Waste Free Products Turn to Packaging To Cut Consumer Waste

Packaging World: Tangie is advertised as being waste-free. What role does packaging play with waste free products or lifestyle?

Angie Ringler: You can order Tangie products online with or without packaging. The soap bars are sturdy on their own. So, when you order something package free, we're simply taking a little piece of recycled kraft paper and wrapping it around the soap, and then, we put it into a paper padded envelope. All the packaging is compostable, recyclable, and we purchase carbon credits through Terrapass to offset 100% of our carbon footprint by investing in strategic forest preservation projects.

Read this story about reusable sampling packs that reduce waste

Packaging World: How did you find suppliers that aligned with your sustainability and eco-friendly goals for Tangie?

Angie Ringler: When I started looking for packaging, I wanted a company that could tell me what they're doing with the forest or how they are handling wastewater. My packaging supplier in Oregon, Your Box Solution, only picks from sustainably managed forests, where they can trace where the wood is sourced to make sure that they're also planting the trees in its replacement. Doing things like that is important to me, and because I don't have control over that aspect of my business, I kind of must rely on my packaging printer to hold up that side of the business for me. They're using sustainable inks and the equipment they use is green certified.

Packaging World: With waste free products with limited packaging, whether you’re selling in-store or online, how do you maintain strong branding?

Angie Ringler: When you order a packaged laundry soap online, it comes in a corrugated paste box with the Tangie branding, and you can also order a usage sticker to place on the reusable container of your choice. This sticker has some usage directions and branding. In-store, owners usually make signage of their own, or we assist them in making signage that shows our brand and how-to-use information, but because all these stores have very different displays and setups of how they're doing things, they're not all the same.

Listen to this podcast on sustainability’s difficult dance with life sciences

Packaging World: Do you see the waste free products lifestyle influencing consumer demands and packaging for larger brands and companies in the future?

Angie Ringler: I feel like consumer demand is pushing it. I'm just a little fish in a big pond, and I'm doing it. I'm offering the ability for people to deliver package-free things. How can the bigger players not offer the same thing? Now, I get that it's an issue when you're talking about stocking a product on a very traditional grocery store shelf, right? It can't just be sitting out there naked, as great as that would be. I don't see a way for that to happen for many products, even though, when you walk into Whole Foods, they've got a table in the beauty section where they've got raw bars of soap. That wouldn't have happened 10 years ago, but it's happening today. So, in a way, that's going to come into play more. A lot of wholesalers that I sell have zero waste stores, where you can buy products without a package. They are being creative with the way that they can offer products without a package. But it's not like a big grocery store where you're walking up to the counter and a clerk needs to scan a UPC...I got to believe at some point, we can figure out a way to sell less packaging waste.