Getting Rid of Plastic Stretch Wrap

I love the nitty-gritty parts of running a business: figuring out how to make the changes that will have a huge impact on people, the world, and our business.  So it’s no surprise that I’m obsessed with plastic stretch wrap and am very excited about the stretch wrap in this picture. One of my goals for 2021 was to start using a more environmentally friendly stretch wrap in our warehouse.  And it’s finally happened!  We are now using a sugarcane-based stretch wrap to protect all of our pallets instead of a plastic-based stretch wrap. This will drastically cut down on our plastic waste. That’s many thousands of pounds of plastic per year that won’t be used once and thrown away. And we’re a small company. Can you imagine if larger companies started doing this?⁠  That number would go into the multi-millions of pounds of plastic with just 1 soda company, for example, making the switch.
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I’m not sure the average consumer realizes how much plastic is used just for the transportation of their consumer products before it even gets to the store. All of our ingredients and supplies are shipped to us on a pallet, which is wrapped in single-use plastic stretch wrap. That pallet is then disassembled and the stretch wrap thrown away. We use those ingredients to produce our products, and then ship the finished product to our customers’ warehouse on another stretch-wrapped pallet. They unwrap the pallet and put into storage. Then they take our product and put it on a pallet with other products and ship it to their stores. And of course, that pallet is also wrapped in plastic stretch wrap. The product is then received at the store and put on the shelf. That’s a lot of stretch wrap!!! And while we are just one link in the supply chain, we are still getting rid of a lot of plastic, and I hope that we can inspire others to make this change as well. If you are a fellow company that wants to make actual strides in improving your environmental impact, check out the sugarcane-based stretch wrap from Good Natured Products.  They also sell many everyday products like sandwich bags, cups and more that are biodegradable.  While we still have a long way to go to remove all of the plastic that we use as a company, it’s important to celebrate the small steps and victories as they will lead to bigger victories and hopefully inspire others to do the same. Keep on enjoying Tru-Nut and thanks for reading my first blog post.  I plan to post here a lot more with more updates about what we are doing to improve the world.  I believe everyone has a role in helping to save the world, and businesses have their own unique role and I want to make sure that we are doing what we need to do.  Thanks for being a Tru-Nut fan!

Reid