‘The Best Packaging Is No Packaging:’ Dr. Bronner’s New Carton Has 82% Less Plastic

This month, after a comprehensive review of the alternatives to its current post-consumer-recycled (PCR) plastic bottle, Dr. Bronner’s launched a new paper-based carton package. Marketed as a refill for the 32-ounce liquid soap bottle that shoppers are likely most familiar with, the new package contains 82% less plastic. But while the carton is using less plastic, it’s harder to recycle—and likely headed to landfill.

In addition to the mystical ramblings that enrobe each of the brand’s offerings, Dr. Bronner’s is known for its liquid soap. That product—now one of over a dozen—is what the company was founded on in 1948. Its sales make up the majority of Dr. Bronner’s revenue.

The problem, though, for the certified B Corp with a mission to protect the Earth, is that it’s hard to find a more effective package than plastic. At the same time, plastic production, waste and pollution are proving increasingly harmful to the Earth’s environment—and consumers want an alternative.

Testing plastic alternatives

Going into this review, “we were container agnostic,” Darcy Shiber-Knowles, the company’s director of operational sustainability and innovation, told Adweek. At one point, they were strongly considering an aluminum bottle as a plastic alternative—but that was before the life cycle analysis (LCA) came back.

“The LCA opened our eyes,” Shiber-Knowles said. The LCA, conducted by consultancy Trayak, compared its current recycled polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottle with three new options: the paper carton, a glass bottle and an aluminum bottle.

Each packaging type was measured by its greenhouse gas emissions, water use, impact on freshwater sources, mineral resource use and human impact. The paper-based carton performed best in all categories except one, freshwater eutrophication, which creates an excess of algae in natural bodies of water. By that measure, the recycled aluminum and recycled plastic bottles performed slightly better.

Calling it a “pioneering and necessary shift in packaging,” business professor CB Bhattacharya, Zoffer chair of sustainability and ethics at the University of Pittsburgh, argued that more brands should follow in Dr. Bronner’s footsteps. “All stakeholders need to put skin in the game and assume sustainability ownership—including consumers—for us to surmount this existential crisis,” he said.

The bumpy road to circularity

Still, it’s not all good news. The multi-layer carton is much harder to recycle when compared to PET. Recyclers that do accept those kinds of cartons will strip the paper out of the carton for recycling but still throw the other materials—in this case, a layer of plastic and a layer of aluminum—into the landfill.

“It’s a game of trade-offs,” Shiber-Knowles said, acknowledging that a package bound for landfill in most markets is far from ideal. “It’s not a perfect solution, and it’s not plastic-free, but it’s what we can do right now. And in some ways, it’s better than 100% PCR plastic.”

Dr. Bronner’s has been getting strong customer feedback about the brand’s plastic use, begging for an alternative packaging solution—which was a major driver behind the launch of the refill carton.

“People are worried about plastic,” Lynn Hoffman, co-president of nonprofit, mission-based recycler Eureka Recycling. “I can totally understand from a marketing perspective why a brand would want their packaging to use less plastic.”

The carton does have significantly less plastic. But even in the best-case scenario, some of the package will end up in a landfill. In most regions, the whole carton is landfill-bound.

“It’s a cumbersome process,” Hoffman explained. “It’s hard to get paid enough for that material to make it worth it to collect and sort. Recyclers are just like rational economic actors who can’t collect something if no one’s gonna pay us for it.”

Dipping a toe into digital ads

To promote the new format, Dr. Bronner’s is experimenting with a consistent digital advertising budget for the first time with a combination of sponsored posts on Facebook and Instagram and SEO-related ads on Google and Amazon. Historically, Dr. Bronner’s has avoided more regular paid advertising expenditures, preferring to put that money toward philanthropic work. Now, digital advertising an ongoing expense with an annual budget.

“This year is like a little bit of a trial. It’s a tiny little budget. We are seeing how much consumer behavior is changing in terms of shopping and trial of new products with online buying and online shopping,” Shiber-Knowles explained. “It’s a new frontier for us that we’re internally on the fence about, honestly, because it is money that could go to charity.”

Editor’s note: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that this was Dr. Bronner’s first-ever digital ad buy.