At Plaine Products we place a priority on sustainability throughout our company. This means we reuse more than just the bottles. As much as we can we reuse boxes, lids, office supplies and kitchen supplies at work and in our personal lives. Not only does this keep items out of the waste stream for as long as possible. It also means less will have to be created in the first place.

Plaine Products is designed to be part of the circular economy, which functions more like a natural ecosystem. Nothing is ever wasted. Our goal was to design all of our packaging to be reused as long as possible. Once they are no longer reusable we ensured that our packaging is able to be fully recycled and reused.

Bottle Reuse

So far our process of reuse has meant more than 50,000 plastic bottles (that would have been gone into a landfill) were never used. Since aluminum can be recycled infinitely our bottles never need to go to a landfill. Plastic can only be recycled once or twice. So eventually all of those plastic bottles will end up in a landfill, even if a trip to the recycling factory does delay their arrival.

Because we do send bottles back out once they have been cleaned and refilled, often they may have dents and dings when they arrive at your door. We hope you’ll appreciate that means they are ensuring a lighter environmental footprint on the planet. However, if a bottle does acquire more dents while in your possession, it is always better to go ahead and recycle it than waste resources sending it back to us. A good rule of thumb is if it’s more dented than you’d want a bottle to be, go ahead and recycle it.

We also encourage people to make sure they get all of the product out of the bottle before returning it. For the shampoo and conditioner that can mean adding a little water, or turning any of the products upside down to get the bit at the bottom the pump can’t pick up!

Box Reuse

Our boxes are sustainable. They are made from a mix of 95% post-consumer waste and 5% post-industrial waste. Absolutely NO new materials are used in their manufacture.  We also worked to develop boxes that fit our bottles, so we limit the amount of extra fill required to keep them safe during shipping. In most cases they are shipped fill-free.

We also reuse the boxes as much as possible. Occasionally that means patching them up with paper tape so we can send them back out. Again, this may mean your box make look a little loved. But we hope you’ll appreciate the care and time it took to help them make one more trip. To help us with those efforts its best not to use plastic packing tape when you are sending bottles back. Instead use the return label to seal the box closed the same way we send the bottles to you. We also reuse any of the customer information cards that are returned. Send them back is another great way to decrease waste!

Thank you for your continued support of Plaine Products and our mission to reduce plastic on the planet.