconscionable rate. Scientists predict that by 2050, there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish! I want to do my part to slow this down.

So, I want to provide options….

1. Glass packaging with reusable plastic pumps
Glass is infinitely recyclable… meaning, it can be recycled over and over again and retain it’s structural integrity. Granted, there is considerable energy used in this process, but it is better than more plastic ending up in landfills or in the ocean!
It can be used in the shower safely when it is placed within a sturdy shower shelf that prevents the bottle from falling. As an alternative, you can place your glass shower products on a shelf outside the shower. (I like to do this with my body polish as it can’t be used easily from a shower shelf, can be slippery when wet, and I need to keep water out of the jar anyway.)
Glass jars can also be reused for so many purposes…. meal leftovers, home and garage organization, diy gifts, crafts, and more.
When you reorder a product, you’ll have the option of getting it without the pump so you can reuse your old one.
We also encourage our local customers (and those willing to ship their bottles back to us) to have us refill your bottles when you need more. There’s also the option of refilling your smaller bottles with the multi-use wide mouth jars below.

2. Large wide mouth glass refill jars
These can be used to refill either your plastic body polish jars and shampoo bottles (hold onto your old ones), or shower wall dispensing units for shampoo, body wash and conditioner. (We love refillable shower wall units as well as metal shower shelves that safely hold your glass pump bottles in place without fear of breakage!)
And when these refill jars are empty, you can reuse them for all sorts of things or bring them back to us to refill. Win, win, win!

3. Package-free

We’re in the process of creating shampoo, conditioner, body moisturizer, and scrub bars without a plastic or glass jar or bottle for those who want zero-waste, don’t feel comfortable using glass in their shower, or would rather not deal with refilling their plastic packaging. These package-free products do require some extra care to prolong their integrity (they need to be kept dry between uses), but that’s a small price to pay for going package free!

It’s my goal that in the near future, the only plastic we’ll be using is the (reusable) pumps and caps for our glass bottles and jars!

So, there’s some time to get used to the idea and think about ways you can adjust your shower routine to include glass bottles in a safe shower shelf, get a shower dispenser installed, put a cute shelf outside your shower for all your goodies, or opt for package free. And if you want to keep using plastic in your shower, hold onto your current packaging, so that you can refill it in the future. (And don’t panic, we’ll probably have a few of our plastic bottles available for you in case you need them:)