ECOlunchbox’s Circular Designs Model Are Next Gen Green Products

The traditional mindset when it comes to designing consumer products is linear. Materials are extracted from our Earth and made into products, which are then discarded in a landfill at the end of life. Every born product is headed from the cradle to the grave in this scenario.

What if the products could be reborn through recycling and composting at the end of life? Imagine if, instead of a one-way journey from the cradle to the grave, products could be designed with a “circular” lifecycle. Circular design means that materials extracted from our Earth, like steel, silicone, and bamboo, could be made into durable products with longevity.

In this “circular” scenario, when these steel, silicone, and bamboo products, like our Blue Water Bento Insulated Canister, are no longer needed by their original buyers, they would still have utility and value to be resold, repurposed, or recycled/composted for reclamation of its materials and reuse in a new product?

Then the steel and silicone would be separated to be recycled into new steel and silicone pellets for reuse in creating new products. The bamboo elements would also be separated so the wood could be biodegraded. The resulting carbon-rich compost would be tilled back into the Earth to give life to new bamboo plants.

ECOlunchbox Products Designed To Go Round and Round

So it goes - round and round - when it comes to ECOlunchbox’s circular design philosophy, which is also referred to as “cradle to cradle.”

Since our founding in 2008 by California eco mom Sandra Ann Harris, we’ve persisted in our mission to help people say goodbye to plastic at lunchtime for health and environmental reasons by putting to market the best plastic-free products we can dream up. We educate, inspire, and empower our community to go plastic-free and make a measurably positive planet impact through our marketing and responsibly made food containers!

When we set out several years ago to develop a circular food container design for our Blue Water Bento Insulated Canister, our goal was to create a first-of-its-kind fabulous insulated container that our community could use joyfully for a long time and then recycle and biodegrade mindfully at the end of life -- instead of tossed in a landfill. Molded thermos container lids are overwhelmingly made with plastic combined with steel.

Plastic, a cheap material used as an insulator, is used to make thermos lids and bases even in products advertised as featuring non-toxic stainless steel. Even lids with steel on the outside usually have plastic threading on the inside. And the top of the container base has more molded plastic to receive the lid. All this plastic combined with steel means that these conventional mixed material products are generally thrown in the landfill instead of recycled at the end of life.

With our Blue Water Bento Canister, there’s no molded plastic of any kind used in the design. Our lid threading is made from steel. Each material used in the product easily separates for recycling! The steel base is 100% recyclable. The etched bamboo lid, which features wood insulation instead of molded plastic, can be removed with a flat head screwdriver and composted at home or commercially. (Note: many recyclers won’t even require the bamboo lid topper to be removed since it’s a biodegradable part.) The silicone gasket can be mailed back to ECOlunchbox for recycling or turned in at a regional recycling depot that accepts silicone.

We’re Striving To Continue Our Positive Planet Impact

The global economy is tragically unsuitable for our planet, and ECOlunchbox is working on demonstrating the possibility that consumer products companies can be part of planet impact solutions by activating our mission to educate and inspiring people to reduce their dependence on plastics and putting to market innovative, plastic-free products with circular designs since 2008.

If there is any hope of protecting Earth from irreparable extraction of resources and the irreversible destruction of our climate, the way humans use resources needs to become tremendously more regenerative. We invite consumers to support our efforts as an independently owned family business to say goodbye to plastic and market exceptional “cradle to cradle” reusable food container designs.

If your business or organization wants to take part in this movement and move away from plastic waste, our sister company CircularWare can help. To learn more about what we can do for you, please visit the CircularWare website.

To read more about ECOlunchbox Launches Blue Water Bento Insulated Canister, click HERE.