John Kalkowski / Packaging Digest
By Dana Hull, San Jose Mercury News
(McClatchy News Service)

Ecologic CEO explains origins of packaging firm

Julie Corbett, the CEO of Oakland-based Ecologic, is obsessed with packaging. Americans generate enormous amounts of trash, and most of it isn't recycled. Milk cartons, juice boxes, yogurt containers, bottled water, laundry detergent and clamshell containers -- it adds up at an astounding rate.

In 2008, Corbett founded Ecologic, whose marketing line is "packaging the Earth can live with." The outer shells of Ecologic's containers are made of recycled cardboard and old newspapers, and the inner pouch, while still using plastic, uses up to 70 percent less plastic than a typical jug. Their biggest product to date is a bottle for Seventh Generation's new Natural 4X laundry detergent, now on the shelves of many Bay Area natural grocery stores, and they've partnered with the organic Straus Family Creamery in Marin County to make bottles for Straus milk. This newspaper recently sat down with Corbett in her Oakland office. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.


Q You grew up with milk in plastic pouches?

Every Canadian grows up with this. It uses 7 grams of plastic -- that's a tiny amount compared with a typical half-gallon milk jug, which uses 49 to 53 grams of plastic. The trash issue in America is all about how big our containers are -- there's a lot of overpackaging and rigid plastic containers. When I first moved to the United States I was grappling with how much trash I created.

My kids got involved in a zero-waste competition at their school and I kept thinking about our trash. I had all this trash at home in rigid bottles that I couldn't collapse -- you can't collapse a stiff detergent bottle.


Q So you decided to invent a milk pouch?

A I realized how little control I had over packaging when I went to the grocery store: The packaging decision is made by the brand, not the consumer. I knew absolutely nothing about the packaging industry, zilch. But I'm very persistent.

I got self-educated about plastics and the difference between PET, or polyethylene terephthalate (used for water bottles) and HDPE, high-density polyethylene, which is used in milk bottles, detergent bottles and yogurt tubs. There's a lot of different kinds of plastic. Our pouches use No. 4, LDPE, or low-density polyethylene. (Similar to plastic cling wrap and sandwich bags). I filed a patent. Startups in the packaging industry are almost nonexistent--it's not like software. It's a very mature industry.


Q How did you raise money?

A I was like a little bag lady walking around the city with samples, and a lot of VCs said no. I'm not a serial entrepreneur -- most people are like "What does this woman know about anything?" I had an angel investor, and I raised $500,000 in September 2008, and then the whole market fell apart. I'm incredibly lucky to have support from Catamount and DBL. DBL is a women-owned VC firm, and Nancy Pfund and Cynthia Ringo have an amazing nose for trends. They understood that there was a market for a better kind of bottle -- they felt the guilt.

But they didn't say yes right away -- they wanted proof of concept that there was demand and that Ecologic bottles were a viable product. A friend connected me to Albert Straus of Straus Family Creamery, and we did a six-week store test at the Whole Foods store in Oakland. That store test put us on the map. Straus saw a 72 percent lift in sales.


Q So if I'm buying apple juice at Trader Joe's, should I get it in a glass container instead? Is glass better than plastic?

A Plastic is really tricky. Our biggest issue today is carbon dioxide emissions, and the manufacturing of glass has the highest carbon footprint of any packaging out there. It takes an enormous amount of energy to manufacture glass. If you buy plastic, No. 2 plastic that is clear has the highest chance of being recycled.


Q I saw Ecologic's Seventh Generation laundry detergent bottle at the Berkeley Bowl. How is it doing?

A We launched the Seventh Generation bottle March 15. If you are a brand, you want "revenue lift" -- you are looking to grow sales or cut costs. We started in the "natural channel," stores like the Berkeley Bowl and Whole Foods and New Leaf, and it's doing amazingly well. Female heads of households make 80 percent of all grocery store purchases, and the Ecologic bottle speaks to women like nothing else. They will spend more money to buy the Ecologic bottle, which retails for $14.99. It's driving sales for Seventh Generation up 25 percent. Watch women when they check out at a grocery store: When the checker says, "Paper or plastic?" the vast majority of women shoppers choose paper.


Q What are your manufacturing plans?

A We're a small company. We have eight full-time employees and we're hiring four or five more people. We've bought our first machines, and we're talking to the city of Oakland -- I'd like to manufacture here in Oakland. California is a huge market, and a lot of recyclable material comes through the Port. A lot of manufacturing for the East Coast takes place in Memphis, or northern Mississippi. We need to raise another round of funding but we feel confident the market is there. The consumer is so ready for packaging choices.