Glass Straw Giveaway from Strawesome!
We stopped buying straws years ago to avoid the plastic waste however, we do miss them. On a hot day, I really enjoy drinking my special mint iced tea with a straw and the kids love to use straws for drinking a smoothie. I was excited to recently learn about a solution from a great company that is in many ways similar to LunchBots.
Strawesome is also a family-owned business with a commitment to health and the environment. They are providing a healthy and reusable alternative to plastic straws, billions of which end up in our landfills every year. Their straws are all hand-made in their workshop in Michigan. Strawesome straws are not only plastic-free and reusable – two of our favorite adjectives – but also beautiful.
Strawesome has generously offered to giveaway a set of two glass smoothie drinking straws, one is 8” long and perfect for adult use while the other is 7” long and bent so that it is easier for a child to use. Each is decorated with unique colored glass to add fun to the design of the product turning it into a functional piece of art!
To enter the giveaway please comment and tell us how you would use this great product. A winner will be randomly chosen and announced on Thursday, May 17, 2012. Congratulations Amy H! You won! We hope you love using your straws while drinking your cold water and cucumber slices.
posted in Giveaway, News | tags: glass, reusables, straws
76 Comments
Dear Customers, Your Feedback Makes a Difference!
Dear Customers,
A few months ago, a customer wrote to me with a surprising complaint. She pointed out that the packing slip on our shipping boxes were in a plastic envelope attached to the outside of the box. Since we weren’t on the receiving end of these packages, we hadn’t realized that our fulfillment company had been doing this. The solution was simple: we asked the warehouse to put the packing slip inside the box. Thanks to this customer’s feedback, we were able to keep from wasting hundreds of plastic envelopes per month.
Your voices have also helped shape LunchBots, as your feedback greatly influences our product roadmap. Did you know our all-stainless LunchBots were born out of customer’s requests? Many were telling us they preferred the modern look of all steel containers, and others wanted a lid that could go in the dishwasher. The solution was a LunchBots that had stainless steel lids, and we were more than happy to add this to our product lineup. In the next few months, we’ll be adding new products based on what you’ve been asking for!
Since starting LunchBots three years ago, we’ve grown and learned and shared thanks to your feedback, enthusiasm, and plain old smarts. Your compliments have driven us to keep going through all the ups and downs that come with growing a business, and your constructive comments have helped us improve our products and processes over the years.
It’s meant the world to us, and we hope you’ll keep the communication open always. It truly makes a difference.
“The more you engage with customers the clearer things become and the easier it is to determine what you should be doing.” -John Russell
Reading customer feedback via email, Twitter, or on our Facebook page has made me value this kind of communication, and it’s even encouraged me to reach out to other companies regularly. Knowing what a difference your feedback has made to LunchBots, I don’t hesitate to tell others if I’ve had a good experience or if they could use improvement. It’s why I’ve been writing letters and sharing them on the blog. Open, honest communication is what it’s all about. We hope you’ll continue to be a part of it.
Thank you,
Jacqueline Linder
posted in Business, News, Plastic Waste | tags: customer service, feedback, plastic waste
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Dear Earth Day Participants: Let’s inspire others with our photos
Dear Earth Day Participants,
I love Earth Day. It’s a chance for everyone to paint the town green with good deeds like park clean-ups, recycling drives, and promises to ride their bikes more to reduce their carbon footprint. It’s invigorating to see family, friends, even companies get into the spirit as they celebrate our planet and pledge to help preserve it.
There’s so much excitement and anticipation leading up to the big day…and then it pretty much dies down. Actually, it reminds me a lot of New Year’s Eve celebrations and New Year’s resolutions. Don’t you wish the thrill and commitments lasted year-round?
I know that for most of you, it does. You’re the ones who make Earth Day a way of life, always looking for new ways to incorporate sustainability into your day, in big and small actions. You see going green as a way of life rather than a challenge. Nobody has to tell you to use reusable water bottles or bring your own bags to the grocery store. You’ve embraced this lifestyle, and you’re always on the lookout for new ways to help our planet.
So here’s my suggestion: This Earth Day, let’s help inspire others to make a change by showing them how easy it is. Seeing is believing!
On my way to visit family last week, I was filling up my reusable water bottle at the San Francisco Airport filling station and there was a line of people doing the same. I took a few pictures because we can all use new ideas for simple ways to make a difference.
In the days to come, share your Earth-friendly activities and ideas with us. Post a picture on Twitter and use #EarthDay, or share a picture on our Facebook page, or simply email them to few friends. Let’s show the world how small actions can add up to the bigger picture.
Thank you!
Jacqueline Linder
posted in Holidays, News | tags: earth day, reusables, San Francisco Airport
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Dear Ziploc: Your new “Perfect Portions” bags are not-so-perfect for the environment!
Dear Ziploc,
When I saw the ads for your new Perfect Portions bags I did a double-take. Let me get this straight: this new “solution” for freezer burn protection and easy food portioning involves a bag that is meant to be placed in another bag? I was aghast as I watched Rachael Ray take a small portion of meat, wrap it in a plastic baggie several times its size, and then place it in a larger Ziploc.
“Less mess” you say? Not for the environment, and not for consumers who haven’t exactly been losing sleep over how to store their meats. Here’s what does keep me up at night, though:
● About 100 billion plastic bags are used in the US every year, and only about 1% of them get recycled.
● It takes approximately 12 million barrels of oil to make that many plastic bags.
● When they end up in our landfills or our oceans, these single-use bags don’t decompose for centuries, and their toxic chemicals seep into the foodchain.
But I guess those problems don’t compare to the pesky inconvenience of having to portion out meat and poultry. Your bags are supposed to make this task “simpler than ever” but it seems we have different ideas of what simple looks like.
To us, simplicity means less waste, less harmful chemicals, and more responsibility. Perfect Portions are all about more: more single-use plastic, more harm to the environment, and more money spent on a problem that is, frankly, not that big of a deal. If we separate the chicken and freeze it without each piece touching, we can manage just fine.
The companies we admire and respect use innovation to solve real issues, like keeping BPA out of our food cans and producing greener packaging. Your new product is only amplifying a small problem like food portioning, and creating an even bigger environmental hazard.
It’s time to take some responsibility and clean up the real mess at hand here. You can start by stopping the production of these wasteful new products.
Sincerely,
Jacqueline Linder
posted in Business, News | tags: plastic waste
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Dear Starbucks Drinker: Why not bring a reusable cup?
Dear Starbucks Drinker,
I’d originally considered writing this letter to Starbucks, nudging them to encourage customers to bring their own reusable cups and up their efforts in reducing waste. But then I realized it takes two. To be fair, Starbucks has offered 10 cent discounts to customers who bring their own cups since 1985. Among many other efforts, they’ve held three Cup Summits, bringing together experts in the product packaging industry to try and come up with ways to make their cups more recyclable.
But still, about 4 billion coffee cups get thrown away each year.
What’s the hold up? And what can we do to help?
The most obvious answer is to not just stop at recycling, but to try and eliminate paper cup waste altogether through reusable cups. The company has said it hopes to serve 25 percent of its beverages in reusable cups by 2015, but admits it’s having a hard time with this goal. Right now less than 2 percent of their drinks are sold this way, despite the 10 cent program and past promotions for free beverages if you brought your own cup.
If discounts and free coffee aren’t motivators enough, I genuinely want to know what is. What keeps you from bringing a reusable cup when you grab your coffee fix in the morning? Are you still looking for the right reusable cup? Is it too hard to clean? Or do you simply forget most of the time?
Let us know what the barriers are and we’ll brainstorm ideas together and compile them in a letter to Starbucks. In the meantime, check out Starbuck’s Make a Difference tool, where you can calculate the personal impact of this small change and pledge to take part.
Let’s figure this out together, one cup at a time.
Sincerely,
Jacqueline Linder
posted in Business, News | tags: reusables, Starbucks
122 Comments
