When I first started at Jade Bloom, we were an itty bitty company. My original job was to put labels on bottles, and as the company quickly grew, I moved to a new area of work that I absolutely love in creating social media posts and product imagery.
There was a 3 month period in early 2016, where my husband and I put our Jade Bloom jobs on hold and moved to Kauai to volunteer on an organic farm. It was this experience that opened my eyes to how much waste I was creating. I never had an urge to recycle before this, because I didn’t see the impact my trash had on planet Earth. I didn’t realize the impact of landfills, but when we came back to the mainland, and back to our Jade Bloom jobs, I quickly realized that as a company and as individuals, we had a huge opportunity to reduce, reuse and recycle!
When I started to do some research, I came across a few really striking websites that showed how long it would take for certain items to decompose. For example, one paper towel can take up to 4 weeks to decompose, A plastic bag can take up to 20 years, a plastic water/soda bottle can take up to 450 years to decompose and glass… well, glass doesn’t really decompose, it only gets crushed into tiny glass pieces or melted. These are everyday items that sit in landfills, or end up in oceans where they can cause harm to animals, plants and even people. The more we fill the Earth with trash, the less we will be able to enjoy nature and its healing benefits.
I presented this concern in our company meeting and we all sat down and brainstormed what we could do to reduce, reuse and recycle. Here are some ways that Jade Bloom has implemented this into the company culture: We have been able to cut down a third of the amount of bubble wrap bags we use by wrapping 3 bottles in one bubble bag instead of just one bottle without compromising the safety of our bottles during transport. You may have noticed this change when receiving your recent orders in the mail. We have also started to reuse packing peanuts and bubble wrap that we receive from shipments to our office. Our organic soaps ship in 100% recycled cardboard boxes instead of paper or plastic and our retail store uses 100% recycled paper bags that we send home with our customer oil purchases. Personally, some of my favorite ways that my co-workers and I have reduced waste is by bringing mason jars and mugs to work instead of using many disposable cups each day. We also started purchasing fully biodegradable Keurig cups in place of the standard plastic cups. Lastly, our new retail store in Draper, Utah uses reclaimed wood for all of its signs, shelving, and even furniture throughout the store.
Jade Bloom is also striving to find an eco-friendly source of packaging for all of our products. I am really proud to be part of a company who values the Earth and is working to keep it clean one step at a time.
We hope that you feel our passion for the Earth, and are inspired to create less waste in you and your family’s daily lives. Here are some practical suggestions for saving the planet:
-Save your glass oil bottles and use for mixing your own oil blends
-Reuse boxes and packages that you get in the mail
-Donate clothing instead of throwing it away. (Cotton takes a very long time to decompose!)
-When possible, avoid paper or plastic utensils, bowls, and plates
-Instead of using paper towels or napkins, invest in cloth napkins and use rags or towels to clean up messes
-Use newspaper as gift wrap instead of wrapping paper
-Avoid using plastic straws. (One study showed straws as being one of the top items found in oceans and they cause great harm to ocean life.)
-Have a few reusable bags in your car so you can use them when going shopping
-Challenge your family to keep the recycle bin fuller than the garbage bin
WATCH TO LEARN WHAT YOU CAN & CAN'T RECYCLE:
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqagBlj9StM
To find more information on recycling, you can visit any of these sites:
- http://www.lessismore.org/materials/28-why-recycle
- https://www.epa.gov/recycle
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7GMpjx2jDQ
Here is a short video for kids to enjoy:
