A Letter to Whole Foods on the Plastic Scooper in My 365 Everyday Value Laundry Powder

Below is my letter to Whole Foods. Note that I mailed back the plastic scooper with the letter.

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Dear John Mackey and Other Whole Foods Decision Makers,

I care a lot about the environment and I know you do, too. That’s what unites us, and that is why I do a lot of my shopping at Whole Foods. When I take a trip to your store, I’m always happy to buy the nice goodies in your bulk bins, and I always appreciate the fact that many of the meats and dairy products you sell come from healthy, free-range animals that are raised in an ethical and environmentally friendly way.

What I do not enjoy is the plastic scooper that I found in your 365 Everyday Value Laundry Power. As an advocate for reducing the plastic that this nation consumes, as well as someone who wants to be nice to the Earth, I spent a lot of time hunting around Chicago for an affordable laundry soap that wouldn’t pollute the Earth (you’re probably not surprised that such a soap is hard to find in the Midwest). When I finally found your 365 soap, I was overjoyed. I thought I had found the answer to all of my laundry woes. But, of course, that feeling died when I opened my new box of detergent and found that plastic scooper.

So my plea to you is this. Please stop selling your 365 laundry power with a plastic scooper!

If you do this, I will continue buying your detergent. For the time being, though, I won’t be buying it again. I am switching to Ecover brand laundry powder, which comes with a convenient and biodegradable cardboard scooper.

Oh, and if you remove the plastic scooper, please contact me so that I can let all of my blog readers know. To read my blog, which contains lots of kind references to Whole Foods as well as a copy of this letter, visit http://lifelessplastic.blogspot.com.

Sincerely,
[me]

Comments

Very nice. I especially like that you say what product you'll be using instead of theirs. I'll be curious to hear how Whole Food responds.
Anonymous said…
Yay! Good for you! I'll be looking forward to their response, too! And I LOVE that you sent the scoop back with your letter. Let's put together a brigade of people sending plastic stuff back! Burbanmom is doing it too!
Jeanne said…
Ha! Thanks Emily. We'll see if they actually respond at all.
Jeanne said…
Thanks, Beth :) I'll join the brigade. When do we send stuff back? When we find plastic bits lurking in our products unexpectedly?
Anonymous said…
I send back several kinds of things:

1) Unexpected plastic (like the scooper you found)

2) Plastic packaging, either shipping materials or extra plastic packaging inside a product.

3) Plastic that arrives unsolicited in the mail or at my doorstep (like CDs or door hangers or phone book bags)

Anything else that you feel is unnecessary and want to get their attention. I mailed back the free bag I got from Discovery Channel at the Green Festival because it smelled truly toxic when I got it home.
Laura said…
Right on, LLP! :)
Send it all back and tell 'em why. Sounds good to me.
The Green Cat said…
Thanks for sharing this. I'm sending a similar letter to Seventh Generation about their plastic scoop in their laundry detergent. I'm also going back to Ecover.
Green Bean said…
Love it! Just discovered your blog through Beth and Going Green. Let us know when and if Whole Foods responds.
Going Crunchy said…
Cool! What a great model! Glad I followed your links through and I love your blog. Rich on the ideas!!!

The deodorant stone came in just a tiny amount of packaging which I recycled. I selected the one that did not have a case on it so it's deodorant stone all natural.

I found mine at Wild Oats which is located in the Chicagoland region. Cheers, and I'd love to put you on my blogroll. Shannon
Jenn said…
Do you have a problem with this laundry detergent turning to hardened cement-like chunks when cold water hits it? It doesn't dissolve - it gets hard! I don't wash with warm water usually, and I noticed all these undissolved soap bits. So today I put the soap in the machine first and started it while I sorted my load -- and when I looked in on it, the soap was all hardened to the bottom of the tub and I had to break it up with a wooden spoon.
Jenn said…
I just wrote a review on SustainLane - http://www.sustainlane.com/reviews/YSD7FXTWBHU2SBV7DWIZIXHVXWOR
Jeanne said…
Actually, I do sometimes find small clumps at the bottom of my machine, but most of it dissolves so I've been okay with it. I look forward to checking out other brands, though, to see if they also have this issue.

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