WHY ARE WE DOING A POWDER?

Why did we choose to create a plant milk powder is one of the most important questions to us at Bare*ly, and our journey to find a solution certainly didn’t start here. After looking at the issue from numerous angles though, we found there was 5 key reasons:

Reason 1: Aseptic cartons cannot be easily recycled in Australia.

Made up from a composition of paper, foil and plastic, aseptic cartons require specialised processing facilities that run a process called 'hydropulping'. Unfortunately, very few local councils in Australia are equipped with this technology, and therefore will tell you to place aseptic cartons into your general waste bin. Consequently, Australia sends around 1 billion long life cartons to landfill each year.

Reason 2 - Liquid plant milks are over 90% water.

With water making up such an extremely large percentage of liquid plant milk options, the energy, resources and emissions produced by aseptically-packaged plant milks is also greatly increased. Over their lifetime, the cartons used to store these milks release 72,000 thousand tonnes of CO2 into our atmosphere. By removing the water entirely, powder eliminates the need to ship and package that 90% water around thereby helping reduce the emissions produced by plant milks.

Reason 3 - Powder is more convenient.

We spent a lot of time looking into various solutions to the carton conundrum at Bare*ly, and we found powder was the most convenient. Unlike paste options, it didn't require blending, and the ease of simply adding water was less fuss. Just add water, mix and enjoy!

Reason 4 - Current packaging technology has more sustainable options for powders.

Packaging options and technology currently in the current market are extremely limited for shelf stable liquid milks. By removing the water content, we were able to not only put greater volumes of milk in less packaging, but we also had the ability to use packaging materials that go in your mainstream recycling bin, increasing the accessibility to responsible disposing methods of plant milk packages.

Reason 5 - Powder has a greater shelf-life and transportability.

Compared with opened liquid plant milk, powder has a longer shelf-life and can be made on an at-need basis. We found the ability to make as much or as little as needed facilitated a variety of different users. Powder also doesn’t require refrigeration which made it a great option for campers, hikers, and any who is often out of the house without access to a fridge. It also meant that for people moving between places, houses, offices and the like, we could resolve any issues with being unable to finish an opened carton before it went off.

With those 5 advantages of a powder, we couldn't look past it and why we at Bare*ly are extremely excited and passionate about remedying this carton conundrum with a barely packaged plant milk powder!