At Rocky, we feel our best in nature—and we feel our best when we nurture ourselves with nature. That’s why, for 25 years we’ve been crafting natural products right here in the Canadian Rockies.
Nature inspires every choice we make, which means sustainability is always top of mind. From our ingredients to our packaging, we’re always striving to do better. It’s a journey, and we’re committed to growing and evolving in ways that honour the Earth. And as we continue, we promise to stay open and transparent about the steps we’re taking.
Since we often get questions about our packaging, we want to share more about the thought process behind our decisions—why we choose what we do, where we’re making progress, and the work that’s left to do.
The ultimate vision for sustainability is to close the gap between the life of the product and the life of the packaging. For example, our lip butter might last you three months, but its plastic packaging can linger in a landfill for up to 300 years. This is something we've been carefully considering over the years as we work toward more sustainable packaging choices.
What we’ve discovered is that there isn’t one material that solves all our concerns. We need a multi-tiered approach to solving our packaging dilemma. This is a journey we are passionate about and committed to solving.
Below is our approach to sustainable packaging:
Where possible, we sell our products naked or package free
This includes products like our bar soaps, soap slabs and bath bombs. We have big goals to continue to pursue innovative product formats that allow for a package free experience for our customers.
Transitioning to more environmentally friendly packaging materials
When a product requires packaging, we prioritize more environmentally friendly materials that align with our values.
Our primary goal with this transition is to reduce and eventually eliminate the use of virgin plastics in our packaging. This is a lofty goal.
We have been exploring the following packaging material alternatives that we prefer to use to virgin plastic:
Glass – Endlessly recyclable and reusable without losing its quality, helps to promote a circular economy.
Paper – Made from a renewable resource, it requires less energy for production compared to plastic. Paper is also more widely recyclable, and these types of materials reduce long-term environmental impact.
As a last resort when the above options are either not available or not the right fit to preserve the product's integrity or experience, we opt for using post-consumer recycled plastics.
Post-consumer recycled plastics. PCR plastics refers to materials that have been recycled from products already used, giving new life to materials that would otherwise end up in landfills and reducing the demand for virgin (new) plastic. PCR materials help to reduce waste, conserve resources and produce a circular economy. When we need to use plastics, we will strive to use post-consumer plastics instead of virgin plastic materials.
One of the most important ways to reduce your impact is by reusing and refilling what you already have. Since 2020, the Rocky Refills program has been giving bottles and jars a second life.
You can return items like 1L refill bottles, and a selection of our glass skincare containers, to our retail locations. We take them back to our workshop to be sanitized, refilled, and loved again.
In 2024 alone, we washed, reused, and put 4,004 bottles back into circulation—furthering our commitment to sustainability and reducing the amount of plastic that ends up in landfills.
To see which items are eligible for the Rocky Refills program, please see our complete list here.
We tap into a variety of packaging solutions the natural products you love.
These are two materials we love to use at Rocky. Research from the Sustainable Packaging Coalition found that sustainable plastics and glass have similar environmental impacts, each with their own pros and cons.
Our Cream Cleanser tube is made of 30% recycled plastic in Montreal and can be recycled again.
Recycled plastic and PCR are great packaging options, made from recycled materials and given a second life. At Rocky, we also like to refer to this as "repurposed" plastic. In the case of a post-consumer resin, “post-consumer” means the material used for your packaging was previously used for a product that was purchased, recycled, then repurposed into the material you’re holding now (like recycled water bottles or that old peanut butter jar, for example). These materials are a great step in sustainability through reducing and reusing waste and mean less new plastic in the world.
Pros:
Cons:
Our Essential Face Cream comes in a white glass jar with a plastic lid that can be reused or recycled.
Glass is a wonderful material made from natural substances like sand or limestone. We use glass in most of our skincare line (except our toner bottles, which are 100% recycled plastic).
Pros:
Cons:
Some of our soaps come with a wrapper. This wrapper is made from 100% recycled paper. Being FSC-certified ensures old growth forests are not harmed. It’s one of the best-certified papers for reducing environmental impact and is an easily recoverable material. The wrappers also come to our workshop from nearby Calgary, to keep it local.
We only use virgin plastic when PCR or recycled content is not commercially available. It is a last resort or in cases where recycled content is not compatible with the formula of our products, such as in some cases when recycled content or PCR renders the packaging weaker and not able to support our formulas.
This is a material we never use as it is rated as the least desirable packaging option due to the high energy in production, greenhouse gas emissions, water and mineral consumption and open pit mining.
This summer, as our new packaging rolls out, you’ll see changes that reflect years of research and careful consideration. We’ve explored materials that help reduce environmental impact while keeping quality, value, and your experience top of mind.
We hear you and we’re with you. We put careful consideration to every decision we make when choosing our packaging. Thank you for being with us on this journey!
Comments will be approved before showing up.
Rocky Mountain Soap Company
November 08, 2024
Thank you for your question! We do not offer discounts for our refills program. Our refill programs was designed as a sustainability effort, but does not come without many costs. We will continue to look for ways to improve it and reduce costs. If you have any further questions please feel free to reach out to us – we’ll be happy to chat with you!