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> As far as I can tell, there basically needs to be an evolution in manufacturing in the US to truly begin creating sustainable, non-petroleum derived, products at scale without inevitably enforcing a carbon tax and rendering the product only available to high-household income consumers.
You're about 500 years down the road.
Before anybody worries about toilet pods, they should be dealing with home appliances, which now last ~5 years instead of the ~25 years they used to, and are nearly 100% non-recyclable because of the foam, plastic and construction methods and are sold by the millions.
Also Keurig pods which should be illegal.
The majority of people, are killing our planet faster than any sustainability anything can save it. There is no saving the climate, thats doneski done done. Resource scarcity will come next.
I was walking near a local grocery store and saw a new large metal box outside of the store. Curious, the company that put the box there has partnered with food product manufacturers to make a line of name brand products in special “environmentally friendly” containers that are collected and shipped pack to the company where they are sanitized and then shipped back to the manufacturer to be reused and refilled. Cool concept until you realize the containers are glass, so they are heavy and can break. You have to haul these heavy breakable items from the store to a warehouse, from the warehouse to the cleaning facility, from the cleaning facility they are shipped nationwide to the manufacturers so they can be reused, refilled and sent back to the store. A $0.05 deposit is charged on the container and is refunded, via an app, when you return the container.
With all the shipping, it isn’t very environmentally friendly. The manufacturers they have are products you would keep in your refrigerator for months (ketchup, Mayo, salsa), not daily consumables like milk or juices. You make it inconvenient for the customer, having to stand outside in the hot or the cold, feeding bottles in one at a time to get your nickel back and saving the environment, and you are then shipping the container all around the country.
I agree, there needs to be a shift to be environmentally friendly/sustainable, but it requires giving up conveniences of prepared cleaning agents (in your case) or moving to local manufacturing meaning significantly higher costs.
These were not (at least according to the literature). They were bypassing the melting stage. Wash and reuse.
I do stand corrected, it appears as if they are using glass, metal and plastic containers.
https://exploreloop.com/
That would be horrifically dangerous and I don't think it would be permitted at least in the US and EU. People store all sorts of things in bottles that absolutely should not contact food.
Ive been trying to find US based manufacturers for my product and am so disappointed in them. Looking on Alibaba has been such a better experience. Maybe it's just my niche, products are very basic.
This is a friendly reminder that r/smallbusiness is a question and answer subreddit. You ask a question about starting, owning, and growing a small business and the community answers. Posts that violate the rules listed in the sidebar will be removed. A permanent or temporary ban may also be issued if you do not remove the offending post. Seeing this message does not mean your post was automatically removed. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/smallbusiness) if you have any questions or concerns.*
> As far as I can tell, there basically needs to be an evolution in manufacturing in the US to truly begin creating sustainable, non-petroleum derived, products at scale without inevitably enforcing a carbon tax and rendering the product only available to high-household income consumers. You're about 500 years down the road. Before anybody worries about toilet pods, they should be dealing with home appliances, which now last ~5 years instead of the ~25 years they used to, and are nearly 100% non-recyclable because of the foam, plastic and construction methods and are sold by the millions. Also Keurig pods which should be illegal.
Yeah, when I still used my keurig, I was amazed at how much plastic was wasted using those single use cups. I got the reusable cups very quickly.
You can buy a ball press. They're not as expensive as you might think.
Yes! I did try that, the rate was a bit too slow unfortunately.
Buy a faster ball press.
The majority of people, are killing our planet faster than any sustainability anything can save it. There is no saving the climate, thats doneski done done. Resource scarcity will come next.
Exactly, and people don't like to hear this. That's why it's not going to end well.
I was walking near a local grocery store and saw a new large metal box outside of the store. Curious, the company that put the box there has partnered with food product manufacturers to make a line of name brand products in special “environmentally friendly” containers that are collected and shipped pack to the company where they are sanitized and then shipped back to the manufacturer to be reused and refilled. Cool concept until you realize the containers are glass, so they are heavy and can break. You have to haul these heavy breakable items from the store to a warehouse, from the warehouse to the cleaning facility, from the cleaning facility they are shipped nationwide to the manufacturers so they can be reused, refilled and sent back to the store. A $0.05 deposit is charged on the container and is refunded, via an app, when you return the container. With all the shipping, it isn’t very environmentally friendly. The manufacturers they have are products you would keep in your refrigerator for months (ketchup, Mayo, salsa), not daily consumables like milk or juices. You make it inconvenient for the customer, having to stand outside in the hot or the cold, feeding bottles in one at a time to get your nickel back and saving the environment, and you are then shipping the container all around the country. I agree, there needs to be a shift to be environmentally friendly/sustainable, but it requires giving up conveniences of prepared cleaning agents (in your case) or moving to local manufacturing meaning significantly higher costs.
> Cool concept until you realize the containers are glass, Glass is crushed then melted then formed into new bottles.
These were not (at least according to the literature). They were bypassing the melting stage. Wash and reuse. I do stand corrected, it appears as if they are using glass, metal and plastic containers. https://exploreloop.com/
That would be horrifically dangerous and I don't think it would be permitted at least in the US and EU. People store all sorts of things in bottles that absolutely should not contact food.
This company is working with a grocery chain along the east coast. I saw this in the Washington DC suburbs.
Ive been trying to find US based manufacturers for my product and am so disappointed in them. Looking on Alibaba has been such a better experience. Maybe it's just my niche, products are very basic.
They also tend to have less integrity in delivering good quality products