It’s true, we’re not perfect,...yet. But we are committed to finding the most sustainable solutions we can. From the beginning, we’ve always gone after the best ingredients on the planet. From our Icelandic wild-caught Marine Collagen to our Vegan Omega-3 from USA-grown marine algae, the source, traceability, and performance of our products respect the planet.

However, to keep our formulas premium & safe, we’ve relied on plastic. For now, plastic is the most durable and light-weight material that guarantees product quality, improved shelf life, and a reduced carbon footprint in transportation as compared to glass or metal. Although we are constantly sourcing and testing more biodegradable packing options, we just haven’t found anything that offers the same quality as what we can provide using plastic. For this reason, partnering with rePurpose Global, allows us to offer a more 360-degree eco-friendly approach to our products.

We can all admit how much the use of plastic and its disposal has been mismanaged. Not just within our home in America but globally. rePurpose Global and its waste management partners help to add crucial income streams for informal waste workers and their families. Through our Plastic Neutral contributions, rePurpose Global pays ethical wages to waste workers for collecting hard-to-recycle low-value plastic waste items for which they never receive compensation from the current recycling market. This way, waste workers get fairly compensated for their important work, while diverting plastic waste that would have otherwise been landfilled, burned, or flushed into our oceans.

Our chosen waste management partner is Waste4Change, an environmental organization, that has managed more than 5.4 million kilos of ocean-bound waste since 2014. Waste4Change is based in Indonesia. Home to more than 267 million people, it is believed to be the world's second-largest contributor to plastic pollution in the oceans, after China. Nearly 15% of all plastic waste that ends up in the oceans worldwide comes from Indonesia. One of the reasons that we chose to collaborate with them is their 100% holistic approach to waste management, with core services that include: segregated waste collection from landfills and the ocean, waste management consulting and research, processing the collected waste in a responsible way, such as in-store recycling, extended producer responsibility, and event waste management.

Good question. In choosing a partner for plastic neutrality, transparency was at the top of our list. RePurpose Global employs strict verification measures - they conduct unannounced spot-checks, provide detailed reports of their progress, and ensure that their Plastic Neutral Protocol is implemented no matter who they’re working with. This Protocol is a set of operational guidelines that help waste management partners carry out their recycling operations in an ethical and efficient manner and ultimately maximize impact on the ground. RePurpose Global is an independent platform that also helps align new incentives. Impact Agents at rePurpose Global conduct regular due diligence to help enable compliance with a lens of 100% objectivity.

At Amandean we’ve always been fanatics about finding the best ingredients on the planet for our products so finding a partner like RePurpose Global to protect these sources was a natural fit. As a small company, adopting sustainability practices is at the core of our company & client values. In Partnering with rePurpose Global, we are working on evaluating our entire supply chain in order to take more action in the future.

Kudos to you! Here’s a good resource to follow: take the rePurpose Global’s3-Minute Plastic Footprint Calculator - it collects information on your consumption habits to understand and break down your annual plastic footprint. Once you know your pain points, it’s much easier to solve the problem. We suggest adopting 1 new habit per month so that slowly and consistently, you become plastic neutral yourself!

Our waste may be generated and picked up here in the US, but a majority of it ends up being shipped out of sight and out of mind to be dealt with in the developing world. On the receiving end, most developing countries lack the necessary resources and infrastructure to handle more waste than their own, which makes them weak links in a truly global waste ecosystem. In fact, 90% of plastic pollution in the oceans today stem from just 10 rivers, 8 of which are located in Asia.

Although these countries might be thousands of miles away, lack of support there results in waste ending up back in our own backyards. This is how we know that our plastic problem is not country-specific, it’s global. Make sense?

Let’s face it, companies and individuals alike could always do more to promote a healthier planet. Plastic neutrality is only a start. If we all start taking small actionable steps, it will lead to a brighter future. We will continue to adapt and evolve where possible to leave our planet a better place.

Every dollar of our Plastic Neutral contributions is invested in improving and expanding waste management infrastructure globally. This helps maintain the existing systems and expand for the long run to take on even more plastic waste that would have otherwise been dumped in nature.