| Spring 2006 | ||||||
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One wonderful side effect of people becoming more aware of environment-friendly and organic products is the interest in mainstream retailers to carry these products so that they are available to more and more consumers. This offers a great opportunity for companies that make these products to grow and have a larger positive impact on Mother Earth. Of course none of this growth would be possible without the progressive mindset of your natural food store and retailers like Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s, who have taken greater risks on lesser known companies to bring their products to the community of consumers that shop in their stores. Recycline is grateful to them and equally importantly to you, our loyal customers for your support over the years for our products and our company. We realize that as a company with a social mission in addition to an economic one, growth of any kind must come with constant assessment and analysis of how we can remain aligned with our core values. This issue has been brought to the forefront recently with the announcement of mainstream retailers (like Wal-Mart) committing to carring more organic products. We will continue to evaluate the retail partners that we work with and gauge the potential impact of these larger larger retailers seeking to be more green. We generally view this as a positive development that we want to be receptive of. We also would like to point out actions like these are due to consumers like you - the alternative, thoughtful consumer - who have spoken with your efforts and wallets that you want change. That you want more. And you are going to search out and find the right products that reduce our impact and enhance our health. We think we should feel fortunate that the large, powerful companies are listening to you. We would love to know your opinion on how socially responsible companies like ourselves fit in with mainstream retailers. If you would like to share your thoughts with us please email us your comments. |
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In addition to Preserving the Earth through our business practices, Recycline also encourages the development of new environmental technologies by way of sponsoring research projects. We currently have two projects underway. The first project seeks to divert more cups and dairy waste from dairy manufacturers’ trash heaps. When cultured dairy products are manufactured, they are most often made in the cup. If a production run goes bad, often the whole lot ends up in the trash. It represents a great quantity of “clean” plastics that can be reground and reused for new products. And bad or spoilt dairy, such as yogurt, need not go in the trash, but can be captured by the bellies of pigs. The second project we are sponsoring seeks to help develop systems in municipal recycling facilities that will help capture more #5 plastics and thus enable more recycling of #5s in cities and towns. This research is a concerted effort to determine if the same dedicated systems and procedures that exist to make use of #1 and #2 plastics in towns that recycle, can help establish similar procedures to also make use of the growing number of #5 plastics. It is the dedication to the most common recycled plastics, #1 and #2, that can often leave the #5s out in the cold or in the less useful bin of mixed plastics. But number 5s are as recyclable as 1s and 2s, and as their supply grows, they become more valuable to the recycling organizations. We will post both of these theses on our website soon. |
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Like proud parents we are happy to introduce the newest addition to our Preserve family of environment-friendly products – new Preserve Tumblers. They are stylish, dishwasher-safe drinking cups made with 100% recycled plastic. Preserve Tumblers come in two colors, Pear Green and Ocean Teal, that complement our existing palette of Preserve Plateware and Preserve Cutlery. The 16 oz. Preserve Tumblers retail at $5.50 for a ten pack. Perfect for spring meals, birthday parties and summer picnics, look for Preserve Tumblers soon at a natural products retailer near you. 
We thank all those who participated in the toothpick naming contest. Since the product was just launched in August, we are going to hold on rebranding the toothpicks for the time being. But we didn’t want to let that get in the way of giving out the iPod so we'd like to throw it back to you to choose a winning name from the shortlist we compiled. 