I am so excited to share with you the latest of our continued effort to create products designed for zero waste in manufacturing for a zero waste lifestyle. In fact we just received the Sustainability Award from NY NOW’s Design for a Better Future for our new products, which I will tell you about here in my Notebook.
First, a little history: From day one I wanted Aplat to be a company that cared about the environment in how we designed and manufactured products - with zero waste in the materials we use in manufacturing. I didn’t want Aplat just to produce some bags for zero waste living; I wanted to start with our origami inspired design so that there would be no waste of material at the factory level. We call this Zero Waste Design for a zero waste lifestyle. This is a big difference from just making cloth bags. Did you know that there can be as much as 30% waste of material in making soft goods? That’s 30% that goes into landfill. At Aplat our goal is 0% waste.
Keeping that in mind, I want to tell you our product news. I hope you will be as excited as I am. We are introducing a line extension to our Culinary Collection - Covers for your dishes, “Couvre-plat,” and zero waste pouches for your pantry, “Poch & Pochette.”
Couvre-Plat: Customers have long been asking me, “How do you cover the bowls or pans we put in our Plat Tote?” I’ve been listening to this question and prototyping covers for some time now. During my research I discovered that elastic is toxic, so I knew I needed to find a new sustainable solution. This led me to the unique Cotton Braided Drawstring, which allows you to cover dishes both round and rectangle and which provides a more secure fit than elastic.
Once that issue was solved, I had another design challenge, “What to do with the triangle and square waste produced from round covers.” The good news is waste from the round covers has inspired me to create an entire new product line that I’ll be launching this Fall, so stay tuned. To sum it up, we have eliminated the toxic, petroleum based elastic, and we now yield 0% waste in manufacturing.
Pochette: My first pochette design came from leftover cuts from our Aplat vertical wine totes. Again in keeping with my goal of 0% waste at the factory I saw an opportunity to sew these pieces of material into small pouches that my family used. Friends and my family loved them, and that gave me inspiration to extend the line from extra small to extra large pouches - thus creating a complete bread and pantry set for your true zero waste lifestyle. I have been using the extra small pochette for my children’s sandwiches and snacks. And now you can do the same.
You will be hearing more in the next few months about our efforts to eliminate waste and bringing you beautifully designed products, all created with our Aplat Design Principles:
- Origami Folds for volume
- Golden Rectangle Inspired Geometry for beauty
- Zero Waste of Material from Factory to Home
Stay Tuned!
Shu
Photos by Leslie Santarina
