Is There an Eco in Here?
As Marketing Director for a company that makes 100% recycled plastic bottles, I spend a lot of time speaking with consumer products companies who are weighing the pros and cons of “going green.” Most of these companies realize recycled packaging will cost them about 10% more than their current packaging, but many of them can’t get past the fact that recycled polyethylene terephthalate (PET, recycle code #1) tends to be slightly discolored and can even have occlusions — visible black flecks — in the normally clear resin.
Fortunately, for those companies, we can also offer 25% recycled PET, which looks unbelievably close to virgin PET. And, in my opinion, therein lies the problem.
I believe that if you’ve spent the time and money to source recycled packaging, then you should benefit from consumers’ good will toward responsible packagers. But if your plastic bottle looks too “perfect,” the average consumer won’t recognize your efforts unless you draw attention to them through prominent labeling or other deliberate marketing. And if your package is plastic, it takes an extra effort to overcome negative perceptions about any form of plastic packaging.
I’m not alone in realizing that plastic has more hurdles to jump than a lot of other packaging materials, and this week I came across an excellent blog post by Dennis Salazar of Packaging Digest that expounds on this. His post is too comprehensive and written far to well for me to try to summarize it here, so I hope you’ll read it in its entirety. The most clever aspect of Dennis’ post is his coining of the phrase “eco obvious,” which is a phrase I was immediately drawn to. And, it’s a phrase I’m planning to use with consumer packaged goods companies as they struggle with the (minor) imperfections of 100% recycled plastic. My goal will be to convince them that not only are they making a bigger environmental difference when they use 100% PCR (post-consumer resin), but they are also making a much more believable statement to consumers.
So, while I applaud companies such as Williams-Sonoma and Huish who have made a financial and environmental commitment to 25% recycled content packaging, I hope even more companies such as Lush Cosmetics embrace the slightly gray and occasionally spotted 100% post-consumer PET bottles that obviously demonstrate a commitment to the viability of recycled resins.