In recent years, plastic has received its fair share of stick – and for good reason. Not only do the likes of single-use water bottles, shopping bags, cotton buds, and cutlery all end up in landfill – or worse, the sea – but their production requires the burning of fossil fuels and large amounts of energy. Not all plastics are created equally, however. And while we can’t bang the drum for single-use plastics, we maintain that reusable containers are one most sustainable forms of packaging available. Enter our reusable pillbox.
Besides being the perfect means to store and organise your weekly supplements, we’re proud to say our pillboxes are a lifetime product. They’re green in colour, and green in nature. Reusable products shine in several areas. Firstly, they reduce the amount of material sent to landfills, which are filling up at an ever-increasing rate. Each time you reuse a product, it equates to not sending that item to landfill. So, if you use our pillboxes 100 times, it’s as if you haven’t disposed of it 100 times.
Of course, reusing items means that less finite resources (virgin raw materials) are used up, too. In the case of plastic, this is crude oil. Drilling for oil harms the planet in a number of ways: it emits dangerous methane emissions that contribute to climate change; it releases toxic chemicals that pollute water and air; and it disrupts ecological systems. Any means to reduce this gets a big thumbs-up from us.
Reusable products also help decrease overall energy needs. Redistributing new packaging materials across the country requires a ton of carbon-emitting fuel. Vehicles burn fuel by transporting raw materials to the plant and delivering the final product to local areas. The manufacturing process demands a considerable quantity of energy, too, which is often supplied from natural gas or coal. Reusable items, like our pillboxes, are a positive step in minimising such environmental damage.
That’s not all. Reusable plastic also takes the pressure off recycling. There are limits to the amount of plastic recycling incineration plants can burn, after all. Every day, recycling facilities have to process an influx of empties in all shapes and sizes. Reusing a product multiple times, like our pillboxes, diverts plastic. Not only does it alleviate the burden on recycling facilities, but also it reduces our overall plastic footprint.
You may be wondering why we use plastic for our pillboxes at all. There’s a simple answer to that. Above all else, plastic guarantees the quality, freshness, and stability of our supplements – something, we believe, other materials couldn’t deliver to such a high standard. If we chose to use glass, for instance, we would encounter a host of complications: there would be safety risks – glass is famously brittle, let’s not forget; glass would allow UV rays to permeate through the container, causing supplements to spoil; and creating a plastic pillbox requires far, far less energy to manufacture than its glass counterpart. Our pillboxes are BPA-free (biphenyl A), too, meaning they don’t contain any nasty chemicals that may infiltrate your body.
And that is why are pillboxes are more than just green in colour.
Bibliography:
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Bpf.co.uk. (2019). Plastic Packaging and the Environment. Available online: http://www.bpf.co.uk/packaging/environment.aspx [Accessed 24 Jan. 2019].
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GWP Group. (2019). Reusable Packaging: Environmental, Cost & Efficiency Benefits - GWP Group. Available online: https://www.gwp.co.uk/advantages/reusable-packaging [Accessed 29 Jan. 2019].
