Recycled Materials
In my time designing products for Paderno and Vida, we pushed as hard as possible to find opportunities to reduce waste, use sustainable and recycled materials, and extend the life of the products we sold. Our goal was to reduce the amount of products and packaging that ended up in landfills or recycling depots.
Paderno Cutting Boards
When we were designing the Paderno cutting boards, we knew we wanted them made in Canada with the best wood this nation had to offer. We chose Canadian maple because it is an incredible wood for cutting boards. It is durable and hard wearing, yet easy on your knives.
We found a Canadian vendor that recycles the off-cuts from the manufacturing industry, using the bits that are too short and in most cases would become firewood or paper. Instead, they take the short boards, glue them up, and make some beautiful cutting boards.
Over the 8 years they have been on sale, by our estimate, we have saved more than 400 tons of Canadian maple trees from having to be cut down.
In using a cheaper, recycled material to create some beautiful cutting boards, we achieved a win for the environment, the company, and the consumer.
Vida Tools
Using post consumer recycled materials for products that come in contact with food is hard but not impossible. We pushed our vendors and their suppliers to find a way to integrate post-consumer recycled plastic into the handles of the Vida kitchen tools. By keeping the plastic in the upper part of the handle, above the tool’s head and away from food contact, we were able to use recycled plastic for up to 90% of the handle’s material.
Durability
In the sustainability triad of “Reduce Reuse, Recycle” we prioritized the first two principals. Our goals was to minimize the amount of product that ended up in landfills. The team focused on reducing returns and breakage while extending the lifespan of the products through ongoing quality checks, rigorous product testing and monitoring customer reviews.
Many of our Paderno products come with lifetime guarantees including cookware, bakeware and cutlery. So you should never need to replace a pan or kitchen knife.
In other cases, we had industry-leading of 3-year warranties for our kitchen appliances. We could offer these warranties because we knew we had high quality product that would last a lifetime keeping them out of the landfill.
