Plaine Products

One day, it hit them. Every piece of plastic that has ever been made still exists. That realization changed the course of life for two local sisters, and now they’re hoping they can change the world, too.

Lindsey Delaplaine McCoy and Alison Delaplaine Webster, sisters and co-founders of Plaine Products, are on a mission to make style sustainable once and for all.

“For 10 years, I lived in the the Bahamas. While I loved living there, it wasn’t all rum drinks on the beach,” Delaplaine McCoy explains. “On a small island, there’s no first world infrastructure to insulate you from the piles of plastic we are creating. You see plastic on the beaches, in the water, spilling out of the landfills, along the side of the road.”

She says there’s even a place called “Junk Beach” in the Bahamas that’s full of trash, most of which is plastic waste. “The message that plastic lasts forever, no matter how long we use it, is much more obvious living there than it is here,” Delaplaine McCoy says.

“Once you start to notice,” Delaplaine McCoy explains. “You realize that single use plastic is everywhere. I was intrigued to be able to provide one solution to the problem. Plastic to me is one of those issues, unlike so many others we face that we can solve, and we can buy less of it.”

Since most shampoos, conditioners and body washes come in plastic containers (more than 550 million shampoo bottles end up in landfills every year, to be exact), that’s where the sisters decided to start. They launched Plaine Products, Cincinnati-based company that makes natural shampoo, conditioner and body wash in reusable, returnable, refillable aluminum containers.

“We’re proud to be based in Cincinnati. Both of our parents and all four of our grandparents were born here,” Delaplaine McCoy says. “Even though we’ve lived in other places, Cincinnati is definitely home.”

It works with a three-step process:

1) Order products and they arrive at your door in a refillable bottle.

2) When you’re getting low, order a refill bottle, or subscribe and they’ll send a bottle in a timeframe that works for you.

3) When your refill comes, put your empty bottle in that box, put on the enclosed return label (they cover the cost of shipping to send it back!), and set it out for your postal carrier to pick up.

“As far we know, we are the only company that pays for you to send your bottles back to be cleaned, refilled and reused,” Delaplaine McCoy explains. “Once the bottles have gone through several cycles, we’ll send them off to be recycled. The nice thing about aluminum as opposed to plastic, is that when it’s recycled, there’s no loss in quality; It just turns right back into more aluminum.”

But a reusable and recyclable container isn’t the only reason why Plaine Products is eco-friendly. Their products are are made from all natural ingredients, which are carefully selected from nature’s most nutrient- and vitamin-rich plants, minerals, and renewable sources. They’re vegan, sulfate-free, cruelty-free, biodegradable, kid-safe and color-safe. Plus, they’re blended and manufactured in Florida, specifically for Plaine Products.

“Plaine Products is a play on our maiden name of Delaplaine,” Delaplaine McCoy says, “although with our goal of keeping our products and our process as simple as possible.”

An a la carte shampoo, conditioner or body wash are $30 for a 16oz bottle. They have bundle discounts, such as $80 for a set of the three products, and they also offer a 20 percent discount to sign up on their website.

To learn more, visit their website, or follow along on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.