Here at Greencomber our primary mission is to help individual consumers make conscientious choices about the goods they buy on a regular basis in order to minimize plastic waste. But the onus is not just on consumers—it's also up to vendors to choose sustainable, biodegradable materials rather than passing the burden of waste on to the consumer.
(Actually, mostly the onus is on our regulators to hold the petroleum industry accountable for its rampant pollution and the poisoning of our bodies and environment.)
But I have some sympathy for the businesses that are trying to balance a P&L sheet where every dollar counts. And while we know that plastic is not always the cheapest option by default, it is ubiquitous, performant, and often cost-effective. So in this blog I'll try to identify a few low-hanging fruit—measures and materials a business can leverage to reduce their plastic dependency without losing on the bottom line.
- Rethink packaging
If there's only one thing to take from this list, it's to switch up the materials you use to package your products. Packaging is without question the No. 1 offender in global plastic waste, making up some 40 percent of the total, and almost all of it is single-use.
Paper, cardboard, aluminum and similar materials are cheap, abundant, and dramatically more environmentally friendly.
- Go plastic-free in the office
You can't control what your employees bring to work, but you can control what they take out. Make sure your office doesn't produce waste by supplying snacks and beverages that aren't wrapped in plastic.
The cheat code: swap the plastic water jugs that you constantly replace for something Bevi or a similar on-demand water filter.
- Turn reduction into rebates.
Depending on where you're located, you can tap into programs that put money back in your pocket for your waste mitigation efforts. For example, Austin, Texas, will offer up to $3,000 per year for businesses that go beyond the standard recycling practices.
Find out what's available in your area, and consider industry, too. Restaurants, for instance, can tap into the Green Dining Initiate for grants to replace Styrofoam and other plastic kitchen staples.
- Join, endorse, and donate
Just like individuals, businesses can get involved in plastic cleanup initiatives and enable employees to use personal time to volunteer. Commercial support for non-plastic initiatives carries weight and helps to create momentum for the movement.
Donations also go a long way and many organizations can marshal more charity than individuals can alone. As a benefit, companies that make donations to plastic mitigation efforts can write them off on their taxes as long as those donations go to a 501(c)(3) nonprofit or government entity.
- Take a hard look at your products
The hardest thing for a business to do is this final item. It's one thing to reduce shipping plastic, or to swap our the plastic utensils you send with your delivery meals. It's quite another to change or roll back something fundamental about how you engineer or deliver your product. Think about detergent bottles—I suspect that Tide would take a massive hit to their bottom line if they moved from plastic jugs to glass bottles. Glass is heavier to ship, especially with liquids, and there would be some breakage inevitably. Tide won't do that, and we promote alternatives that do.
But there is an opening for disruptors who can deliver fed-up consumers the goods they need without the plastic that's poisoning them. A healthy economy demands disruption and a healthy population demands clean products.
Disclaimer: I write all blogs the old-fashioned way—with my own brain, not with AI.