WASHINGTON STATE EPS BAN

 

It’s obvious that whoever is the first state to ban EPS will be the first state with cleaner beaches and rivers, less trash in the streets, and less waste headed to your landfills. On June 1st of this year, the state of Washington won that distinction and all the benefits that go with it by officially becoming the first state to ban the use of EPS not only in food service products, but with insulated coolers as well. Yay for the State of Washington and everyone who calls the State of Washington home, as they will be the first state to benefit from this milestone moment in our ecological future.

The EPS ban in the State of Washington is straightforward in wording and desired outcome – straightforward by designating products where EPS is not allowed to be made or shipped into the state (It’s not all EPS, but it’s a great start). The desired outcome will soon be even more straightforward and obvious – Washington State will soon be the first state to have no more EPS waste in their rivers, lakes and oceans. No more EPS waste on their streets, ally ways, and parking lots. No more little EPS beads breaking apart and blowing in the wind across the entire state of Washington, where they will fall to the ground and take decades to degrade in the earth. The EPS ban will create a cleaner, heathier, more environmentally balanced State of Washington, and that is a clear victory for the people they work and live there. It also reaffirms the State of Washington’s motto of “Alki”, which is the Chinook word for “hope for the future”, but instead of hope, the State of Washington now has a clear path to a better environmental future than any other state. History will forever note that the State of Washington won first place in the environmental race by putting in place EPS bans. Now the question is, who’s going to be the first state to ban EPS in total?

You do realize that the State of Washington is never going back to allowing EPS in these areas, and the current EPS ban will further be expanded to include all EPS packaging, right? And that every other state will eventually follow suit and ban all EPS, unless there a nationwide EPS ban put in place first. Right?

So, do thee other 49 states have similar EPS ban plans? (love the term – “ban plans”). There are a few cities states who currently have put in place limited EPS bans on food service items. To those states, good job and it’s a starting point to build from. But that’s all well and good until someone buys new TV, and that TV arrives with the traditional 64 cubic feet of molded EPS that once unpacked, heads straight for that state’s landfills. Just so you understand the math, the 64 cubic feet of flat screen TV EPS packaging equates to roughly 20,480 coffee cups. Yup, 20,480 coffee cups per TV package with each coffee cup at .003125 of EPS volume. Do the math yourself if you don’t believe me. So just how effective is an EPS ban for food products only then? Not so much. What about other products that ship in EPS currently? The ban on EPS containers in the State of Washington is a good start but does not cover all EPS packages. As we know from the math above, a couple of TV packages of EPS generates the same waste pile as 40,000 people drinking one (1) cup of coffee out of an EPS container and dumping it in the landfill. That’s just TV packaging. There are still so many EPS products that are not eliminated under the Washington State EPS ban that still need to be addressed. Again, once we eliminate EPS waste, no one is going back to it. So how do we get the other products using EPS in the State of Washington, along with the other 49 states to enact laws to eradicate all EPS from our country? First, just stop using EPS and replace it with environmental materials that have an established 100% closed loop recycling path or utilize organic based products that will bio-degrade and not negatively impact our planet. It’s a mouthful but it sounds pretty simple right? It is simple, but there is one simple reason for companies to continue to use EPS and pollute our planet. Care to guess? You got it – cheap costs. The companies using EPS to ship and transit their products have basically made a conscience choice to choose profits over polluting our planet. Knowing there are multiple alternative material solutions available to use, knowing there are multiple closed loops recycling paths available to use, and knowing that there are numerous recyclable and recycled materials, along with organics can provide the same transit protection, there is no other answer than these companies are choosing increased profits over our planets health, and don’t care at all about the environmental damage they are doing to our earth. And it’s not a question, or a debate, or an argument; the materials are there to replace EPS, the closed loop recycling is there to replace EPS, and the organic materials are widely available to replace EPS. They all just cost a little more.

So, there’s the rub, or reason why companies continue to use EPS  regardless of the impact it creates on our planet and health. Their profits. But (yeah, there’s a but). Maybe there is a way to make non-EPS solutions that cost more, but also do more than EPS, resulting in overall lower costs. How is that possible? Glad you asked.

Maybe companies have been looking at their packaging the wrong way. Maybe they have been looking at it as just packaging, A means to an end. A required cost burden that they must incur because we can’t teleport objects through space yet and have them delivered to our homes without some level of product protection. But what if we changed the dynamic of how we consider transit packaging, or packaging as a whole? What if we changed the required cost burden perception of packaging to an incredible opportunity for product branding and marketing? We did. And we think the math works.

Start with an EPS insulative packaging. Pack your product in it with some dry ice or gel packs and ship it to your customer. We know the EPS packaging will be the first impression your customer will get of your product when opening the carton, but if the EPS kept your product cold enough and it got your product to the consumer safely, then the EPS did its job. Beyond that, the EPS container is waste destined for the trash and ultimately landfills. And out with the EPS trash goes the memory of receiving your product, along with any memory of your product brand. It’s not a great environmental story to tell either, or one for your company to be proud of. The consumer who bought your product will probably feel the same way about adding their EPS to the landfill waste. The same story albeit with a slightly better ending could be told with single use packaging, regardless of if it is recycled or not – post transit the packaging has no value to the consumer and is a burden to them to dispose of (it’s also why we don’t eat off paper plates every night, but that’s another story). It’s also providing no benefit to the manufacturers brand or products, and it’s detracting the brand with the negative connotations of shipping in EPS.It’s just the way it is…or was.

Now what if we changed the current packaging dynamic completely, or in simple terms how we perceive and use packaging today. Instead of shipping your product in the lowest cost, earth polluting material like EPS, what if you packaged your product in a solution that can keep your brand and product name in front of your customer for weeks, months, and years after that first out of box experience. Imagine long after the food, cake, caviar, or seafood arrives to your customer, they still have your product branding in front of them, reminding them of your product and the great experience they had when they received it. What is that worth to your brand? Can you quantify it? Can you measure it and compare it against your other marketing spend? The answers are a lot, and yes, and yes. Every company will be different, but every company can quantify and measure the impact of having their product logo and company branding in front of their customers on a regular basis.

 

As I mentioned previously, there are better environmentally friendly materials and processes available today that can replace EPS. We just need to understand how we increase the post transit value of these materials, so they offset the lower cost of EPS. How do we do that?  By creating packaging solutions that go well beyond initial transit protection for your product and end up being valued, kept, and reused by your customers. Once exhausted, then we recycled it back into itself. Perfect environmental world.

Let’s go back to the EPS insulated containers. Cheap, effective, and sent to the trash as soon as the product is removed from it. No post transit value to the customer or the manufacture of the product.

Now let’s change the packaging dynamic to a 100% reusable insulative cooler made from 100% recyclable polypropylene. It’s clean. It’s washable. It doesn’t degrade with use. The cooler is robust and has a self-sealing lid that can be opened and closed repeatedly and will perform for years as a cooler when reused.

Then we brand this reusable beautiful cooler with your company or product logos, with labels, embossing, and color matching to your product and company brands. This seriously changes your customers out of box experience to start, but more importantly, due to the quality and ability to reuse the cooler for multiple other parts of their lives, your customers do not throw it away. Ever. Seriously, never. Why would they? They now have a really cool cooler (pun very much intendent) that they can use for years to come for the beach, river trips, picnics, and parties. They can wash it, drop it, and open and close it as many times as they want, and it still works. They now have a cooler that will last them years to come. Oh, and each time they reuse it, each time they take in on a trip, each time they open it, they will see and think of your company’s product and brand. Now try to measure and quantify that value add: your product and company brand in front of your customer for years. How many marketing dollars would you have to spend to get the same value? More than the money you saved by shipping the EPS container? I’ll wait why you do the math, but we have, and it’s a no brainer in favor of the reusable cooler. I’m sure most marketing people can rapidly assess the benefits of keeping a product and company brand in front of their customers versus throwing their product branding in the trash. Pretty simple math to do.

There we have it. An intelligent, cost positive solution to remove EPS from the waste stream. A solution that keeps promoting your product and brand well after your customer’s initial purchase. A solution that enhances your product and brand image on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis.  A package that your customer actually wants to keep and sees value in keeping and reuses repeatedly. A package that doesn’t negatively impact our environment, and that once exhausted, and easily be collected or dropped off for recycling back into itself. The resultant is the highest level of environmental sustainability combined with a lifetime of product and company branding in front of your customers. Win, win, win.

The State of Washington will be the first state to realize a better environmental future. Congratulations and great job! The other 49 states will eventually follow, along with Federal regulations banning all EPS. The excuse has always been the cheap cost of EPS. Now that excuse it gone, and there are no more excuses. Contact EPE today to join us in saving the world one package at a time.