We recently connected with Lindsey McCoy and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Lindsey, thanks for joining us today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

For 10 years I lived in The Bahamas doing environment education work. On a small island there’s no first world infrastructure to make all of the piles of plastic we create disappear. You see plastic bags, bottles and flip flops on the beaches, in the water, spilling out of the landfills, along the side of the road. Seeing all of this I could believe the reports that there could be more plastic than fish in the ocean by 2050.

As a result 
I wanted to start using less plastic in my life. I started carrying a reusable water bottle, reusable grocery bags, skipping the straw at restaurants and bars, and looking for other ways to use less plastic. However, no matter how hard I looked I couldn’t find a way to get those plastic bottles out of my shower. I’m not crafty enough to make my own shampoo safely and shampoo bars didn’t work for me. I needed another option.

As we contemplated a move back to the States, I realized that I might be able to solve my own problem. Even better, I might be able to help other people use less plastic in their lives. I pulled in my sister, Alison Webster, who has a design degree and strong opinions about the quality of her products. Together we spent two years finding the right containers and products. We launched in February 2017.

Lindsey, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Our goal is to make it easy for people to get quality, toxin-free products without having to buy plastic bottles. The less single-use plastic in the world taking up room in our landfills, spilling into our oceans, contributing to climate change the better for all of us. And, although we didn’t start out to be a clean beauty company, I’ve become a huge advocate of keeping harmful chemicals out of the products we put on and in our bodies. I had no idea there were so many chemicals in most mainstream products until I started doing research. All of the products are vegan, non-GMO, cruelty-free, biodegradable, color-safe and free of parabens, sulfates and toxins, good for the body and the planet.

Here’s how our circular process works: You order your preferred products. When your bottles are low you order a refill, or you can subscribe and we’ll send the bottles automatically. When the refills come you’ll switch the pumps over and send back the empty bottles in the refill box, Plaine Products covers the cost. Then we clean the bottles, refill them and reuse them.

How did you build your audience on social media?

As we were getting started we reached out to a lot of the bloggers and smaller influencers in our space: zero waste, vegan, clean beauty, plastic free, reuse and asked advice about our ingredients, our messaging, and our circular model. Because we were doing something unique it was an easier story for people to share: how our process works and how it empowers our customers to reduce their own waste.

We focus on our products as a way to solve the disposability problem in our society. While plastic can be recycled, that rarely happens and when it does it can only be recycled once or twice before it becomes unusable and goes to the landfill. Aluminum can be recycled infinitely, so none of our bottles ever need to be thrown away.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

That fact that we are helping to solve a problem as opposed to just selling a product has been a big factor in our success. We’ve also been very transparent about our process, lessons learned, goals met, and not met, along the way. We share behind the scenes footage, and are very interactive with our customers online and through email. We take customer feedback and customer service very seriously and invested early in making the stuff to ensure we could be responsive.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.plaineproducts.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/plaineproducts/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/plaineproducts/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/plaineproducts/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/PlaineProducts
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/plaineproducts