I can't help but wonder about the aluminium packaging bit -- another company I buy (an unrelated product) from has recently switched to using it, and I wouldn't say it was an improvement. Is it even better for the environment? From what I understand it's extremely energy intensive to smelt aluminium, and even if done in places with lots of renewable energy (Iceland), it still has to be transported afterwards (and it's probably going to take up more shipping volume).
The only other thing I can think of is that Apple's marketing may have made people think aluminium is 'better', but I don't know whether or how much this carries over to stuff like packaging.
For a similar theme, one might want to look into the recent efforts in some European countries to introduce a deposit for plastic bottles -- even though both the economic and the environmental emission calculations show that it doesn't make sense (last mile transportation of empty bottles is a disaster from environmental perspective, not to mention their nonexistent reusability).
Aluminum could be better than plastics in the sense of less phyto-estrogens and endocrine disruptors being introduced into the environment and the users' bodies. I wouldn't be surpluses if a case can be made for most packaging materials used nowadays being environmentally friendly in some way.
The alu bit is definitely up for debate. Packaging from recycled alu is better for sure for the environment. That being said, it’s a goal we work towards. Short of doing a crowdfunding to finance the startup cost switching to alu is hard for our current order sizes.
I can't help but wonder about the aluminium packaging bit -- another company I buy (an unrelated product) from has recently switched to using it, and I wouldn't say it was an improvement. Is it even better for the environment? From what I understand it's extremely energy intensive to smelt aluminium, and even if done in places with lots of renewable energy (Iceland), it still has to be transported afterwards (and it's probably going to take up more shipping volume).
The only other thing I can think of is that Apple's marketing may have made people think aluminium is 'better', but I don't know whether or how much this carries over to stuff like packaging.
For a similar theme, one might want to look into the recent efforts in some European countries to introduce a deposit for plastic bottles -- even though both the economic and the environmental emission calculations show that it doesn't make sense (last mile transportation of empty bottles is a disaster from environmental perspective, not to mention their nonexistent reusability).