In 2019 when disaster hit a community very close to our hearts, we decided to celebrate Give Back Friday instead of Black Friday. We wanted to shift the focus of Black Friday from just buying things to giving back to those in need.

At that time Plaine Products donated to Friends of the Environment in the Bahamas in support of sustainable rebuilding efforts after Hurricane Dorian. Last year we chose Lonely Whale as our Give Back Friday recipient. 

Continuing with this tradition for a third year, we decided to look to the communities where our team members live. A couple of these communities have also taken some big hits this year, and we also chose to support new reuse efforts in our local community of Cincinnati. In 2021 we will donate a portion of sales from every purchase made during our Holiday Sale to Glass Half Full in New Orleans, LA, Wetlands and Wildlife Care Center of Orange County, CA, and the Cincinnati Recycling & Reuse Hub in Cincinnati, OH.

Read on to learn more about the three groups we’re supporting and why, from the team members who chose them:

Glass Half Full – chosen by Becca H.

Glass Half Full is a New Orleans non-profit aimed at solving the glass recycling problem in the city. New Orleans does not recycle glass – arguably one of the Big Easy’s largest streams of waste. Glass Half Full collects glass throughout the city and recycles it into sand and glass cullet for disaster relief and prevention, coastal restoration, eco-construction, new glass products, and more. 

As Hurricane Ida approached Louisiana in late August 2021, Glass Half Full jumped into action by donating sandbags to residents to protect against flooding. After the storm ravaged Louisiana’s river parishes, Glass Half Full has consistently been involved in the volunteer efforts in these communities. They’ve organized hundreds of volunteers and thousands of dollars worth of supplies for communities across Louisiana, helping them to clean up from the storm and to cope with the reality of post-storm life. 

A donation to Glass Half Full means the organization can continue to recycle glass in New Orleans and continue to assist the greater Louisiana community with post-Ida recovery. As someone who lives in New Orleans and has seen Ida’s destruction firsthand, I know supporting this organization will make a tangible difference in our community.

Wetlands and Wildlife Care Center of Orange County chosen by Kaysha

The Wetlands and Wildlife Care Center of Orange County is dedicated to the rehabilitation and release of injured and orphaned native wildlife. Their mission is to educate the public about human impact on the environment and mitigate that impact through care and rehabilitation of native wildlife. Their facilities are open 7 days a week, 365 days a year, and they are on call 24/7 in the event of an oil spill, which recently occurred in Huntington Beach this past October.  

I chose the Wetlands and Wildlife Care Center as part of the organizations to donate to this Give Back Friday because of their recent work during the Huntington Beach Oil Spill. WWCC successfully rehabilitated oiled animals during the spill and continues to monitor other potential animals harmed in the spill’s mess, alongside their current non-oiled animal rehabilitation efforts. 

Cincinnati Recycling and Reuse Hub chosen by Jenna, and the rest of our Cincinnati Team

The  Cincinnati Recycling & Reuse Hub’s mission is to revolutionize how people think about “things” and to provide a place where almost anything can be recycled or reused. Their goal is to help mitigate the effects of climate change by increasing recycling, reuse, and landfill diversion rates in the greater Cincinnati area.

The Cincinnati Recycling and Reuse Hub is working diligently to bridge the gap between social justice and environmental consequences by involving community members from across Cincinnati to help raise awareness that the value of an item shouldn’t be judged just on its primary use. They believe, as we do here at Plaine Products, that we must also look at an item’s long-term effects on the environment, the economy, and the people.  

Plaine Products Gives Back Year Round

Beyond the holiday shopping season, Plaine Products supports ongoing charitable giving by partnering with non-profit organizations with similar missions to ours. Additionally, we are members of 1% For The Planet which means we donate at least one percent of our annual sales to support non-profit groups with an environmental focus. In 2021 we have supported 5 Gyres, Beyond Plastics, Lonely Whale, Plastic Pollution Coalition, and Upstream Solutions. All of these groups support our mission to eliminate single-use plastics and encourage reuse.