Have you heard? Climate Week NYC is happening September 21-27! The main focus of Climate Week NYC will be on how to rebuild after COVID-19. The pandemic has only accelerated the throwaway society we live in. Especially with the daily use of PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) all over the world. To raise awareness about Climate Week NYC, Plaine Products is partnering with three NYC based companies to spread the word about sustainable changes you can make at home! Check out this Instagram post for more details on the challenge.
We’re excited to be a part of this effort with other sustainable, circular companies. We wanted to share more about their efforts so you can check them out, find something similar in your hometown, or get something started near you! To help all of these groups out, please take this survey about your reuse preferences here!
Vokashi for easy composting at home
The goal Vokashi set out to achieve is to decrease the amount of food that ends up in landfills. Most of us don’t think about where our food is going when we throw it in the trash, but food waste makes up about 1/3 of the waste in landfills in the US. That’s a lot! Vokashi aims to change that by following a Japanese method of fermenting food waste.
Vokashi takes your food waste and uses it in a composting system. There are many benefits to composting, but one of the biggest ones is lowering your carbon footprint by decreasing the amount of food waste in landfills, which reduces methane emissions. If you want to learn more about the process or how to get involved with this company, click here!
DeliverZero provides wasteless takeout
DeliverZero partners with local restaurants to eliminate container waste from takeout services. In NYC alone, almost one billion takeout containers are thrown away each year. DeliverZero’s containers can be reused over 1,000 times. All you have to do is go to their website and order takeout from a partnering restaurant. The best part? There is no extra charge to use the containers, just return them to your next delivery driver! No need for unnecessary trips, saving on transportation energy.
Recycling alone isn’t enough due to the energy used in production and remanufacturing. It still uses over half of the energy of virgin-material manufacturing. So, next time you order takeout, look up your address on DeliverZero’s site and see if you can become part of their takeout revolution!
Diaperkind brings sustainability to the baby world
The average baby’s diaper is changed over 3,000 times per year. That’s just one year. On the other hand, one-year’s worth of cloth diapers equates to just 30 disposable diapers! Diaperkind wanted to make reusable cloth diapers accessible and manageable for everyone.
Every week, a Diaperkind driver picks up each participating family’s dirty diapers and replaces them with a batch of clean ones. These drivers have very concentrated routes, so gas emissions can be minimized by not having one large inefficient van drive all over. The diapers are washed in a high-efficiency washer using a plant-derived detergent. If you didn’t think reusable diapers were a manageable option, think again and check out Diaperkind’s site to learn more!
Outside of NYC and still want to learn how to minimize your diaper footprint? Diaperkind started a second company called Esembly which is specifically designed for those doing at-home laundering.
Plaine Products revolutionizes your bathroom
If you’re struggling to find bathroom products in anything but plastic, look no further! Plaine Products is an eco-friendly company that specializes in bath and body products that come in reusable and refillable aluminum bottles. Our products are cruelty-free, vegan, and toxin-free. We not only support the environment, but we also support the economy. Nothing is wasted in our circular economy model.
Aluminum can be recycled over and over again, so if a bottle comes back damaged it will still have a life as another bottle when it’s recycled. When plastic is recycled the material is downgraded so it can only be recycled a few times before it has to be sent to the landfill. Plaine Products also covers the cost of sending back your empty bottles when you order a refill, so what’s stopping you? Make the switch today by clicking here to learn more about our company and products!
Reusable Solutions
This partnership was put together by Reusable Solutions, an outreach organization that aims to accelerate the transition from a linear to a circular economy by connecting reusable companies with consumers through a community-based, grassroots process. By reusable companies, we mean companies that are diverting waste from recycling and landfill. For example, companies that take their containers back to sanitize them and reuse them, companies that offer bulk stations where no new containers are necessary, companies that manufacture or distribute reusable said containers to help facilitate the transition, and food scrap pickup.
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. It’s a phrase we’ve heard over and over but there are currently minimal convenient options for reusables. Where reusable options exist, awareness is minimal. Reusable Solutions aims to change that by promoting reusable and companies through the existing environmental and municipal organizations. There are approximately 20,000 members of these organizations in NYC alone which hopefully will prove to be the early adopters to help bring reusables to the mainstream.
Feel free to reach out or follow if you want to learn more as a customer or as a provider of a reusables: Instagram, Email, or Twitter.
