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Shampoo, plastic, & you
Let’s say that you wash your hair every other day. If you use the recommended amount, the average 250-milliliter bottle will last just under two months. By yourself, you will use over seven bottles of shampoo a year.
Let’s also say that every time you finish a bottle of shampoo you rinse it and recycle it in the yellow bin. You’ve done your job. Ideally, that bottle would be transformed into some new plastic product. But what really happens to the bottle?
Follow the bottle
If you live in Germany, often hailed as the recycling world champion, there’s a good chance that the bottle will, in fact, be recycled—especially if the bottle is made of PET (polyethylene terephthalate). The bottle will be washed, chopped up into pellets, remelted, and reused. This can happen locally, but many developed nations, including Germany, send a significant portion of their recyclables to other nations to be dealt with.
That place used to be China, but in 2017, the Chinese government banned the import of plastic waste. Other countries began taking on the world’s plastic waste often without the capacity—infrastructure and political will—to do so. For example, from January to October 2018, Germany exported 114,000 tons of plastic rubbish to Malaysia (around two percent of its plastic rubbish for the time period). An investigation by WirstschaftsWoche and ZDF show Frontal 21, found that much of that plastic ended up in landfill-like conditions instead of being recycled or incinerated.
Recycling obstacles
Even though Germany has strict requirements that exported plastic must be recycled, it appears that once the plastics are beyond the country’s borders, the responsibility to do so ends. And despite the internal commitment to recycling, including political and societal will, there is a financial incentive to send the recycling out of country and out of mind. For example, an incinerator in Schwandorf charges 150-800 Euros per ton of industrial waste (depending on the material), but sea freight for plastic refuse can cost as little as 40 Euros per ton.
As you can tell, the recycling process isn’t straightforward, and the carbon footprint isn’t small: Burning plastic releases toxins into the air. Collection and shipping requires fuel. Remelting plastics require oil. And, of course, plastic on land and in the ocean causes a myriad of problems. Bottom line: There’s a lot of work to be done to improve the production and recycling of plastic.
What you can do and our promise to you
In the meantime, if you’re thinking about reducing your plastic use or if you’ve already started, you’re not alone. There’s a big social movement to do so and every little bit helps. However, we at Yas Alpaca feel that too much of this burden is placed on the consumer—to buy the right thing and to recycle. At seven shampoo bottles a year, an individual’s consumption decisions cannot compare to the decisions made by producers whose numbers of shampoo bottles have a lot more zeros and more impact.
For this reason, some big companies like Henkel are committed to using more recycled plastic and pursuing circular economies where consumers can return packaging directly to producers.
This is great, but this is still a half step in the right direction. With shampoo bars, we take a full step: a plastic-free shampoo experience. From start to finish, we commit to a plastic-free process so you can feel good about buying our product. We also promise that you won’t need to sacrifice great hair. Our natural shampoo bar outperforms and outlasts the average bottle of shampoo. Fabulous and plastic-free--that’s our promise to you.
Shampoo, plastic, & you
Let’s say that you wash your hair every other day. If you use the recommended amount, the average 250-milliliter bottle will last just under two months. By yourself, you will use over seven bottles of shampoo a year.
Let’s also say that every time you finish a bottle of shampoo you rinse it and recycle it in the yellow bin. You’ve done your job. Ideally, that bottle would be transformed into some new plastic product. But what really happens to the bottle?
Shampoo, plastic, & you
Let’s say that you wash your hair every other day. If you use the recommended amount, the average 250-milliliter bottle will last just under two months. By yourself, you will use over seven bottles of shampoo a year.
Let’s also say that every time you finish a bottle of shampoo you rinse it and recycle it in the yellow bin. You’ve done your job. Ideally, that bottle would be transformed into some new plastic product. But what really happens to the bottle?
Follow the bottle
If you live in Germany, often hailed as the recycling world champion, there’s a good chance that the bottle will, in fact, be recycled—especially if the bottle is made of PET (polyethylene terephthalate). The bottle will be washed, chopped up into pellets, remelted, and reused. This can happen locally, but many developed nations, including Germany, send a significant portion of their recyclables to other nations to be dealt with.
Follow the bottle
If you live in Germany, often hailed as the recycling world champion, there’s a good chance that the bottle will, in fact, be recycled—especially if the bottle is made of PET (polyethylene terephthalate). The bottle will be washed, chopped up into pellets, remelted, and reused. This can happen locally, but many developed nations, including Germany, send a significant portion of their recyclables to other nations to be dealt with.
That place used to be China, but in 2017, the Chinese government banned the import of plastic waste. Other countries began taking on the world’s plastic waste often without the capacity—infrastructure and political will—to do so. For example, from January to October 2018, Germany exported 114,000 tons of plastic rubbish to Malaysia (around two percent of its plastic rubbish for the time period). An investigation by WirstschaftsWoche and ZDF show Frontal 21, found that much of that plastic ended up in landfill-like conditions instead of being recycled or incinerated.
That place used to be China, but in 2017, the Chinese government banned the import of plastic waste. Other countries began taking on the world’s plastic waste often without the capacity—infrastructure and political will—to do so. For example, from January to October 2018, Germany exported 114,000 tons of plastic rubbish to Malaysia (around two percent of its plastic rubbish for the time period). An investigation by WirstschaftsWoche and ZDF show Frontal 21, found that much of that plastic ended up in landfill-like conditions instead of being recycled or incinerated.
Recycling obstacles
Even though Germany has strict requirements that exported plastic must be recycled, it appears that once the plastics are beyond the country’s borders, the responsibility to do so ends. And despite the internal commitment to recycling, including political and societal will, there is a financial incentive to send the recycling out of country and out of mind. For example, an incinerator in Schwandorf charges 150-800 Euros per ton of industrial waste (depending on the material), but sea freight for plastic refuse can cost as little as 40 Euros per ton.
Recycling obstacles
Even though Germany has strict requirements that exported plastic must be recycled, it appears that once the plastics are beyond the country’s borders, the responsibility to do so ends. And despite the internal commitment to recycling, including political and societal will, there is a financial incentive to send the recycling out of country and out of mind. For example, an incinerator in Schwandorf charges 150-800 Euros per ton of industrial waste (depending on the material), but sea freight for plastic refuse can cost as little as 40 Euros per ton.
As you can tell, the recycling process isn’t straightforward, and the carbon footprint isn’t small: Burning plastic releases toxins into the air. Collection and shipping requires fuel. Remelting plastics require oil. And, of course, plastic on land and in the ocean causes a myriad of problems. Bottom line: There’s a lot of work to be done to improve the production and recycling of plastic.
As you can tell, the recycling process isn’t straightforward, and the carbon footprint isn’t small: Burning plastic releases toxins into the air. Collection and shipping requires fuel. Remelting plastics require oil. And, of course, plastic on land and in the ocean causes a myriad of problems. Bottom line: There’s a lot of work to be done to improve the production and recycling of plastic.
What you can do and our promise to you
In the meantime, if you’re thinking about reducing your plastic use or if you’ve already started, you’re not alone. There’s a big social movement to do so and every little bit helps. However, we at Yas Alpaca feel that too much of this burden is placed on the consumer—to buy the right thing and to recycle. At seven shampoo bottles a year, an individual’s consumption decisions cannot compare to the decisions made by producers whose numbers of shampoo bottles have a lot more zeros and more impact.
What you can do and our promise to you
In the meantime, if you’re thinking about reducing your plastic use or if you’ve already started, you’re not alone. There’s a big social movement to do so and every little bit helps. However, we at Yas Alpaca feel that too much of this burden is placed on the consumer—to buy the right thing and to recycle. At seven shampoo bottles a year, an individual’s consumption decisions cannot compare to the decisions made by producers whose numbers of shampoo bottles have a lot more zeros and more impact.
For this reason, some big companies like Henkel are committed to using more recycled plastic and pursuing circular economies where consumers can return packaging directly to producers.
For this reason, some big companies like Henkel are committed to using more recycled plastic and pursuing circular economies where consumers can return packaging directly to producers.
This is great, but this is still a half step in the right direction. With shampoo bars, we take a full step: a plastic-free shampoo experience. From start to finish, we commit to a plastic-free process so you can feel good about buying our product. We also promise that you won’t need to sacrifice great hair. Our natural shampoo bar outperforms and outlasts the average bottle of shampoo. Fabulous and plastic-free--that’s our promise to you.
This is great, but this is still a half step in the right direction. With shampoo bars, we take a full step: a plastic-free shampoo experience. From start to finish, we commit to a plastic-free process so you can feel good about buying our product. We also promise that you won’t need to sacrifice great hair. Our natural shampoo bar outperforms and outlasts the average bottle of shampoo. Fabulous and plastic-free--that’s our promise to you.