How to be more Eco-friendly

What does it mean to be eco-friendly?

Our natural environment is hot topic at the moment. Being eco-friendly or reducing our carbon footprint is generating significant amount of coverage and discussion.

First of all let’s understand what eco-friendly means. The terms eco-friendly or environmentally friendly describe something that is ecologically not harmful. We are now more aware of the damage our lifestyle and decisions have brought to our planet, so more and more of us are making the choice of reducing our impact. So it might be almost impossible to become environmentally friendly but we certainly can reduce our negative environmental impact by  deciding to be sustainable and making smart choices.

We can all agree on our desire to do one’s best in preserving and reducing our impact on natural environment. Because of human activity, Earth’s temperature is rising to an unsustainable level. This is putting extra pressure on Mother Nature.

At Zoetic ltd we like to see ourselves as environmentally friendly. Our ambition is to be sustainable, so we could maintain a prospering economy for generations to come.

To reach our goals we decided on giving priority to

  • Packaging
  • Working with eco-conscious farmers and producers.

Packaging

It is difficult to say what is the single most harmful thing humans are doing to Earth, but if we talk about waste, we believe plastic is second to none.

The largest market for plastic is packaging, and majority of the plastic we use ends up in landfill and the ocean.

The alarming scenes from Great Pacific Garbage Patch are familiar to many of us, estimated to be 1.6 million km2 (three times the size of France) and this is only one of the five garbage patches in our oceans.

If our seas and lands are being filled by plastic is not worrying enough, a recent study on rain water samples from Rocky Mountains in Colorado found it contained microplastic particles.

After a bit of research, we concluded that we must

  • Cut down our use of plastic in packaging and replace it by more biodegradable materials such as glass and plant based clear bags. Our bags are made from crystal clear NatureFlex ™ which is a 100% home compostable film made from cellulose, derived from sustainable wood pulp. An environmentally friendly choice.
  • Try to be as minimalist as possible in our packaging design, by using less colours or prints that are harmful to environment. An example would be we don’t film laminate (very thin plastic cover used for protection) our labels, or use metallic prints. After discarding packaging the paints used on packaging will find their way into our soil and water ways. Causing much harm to our eco-system. 

Facts and Figures

Often plastic waste does not decompose and could last for centuries. This can pollute our soil, rivers and oceans, and bring about harm to the wiled life that inhabit them.

  1. World produces over 380 million tonnes of plastic every year
  2. UK consumes over 2 million tonnes of plastic packaging each year.
  3. Between 8 to 14 million tonnes of plastic enter our oceans every year.
  4. 1 in 3 fish caught for human consumption contains plastic.
  5. 79% of plastic waste finds its way to landfills or the ocean, the rest is recycled or incinerated. 
Chart depicting the number of years it takes for selected plastic to bio-degrade in the ocean
How long it takes for plastic to Bio-Degrade.

Sustainable Farming

Our motivation to start this business was to work with a small collective of traditional saffron farmers from our home town. We couldn’t say no to this opportunity.

Promoting eco-friendly saffron and working with farmers to encourage sustainable farming has been challenging at times. 

Evolving from an outdated irrigation system to a more modern and sustainable one is not easy, specially when financial factors come into the equation. This is why we decided pay the farmers more for their saffron.

Alongside the farmers we also work with suppliers to expand our product range. We do our best to make sure our suppliers are promoting sustainability and fair trade.

Conclusion

We are now at a point where we have to change the legacy we leave behind. We have a choice of making small changes in our life in order to be more sustainable. Simple changes like reducing waste, reusing, eating clean and green, just making good choices will do wonders.

Handing a sustainable planet to future generations