What is sustainable packaging and why should you care?
Did you know the plastic waste generated by Australians in one year can go around the world 7.5 times!
“When you’re shopping for a product, there are a lot of considerations about what goes inside,” says Pearl Chan, founder of Resparkle and low waste, low plastic advocate.
“And yes we agree, clean ingredients matter. But how often do you consider the opposite—what goes outside of a product?”
Plastic vs aluminum packaging
Items like plastic straws, disposable cups, detergent bottles, hair + body products and more take up valuable space on our planet. Plastic is the go-to packaging option for most manufacturing companies because of its low cost and convenience.
However, studies have shown that the cost of transporting plastic outweighs its low cost.
● Aluminum is a much more sustainable alternative to plastic. Aluminum has a recycling rate of 70 per cent, whereas plastic is recycled 30 per cent of the time.
● If plastic does end up being recycled, it can only be recycled once or twice.
● Aluminum has no limit on the number of times it can be recycled.
● When you recycle plastic, a whole range of additional materials are needed to turn it into something else. With aluminum, the material from one can or bottle can go right back into making another.
● The decomposition rate of aluminum is 500 years, compared to 1,000+ years for plastic and 1 million years for glass.
We want long-term solutions for our planet and by making this small switch from plastic to aluminum packaging, we hope to make that waste chain even a little bit shorter. We are one of the very first cleaning companies to use aluminum bottles and it’s something we’re really proud of.
Reusable, refillable and returnable systems
The truth is, today’s short lifespan of packaging presents a growing problem—excess waste.
We love incentives like Berlin’s Original Unpackaged supermarket. This innovative market encourages shoppers to go package-less and bring their own jars to refill and reuse.
We were inspired to come up with our own reusable solution, pouches made with recyclable materials. Their unique composition means there is no need for additional outer materials to store or seal them. Better still, the flexible packaging requires 75 per cent less material to produce than bottles, jars and alternative hard/structured packaging types.
Less energy = less carbon emissions = better for the environment
Another way we’re committed to a more sustainable future is our new ‘Return to Resparkle’ policy. Simply return all used pouches to us and we will reuse them again and again. We’ve also partnered with Redcycle to assist with the recycling of our post-consumer soft plastic.
Minimal + concentrated solutions
Okay, time to come clean on a little ‘trade secret’. You know those handy ready-to-use sprays that shout ‘convenience’ from the shelf tops? Active ingredients―the stuff that does the real cleaning legwork―make up only 10 per cent of conventional ‘supermarket-shelf’ cleaning sprays. So you are paying for 90 per cent water. If you think this makes no sense, we agree. That’s why we have created revolutionary patented cleaning packaging using:
● Reusable spray bottles
● Tiny refill pods of active cleaning concentrates
Who wants to pay for packaging that you are going to bin anyway? Or for water that you can get out of your own tap? Resparkle means you don’t have to. Simply order a new pod of just what you need.
Every time you use our game changing Resparkle products, you have made a positive difference in shaping our world.
Cleaning your home can be done without trashing the planet. Our zero-plastic packaging means you’re part of the solution, not the problem. Hundred per cent of our products are in reusable bottles, 80 per cent are made of aluminum. 100 per cent of our refills are either reusable or recyclable, to be made into useful things like playgrounds.
What’s one thing you’re doing to combat single-use plastics or wasteful packaging?