commitment to our environment

Almost every product we buy has some sort of impact on the environment. Sometimes picking through the choices can seem overwhelming - especially when you have your hands full with a new family!

the big picture

At ecobotts we are always thinking about the 'big picture'. Every product in our range has been carefully examined and selected to be gentle on both your baby and nature. In fact, we've researched hundreds of products so you don't have to!

Our goal is to offer parents a range of products they can trust, and which - through their manufacture, distribution and consumption - have a less damaging impact on the environment than comparable products available in the major grocery chains.

how we select products

There are several questions we ask before stocking a product. Of course, we only ever stock products that we ourselves love and would enthusiastically recommend to friends! So the first question is 'how effective is this product?' We then go on to look at whether products are:

• responsibly manufactured
• organic
• recyclable
• recycled
• biodegradable
• sustainable
• locally produced

Whilst not every product meets every single criteria listed above - we believe that if each product meets at least three of the above criterion then we are supporting our philosophy of offering eco-friendly and ethical alternatives.

responsible manufacturing processes

The manufacturers of all the eco-friendly disposable diapers in our range use renewable energy, less water and fewer chemicals during manufacture. The use of non-renewable resources is dramatically reduced and these diapers will break down more quickly than traditional disposables. If you choose, you can even compost wet diapers.

By choosing ECO diapers you are keeping harmful chemicals out of our environment and away from your baby's bottom!

organic

ecobotts will always favour products where the materials/ ingredients used are plant based and organically grown. For example, the Organic Essentials cotton balls which we stock are manufactured with organically produced cotton.

Cotton is often classed as a 'natural material'. However, a large proportion of cotton is made up of chemicals and resins. In fact, cotton is actually the world's most sprayed crop, using over a quarter of all insecticides. Insecticides are not only detrimental to the farmers' and factory workers' health, but are also highly polluting to the earth's water tables, rivers and seas. By choosing to buy organic cotton products, you are helping to keep harmful chemicals out of our water.

recyclable

A product and its packaging that are recyclable will always catch our interest: can it be added to your recycling bin or taken to a local recycling site when requiring disposal?

Of the 25 million tonnes of Canadian domestic waste, packaging makes up approximately 35% of this by weight and 50% by volume. We are very keen to promote recycling; and believe in the maxim 'there is no such thing as garbage only misplaced resources'! So all our products come in either 100% recyclable or biodegradable containers.

Additionally, should you place an order with ecobotts, you will find that the packaging used for postage is either the manufacturers original packaging, and recyclable, or for smaller orders we re-pack items using packaging which is recyclable. Our packaging is minimal and simple to keep waste as low as possible.

recycled

We look for products where the packaging is made from recycled materials, as their consumption reduces waste whilst also preventing further drain on finite resources. For example, the Burt's Bees lotion bottles contain 80% post-consumer recycled materials.

biodegradable

Biodegradable products rank high on our agenda. One example, is the outer packaging of our range of ECO disposable diapers which are biodegradable and can be reused as compost collection bags!

Another example are the wipes in our range. Most people are now aware that it can take a conventional disposable up to 500 years to breakdown (ECO diapers take 16 weeks in the right composting environment). But what many people do not realise is that many widely available baby wipes are also made from plastic, often referred to as non-woven fabric (even some wipes which are marketed as eco-friendly use polypropylene or polyolefin - always check the label!) which do not degrade naturally.

All of the wipes we stock are certified biodegradable and either made from organic cotton or from wood pulp sourced from sustainable forests. Not only are the wipes produced using materials which can be replenished but the manufacturing processes are gentler on nature, for example, all of the wipes are chlorine free. Most importantly, they don't contain unnecessary chemicals.

sustainable

We always ask ourselves if the materials used in making the product are from sustainable sources. For example, the absorption layer in our range of diapers is made from chlorine free tree pulp produced from sustained, managed resources.

locally produced

Where possible, we look for local manufacturers - 4 out of the 5 baby toiletry ranges we offer are from Canadian home-grown companies.

Currently there is nobody in Canada manufacturing eco-friendly disposable diapers, which is why we source the product from overseas (Moltex OKO from Germany, Nature Babycare from a Swedish company with a manufacturing partner in Israel and Broody Chick a Canadian company with a manufacturing partner in China). However, we can assure you that none of our overseas products are air-freighted and that we order as large quantities as we can from our suppliers to reduce the number of lorries on the road. 

resource-efficient business

We make no claims to being perfect, but we are trying to do the right thing! As part of our commitment to our environment, we aim to become a resource-efficient business, for example:

• Wherever possible, our stationery items and marketing materials are made from recycled materials.
• Our printer, who produces our marketing materials, uses vegetable dyes and 100% post-consumer recycled paper.
• We have separate bins for recycling paper, paper that can be used again on one side, and paper for shredding (which is then used as bedding for our worm bin!).
• We even recently recycled and upgraded an old PC to use in our office.