Single-Use and Sustainable: The Innovation Behind Broc Shot Sachets

The convenience and low initial cost of single-use sachets makes it easy to use them and dispose of them on repeat. But after 40 years of plastic-heavy sachets being produced and consumed in mass quantities, our environment has accumulated a staggering amount of sachet waste.  Enough sachets are sold each year to cover the surface of our planet, about 855 billion in number. And they’re not going anywhere.

What begins as a small, everyday item like a ketchup packet, shampoo sample, or single-use laundry detergent creates a recycling nightmare. Sachets are typically made of a material like plastic or paper and then lined with foil or plastic to keep out air and moisture. But those bonded materials cannot be separated at a later point for reuse. If well-meaning consumers try to recycle them, they contaminate recycling streams. As a result, the hundreds of billions of sachets used each year go straight into a landfill or end up as environmental pollution, clogging waterways and littering land. 

BROC SHOT'S COMPOSTABLE INNOVATION

Broc Shot faced this problem when developing its own single-use sachet, packaging that also needed to be air- and water-tight to protect the high quality of its broccoli sprout powder. A low or zero waste solution was the only option in the minds of Broc Shot’s founders Benjamin Silver and Gracia Walker. “We firmly believe in the cradle-to-cradle philosophy, which means that a company is responsible for the full lifecycle of the products that it puts out, including the waste. Up to this point, so many brands— and the plastics industry as a whole— have put the onus on the end consumer to be the one recycling,” says Silver.

Broc Shot’s sachet development process began with a packet that was commercially compostable through municipal recycling, but evolved to a home and commercially compostable packet derived from wood pulp, sugarcane, and cornstarch, and designed by Silver. Broc Shot’s sachets are free from plastic and foil, and certified as BPI compostable, with 90% degradation of the sachet materials in 6 months. “You can literally put this sachet in your own backyard soil to break down. Our inks are also no impact, so everything can be put back into the soil,” he says.

While the packaging cost is considerably higher for Broc Shot, it was the only responsible choice for Silver and Walker. “Our sachets cost sixteen times what other sachets cost. But to spend more money on them was a no-brainer for us because the expense on the tail end is a generational expense. It's an expense that we just can't afford as humans who want to be able to live on this planet for generations to come,” says Walker.

As a bonus for Broc Shot consumers, Broc Shot’s sachet prevents plastic exposure to its broccoli sprout powder. The contents of each plastic-free sachet is designed to be mixed in the accompanying stainless steel shaker or a drinking glass. “Stainless steel and glass are the best materials for anything we are ingesting. So our customers can count on the product being good for their bodies, safe for them to use, and safe for the planet long-term.”