

· By Joseph Welstead
Sports Nutrition Industry: Time to Ditch the Plastic
32% of all plastic packaging leaks into our oceans and ecosystems ((Source: The New Plastics Economy: Rethinking the Future of PlasticsEllen MacArthur Foundation)). Motion cofounder Joe Welstead calls times up on single-use plastic as the de-facto packaging option in the health and sports nutrition industry.
By the time you've read this article, 3 truckloads of plastic waste will have been dumped into our oceans. From microbeads to plastic bottles and protein bar wrappers, plastic waste is out of control. Big pieces of plastic are entangling turtles, smaller pieces end up in bird's stomachs. Inevitably, plastic residue will end up on our plates and in our guts. We, the nutrition industry, make it our mission to improve the health of our customers. So what does this make us, if we keep on ignoring exacerbating plastic waste issues? Hypocrites, you are absolutely right. The nutrition industry also strives to make your life easy. It's our goal to make good nutrition convenient. So quite naturally, for a long time now, I’ve obsessed over the idea of merging convenience with environmentally friendly packaging materials. Convenience and eco-friendliness: two priorities pulling apart from each other. Seemingly impossible to combine. Until now, anyway. How are nutrition brands making your life easier? Subscriptions, grab & go packaging, and convenient, functional products that fit the reality of modern living. Indeed, subscribing to regular deliveries can be very handy. No more time wasted re-ordering products you already know you’ll want more of. Plus, subscribe in bulk and you have the potential to minimise your packing and shipping footprint (speaking of which, why not subscribe to 3-months of Unplug?). Sign up for a product you love, and this is a win for everybody: you, us, Earth. Brands across the industry are also offering more and more convenient solutions. Individually wrapped portions of protein bars, hydration blends, protein powders, breakfast drinks - you name it. Everything on the go. This is generally a positive step, since we tend to live busy lives with hectic schedules. Except for one major problem: plastic waste.If a brand’s sole offer is a subscription-based, plastic-wrapped, single-use product: they are not doing enough. Their subscriptions are locking you in to the plastic economy and exacerbating one of the biggest threats to the world as we know it. So tell these brands like it is: they need to do better. Then move on. I can say this with the certainty and assurance of having developed, after months and months of research and team-work, a better solution: plastic-free, recyclable and compostable. I am super proud of it, and I think you're going to love it.Let me tell you straight up: sports nutrition brands need to do better with plastic. It’s not easy. But we need to do better.
By combining FSC-approved cardboard, vegetable-based inks, water-based laminates, wood-pulp films, and compostable paper, we’ve been able to create sustainable grab & go packaging which will make your life easier while reducing your plastic footprint.