Deep in the Mission

You don’t have to be a dyed-in-the-wool environmentalist to grasp what we’re doing.  In fact, one of our founders only started recycling a few months before we began work on the company.

An “environmentalist” is no longer an outsider activist. Environmentalism has moved back into the mainstream: we have municipal recycling programs in towns and cities across the country and, people are considering their impacts on waterways, animals and natural resources more than ever.  To us "environmentalism” simply means being honest about our effect on the natural world and choosing to value its health over other interests like profit and convenience. Given what we now know about the challenges of climate change and the benefits of resource efficiency, it's incumbent upon all of us, especially in business, to take a more complete view of our actions. For us taking a more complete view means incorporating three key truths:

1) The earth has finite resources

2) Making products from recycled materials is more cost effective when compared to making the same products from virgin materials

3) Making goods from recycled materials is more resource efficient and has a lower environmental costs than making the same goods from virgin materials

What do we mean that environmentalism is moving back into the mainstream?

Until the "modern era" recycling was a common activity in homes and cities around the country. Modern, industrialized manufacturing created a plethora of new consumer goods. While this mass production meant lower costs and a wealth of product choices for people, it also lead to a massive increase in the waste stream. Recognition of the waste problem in the US, and around the world, has caused recycling rates to move upward over the last few decades. The nation's composting and recycling rate rose from 7.7% of the waste stream in 1960, to 17% in 1990, to around 30% today. But that still leaves A LOT of waste to be recovered!