Not even on the market a month, the husband-wife team at Planet Fuel, an organic youth beverage brand in Darien, is utilizing aluminum bottles to pair organic and recyclable.
Tom and Amy Barnouw grew up less than an hour from each other, Amy in Darien and Tom in Katonah, NY, but they met while each was living in Seattle, where they married. Tom has a career in information technology and Amy”™s history is in working for environmental nonprofits.
They began to foster an organic lifestyle in Settle as well as a family.
“It”™s that classic story of becoming parents,” said Amy. “We”™re strong proponents of an organic lifestyle and are almost exclusively organic, but it was so much easier to do out in Seattle. When we moved here, there were some challenges.
The family moved to Darien and Tom holds an IT position with World Wrestling Entertainment in Stamford. Amy said that as her three kids grew older, she realized staying organic was more of a challenge when convenience is king.
“I was so displeased with what was out there on the shelves; I didn”™t like what was there so I created my own,” said Amy. Three years ago, she began buying pure fruit juice and watering it down for her children”™s drinks and Planet Fuel was born.
“It”™s a great thing to do, but you don”™t have the convenience factor when you”™re out somewhere,” said Amy. “The concept was really born from us wanting something else on the market that was resealable, recyclable and organic with nothing else in it, just organic juice and water. We wanted to make it with minimal ingredients, all things that anyone could pronounce and recognize, so you know exactly what”™s in there. That was a real goal for us.”
Planet Fuel is currently in 13 specialty shops and luncheonettes throughout Fairfield and is spreading to more every week. Amy and Tom said they have intentionally not yet approached the likes of Whole Foods, Balducci”™s and Stew Leonard”™s.
“We think there can be a downside to growing too big too fast,” said Tom. “Whole Foods is a perfect fit for us, but before we get in there, we have to be able to meet the distribution demands of a store like that. We want to grow, but we want to do it at a pace that allows us to build the business in an intelligent way and continue to grow the grassroots support.”
The Barnouws bypassed the typical juice box with the straw insert and began shopping for a container that matched their values.
“The typical juice boxes are not organic it makes a huge mess and ends up just tossed in the garbage,” said Amy.
“Making the juice isn”™t what”™s new, we”™re not reinventing the juice wheel,” said Tom. “We”™re taking something that with basic organic ingredients and making it convenient while still good for the environment.”
According to Amy, they consider options for the container like corn resin and other developing organic materials, but found that aluminum, typically known for holding soda, still offered the most feasible recyclable benefit.
“Over two-thirds of all the aluminum that has ever been in production over the last couple hundred years has been recycled and is still in use today,” said Amy.
According to the Aluminum Association of America, aluminum is the most abundant metal on earth and the most recycled with 113,204 aluminum cans recycled in every minute of every day. The organization also asserts that tossing away an aluminum can wastes as much energy as pouring out half of that can”™s volume of gasoline.
“Within 30 days it can be melted and retooled into another can or even part of an airplane,” said Amy. “The durability doesn”™t change. If we can do education along the way and say, ”˜Please recycle this is valuable material,”™ then it”™s so easy for it to become something new in a month or two. There are a whole lot of goals; we are using this product that we”™ve worked toward as a platform to inspire and educate kids about our planet.”
Amy is using her environmental nonprofit background to establish partnerships with environmental groups across the country.
“We”™re establishing partnerships so we can support them and their work,” she said. “The goal at the end of the day: A portion of our profits will go into the Planet Fuel Fund and we will give that money back to conservation groups at the local and national levels. Over time I think the potential we can achieve as a successful company is extraordinary. Education is key.”
