Preserve
In 1996, finance consultant and outdoor enthusiast Eric Hudson saw a trend in sustainable and recycled projects that he was inspired to change. While consumers were making a conscious effort to reduce, reuse, and recycle, companies were still creating new products from virgin materials, and ultimately producing more harmful plastic. Further, the products that were being made from recycled materials tended to be low quality, and quite frankly, boring (who even needs pen holders, anyway?). Eric knew he could use recycled content to create useful, appealing products that could also be recycled at the end of their life, bringing the circular economy one step closer to reality.
Eric decided to start with an everyday basic‚ the toothbrush. With a team of scientists, dentists, engineers, and the design help of his father, Fred, the first Preserve product was born. In the years since, Preserve has continued to serve their customers up sleek, everyday products with a recycled twist. From razros, to reusable plates and bowls, to BPA free food storage options, Preserve has formed an example of how businesses can do better, yet still meet their customer's needs.
Eric decided to start with an everyday basic‚ the toothbrush. With a team of scientists, dentists, engineers, and the design help of his father, Fred, the first Preserve product was born. In the years since, Preserve has continued to serve their customers up sleek, everyday products with a recycled twist. From razros, to reusable plates and bowls, to BPA free food storage options, Preserve has formed an example of how businesses can do better, yet still meet their customer's needs.
Nothing Wasted, Everything Gained
Not only does Preserve make each product out of 100% recycled plastic, they've also taken action to make their products easy to recycle, too. With each and every product made from recycled #5 plastic, the Preserve team thought out the entire life cycle of each product, including it's rebirth. In order to make recycling as easy as possible, they created the Gimme 5 Program. To encourage customers to recycle their plastics, Preserve allows customers to mail in their used #5 plastics, or drop them off at one of their Gimme 5 drop off locations. These locations will even accept #5 plastics that your local recycling center won't, from hummus containers to used plastic utensils!
The benefits of recycling plastic are hard to miss. To prove this, Preserve partnered with PE Americas to determine a Life Cycle Analysis of their recycling program. After completion, Preserve learned just how much their eco-efforts were saving. Compared to the production of virgin plastics, Preserve's recycling process uses 48% less coal, 75% less oil, 46% less energy, 54% less water, and creates 64% less greenhouse gas emissions. Now that's something you can get behind!
In addition to encouraging recycling before and after their products' production, Preserve is also a certified B Corporation. This ensures that they've joined a community of businesses that commit to (and reach) strict standards for social and environmental responsibility. They're graded on everything from how they treat their employees, to how they produce their products. If that isn't enough, Preserve has even ranked in the top 10% of all B Corp companies in the Environment category for seven years in a row, making it to their Best for the World Environmental Impact List.
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