At a glance:
- With KOR’s Beach to Bottle™ initiative, we reclaim plastic that would otherwise end up in the ocean and use it to package our pure and potent nutritional boosts.
- Eight million metric tons of plastic flow into the ocean every year.
- The ocean supports the air we breathe, food we eat, climate we live in, and economy we rely on.
Fact: KOR was the first cold-pressed juice shot to use 100% Post-Consumer Recycled (PCR plastic). Now we’ve taken our mission one step further by transitioning our bottles to 100% Prevented Ocean Plastic.
Prevented ocean plastic is recycled plastic collected from coastal areas at risk of ocean plastic pollution. With the Beach to Bottle™ initiative, we reclaim plastic that would otherwise end up in the ocean and use it to package our pure and potent nutritional boosts.
Prevented Ocean Plastic keeps 1000 tons of ocean out of our oceans each month, and that number is growing daily. We’re proud to be a part of the program.
We founded KOR on the idea of wellness, which to us, includes social responsibility and doing our part for the Earth. Our Beach to Bottle™ initiative is our way of giving back to the planet that gives us so much.
While we’re still using plastic to package our products, we’re making sure it’s the most responsible kind. We know we’re not perfect, but we’re making every effort to be better and better every day.
So what exactly is the problem with plastic? We reached out to our team of experts to weigh in:
Microplastics in the ocean create contamination across the entire food chain.
Microplastics are synthetic plastics, which are smaller than 5mm in size. They were first detected in large numbers in the ocean in 2004 and their impact on human health has been a topic of concern ever since.
Since microplastics in the environment do not biodegrade, they pose an enormous environmental threat. When humans consume freshwater and marine life that have ingested microplastics and plastic additives, a public health risk ensues.
Plastic also contains extremely harmful micropollutants, such as residues of plasticizers, heavy metals, and/or PFOS. These micropollutants increase the risk of physical and toxicological damage to organisms and ecosystems caused by microplastics.
Jess Taylor, Founder, Practically Green
Plastic products take about 500 years to naturally decompose.
However, this unfortunately hardly happens in landfills. When plastic products don’t decompose, they leak hazardous chemicals into our soils, not only from the plastic they’re made out of, but any chemicals within them. These chemicals not only negatively affect our soils, but also the groundwaters that are often used to make drinking water.
Valinda Voogt, MSc, Founder, Green and Happy Mom
Only 9% of the plastic ever created has ever been recycled.
Since plastic isn’t recycled, it can end up in the natural environment. From there, it photodegrades down into small pieces called microplastics. Unfortunately, our wastewater treatment plants are not designed to filter out these micro sized contaminants.
When microplastics are consumed by marine and terrestrial animals, it causes health problems up and down the food chain. In addition to ending up in the foods we eat, our drinking water and even in the air, microplastics can leech harmful toxins into the natural environment.
Kate Shoemaker, Head of Sustainability, Sun & Swell Foods
Plastic is in the food we eat.
We already know it's harming wildlife to consume plastic, but did you know humans are also ingesting it unknowingly? Researchers have found that we are consuming nearly a credit card's worth of plastic every week. Problems that can come from ingesting plastic include metabolic diseases, like obesity, diabetes, and chronic liver disease.
These are just some of the issues that have been linked so far. Plastic consumption of this amount has not been seen for long so we are still learning a lot about how it's impacting human health.
Lisa Sharp, Owner, Green Oklahoma
Plastic is made from fossil fuels.
Fossil fuels are non-renewable resources that will eventually run out. Using them to make plastic means that we are using up these precious resources faster than they can be replaced.
Plastic pollution can lead to the build-up of plastic in landfills, which takes up valuable space that could be used for other purposes. Plastic products often contain harmful chemicals which can leach into the soil where our food is grown and into the water we drink, creating long term health problems, such as cancer, birth defects, and fertility issues.
Fred Hoffman, Founder, The True Wilderness
There’s no denying it. Plastic in our oceans threatens our marine life, ecosystem, and well-being for generations to come. For that reason, we at KOR, are making every effort to package our products responsibly through our Beach to Bottle™ initiative.
Care for your body while you care for the Earth, with KOR!