Is your medicine cabinet full of single-use plastic? Unfortunately, what's good for our health isn't always what's good for the planet.
Cabinet, a company offering sustainable, refillable medicine containers, wants to change that with an innovative new approach.
🗣️ Which of these factors would most effectively motivate you to buy a refillable product?
🔘 Saving money 💰
🔘 Reducing plastic waste 🗑️
🔘 Using less shelf space at home 💁♀️
🔘 Getting easy refill deliveries 😎
🗳️ Click your choice to see results and speak your mind
Cabinet, 'the Sustainable Healthcare Co.'
Cabinet was founded by Achal Patel and Russ Gong to reduce plastic waste in the healthcare industry. The company claims that 194 billion (yes — billion with a 'B') plastic medicine bottles are produced each year, and most end up discarded.
Cabinet ships over-the-counter drugs and now some prescriptions right to your door in pouches that are compostable in the right conditions. The company also sends over attractive refillable bottles made of durable glass with magnetic labels, child-resistant caps, and stackable designs so you can kick single-use plastics to the curb, preferably in a recycling bin.
Cabinet started out selling only over-the-counter medicines but has begun offering early access prescription transfers through this interest form. Insurance isn't accepted at this time.
Cabinet is a Certified B Corporation, meaning it has high social and environmental performance and is accountable and transparent, as determined by B Lab.
'Greening' healthcare
Making U.S. healthcare more sustainable is a tall order, but it could have tremendous benefits in the future. Healthcare is responsible for 4.6% of the world's carbon emissions. The sector also releases tons of other air pollutants, especially when producing all those disposable plastic bottles.
Petrochemical plastic production and climate change are inextricably linked. These single-use plastics take a whole lot of heat, water, and energy to make and are responsible for planet warming and toxic pollution.
Judith Enck, a former EPA regional administrator and current president of the organization Beyond Plastics, told CNN that "plastic production is an environmental justice issue." Enck explained that the vast majority of climate pollution in the U.S. from the plastics industry is released in low-income communities with people of color disproportionately harmed.
The more we can move away from plastic and toward sustainable alternatives, the better we'll be. The fossil fuel industry is currently investing billions of dollars into plastic production facilities that are poised to flood the market with cheap, single-use plastics.
We can't just recycle our way out of this either. A Greenpeace report found that plastic recycling is a failed venture.
Companies like Cabinet, which are providing paths away from single-use plastics, are doing essential work in the fight against climate change and are working toward a healthier future.
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