Santa Cruz, CA—Rainbow Light Nutritional Systems, maker of all-natural vitamins and supplements, has announced a major eco-friendly change to the way its products are sold. In a move that will be the first of its kind in the natural supplement industry, Rainbow Light will complete a conversion of its supplement product bottles to 100% reused plastic material in 2010. The specially designed EcoGuard bottles are made entirely from post-consumer resin (PCR), are FDA approved for safety and are fully recyclable. By using previously manufactured material from the vast, underutilized stockpile of recycled plastic, over six million plastic bottles annually will never stuff a landfill or pollute our oceans, Rainbow Light estimates. End to end, that many bottles would stretch from Los Angeles to San Francisco. It is still a small dent, considering the 2.5 million plastic bottles thrown away by Americans per hour, but Rainbow Light hopes it is a pioneer in a new direction toward sustainability.

“We hope that other supplement manufacturers will follow our lead and create a greater demand for post-consumer recycled materials,” says Sandy Klein, Rainbow Light’s vice president of business development. “Recent research indicates that 80% of consumers do care about sustainability. We hope that consumers will choose our EcoGuard bottles over other, less sustainable options,” Klein says.

The new EcoGuard bottle and its manufacturing process cut down on the amount of new plastic produced and require less fossil fuels than new plastic and, therefore, are a better overall choice than other options, says Rainbow Light. Biodegradable bottles, for instance, may not be as durable in protecting the product, which is of special importance when selling natural products like vitamins. The EcoGuard bottle design also includes labels made from renewable plant resources and lacks traditional label adhesives so as not to disrupt the recycling process.

Published in WholeFoods Magazine, March 2010