There is an abundance of trendy silicone kid’s products around at the moment. Let’s be  clear… Silicone is not completely sustainable. Where it sits on the Eco-friendly spectrum is relative. Yes it is non-toxic and BPA free. While the base silicon comes from quartz, a plentiful resource the hydrocarbons used to make silicone usually come from petroleum or natural gas. Just like plastic it will never break down! One positive is that it will not breakdown into microplastics causing harm to our wildlife and waterways. While there is nothing about silicone chemically that would prevent it from being recycled, curb-side recycling programs rarely accept it. One way to recycle silicone bakeware is through  Terracycle.

Yes, our ‘No more spills’ range does include a small component of silicone. We never said we were perfect…Our main Hashtag we love to use is #prettysustainable. Meaning as a family we try to use products that are more sustainable, but we still like pretty things! In fact; I am an Interior designer with a love of the aesthetically pleasing, especially timber and you guessed it-fun colours!

The Organic bamboo component of our products, the bowl, plate, cup and toothbrush handles are made from 100% biodegradable bamboo It comes from nature and will break down under the right conditions. Once moisture, heat, oxygen and microorganisms are introduced to bamboo, it will break down, within the space of 8 weeks to 3 years.  A Bamboo straw or toothbrush handle for instance which has no glue would degrade quicker than a machine made bowl.

Cutting old bamboo products into smaller pieces reduces the amount of time it takes to decompose. All bamboo products, whether or not they contain chemicals are biodegradable.

Rather than disposing you could reuse our bamboo products when your child grows out of it for other purposes. By removing the silicone component, he sippy cup for example makes a great nut bowl, or snap the head off the toothbrush handle for your garden labels!

What about the colourful bamboo fibre products? You know the ones; they look like plastic and may also have printed designs on them? It isn’t straight forward due to the combination of materials used in manufacturing. Whether or not they are biodegradable depends on the polymers and other chemicals used in producing them. Naturally bamboo fibers are biodegradable, but when mixed with other materials such as epoxy resins, the decomposing process will be slower.

 When it comes to choosing sustainable products for my family I live by what  my Mumma used to say... 'There's good, better and best, aim to do the best, but better is better than good!'