If the slogan “reduce, reuse and recycle” has been ingrained in everyone’s memory since primary school, why do only less than 10% of plastics ever get recycled?
For starters, we’re not that great at it. Only 34% of Americans can be bothered to throw their recyclables in a blue or green bin, and even if they do, many cities don’t have the appropriate recycling streams. That and the fact that plastic is virtually everywhere.
One place plastic creeps up is in your bathroom. It’s your shampoo, conditioner and body wash bottles. The tube of toothpaste, single-use razor and the cap to your shaving cream. It’s your mascara, deodorant and the packaging for your sheet masks. It’s unavoidable, and not everyone is willing to create their own products from scratch, research packaging alternatives or even recognize their every own plastic footprint.
Now, Shane Wolf, founder of Seed Phytonutrients, has created a line of products that don’t disrupt your life or your routine while simultaneously making strides to reduce plastic waste.
“I saw an opportunity to create a beauty brand that focused on living a clean lifestyle,” says Wolf. “And I wanted to combine my passion for beauty with living a natural, sustainable life. I also wanted the brand to go beyond being just clean to being both clean and sustainable.”
Wolf threw together a small team to help him develop his idea for Seed and then pitched it to L’Oreal who made it possible to launch the first round of products this past Earth Day.
So, how exactly does Seed differ from other sustainable and all-natural products?
For starters, their mission is to plant the seeds of health, well-being and sustainability for future generations while simultaneously helping support organic farmers by promoting the idea that natural beauty is healthy beauty.
“We craft natural skin and body care products,” begins Wolf. “The reason we are called Seed is that we use organic seed oils as the key ingredient in all our formulas. The seeds are the most powerful part of any plant, so we safely extract (without the use of chemicals) the seed oils in order to create high performance, natural formulas.”
But the most significant way they stand out from their sustainably-minded competitors? They’re making bottles from recycled paper.
“We are very excited to have the first ever shower-safe paper bottle that is made from 100% recycled paper,” begins Wolf. “A liner is necessary at the moment to contain the highly natural formulas that we have. The liner is made from 80% PCR, and overall our bottle is 60% less plastic than the typical shampoo bottle.”
Better, still, the paper bottles can be thrown right into your home compost bin, leaving no trace that they ever existed at all.
“We don’t add any sort of barriers that would prevent it from degrading. In fact, when I’m finished with mine, I either plant some seeds and grow them in my seed shed, or I throw them in my compost pile on my farm,” shares Wolf.
While other Seed products come in 100% recycled paper or bottles made from recycled glass, they want to develop more paper containers. “We are currently working on a smaller version of our paper bottle that we can use to create future products,” says Wolf. “It is important that we reduce the amount of plastic that we use. Our mission goes beyond being recyclable. Anything we can do to reduce plastic and move towards paper is a positive shift to save our oceans.
While they know they’re doing their part to lessen the amount of plastic that ultimately ends up in landfills and oceans, they’re not completely satisfied.
“We want to reduce our plastic and overall footprint even further, and are working on solutions to do just that,” states Wolf.
