Market Updates

Rainbow Light Launches Campaign to Address Ocean Plastic Crisis

Brand challenges consumers and conscious companies to say no to single-use plastics.

Rainbow Light, Santa Cruz, CA, a leading natural multivitamin brand, has launched its Path to EcoGuard environmental health campaign to activate solutions to the consumer packaging crisis and the dire toll plastics are taking on the oceans. In less than 9 years there will be one ton of plastic for every three tons of ocean fish, according to the 5 Gyres Institute, a non-profit research organization dedicated to design and policy change.
 
In addition to an award-winning video on the ocean plastic crisis, Rainbow Light has launched a microsite to provide free sourcing and operational information on its trademarked EcoGuard 100% recycled bottles to help other conscious companies evaluate sustainable packaging options. EcoGuard packaging is FDA approved food grade, BPA-free recycled plastic and now helps Rainbow Light keep approximately 10 million plastic bottles from polluting waterways and natural habitats every year.
 
“25 years ago, Rainbow Light commissioned the industry’s first environmental impact study to establish best practices for reducing its packaging footprint, and it was clear that single-use plastic was the worst offender,” said Ildiko Kiss, general manager of Rainbow Light. “Rainbow Light also learned that converting to recycled plastic containers would reduce its carbon footprint seven-fold over any other alternative.”
 
Rainbow Light worked with leaders in sustainable packaging to refine EcoGuard 100% recycled bottles which have now reduced the company’s carbon footprint by a healthy 92%. “By providing conscious companies ready access to our container suppliers, Rainbow Light hopes to speed positive change and create a forum to explore solutions to protect the precious health of our oceans for future generations,” Kiss said. Currently, up to 95% of plastic packaging—valued at $120 billion—is lost after one use. The irony is that recycling plastic can take 90% less energy than making plastics from raw materials.
 
5 Gyres Institute has documented upward of 270,000 tons of plastics floating in the world’s oceans. “We’ve turned our oceans into a plastic smog,” explained Anna Cummins, founder of the 5 Gyres Institute. “Plastic doesn’t biodegrade, but it does photodegrade, meaning sunlight and wave action turn plastic into sand-sized particles that stay in our oceans for decades. These plastics are easily mistaken for food by foraging animals, and enter the food chain that sustains us. By polluting the oceans and waterways, we’re really polluting ourselves.”
 
Along with the live microsite and video series, Rainbow Light will feature podcasts on ocean health on its Transformational Wellness Network, and host consumer training events at select natural retailers. To jump start consumer awareness and advocacy, in honor of Earth Day, Rainbow Light is sponsoring the Earth Day Gratitude project, a free downloadable anthology from leading thinkers envisioning our sustainable future. 
 
The Path to EcoGuard follows a 2015 partnership with 5 Gyres, Whole Foods Markets and other conscious brands in a #BantheBead campaign that helped raise consumer awareness around plastic microbeads present in many conventional toothpastes and exfoliating products. On December 28th, 2015, President Obama signed the Microbead Free Waters Act of 2015, banning the sale of microbeads in the United States forever.

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