Moment Mushrooms
Our Commitment To Sustainability
transparency over greenwashing.
How to build a Magic Mushroom business without harming the planet.
By the team at Moment.
What does it mean for us to be committed to sustainably?Â
These days It feels like brands throw terms like this around, without any transparency or accountability.Â
We would rather offer transparency over greenwashing.
First off, why even make this commitment to sustainability?
For our team, our experiences with Magic Mushrooms have helped develop in us a deep connection with nature and the world around us. This experience isnât unique to us, in fact many people who experience magic mushrooms outside feel this deep connection to nature. For us, it felt totally disingenuous to our values to then go and start a brand that creates more waste, especially plastic waste. Choosing cheap plastic products would be the easy and profitable route, but we didnât want to cut corners on our values.
We made a commitment to try and be as being as environmentally friendly as possible.
The challenge is that this is an extremely nuanced issue, on many levels. Is it better to compost or recycle? Are bioplastics still considered plastic? Every scenario calls for a different solution.
For us, we have sorted and sifted through the greenwashing, reading the details or material data sheets to validate the claims. In the end, we found there is no perfect solution and the market does not offer products that are to the standards we want but we are genuinely trying our best to meet the lofty goal that we set for ourselves. Our goal: anything we put out into the world, anyone should be able dispose of the packaging without creating long term waste.
Have we met this goal in every instance?
No.
Are we close?
Yes.
Our Packaging Details
Broken down by product
Paper Tubes
Our main packaging for our Magic Mushroom Microdoses are our custom made paper tubes. Our production partners use Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified materials. They have a paper glassine interior to ensure they are food safe and moisture resistant. Â
The stickers on the tubes are made with 100% biodegradable paper and adhesives.
Our goal for you is to reuse or recycle our tubes, then the paper can be turned into new materials. If the tubes are not recycled, our tubes do not have any plastic in them, meaning they will naturally break down and biodegrade.
On top of this, for every paper tube sold, a portion of the profits goes towards planting trees via onetreeplanted.org
These aren’t cheap, but we’re really proud of them!
Compostable Pouches
Our pouches for our Whole Raw Magic Mushrooms are compostable stand up pouches made from renewable Plantcell technology and are primarily composed of a blend of materials derived from eucalyptus and cassava root. All components including zippers and valves are made from plants and are fully biodegradable and compostable. They break down into healthy compost leaving no microplastics and conform to all major compost certifications including OK Compost Home and AS5810. Unfortunately, that means they cannot be mechanically recycled.
Chocolate Bars
The exterior packaging for our Magic Mushroom Chocolate Bars are made from paper which is easily recyclable and biodegradable. The interior wrapper is made from butter paper (a type of parchment paper). While this material is hard to work with and doesn’t meet our aesthetic goals, it does meet our goal to go 100% plastic free!
Compostable Sitckers
Our stickers are recycleable and 100% compostable, printed on a woodfree paper, made from 95% sugarcane fibre byproduct, bagasse, and 5% hemp & linen. Being a byproduct of sugarcane, they are both vegan and use less energy to produce. The adhesive is made from acrylic based permanent OK Compost certified S9500.
The Rest
Capsules:Â Our capsules are:Â
- 100% vegan capsules made from cellulose which is found in plants
- They are all natural, containing no gelatin, animal by-products, preservatives, sugar, artificial colours, dairy, starch or other added ingredients
- Healthier for digestion than traditional gelatin capsules
Packing Peanuts/Hearts: Our packing fillers are:Â
- Certified Compostable
- Plant Based
- 100% Sustainable
- Dissolve in water
- Non-Toxic
Ingredients: Our ingredients are:Â
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- Made from only the highest-quality ingredients.
- Are 100% organic or wild harvested
- Sourced from local suppliers and partners
Find out more on our Why Moment page
A few things we learned on our journey to sustainability
When we first began to embark on finding packaging, we believed that it is crucial that the packaging on the outside reflects the same quality and care put into the product inside.
We thought that a quick google search would reveal hundreds of products that we could choose from. However, we quickly learned that if we wanted to be true to our commitment, we would have to learn how to sift through the greenwashed marketing to find the truth.
RecycleableÂ
What does it mean to be recyclable? In the mind of the average consumer, it means it has one of those logos on the bottom. However, logo is called the resin identification code.Â
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Many people think that this symbol means that the package can be recycled. In fact, according to the Canadian Plastic Industry Association, âthe code is intended solely to identify resin contentâ. (source). A resin identification code does not mean the package can be recycled. For example, in Vancouver, one of the greenist cities in the world (source), only “plastics with the numbers 1, 2, 4, 5 can be recycled. (source). But what about #3, #6 and #7? Why not those? They are either toxic or cannot be recycled – despite the arrows on the logo.
Sometimes more importantly, just because the material is recyclable doesnât mean thatâs where it will end up. The EPA estimates that although 75% of the waste stream is recyclable, only about 30% of it ever gets recycled. The problem is that the the brand is putting the onus and work onto the end consumer to properly recycle the packaging, which often isnât possible!
Bio-degradable / Compostable
This should be a simple definition. It should mean that the product will decompose, leaving no waste behind. However, there is no regulated standard or clear definition of what these terms mean. As such, companies use it to greenwash their plastic!
Most of these products use so-called âbio-plasticsâ which are either partially made from compostable materials or a microbial coating is put on the plastic to help it break faster. However, most of these products need to be composted in an industrial facility, under heat, pressure and added oxygen – or else they will not biodegrade. In other words, throwing them in your compost at home – wonât work.
Furthermore, since there is plastic in these products they get stamped with a plastic symbol. As mentioned above, this symbol tells facilities what type of plastic its made from. For anything âbiodegradableâ , it gets the #7 symbol. However, in most places, inlcuding the province where we live, this is a symbol that is â a catch-all category, and can indicate that the container is biodegradable, compostable, a composite of multiple resins, or a laminated plastic, none of which are accepted in Recycle BC’s packaging and paper recycling program.â Source
The Sticker Battle
Most stickers are printed in some sort of plastic material. This increases their durability and print quality. This didn’t align with our goals, so at first we bought stickers that were marketed as “Eco Friendly Greenguard certified stickers”. These are a great start, as this certification means that each sticker meets rigorous chemical emissions standards and helps reduce indoor air pollution, making it acceptable for sensitive indoor environments.
However, they are still plastic. What is the point in using compostable pouches if we put plastic stickers on top of them?Â
Even when we found companies that made more compostable stickers, under investigation we would find out that the adhesives used were not compostable – making the whole sticker not actually compostable. Or often the sticker backing that you peel away is typically made from silicone – another plastic!
We finally found a company that makes compostable sticklers with compostable adhesives with a recyclable backing.  Â
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We're proud of our our brand and the choices we have made to get here
Thanks for following along with us.
If you have any questions about our packaging, our choices or our commitment – please reach out to us here
