Brands that release their products in to the world ought to have designed into their systems what will be done with the product and packaging at the end of its life. However, the vast majority never have, leaving it to local councils and volunteers to clean up and process their waste. Via council rates, we all in fact pay the cost to deal with the 'waste' that companies profit from creating.

Most recently, I have experienced this with trying to get a straight answer from local councils and milk and drink brands on whether their plastic bottle tops can be put in kerbside recycling or not. Remarkably, most brands make zero public mention of what to do with their packaging, particularly the troublesome little piece of plastic that is their lids! The solution is a network of volunteers who are collecting, granulating, then trying to find a manufacturer who will make something with this poor quality plastic*.

*Please be aware that any brand claiming to make their bottles from ocean or other discarded plastics, is not using 100% waste plastic. At least 50% of the bottle must be virgin plastic (and in some cases it is up to 95% virgin plastic) to make the bottle strong enough. Recycled plastic is also considered contaminated and is not meant to be used for products used on or consumed by humans.

Thankfully, there is growing awareness of corporate responsibility for a product from 'the cradle to the grave', but it is taking change-leaders like us and you to inspire brands to act. Back in 2005 at Biome's first store in Paddington, we accepted printer toners, mobile phones and batteries! At the time there were limited options, but we personally paid to send them off. Now, the stationery stores and retailers of these products, provide drop off services, so we no longer have to.

We were the first to embrace TerraCycle's service in stores in Australia by offering our customers the chance to drop off beauty packaging and toothpaste products. We commend the brands that have sponsored TerraCycle to make it free, such as Colgate and L'Oreal (no longer). However, it appears to become too costly for them because they are paying for the packaging waste of all their competitors also! A similar situation has just happened with contact lenses. The brand that was paying for this has dropped their sponsorship as they were inundated, and we are now paying to recycle hundreds of these items for our customers. We noticed that other online retailers such as flora and fauna recycling and brad recycling and terracycle mecca followed suit.

To save them going to landfill, we also accept huge amounts of medication blister packs that we pay for TerraCycle to process. We all know that most pharmaceutical companies make massive profits. I can't believe they are leaving it to a small family business like Biome to pay for their waste to be handled. It's time for the Pharmacy Guild and Big Pharma brands to step up.

Consumer product brands have the financial might and human resources to work something out together to deal with their problem—we can all help them with the will!

THE TRUE COST:

Brands whose packaging can not be placed in kerbside recycling are relying on their single use packaging being sent to landfill. And that has a cost—a direct monetary cost to council ratepayers, and environmental damage that is rarely factored in to the cost of a product. Landfill produces greenhouse gases that cause global warming, which is costing humans and all of nature dearly. Plus, these items are often put into the recycling bin, which messes up the whole recycling process, costing money to remove from the legitimate recycling, or costing the waste of spoiling a whole batch of recyclables.

REDUCE & REUSE:

The number one step must be to reduce the need for packaging in the first place. That is where Biome offers our customers solutions such as: refillable products, making your own, reusables, and products that don't need plastic packaging such as shampoo bars.

The problem with any recycling service is that it does make it easier for us all to choose single-use items because we have peace of mind that the packaging will be recycled. But, it's now widely known that much of the material isn't recycled, or made into future products. There is not the capacity, nor the financial incentive to make it viable. It costs a lot for the labour and machinery to break down and extract the resources (imagine what is involved in separating the materials in a marker pen) and that is why there is a charge for a TerraCycle Zero Waste Box.

WHY WE DO THIS:

We accept responsibility for the end of life of the packaging and products that we sell. Firstly, we are transparent with our customers from the start about the materials and what can and can't be done with them when finished! Not everything we sell can be recycled, reused or composted, but we don't greenwash the truth.

We offer recycling for beauty, cosmetics and oral care packaging (for all brands, not just those we sell), but we aim to help you transition to reusable, refillable alternatives. We offer recycling for the silicone items that we sell only. Silicone recycling is expensive, so we can't offer this for the huge amounts of silicone products on the market.

In addition, we offer recycling of items that we don't sell such as milk bottle caps, corks, and plastic straws, simply because we want to be part of the solution—the mission Biome was founded on.