Reduce. Reuse. Recycle.
We have always been conscious of our personal and corporate impact on our environment through our daily activities and implementing the 3Rs wherever possible.
In the food production business, packaging presents many challenges: to protect the product from contamination, food safety, retail labeling requirements, and costs of packaging are all considered in attempting to reduce the impact of the one time use packaging.
We have struggled with this since day one and constantly look for feasible options. At this time there is really limited options for many food products, an example is our Frozen Spirulina cube package. This package requires a particular style of packaging material that protects the product from “freezer burn” for example and needs to be very well sealed.
Same can be said for our Freeze Dried Spirulina with the individual vacuum sealed pouches. It is this fact of being sealed that protects the nutrients of the Spirulina from oxidizing, deteriorating nutrient value and ultimately tasting horrible.
With our Raw Fresh Spirulina, glass really is the best option for maintaining the quality of the product. It is more expensive, it takes a lot of room in our packaging department, heavy to ship but it is the best to use, no question! On the environmental note, a big advantage with glass is that it can be REUSED safely many times (i.e. bottle depot).
We have heard from many of you how much you appreciate that we use glass rather than other options (such as plastic) and also hear of how many of you are repurposing the empty jars at home, this is great.
Unfortunately, many just toss the empty jars either in the garbage or the recycling bin when available. Our understanding of the glass recycling programs is that the glass is broken down to fine particles and mostly discarded due to the excess volume coming in. There are uses for recycled glass material, but this involves a great deal of logistics and ultimately high costs of processing for a product that is relatively over abundant and supplying to a small limited market using this material. It is simply cheaper to discard the glass than it is to “recycle” it.
After many discussions with our jar suppliers, we have learned that there is a “new” glass jar shortage currently, we are not sure why but quite likely related to the pandemic challenges. This is limiting us to what is available, and you will mostly likely see a slight change to the jar style we may be using soon. This has no impact on the total volume or quality of our Spirulina you will receive but just the container look.
With that said, we want to make it very aware to all that we can and do accept your empty SpiraVeg Spirulina jars, lids and insulated cooler boxes back for REUSE. We have very thorough sterilization and washing procedures in place to handle this step safely. It is a something we feel strongly about in doing what we can to minimize our impact on the environment.
There will not be a cash refund value paid on the returns as this step is extra work for SpiraVeg, but it is worth it for us to do what we can to minimize waste. We understand this is not feasible for everyone, particularly for our distant customers that would require shipping, and if you are reusing the jars at home, that is great too!
Simply contact us to make arrangements for pick up or drop off of the jars and boxes if you choose to partake in our REUSE program.
With the respect to OUR PLANET,
Team SpiraVeg.
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