I recently had a very interesting and cool experience when I was in Florida on a trip to both have some fun on vacation with my husband, but also to go and hang out with my Crunchi sisters to learn more about what's coming up with Crunchi in the future. A part of that was a beach cleanup that we did. So we were staying in Delray, Florida, a very nice area of Florida. 

Earlier in our trip, we had walked on the beach and I knew we had this beach cleanup happening. And I was like, there's not really that much trash here. What are we going to do on this beach cleanup? That was my initial thought.

So I had to get up early and I didn't really want to go. But then when I got out there and I saw the sunrise over the ocean. It was a very hot, very hot July day and we got our gloves on, we got our bags to collect the trash. When you started looking at the trash there, it was so obvious to me through this experience, that choosing sustainable products really matters. 

So we were out there on the beach, combing the beach for plastic and any sort of garbage. Like I said, initially, it was so clean, I didn't see any trash. And it was great. And then when I finally got out there and started looking, that's when you really started seeing these small plastic pieces and trash everywhere. And, you know, it's one of those things that, like in just a broad look, you don't see them, but when you start looking there's really so much. You'd look down at the sand and you just see regular sand and then all of a sudden this bright blue plastic piece, maybe from a water bottle, maybe from a toy, but it really stood out. We saw lollipop sticks. We saw bottle caps, we saw those little tiny rings that go around bottles. One of our people that was with us, she found a shark hook or a huge fishing hook that had this super long fishing line attached to it. It was right next to the turtle nests that were all protected, trying to keep those turtles safe as they venture from the beach into the water. There was so much plastic when we started to look. And as you may know, the microplastics and the plastics that are a huge issue in our oceans, they're not that bad here in the US. They are really terrible in other areas of the world. And even though we were just in this one small area for just a half an hour, our group collected 42 pounds of trash. In 30 minutes of looking across this clear sort of clean beach much different than some of the other parts of the world that have these huge plastic islands of trash. Oh my gosh, it was really, it was really moving. Like I said, I didn't want to get up early. I didn't want to really go do this beach cleanup, but I made myself and I was so glad I did. Because it really confirmed for me how important it is that we choose sustainable products. Most of us are choosing better packaging when it comes to maybe our fruits and vegetables packaging, trying to not use the clam shells or the individually wrapped plastic things. Or maybe you're really making a better effort to choose cardboard packaging over plastic when it comes to your laundry packaging. 

There's so many different ways that people are paying more attention to packaging. At the store you're starting to see more sustainable packaging, in products like deodorant, those sorts of things. You're seeing more soap bars instead of plastic shower gel packages or shampoo packages. I can see that the consensus of the market is changing. They're trying to provide more and more of this sustainable packaging. 

I will say that the beauty industry is still catching up. So just for the beauty industry in and of itself, 100 and 120 billion units of beauty packaging are produced each year and 79% of this packaging is not recycled. Many times these small little plastic containers can't be recycled. So 79% of the 120 billion units of beauty packaging alone are not recycled. This creates 8 million tons of plastic that ends up in the oceans, in the waters of our world. 

One thing that I choose to do whenever I buy a product is I look at that packaging and I consider what it’s primarily made of. What is the primary packaging of this item? It is hard to find beauty packaging that is not primarily made of plastic. And that's why I love being partnered with a company that has sustainability as one of its three tenants of its brand. With Crunchi the three main parts of their brand that makes them up is safe ingredients, performance and sustainability. And they really walk the talk with Crunchi. You find that 0% of their products are packaged in primarily plastic packaging. They have glass. Glass lip gloss, glass mascara, glass foundation glass skincare products, and you just don't see that everywhere. There is some plastic packaging with Crunchi because it is impossible at this time. That technology is not there yet to have these packages without any sort of plastic packaging so you know the lids or the pumps are plastic but their primary packaging is 0% plastic. So awesome. 

They also really do their part because they are producing some plastic in their product packaging they're doing their part and partnering with 4Ocean which is an organization that collects plastic from the ocean. They partnered with 4Ocean to help offset the plastics that are being put into the world by selling a product that has some bit of plastic on it. CrunchI is the only beauty brand that is partnered with 4Ocean and is certified plastic neutral and again it has that plastic neutral determination because 0% is primarily packaged plastic and then they're offsetting the plastic that they do put out there by partnering with 4Ocean and paying for  4Ocean to remove plastic from the ocean.

So anyway, I just wanted to share that story that I had how moving that was to really think oh, it's not that big of a deal. There's not that much trash on the beach, to actually start looking and participating in this cleanup. That group removed so much plastic from this beautiful beach. And to know that when we make choices in the packaging of the products we're buying, it truly does make a difference. We need to consider sustainability with all the products that we purchase and sustainability really does matter. So I encourage you the next time you buy something to really think about what the primary packaging is. And really what is this company doing to offset the plastic that is used here. Because as we know many of this packaging just cannot be recycled when they're done. 

As always, thank you for listening. If you want to learn more about 4Ocean I encourage you to check them out.