Since day one at Vive, we've bottled our juices in glass! In the years after, we've added The Abundance Box, an organic dry good lineup, and local goodies to our offerings - always being meticulous about the packaging we're using! From glass bottles, paper straws, food labels made out of corn, paper bags, and cardboard boxes - we've always strived to make sure the things we put our products in are good for the planet, our bodies, and the products inside them.

But why is packaging so important?

Packaging may seem like a minute detail, but to us it's just as important as the quality of the produce we use or choosing to use the cold-pressed over other juicing methods. This is because even the packaging itself can help preserve the quality, flavor, and taste of what's inside. You wouldn't put a bumper sticker on a Bentley, and you wouldn't put nutrient-dense juice in harmful plastic packaging - at least we wouldn't!
 

Why not plastic bottles? Well, 10 out of 11 plastic bottles tested show traces of microplastics. Microplastics are tiny plastic pieces less than five millimeters long which can be harmful to our farmland, oceans, aquatic life, and yes, even our lungs. In fact, we eat about a credit card worth of microplastics every week. When you open a bottle of locally sourced, bioavailable nutrient-dense juice we imagine you'd like to hold off on the microplastic! Glass is non-porous, meaning it won't leach bacteria, germs, or chemicals into the product inside. This in turn keeps the quality, flavor, and integrity of the product intact!

Additionally, up to 87% of glass can be reclaimed when recycled and no toxins are released from glass during the recycling process. You may have heard big companies (think Soda) argue that because glass does require more emissions to create and ship the product than plastic does - that this must mean that plastic actually is better than glass! But let's remember that only 9% of plastic is actually recycled whereas the glass recycling rate is 33%.

A big difference between how glass and plastic are recycled is the type of recycling they can undergo! Glass is part of a system called closed loop recycling! Closed-loop recycling is the process of using the same post-consumer material to create a new version of the same product. Glass can be recycled indefinitely without losing its quality and can be made into other glass containers again, and again. This is also referred to as upcycling!

Plastic is a part of a recycling system referred to as open loop recycling. Most plastic is petroleum based which is one of the biggest reasons it can not keep it's same quality, but only downgrades throughout the recycling process. It is non-renewable and unsustainable to harvest. When plastic is broken down, it releases harmful toxins that can enter our drinking water and farmlands (still coming back to us to be ingested). 

Glass recycling rate is 33%, but some of that number is still unmeasured. It's the part where consumers are reusing glass over and over themselves in their own households! OR juice bars who offer a bottle deposit program to bring your glass bottles back for $0.50 off your next purchase (👋🏼) so we can keep closing the loop together while recycling!

We still see bottles returned that have our original vinyl sticker on them! Whenever we see these bottles in store or at our kitchen location before rinsing and sanitizing them, we are reminded of our start up days - almost 9 years ago! It's amazing to see bottles still in rotation after years of business and seeing the effects of using packaging that can be infinitely recycled as opposed to having a hand in adding plastic bottles to our landfills - and in turn our oceans, farmlands, and eventually - our bodies!

Our commitment to bottling in glass benefits you, the planet, and the product by keeping the good nutrients in - and leaving any harsh chemicals out.