The Plastic Problem

The world has a huge problem with plastic, especially single use, and we know cleaning products are contributing to this vastly.

Even Eco friendly and natural cleaning brands (mentioning no names!) are still using plastic bottles. They might make great claims about them being recycled or recyclable, but that just doesn’t work. Plastic can only be recycled a few times and degrades each time so still ends up in waste, incinerators or the ocean eventually.

….  and did you know only 10% of plastic actually gets recycled anyway!! Despite all our best efforts to collect and put it in the recycling, the rest is often shipped around the world to end up in dumps somewhere or in the ocean

As an aside, here’s two great articles on the subject and what can be done about it:

In our business as the Squeeky Cleaners we were seeing far too many plastic bottles, even using commercial cleaning concentrates, so we decided it was time for a change. So Squeeky Organic cleaning products was born to provide the world with a natural plastic free cleaning solution.

So what to use for our plastic free cleaning products? Well glass is an obvious option, but its heavy so produces more transport CO2, and is too fragile in a cleaning environment, one slip and BANG! Broken glass everywhere and new bottle needed!

So what is the answer..?

Introducing, Drum Roll Please ..........

Aluminium!

Yes, you know the stuff all those drinks cans are made of. It’s the most abundant metal on the planet, it’s light and tough, and can be recycled almost infinitely; melt down a can and you can make another can.

Cool Aluminium facts:

  • Almost 75% of aluminium ever produced is still in use today, as its just keeps getting recycled !!
  • Recycling aluminium saves more than 90 percent of the energy and emits only five percent of the greenhouse gases needed to make new aluminium.

Plastic Free Cleaning

We’ve  brought Aluminium Life Bottles of beauty to our range of products, a first for any cleaning product. This removes the use of plastic bottles all together, so no plastic waste need be created.

Our aluminium trigger spray cleaning bottles are light and tough, drop it no problem, small dent at most. They will have a long and happy life being refilled and reused, and if like all of us they eventually wear out or break, they can just be popped into recycling with your metal cans and tins.

We don’t even paint or powder coat the bottles, as that’s just more wasteful energy, material and C02 emissions. Plain polished aluminium looks good naked, so why mess with it!

They ship with just a concentrate dose in them as well, so removing all the CO2 emissions from shipping full bottles containing 90% water (and saves you postage costs!). You just add the water when you receive it.

Squeeky Life Organic natural plastic free multi purpose surface cleaner aluminium life bottle
Squeeky Life Organic natural plastic free multi purpose surface cleaner bundle aluminium concentrate refill. These are for the squeeky life bottles and bundle

Concentrate Cleaning Refills

For our concentrate cleaning refills we also use aluminium refill bottles, they even have aluminium caps.
 
These are small and light and each contains two refill doses, using minimum materials and reducing C02 impact for transport (while saving postage costs).
 
They can be recycled with all your cans and tins, or you can find handy uses for them – at 100ml they are a convenient size for all sorts of products you might need to store or carry around, even on a flight!

Abstract photo created by freepik – www.freepik.com

Sources and further reading: