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Here's an interesting new product - with a built-in filter, WaterGeeks water bottles include a filter with the convenience of a portable water bottle.
Made from BPA-free plastic tops and stainless steal containers and available in a variety of fun colors, these bottles are a stylish way to implement or maintain a green lifestyle into your daily routine.
According to the company the filter removes contaminants including chlorine from water.
IQ Clean is a new product line launched by the Canadian company Planet People. The new products include four different cleaning solutions and accompanying refill cartridges.
The idea is simple take a non -toxic cleaning solution made from corn and coconut based surfactants package the product in bold easy to use packaging and include a refill cartridge.
IQ Clean has an all-purpose, glass, bathroom and floor cleaning product in their new line, each color coded so consumers can easily identify which cleaner their grabbing.
The packaging is good. The cleaners come in large durable highly recyclable #1 PET bottles with a very good spray top designed to last a long time.
The idea is consumers will continue to buy refill cartridges and reuse their original bottle.
IQ Clean has gone to great lengths to explain to consumer both through directions and visually on the packaging and their website how to use the refill cartridges. I found the process extremely simple and easy to understand.
In the past a number of companies have tried the refill cartridge concept with varying degrees of success. Most recently Arm & Hammer's Essentials cleaners come to mind. The Arm & Hammer products which I covered on SISG demonstrated an innovative approach to greener packaging but weren't terribly well received by consumers over concerns of what was in the products and ease of use.
I found the IQ Clean products I tried to be both effective at their intended tasks and also pleasant to use.
US consumers can find the new IQ Clean products at many Hannaford grocery stores, SweetBay supermarkets in Florida and Spartan stores in Michigan. The company is also working on relationships with major on line retailers so stay tuned.
The initial product which includes a full bottle of cleaner and one refill sells for $4.99. Refill cartridges then sell for $1.99.
Interesting story in the NYT last week regarding the increasingly popular single use coffee pods known as K-Cups for Keurig coffee machines.
K-Cups are designed to be single use servings of coffee and are small plastic containers filled with ground coffee which fit into single serving brewing sytems like the Keurig coffee machines.
As the machines have become more and more popular in the US - thanks to help from major retailers like QVC who often features the machines on television, questions have been raised over what to do about the packaging waste.
Single use packaging like the K-Cups results in tons and tons of used plastic K-Cups ending up in the trash system. A major player in the K-Cup market is Green Mountain Coffee Roasters - a company I've covered extensively on SISG. They have been leaders in more sustainable packaging in the coffee industry - with one big exception - the K-Cup.
The Times reported 80% of Green Mountain Coffee's $803 million in sales last year came from single use coffee pods and their brewing systems. So obivously the K-Cup is big money for Green Mountain Coffee.
But Green Mountain has led the charge in re-configuring consumer store packed coffee - incorporating PLA into their packaging and working towards further sustainable improvements. So why can't they devise a more sustainable method for their K-Cups?
According to the NYT the company is currently working on methods to make the whole K-Cup process more sustainable. Options include the use of biodegradable packaging, recycling programs and making the cups reusable in some fashion.
We'll continue to follow this story. I've always thought the whole single serving coffee concept was interesting except for the waste it generates.
Honest Tea makers of Honest Kids juice pouches recently made a change to their juice pouch packaging that caused a stir. The company added the words "no high fructose corn syrup" to the packaging of their popular juice pouches designed for kids.
The addition seems like a good thing right? Well to many it was however the Coca Cola company who is a major investor in Honest Tea wasn't too happy. Since the controversy developed the issue has been worked out and Honest Tea has kept the phrase on its kids juice packaging.
The issue focused attention on packaging and a number of mainstream media outlets picked up the story.
Honest has always been a leader in more efficient and sustainable packaging - its good to see the company is also using its packaging to inform consumers about the contents of their product.
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