We were lucky to catch up with Christopher Firestone recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Christopher thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Parents play a huge role in our development as youngsters and sometimes that impact follows us into adulthood and into our lives and careers. Looking back, what’s something you think you parents did right?

I grew up in an amazingly environmentally conscious home. I remember my parents and grandparents tending their backyard gardens every summer. Gardening is such an amazing expression of self-care and self-sufficiency, and I believe it can be a powerful force in our fight against climate change and a strong message to those that remain deniers. It is still a passion of mine to this day. Inside we were always repurposing something, restoring furniture, or doing some other DIY project. Very early on I found a love for buying second hand at thrift stores and hitting the neighborhood garage sales on Saturday mornings. I’m so thankful I learned to value experiences over possessions, and that the value of anything material comes from the joy it brings you, not by its cost, or trendiness, or how cool you think it makes you look to other people. But perhaps the most vivid memory about our earth-friendly ethos was how fanatical we were about recycling. Everything was disassembled, cleaned, sorted, and recycled according to the finest of fine print. We were told that’s how we could save the world, so we did it; happily.
It wasn’t until much later in life and many, many hours of digging that I uncovered the truth about recycling – that it’s almost laughably ineffective (for plastics anyway, which is where I now focus the vast majority of my energy). This isn’t to say anything negative about what my parents taught me. Quite the contrary, they instilled in me a love for our planet, and to always search for the best way to have the greatest impact. Recycling was all we knew at the time. Now we know better.
The plastics industry and those dependent on its success as a cheap, abundant material have done a wonderful job convincing us that the burden of plastic recycling is ours to carry. That the scourge of plastic pollution and abysmal recycling rates are our fault, not theirs. Their campaigns tell us that if consumers would just try harder and pay closer attention we could stop all that plastic from clogging our waterways, choking out aquatic life, and entering our bodies through the food we eat, the water we drink, and the air we breathe.
I disagree. There is absolutely zero chance that we can recycle our way out of this. I believe we need to end the production and widespread acceptance of single-use plastic packaging. Turn the faucet off, so to speak, and attack the problem at the source. That’s what I’m trying to do with The Better World Company. I don’t think I’d be here without those early lessons from my parents.

Christopher, 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?

In 2017 I watched a documentary called ‘A Plastic Ocean’. It made abundantly clear that we are losing the battle against single-use plastics. I had always considered myself to be environmentally conscious, but this opened my eyes to the fact that I should be more focused on making a positive impact in this world. Working for several years in various investment banking and corporate finance roles had left me feeling somewhat empty, so I knew it was time to strike out on my own and fulfill a higher purpose. The core mission of The Better World Company is to end the wasteful, destructive stream of single-use plastic packaging. I’ve created a lineup of waterless household products that help everyday people easily cut plastic waste out of their lives. While staying committed to earth-friendly ingredients and only utilizing low-impact, zero-waste packaging, I also needed to to attack what I believe are two of the highest barriers to widespread adoption of the “eco” brands in the zero-waste space – price and performance. So many consumers are priced out by these brands because of their expense, and many of the brands that are more affordable often don’t work very well. Both problems generally lead to a ‘one-and-done’ consumer trial or the complete dismissal of the category as a whole. I wanted to change that.
After thousands of hours in the lab (I have a chemistry background), and hundreds of formula iterations (with more to come I’m sure) I’ve landed on three mix-at-home powder concentrates for the most popular household spray cleaners (all-purpose, bathroom, and glass/mirror) as well as a powdered hand soap that are all packaged in dissolvable paper sachets. There is also a powdered dish soap, laundry detergent, and dishwasher detergent sold in home-compostable pouches. These formulas actually work, and are all well within reach for the average consumer. I’m hoping the price/performance issues in our space can finally stop holding consumers back. Several other products are in the development pipeline (hopefully released in summer/fall of 2022), but it brings me absolute joy to look back at what I’ve been able to accomplish so far.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

I officially launched The Better World Company in late summer of 2019 with the goal of helping people eliminate single-use plastic packaging from their households. The business model for the original company was similar to a classic ‘milkman’ style pickup/delivery/refill service for all your most common household products – all-purpose cleaner, dish soap, laundry detergent, etc. I would fill my branded glass bottles with each product, deliver them to customers, and pick up any empty bottles they set out so that I could clean, sanitize, refill, and redeliver them. The first six months went better than expected. Things were looking up! Then COVID-19 hit and changed the world in ways I never anticipated. Lockdowns, supply chain issues, manufacturing delays, and major shifts in consumer behavior, just to name a few. As the pandemic dragged on I came to the realization that continuing with business as usual would carry much more risk than projected, and would likely not be sustainable. Additionally, I knew the growth capital that I built into my expansion plans would be much harder to come by. I needed to reevaluate my overall strategy and work to ‘pandemic-proof’ the business.
Less than a year after going live, I decided to rebuild everything from the ground up and essentially throw away all the work I had done in the prior two and a half years getting the original business off the ground. I created lightweight powdered versions of all my previous products and sourced all new zero-waste packaging that would allow me to ship nationwide and abandon the ‘milkman’ pickup/delivery model. It’s been a bumpy transition to say the least, but not only is this new model much more nimble and less capital intensive, it has allowed me to engage with a vastly wider audience and establish consumer trust in ways that were far more difficult before.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

I used to think hard work equals success. If I just worked hard enough I would get where I needed to be. I now know that hard work will take you places, but it won’t take you all the way. Nothing great happens without the work, but I would absolutely not be where I am today without an amazing support network of friends cheering me on from the sidelines and colleagues to help shape big ideas (or shoot them down with the greatest of care). Oh, and a little bit of luck along the way never hurts either…

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.thebetterworldcompany.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thebetterworldcompany
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheBetterWorldCompany

Image Credits
Rebecca Todd – TruBlu Images