To us, this means using only recyclable, biodegradable materials when we ship our products.  We also re-use boxes and other materials whenever possible, and we hope that you do the same, and either re-use or recycle the packaging that you receive Aspire products in.

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• Boxes – When we order supplies, they typically come in a box, and we always keep the boxes for future use in shipping our products back out to our customers.  The only time we use new boxes is if we don’t have a right-sized box to ship an order.  In theory, a good box can last a long time, so we may as well re-use it to extinction, then recycle it.

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• Packing – We use only newspaper and brown paper for packing. 

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• Plastic – There are only two times you will see plastic in our shipments.

1. If you order Aspire deodorant or Aspire bug spray, it will be sealed in a plastic bag.  This is because these products are based in ethanol, which is an alcohol that is flammable, just like Meyer's Rum.  The United States Department of Transportation requires that bottles of flammable materials like this be contained within a sealed plastic bag for shipping, with enough absorbent within the bag to absorb the alcohol, should the bottle leak.  This is a precaution to prevent the material from evaporating into the air in an enclosed vehicle, possibly leading to a fire if there were to be a spark or flame.  That makes sense to us!  For absorbent, we use paper.  We use either zip lock bags or plain plastic bags that can be re-used or recycled.  Most of the plastic bags we use are bags that we have received goods in, such as containers, lids, essential oils, and even coffee and other goods that that we order on-line. 

2. We ship bulk toothpowder in sealed plastic bags if the product is ordered without a container.  This way, you can choose to put it in your own container.  Toothpowder is the only product we ship without a container, since it’s a powder so it’s easy to do.  The bag can be recycled with plastic film at a participating grocery store, such as King Soopers or Whole Foods.

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• Bubble Wrap – We can’t stand to receive products swathed in bubble wrap.  While it can be recycled in a clear plastic stream, every single bubble has to be popped first, and we are pretty sure most folks don’t bother with this.  We view bubble wrap as one of the most unnecessary forms of single-use plastic that there is.  Crushed paper works just as well.  We do not re-use bubble wrap for packaging, because we know most people won’t take the time to recycle or re-use it, so we do two things when we receive shipments with bubble wrap.  The first thing we do is recycle it, after popping every single bubble.  What a pain!  The second thing we do is contact the shipper and ask them to please not send us shipments with bubble wrap.  After all, when we buy supplies for Aspire, we become their customers, and we make sure our voice is heard.

 

• Peanut Packing – These days, most peanuts seem to be corn starch and not Styrofoam.  This is a good thing, because Styrofoam is horrible for the planet, and hard to recycle.  We used to take it to UPS or FEDEX to get rid of it and they would re-use it, but now they won’t take it.  We rarely receive shipments packed in peanuts, but if we do, we let the supplier know that we don’t want them to do that.  Crushed paper works just fine, so why waste money and resources on something as useless as peanuts?  We make sure the peanuts are corn starch by simply dropping one in a glass of water.  A corn starch peanut will break down and get gummy pretty quickly, while Styrofoam will just float forever.  We have a garden and we compost all food waste at home, so we simply add the peanuts to the compost pile.  To keep them from blowing around, we first put them in a bucket and mix them with water.  This makes them water-logged and gooey so they don’t blow around.

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• Packing Tape – We started out with clear plastic tape because it’s all we could find at the typical local outlets.  We have almost used all of that up, so you could still get an Aspire shipment with plastic tape, but not for much longer.  We found some paper tape on-line, and will use exclusively paper once the plastic is gone.  We are in the process of researching sources of biodegradable tape, to make sure that the paper tape doesn’t contain PFAS.  PFAS are a class of chemicals, termed “forever chemicals”, that don’t break down and are toxic.  In the past few years, these materials have been found to be ubiquitous in the environment and in our homes, polluting everything from carpet and bedding to land and water, and it turns out there are thousands of products that contain it.  Since this is a relatively new environmental discovery, finding information about exactly which materials contain it is a challenge, but we’re working on it.  For example, pizza boxes have been commonly coated with PFAS to keep grease from soaking into the box, and now they are working on making pizza boxes available without the PFAS.  Same for packing tape.

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