When it comes to Mother Earth, there are no shortcuts. As a brand that is rooted in island culture, taking steps as a business to care for our ʻaina (land) and preserve its beauty for future generations is something that we have always been passionate about.
We are continuously working to reduce our impact on the environment, and in honor of Earth Day, we wanted to share a progress report as we work toward our biggest goal:
To have our packaging be plastic free by the end of 2022.
Plastic waste and pollution has become a pervasive issue and we have found that packaging is one of the biggest sources of plastic waste in our industry. So we are working to tackle it and eliminate it from our packaging, one step at a time. Here’s an update on what we’ve done and what we’re still working on:
Compostable Product Bags
One thing we have already eliminated is the use of plastic polybags on each of our products. A few years ago, we tried eliminating them simply by stopping to use them. However, we found that our products got dirty and damaged without the bags, so we needed to find another solution. Enter: compostable bags! Our products are now packaged in bags that are completely compostable at home! While many “eco-friendly” bags claim to be compostable, most are only “commercially compostable”, meaning you need to take them to a commercial composting facility to be composted (which isn’t always accessible).
Our bags, however, can be thrown in your compost bin, garden waste, or even with your food scraps, and it will break down on its own while also feeding some lucky worms or adding to your soil!
Plastic-Free Product Packaging
One area that has been a work in progress is eliminating the small plastic fasteners that attach our hang tags to our clothes. Unfortunately, most alternatives that use string still rely on a small bit of plastic to hold it together. After lots of iterations, we decided to sew a small ribbon into the seams of our clothes, through which we can affix our hang tags using a small cord.
This change should be completely implemented by August of this year and we are so excited to be rid of that last bit of plastic plaguing our packaging.
This means that anytime you order a Coco Moon product, it will arrive without a single piece of plastic!
Compostable Mailers:
Outside of the packaging directly used on our products, the bags we use to mail you some Coco Moon love are also biodegradable!
If you compost it at home, it will break down in 3-6 months. You can even take it to a commercial composting facility if you so choose. Either way, it’s up to you and both options are a sustainable alternative to plastic that doesn't sacrifice the safety of your new items as they travel to you.
We’re not stopping there
Sending our customers their buttery-softness in packaging that is plastic free is a huge win for our business and for our communities. But when we receive our products from our manufacturer, we want that to be plastic free, too.
That’s why we’re also transitioning to large, plastic-free poly bags starting August 2022, which means that there will be no more plastic bags being used in any Coco Moon packaging — for our customers, and behind the scenes.
A plastic-free Coco Moon Hawai’i is a HUGE accomplishment for us and one we’ve been actively working on. We know that there are always ways to continue improving and reducing our footprint, so we’ll always work to find the best solutions as things continue to evolve! We are so excited to officially make this transition in 2022 and to keep sharing the buttery softness while being plastic free.
