“It’s a game of trade-offs,” Shiber-Knowles said, acknowledging that a package bound for landfill in most markets is far from ideal. “It’s not a perfect solution, and it’s not plastic-free, but it’s what we can do right now. And in some ways, it’s better than 100% PCR plastic.”
Dr. Bronner’s has been getting strong customer feedback about the brand’s plastic use, begging for an alternative packaging solution—which was a major driver behind the launch of the refill carton.
“People are worried about plastic,” Lynn Hoffman, co-president of nonprofit, mission-based recycler Eureka Recycling. “I can totally understand from a marketing perspective why a brand would want their packaging to use less plastic.”
The carton does have significantly less plastic. But even in the best-case scenario, some of the package will end up in a landfill. In most regions, the whole carton is landfill-bound.
“It’s a cumbersome process,” Hoffman explained. “It’s hard to get paid enough for that material to make it worth it to collect and sort. Recyclers are just like rational economic actors who can’t collect something if no one’s gonna pay us for it.”
Dipping a toe into digital ads
To promote the new format, Dr. Bronner’s is dipping its toe into the world of paid digital advertising for the first time with a combination of sponsored posts on Facebook and Instagram and SEO-related ads on Google and Amazon. Historically, Dr. Bronner’s has avoided paid advertising expenditures, preferring to put that money toward philanthropic work.
“This year is like a little bit of a trial. It’s a tiny little budget. We are seeing how much consumer behavior is changing in terms of shopping and trial of new products with online buying and online shopping,” Shiber-Knowles explained. “It’s a new frontier for us that we’re internally on the fence about, honestly, because it is money that could go to charity.”
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