Concern that consumer products will end up in landfills and that society is manufacturing products in an unsustainable way has prompted innovative entrepreneurs to produce everyday products that are either made from reclaimed materials or that will easily decompose.
These companies tend to fall into one of two categories:
- businesses that make useful products out of items that would otherwise be thrown away; or
- businesses that put biodegradeable materials in products that would otherwise contain plastic as a way to reduce the product’s half-life.
Saakori Lifestyle Inc. co-owner Tanuja Dabir believes her Vancouver-based company, which makes dinner plates out of palm tree leaves that have already fallen to the ground, is doing more for the environment than companies that simply aim to replace plastic.
“The leaves that go into our plates would have been burned normally,” she said. “That’s unlike corn, which is being diverted from being a food resource to being made into products.”
Dabir said she also uses much less energy than if her plates were made from potato or corn resin.
The only time that she needs to use energy is when the leaves go into a heated mold at the factory in India that she subcontracts to produce them. Other than that, workers craft the plates from hand.
“If we used bamboo or corn, it would have to go through a high-energy process,” she said.
Vancouver’s Earthen Trading also produces bowls and plates from fallen palm leaves.
And ventures such as Manitoba’s U.S.E.D. Recycled Seatbelt Bags similarly push the boundaries of innovation by making purses and handbags from seatbelts that were once in condemned vehicles. Were the seatbelts not reused, they would simply be trash.
Locin Industries, Ltd. president Andrew Horembala, however, believes it is wrong to think that in order for a product to be considered sustainable it must be made from reclaimed ingredients.
His company manufactures and distributes toothbrushes and dental flossers out of a compostable bio-resin that comes from potatoes.
The resin meets international standards for bioplastics and compostability and biodegrades within 180 days in a commercial compost facility. Unlike petroleum-based plastics, Horembala’s toothbrushes will decompose into organic materials even when they are thrown into a regular garbage.
His products are similar to the cups, plates and cutlery that Oregon-based Biodegradable Food Services Inc. produces under the brand Taterware.
“We started making the compostable dental products because dental products are our heritage. It’s something that we know. It was also because of the disposable nature of dental products,” Horembala said.
Critics, however, question how environmentally less burdensome flossers are given that rolls of floss require only a small amount of plastic whereas individual dental flossers, which are meant for one-time use, have a tiny amount of floss held rigid by a plastic or potato-resin handle.
“Flossers have become big business because there are advantages over floss,” Horembala explained. “There’s the convenience of flossing with one hand. You can do it while travelling in a car.
“You can keep it in your desk and do it discreetly. Try using string floss discretely and it’s next to impossible It’s also the easiest way for kids to floss. Their mouths are too small for parents to get their hands in.”
Horembala, wife Jane Nicol, Nicol’s sister Sue Collins and Collins’ husband, Brad Collins, bought Locin in 2005 for an undisclosed amount from the sisters’ parents, who founded the company in the 1970s.
The company had morphed from being primarily a sheet-glass company to now being primarily a manufacturer and distributor of vitamins, mineral supplements and cough and cold immunity products.
About 40% of sales are for dental products, most of which continue to be made out of petroleum-based products.
Only about 5% of sales are for the compostable dental products that the company launched last year and sells through both Shoppers Drug Mart and London Drugs.
“This year we project that sales for [potato-based products] will be only slightly higher than 5% of sales,” Horembala said.
“The reason is that when you start shipping out a product, you get the pipeline effect. The following year it starts to flatline and then you can start ratcheting up.”
Only when customers deplete current inventory will they order more product, Horembala added.