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Crystal Figlietti is an award-winning product designer with a Bachelor of Fine Art from the Pacific Northwest College of Art,as well as, a mother of three and part time lunch packer. It was all of these lunches and the wasted plastic baggies that got her to think outside of the (lunch) box. Or inside the (lunch) box, as the case may be, to create the unique patents pending Fresh Snack Pack™.
While living in Japan for three years in the 1990s she saw the way that they carried bento boxes and their own hand towels and she became less wasteful as a result. The culture and way of life had a great impact on her and continues to influence her daily. Disposable baggies just couldn't be a part of the picture.
"There has to be a way to have the convenience of disposable bags but without the waste. Our first fabric versions posed a problem because, as a former fabric designer who has been to domestic and international fabric printing plants, I realize that fabric ink and finishing are not tested for food contact. This finish may not easily wash out and this was a concern for us. The other obstacle to this was the practical issue of wanting to see our snacks that we had packed. If my children couldn't see inside the bag then the chances of them eating everything was slim. Aside from the fact that the adolescent boys and adult testers that we had preferred to have a more traditional looking snack pack.
We searched for a nontoxic plastic to replace the hundreds of baggies that we use in a given year. My family has been using the Fresh Snack Pack™ and we have a group of product testers gracious enough to provide feedback to us. They have really helped us make the best product that we can. In an effort to be as earth friendly as possible we have intentionally not added color to the bags or printed logos and have embossed the images on instead. We have kept the easy pack-ability associated with plastic baggies but have cut down on the waste. We can feel good about doing our part."
"Our vision is to reduce waste. In a perfect world we would love to eliminate all excess packaging and plastic but we realize that technology and modernism being what they are, we are attached to plastic and its products. Without it we wouldn't have this computer. We would be without television, vehicles, cell phones, medical equipment, you can see where I'm going here. The innovation that we would love to see next would be recycling for all plastics and reduction in their use and waste."
Crystal hopes that through the sales of the Fresh Snack Pack™ to be able to give back to the community through donations to children's and environmental organizations.
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