Sustainable Products Need Sustainable Packaging
What Makes the Best Reef Safe Products Better? Eco-Conscious Packaging!
We don’t like plastic either!*
At Stream2Sea, we work hard to ensure that our products are safe not only for you and your family, but also for the sustainability of our planet. To reduce our impact on the environment, we make sure that our packaging is as green and sustainable as the products themselves.
Read on to find out more about our eco packaging!
Sugarcane Resin Tubes: A Viable Option to Standard Plastic
You know how ethanol can be made from corn instead of petroleum? Well, now plastic packaging can be made from sugarcane waste instead of petroleum-based fossil fuels! We chose to use sugarcane resin tubes as a viable alternative to traditional PET plastic tubes. They are made from the pulp after the sugar juices have been expelled. This pulp – once treated as a waste product and burned – can now be utilized as a valuable product which reduces our greenhouse emissions.
Like ethanol made from corn, the pulp is fermented and distilled. The ethanol is then dehydrated to create ethylene, which is then converted into polyethylene, a bio-based material. This material is identical to traditional petrochemical-based plastics — except for the carbon footprint that went into making it! The texture, durability, weight, appearance and shelf life are exactly the same.
* Growing sugar cane absorbs carbon dioxide (CO2) from the air. For every kilogram of ‘green’ plastic produced, 3.09 kilograms of CO2 are removed from the air by the sugar cane.
100% Recyclable & Low carbon footprint!
Ocean Bound Plastic Bottles
Ocean-bound plastic is exactly what it sounds like. These plastics are considered at risk of entering our oceans or rivers at the coastline and are recovered to be sorted, cleaned, and turned into resin for new use.
Our lip balm labels ROCK, literally!
Our lip balms uses TerraSkin® labels, which are an eco-friendly stone paper made from 75% calcium carbonate.
The paper can be left out in nature after use and will degrade back into mineral powder after about three to nine months of exposure to direct sunlight and moisture.
Repurposing Milk Jugs
Stream2Sea’s large 32-ounce bottles, EcoSticks and Lip balm tubes are made of plastic milk jugs and water bottles that would otherwise end up in a landfill. About a third of all plastics produced escape collection systems and end up in the ocean. Every pound of our resin diverts approximately 10 milk jugs from America’s waste stream and the world’s oceans.
In addition, the more we use PCR, the less we rely on virgin plastics.
Amazon insists on ‘plastic’ baggies, so we use biodegradable ones!
To meet the ‘liquid requirement” and ship our products through Amazon, they need to be placed inside a ‘plastic’ baggie. We struggled with this, and finally sourced a ‘Green Line’ biodegradable, re-usable plastic bag. We encourage reuse of this bag, then either recycle with other LDPE plastics or send to the landfill where it is proven to biodegrade.
100% Recyclable
Whether it is our tubes or bottles or bags, 100% of our packaging is 100% recyclable. Please recycle when you are finished with the product instead of throwing it away.
Can I Reuse Instead?
They’re really not intended for re-use. We love the idea, but honestly, we minimize the number of preservatives in our products because they are the harshest part of a formula. As soon as someone starts refilling an existing package, it opens it up for contamination.
If you want to refill from the bigger bottle (which we love), your best bet is to get the silicone tubes where you can boil them between fills.
Why not paper?
We have explored the biodegradable paper packaging, and at this time, have not found one that will hold up to our wet lifestyle. Meaning, if you throw the paper based tubes into a swim bag, dive bag or pocket then get wet, they tend to degrade when we don’t want them to. We do love the idea and are keeping an eye on packaging improvements!