What people do appreciate is convenience. Brands should select their plastic replacement materials carefully so that consumers aren’t forced to change their behaviors. PlasticFree offers a vast selection of challenger materials that are eponymous to the platform and equally as functional as the incumbent plastic. In most cases, they come with a significant environmental benefit.
For example, Totality Perfect has developed a plant fiber-based alternative to plastic that’s reusable for up to 12 months but can also be home-composted to fully disappear within 200 days—guaranteed no microplastics. It’s the ultimate convenience for consumers, who can choose to keep it and put it through the dishwasher, use in the microwave, put it on the compost heap or even in the bin, no harm done.
Reduce
If plastic is the only option, can we at least reduce the amount we’re using? Reducing plastic is really about efficiency, and everyone’s already doing it because it’s good for the bottom line. (Coca-Cola has incrementally reduced the weight of their bottles by over 30%.)
But this is not a standout move, and consumers won’t notice the difference as the marginal gains come over a long period of time.
However, there are examples where reducing plastics is very noticeable and can help a brand stand out. Colgate’s infinity-shaped Keep toothbrush handle is one of those examples—a win-win-win for brand distinctiveness, consumer behavior and the planet.
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Recycle
This is the absolute minimum for any brand to do across their entire portfolio: Every piece of plastic should be sourced with the highest possible content of PCR, and it must be a polymer type that can be easily recycled. If even a luxury personal care brand like Aesop can reach 88% recycled PET in their iconic bottles, what’s your excuse?
The biggest issue is that recyclable plastic packaging is putting a disproportionate burden on the consumer to figure out whether a particular plastic type (or worse, a mixture of plastics) can be recycled, and where to dispose of it so it reaches the correct waste management stream and actually gets recycled. Most recyclable plastics still end up in landfills, and even using recycled or recyclable plastics perpetuates the environmental and health issues that come with it.
