Cannabis & Sustainable Packaging - Branding Bud Live Episode 30
THE SUMMARY
Discover the fascinating world where the cannabis industry meets sustainable packaging. Join Branding Bud Live co-hosts David Paleschuck and Adriana Hemans, along with Kary Radestock, CEO of Hippo Premium Packaging, and as they deep dived into the challenges, innovations, and environmental implications surrounding cannabis packaging.
THE CO-HOSTS
David Paleschuck, Adriana Hemans
THE SPECIAL GUEST
Kary Radestock, CEO, Hippo Premium Packaging
DAVID PALESCHUCK
Welcome to Branding Bud Live, the live stream that’s 100% THC and 0% WTF. Every week we speak with business people about the business of cannabis. I’m David Paleschuck, founder of Branding Bud Consulting Group and author of the first book on cannabis branding. I’m joined by my co-host Adriana Hemans, a Marketing executive with over 8 years in the cannabis space. Hi Adriana!
ADRIANA HEMANS
Hi David. Thank you for that intro. I’m so excited to co-host the show with you. We’re bringing amazing guests from across the cannabis ecosystem to share their perspectives. My favorite thing about Branding Bud Live is that we focus on building community - and we encourage audience participation. It’s not just about us talking, it’s about all of us building something together. So feel free to drop your questions and/or opinions in the chat, and we’ll share them too.
DAVID PALESCHUCK
Thank you, Adriana. And thank you, everyone, for joining us today. We have a lot to get into today. Today, we’ll be talking with Kary Radestock, CEO, Hippo Premium Packaging. Some of the topics we covered are:
How can the cannabis industry embrace sustainable packaging practices?
What eco-friendly packaging materials are emerging as viable alternatives?
What role does sustainable packaging play in building a socially conscious brand?
I’m super excited to chat with Kary today.
ADRIANA HEMANS
Yes, I love this topic. And one of the reasons is because we like to do what we call the cannabis crossover, right? So talking to people who are inside the industry is great. And we love to elevate those stories. But it's also we think, important to showcase people who are bringing perspectives from other industries. And we all know that sustainability is top of mind for consumers. It's something that people have a growing interest in, and it just keeps increasing every year. I'm not going to say the number because that might be our audience participation later. I'm not going to give it away. So yeah, we're also really interested in talking to people who are listening in which I see a couple of friends in the chat now Kim from Bermuda and Diane saying I'm looking forward to the webinar. Thank you, Kary, David and Adriana, welcome everyone. Feel free to say hi in the chat. Feel free to let us know where you're from. And let's be friends.
DAVID PALESCHUCK
Awesome. Well, I'm super excited to introduce Kary. Let’s bring her out!
KARY RADESTOCK
Hi, you guys. So excited to be here today to talk to you both. I've been watching you from afar for a while and admiring your work. So thanks for having me on.
ADRIANA HEMANS
Thanks for coming. Kary. This is so cool to have you. You are a staple in the industry. I know that a lot of people who are tuning in are going to recognize you. You're always at these events with a big smile on your face and a really cool jacket with patches from all the cannabis events that you've been to. So it's great to have you on the show. Would you mind kicking us off and just tell Just a little bit about yourself and what you're passionate about.
KARY RADESTOCK
Sure, I actually came from mainstream packaging I spent over 20 years there, I quit my job just shy of a 20 year anniversary for a fortune 500 packaging printing company and started, just quit two months shy of my 20 year anniversary and started Hippo. I went to my first MJBizCon in 2015. And to be honest with you, when I started looking at the industry, I walked into a dispensary and I, I looked at the packaging, and I walked right out and I went no, I cannot do this, this is because I love creating beautiful things. And what I saw was such crap it was so far from what it is today that I was just like, there's just no line to get there, you know, so I kind of abandoned my, my idea. And then after a while I saw so many people coming into a printing company looking for packaging, I'm like, these guys need help. And then there and then I started going to events, and I saw that they were spending money on packaging, but it didn't look very good. You know, it could look better with when you have expertise behind you, the money you spend on your packaging is it goes a bit further and it can be more impactful. So I started, I quit my job started full time. 2016 I'm based in San Diego, I built a small team, we to be honest with you, I do love Pickleball is one of my passions, but packaging is my passion. It seriously isn't I know, it's so geeky, but I really love the just the process of creating packaging, it's very complex. And so I've had to spend decades learning, you know, just the engineering and decorating and all the things that actually go into creating great practice. And so it's, it's fun to use all of that and to work with these badass founders who are really just trying to pull it together, they're doing their very best they're working there, it could be their whole life savings and to be able to, to join with them to partner with them to help them realize there, their goals, their dreams. It's pretty cool. And you know, at the end of it, you know, it's packaging is always a journey, you know, there's 30 ways for it to go wrong. And only one way for it to go, right. And that's if all 30 people who touch it do their job perfectly. So there's, it's fraught with, you know, mistakes and things like that. So packaging is always a journey. And at the end of it when we have something that we're really proud of, you know that and something that helps this company succeed. That's my passion. That's what I get up for every day. You know, and I love it. I love my job.
ADRIANA HEMANS
The three P's. They call pickle ball, packaging and partying.
KARY RADESTOCK
I like it. I like where you're going with that. Definitely.
DAVID PALESCHUCK
Welcome. This is exciting. So Kary, before we jumped in or as we jumped in, would you just give us an overview of you know, what, what the cannabis packaging market is and potentially what impacts it has on the environment?
KARY RADESTOCK
You know that the cannabis market and these numbers have changed in the last year two years, but it's expected to triple over the next 10 years. So panicked cannabis packaging demand is expected to triple over the next 10 years. It's growing at a 23% compound annual growth rate which is the CAGR or whatever you say compared to regular packaging industry which is growing at 3.6%. So it is a huge jump. And because of that, you know a lot of people are getting a lot of Packaging Companies printing companies are getting in To the industry or trying to get into the industry and calling on all these people, and these poor brand owners are going like, oh my god, I got all these people I don't, you know, they don't know, a digital press from offset press, you know, they don't know exactly what they need to get their project looking right. And so it's a little confusing for brand owners right now, let's kind of take a little bit of a look at the Cannabis packaging landscape. If you look at the overall pie of cannabis packaging, and what's needed, about a little over 50% of what we produce is plastic. Now, we all know that plastic is really hard on the environment, and everybody has been focused on you know, shifting materials and shifting containers and things like that. But overall, the breakdown right now. And the projected breakdown is about 50%, plastic, 36%, glass, 10%, tin and 6% paper. So some of the most recyclable products out there are paper, and tin and glass plastic is the least of our bar friends, right? So if we look at that, there that but to be quite honest with you, I've been in this industry now, gosh, seven, seven and a half years, and 90% of the people who call in right in I talked to them all have sustainable packaging on their minds. You know, everybody wants to do well by Mother Earth, and the environment and everybody wants to, you know, do the right thing. But we do have a lot of barriers in our way. And we can kind of get into some of those as we as we move through the conversation.
ADRIANA HEMANS
Yeah, the first thing that comes to mind, of course, is cost. Right? There's, this is a tough time for the industry right now when people are looking at ways to reduce costs. But you know, not all materials necessarily need to be super expensive to greatly you just mentioned paper and tin which are probably you know, have a slightly lower cost and are good for the environment. Maybe care you can talk to us a little bit about when that aha moment happens for people in the industry. And they realize, Oh my gosh, I can have packaging that is both sustainable and can lower my production costs.
KARY RADESTOCK
The truth of the matter is when you recycle a product, which a lot of things are recycled glass is very much recycled 10 is recycled, but as a packaging container tin is pretty exciting because people keep it in their houses, people love to keep these tin cases to put their paper clips in or whatever but brats right are so you know, they people keep that that package that's branded, and so that brand lives in the consumers home, on and on. And it keeps reminding, you know, the consumer of the experience the good brand experience, hopefully that they had with that product. But you know, I mean, in terms of costs, you know, we can, we could probably get into costs a little a little bit later. Because when you're when you are when you're recycling using recycled products, they cost more than buying virgin products, because it costs more to manufacture them. Because usually you have to bring them in, you have to you have to de laminate them say they're glass on them, they have to go through a process to remove the label, unless the consumer removes the label before, they recycle it, which doesn't happen, you know, very often. So there's a lot of process that goes into recycling products that make them more expensive, doesn't mean that we shouldn't do it. And a lot of it is not that much more expensive. So it's really important just to do the research so that you can make a good decision for your brand and make an informed decision. You know, if it's only a couple pennies more, that's something that that the consumer is typically willing to bear the cost of.
ADRIANA HEMANS
That definitely goes as part of the experience if you know that you have something that you want to reuse or show off or that it is barring that you can recycle it. So let's talk a little bit about what's the difference between sustainability and recycle ability. So that word?
KARY RADESTOCK
Well, sustainability is kind of a catch word for recyclability, biodegradability upcycling, recycling, you know, all of all of these types of things sustainable, just means that you are really using many cereals that can be replaced. So for like, paper, you know, there was a time where paper was the bad guy. And then, you know, the forest initiative, you know, we have these certifications.
ADRIANA HEMANS
And just in case anybody wants to read the definitions.
KARY RADESTOCK
But that's right. You know, when we're looking at, you know, some of the, you know, some of the certifications that are available out there, paper has done a really good job of replanting forests and making sure that that they're, they're keeping the forest live and replanted for reuse. So paper is very, very eco-friendly tin is very, very eco-friendly, and very easy to recycle. And a lot of 10 doesn't have labels on it, because it's so easy to direct print 10 glass is one of a very recycled product, because it's expensive. So a lot of people will recycle glass, now you have to pay a little bit more to use recycled glass. And so that's a commitment that a brand owner may want to explore.
DAVID PALESCHUCK
As a quick side note, you know, working with tin, or printing directly on the package versus creating a label that is then adhered to the packages as a way of, you know, either saving costs or just being smarter about the approach, I think is important. It's those little details that that become really important over the course of time. Keeping in mind that there's so many different batches and so many different things that need to be on labels, but the more we can minimize the better.
KARY RADESTOCK
Yes, and the and I see some people in the chat and Ron saying unfortunately paper and 10 do not preserve the freshness. And so let's get into flexible packaging a little bit and just so you guys can understand it flexible packaging is probably the number one type of packaging and that's the bags, you know, bags like this, you basically can, you know have a bag, it's got a C or a zipper, it's probably got a gusset, you can brand it looks beautiful. We're launching a new suite of products. One is industrial compostable one is recyclable. So bags are made up of many layers of film. And that's what creates the bag thickness. So you do layer upon layer upon layer. And you do your first layer is FDA approved so it can protect food or product and be fine. And then the next is the graphic layer. And then the next is a protective layer to go over the top and then there may be a decorating layer. So you've got all these different layers. So in order to recycle of it, cycle it all the layers have got to be common. They've got to be the same type of materials so that they can just be melted together and be recycled. And that's kind of hard to do with bags because the best barrier property is foil. So you know you there the whole industry of flexible packaging has been grappling this grappling with this for a long, long time. How do we compose the bag? So this is industrial compostable? So that's all great, but that means it has to go to an industrial site to be composted. It has to either go back to the maybe hopefully the dispensary might have a drop off site for packaging or that type of thing but industrial compostable This is not backyard compostable. So there's still a lot of challenges even though we're making really good headway in these areas. And everybody's been working on this for on honestly for decades. And they keep improving the materials for freshness. So you know, these recyclable bags, or even compostable bags, are they as good as regular bags that have that foil barrier? No, they're not they're not as smell proof. They're not going to keep the product as fresh but they're a lot better than they were say five years ago and they continue to improve. So a brand owner has got to choose you know what the most important thing for their product and their brand is. There are some other products that I think are pretty exciting. And one is a backyard compostable lid, they go black and white. So you can throw these break down in environmental situations. If you just leave it out, it's not going to break down but if you put it in the dirt or in the water, it will break down and just melt and it becomes a product that feeds you know, feeds the organisms. So these come and talk to opts in doob tubes and caps, this is the majority of plastic are these things, you know, pop tops, doob tubes and bags, that's 50% of our packaging. So there's also ocean reclaimed. So that means I go out into the ocean and they find the plastic, they bring it back and they make it into products. So yes, is it more expensive? Yes, it's more expensive. But here, you know, you there are some emerging products that are actually just really, really exciting, you know, that what people are bringing to the market, and it's helping us quite a bit, I would say cost of those are probably at least 30% higher than a regular cap. But sometimes, you know, that is something that you can pass along to, to the consumer. And I saw someone here was talking about hemp, Diane, about hemp, very sustainable. Now, this is a hemp paper, it's uncoated. 70% of it is made of hemp, and 30%. I'm sorry, 30% from hemp and the other 70% from PC W, which means post-consumer waste. So that means that this is one of the most sustainable products out here. However, the price is probably double or triple regular paper. And now if you're if you're doing something kind of a small run it that's not going to affect your bottom line that much. But if you're running, you know, hundreds of 1000s of units, that's something that will definitely impact your bottom line. It's going to be something that you actually really plan for and you make it part of your marketing, you know, conversation. It is a very, very big part of the conversation at that point.
ADRIANA HEMANS
Absolutely.
KARY RADESTOCK
There was this the CLIO award winner last year for the best show, it was the grand CLIO of the year, there was this German company that created a hemp based ticket for getting on the subway. And it was I think, around Christmas time everybody's stressed out and they all use mass transportation there. So they did this thing where they gave out hemp based paper tickets that people can eat. And they got a high off of it and it chilled them out and it went viral.
ADRIANA HEMANS
That campaign cracks me up.
KARY RADESTOCK
That was so that was so cool. For Adriana, did you see it? It was amazing. Yeah.
Adriana Hemans
David and I were actually at the CLIOs together hiding out in the back while watching the festivities it was it was so much fun.
KARY RADESTOCK
I love that. That was one of the highlights of last year for me was that show? I loved it. Oh CLIOs anybody brand owners CLIOs. Open for entries call for entries now open? Get them in, get them in.
DAVID PALESCHUCK
That's funny. I was a judge last year. So I remember that in particular. Shout out to Michael Kaufman.
KARY RADESTOCK
Love Michael!
ADRIANA HEMANS
We haven't had also come into studies show consumers are willing to pay extra for sustainable products. Thank you for calling that up. Diane. I think this is absolutely perfect on topic with our audience participation, which is about consumers and what they're looking for. So if you haven't participated in one of our audience participations before, how it works is I'm going to read out a statement whether it's true or false, and it is your job to guess whether you think it's kind of truth or fiction. Consumers who say they often buy products with sustainable packaging are more likely to be on a diet. This is such a funny stat. So I should preface this, this came from brightfield they collect consumer data on a quarterly basis from 1000s of cannabis consumers across the US. They come up with some really interesting stuff that can help brand people sort of cross pollinate and understand who their consumer is and what matters to them and what's important to them. And when we say on a diet, meaning like any kind of diet, whether there, you know, trying to lose weight or they're eating kosher. So yeah, true or false. Consumers who say they often buy products with sustainable packaging are more likely to be on a diet. Is it true or false? A true or be false.
DAVID PALESCHUCK
And, you know, before we get into the answer, I think this totally plays into what Caleb just said, too, right? You know, if they're on a diet, perhaps maybe they could be eating their packaging.
KARY RADESTOCK
That's a way to curb your appetite.
ADRIANA HEMANS
Repackaging just to snack on.
DAVID PALESCHUCK
I thought somebody was going to say you smoked the packaging. But you know, one of the concepts we had a long time ago, when I was the Chief Brand Officer at Evergreen herbal, we had a concept to do potato chips. But when you there were smoked potato chips. So when you opened up the bag, there would be a puff of smoke that would come out of the sealed foil bag. But they would also flavor the chips. So that is funny.
KARY RADESTOCK
Were you able to make the smoke? I It's so funny as packaging geeks get together and try to do these kinds of crazy things that our clients come up with. And we spend hours in the bar trying to figure out how to do it and feel like that was a time well spent.
DAVID PALESCHUCK
Audience, now it's your chance to shine. I wait to see it every week. And I love it.
ADRIANA HEMANS
It seems like people are pretty divided on this one. It seems like it's about 50/50 between true or false. And your says false. We have who else guessed Jr also said false Cheryl said true. And Kathy also said true. This is weird. My name popped up here saying false. But I don't remember putting that in there. Maybe masquerading under my LinkedIn name. But to be careful who you give your passwords to? Should we reveal the answer? Yes. All right, let me tell you. It is false. So 72, or sorry, 49% of the general population in the US are not on a diet compared to 32.7 of people who buy sustainable packaging often are not on a diet.
DAVID PALESCHUCK
And you know, when I heard that number, what I read was 50.3% of the general population are on a diet if the other 9.7 aren't so it's interesting, just to kind of note that know where your people is focusing. Right? All right, well, let me answer it's false.
KARY RADESTOCK
No, Diane, I think somebody said that people would be willing to pay extra for sustainable packaging. And my friend David here and I, we co-wrote an article for mg magazine called high stakes the importance of cannabis packaging. And I have to admit, he wrote more of it than I did. And he's so organized and so amazing. It was wonderful to collaborate with him. So keep your eyes open for that that's coming out in June. That's the MG Magazine in June. That's printing now. So look for it, but David did some research. And he found that 75% of the consumers looked for sustainable packaging, and 90% of consumers were willing to pay more. Now, there's no there's no bar of how much more they're willing to spend. And sometimes that sustainable direction does add quite a bit to the budget. So it's a work in progress. But it does show that if you if your messaging is clear, and your brand is clear on its purpose, that that it can sustain a higher price point.
DAVID PALESCHUCK
Yeah, it's that was that was interesting to find those stats. I'm curious too, though, you know, the, the, I guess the regulations that push us to use child resistant packaging, how does that play into the sustainability? aspect?
KARY RADESTOCK
Well, you know, that is such a good question, David. Because, you know, about a year ago, Vermont came out with a no plastic in their in their packaging. Now, a lot of car packages use very limited plastic, or, you know, there are plastic alternatives that are being developed but no plastic we all in the cannabis industry packaging went.
KARY RADESTOCK
So we had to really, that's what kind of spurred our, you know, we've just launched a sustainable packaging line, which, which I'm really proud of, which is why David and Adriana had me on the show and my friend Rick Fitzgerald, who's on the call, he helped us design that and put that together. But you know, it was such a drive. So now Vermont, New York has some sustainable packaging guidelines. New Jersey has also had some and you know, other states would probably put them in if they could, but they've got so many other regulations in there. They don't, they don't really want to muddy up the water. But it's really driving the industry. Because of government regulations, now, New Jersey has a packaging regulation that is an overall packaging regulation, but it doesn't apply to food or cannabis. And that was that was pretty interesting that they could have no plastics now. So I'm going to give you an example of all of us here trying to do a good job. And you know, as a packaging company, we put together a car package, one of the first that came out in the industry a paper package. And it was beautifully done by our friends at Dual Lock. And it took about 10 months to go through child resistant certification process. And in the end, the kids and we would take the kids getting into it during the child resistant testing process. And in the end, the kids were biting into the package and able to chew it off. So we had to add a tear resistant lamination which elimination is a film of plastic that goes over a product. So we had to add a layer of plastic just to keep it intact, so the kids couldn't get to it. So there's there is a dance a balancing act of trying to make it safe. You know, child resistant, tamper proof, also fresh, protect the product, express the brand, the regulatory compliance, there is a lot of weight on that CR, (Child Resistant) package.
ADRIANA HEMANS
That’s determination!
KARY RADESTOCK
There is a lot so there's a lot riding on it. And it's, it's important to spend your time on it the biggest, the biggest, the, you know, barrier or trip up I see from brand owners trying to go to market with their packaging is they don't allow enough time. They don't allow enough time they think, Okay, I'm 60 days out, I'm going to be fine. Well, sometimes it takes you 30 days, just to figure out what you want to do to explore all the options, you know, and then you've got to figure out how many you need. And, you know, what, what makes sense? You know, and a lot of people are thinking, okay, what can I do, you know, because we kind of get we go make two steps forward and one step back, you know, so what can I do to do my job as a brand owner and what are the things, I can do that won't break the bank, right. If you've got a paper based product, well first of all, don't over package get, you know, keep your smallest footprint possible. Try not to add too many layers unless you absolutely have to try to have you know, the fewest amount of layers of packaging in there. And then you're really going to want to try to use a single source of material if that's possible, if you're able to just use a paper based product with a jar and inside like so these little jars, you know, it this is not overpackaged because there's not enough room to put all the regulatory information on here. We have to have a box, you know, so but in in Colorado, they don't have boxes. And so they might do what we call an extended content label, which is kind of a layered label that you know pulls off like a formal label so that you have many pages to it a booklet label like that. Yeah. So …
ADRIANA HEMANS
Ron is making at this moment to saying regulators are forcing us to use two to three times the packaging we need to fit all the BS we need to get on the label are now going to further increase our cost of goods sold by forcing sustainable packaging.
KARY RADESTOCK
Ron You are so right. And gosh, one of my clients is in Mississippi. Oh gosh, I can't remember I think it might be Mississippi they have to put marijuana on the packaging they say that as big as the largest font on the package. So if you had a C for a late a logo, a half inch big each letter of marijuana has to have a half inch big it goes around the entire thing. And you're just sort of like oh my god, you know, and look at Canada, the poor people in Canada and I feel really sorry for these brand owners because the Canadian government even though they you know, legalized it from a national perspective, they crippled their industry by not allowing brandy, basically all of the packaging and Canada looks the same. You can only have two colors. Your logo has to have the warning next to it same line, you know and the same size. You have to have these warning messages on all the packages district bid it evenly out into the marketplace. And it all looks the same. When you put a whole bunch of brands together, they all look almost the same, you can only have two colors, one color for your logo, one color for your background. I mean, it handicaps the Canadians because they're trying to build their brands, they were the first to market they had an advantage, they could have some brand recognition and some brand loyalty if they could, you know, people want to love their packaging, your packaging is kind of what makes you sexy. You know, it's sort of like the, if I if I think of a brand, I know I told this to David and David roll his eyes, but I'm going to say it again, if your logo is your face, right? And but your packaging is your style, it's your outfit, it's how you look, it's how people see you when you walk in the room. And they go who, yeah. Oh, because that's it's got this kind of visceral and, and just an attraction that comes with that. And when you Britt pull out a package at a party, you want to be proud of it, you want your friends to go who you know, what is that, and the packaging is going to drive those kinds of conversations. And, you know, David, I've repeated your packaging story from Thailand, over and over, because it was so powerful to me how important that brand experience was for you. And, you know, I if you want to share it, you certainly can hear but I, I've repeated it a few times, because I think it drives the point home, you know, when people are expecting something from a brand and they get something else that's less than they're disappointed. And, you know, you don't want to disappoint your consumer ever, for any reason, you know, there's just too much too much competition out there.
DAVID PALESCHUCK
Absolutely. And it's important to have that experience you know, from soup to nuts, from the moment you walk into a dispensary from the moment you touch it package all the way through to consuming it, and then thereafter even keeping the tin as you called out earlier. But that's what's really important. We're going to jump into our second audience participation, which is interesting. So this is a candidate choice. And we'll go through our multiple choice question right now. So consumer demand for sustainable cannabis products has grown by what percentage from q1 2022 to q 120 23. So basically, in the last year, what has the percentage grown from.
And I know Kerry, when you started off earlier, you had some stats, which were talking about the growth and what you know, both the growth and also that people are willing to spend more so. So I guess this might help us get to how much more you know. So again, multiple choice here, consumer demand for sustainable cannabis products has grown by what percentage from Q1 last year to Q1 this year? What does everybody think it is?
ADRIANA HEMANS
C 8.6%. And Andrew is also voting for C 8.6%. I shouldn't say that this set also comes from brightfield Thank you Brightfield for providing this really interesting data for us.
DAVID PALESCHUCK
You know, when this also leads into some of the other things that Adriana that we've spoken about in the past that that over the course of time, let's say the last 50 years, you know, brands were originally about efficiency. And then they got more about you know how we differentiated Well, efficiency, then it was more about the excitement, the brand, you know how a brand made us feel that we kind of moved into the skin error, like I'm wearing this brand on me and I'm either part of this group or I'm not part of this group. And then finally, now we're to where we actually buy brands because we believe in what the brands believe in and the brands believe in what you believe in apparently. So I would tend to lean higher up.
DAVID PALESCHUCK
Let’s show the answer.
ADRIANA HEMANS
The answer is B, good job, Becky, you are all alone on that one. Becky's a star!
DAVID PALESCHUCK
I think it's cool to take a look at some of the areas of similar growth that include athletic performance, digestive health, heart health, and relaxation. And you can see how those all sort of are all growing, but they all are very similar. And that crowd I'm guessing probably has to do a lot post-pandemic, where we're trying to relax, we're trying to get back in shape we're trying to perform athletically. just interesting to see. So the answer is B 7.4%.
KARY RADESTOCK
Way to go, Becky. I thought that was funny, too.
ADRIANA HEMANS
This is great. So let's talk a little bit about some examples. Right? We've talked about brands who are considering making the leap. But we haven't actually talked about who has made the leap and what the results were, do you have some stories you can share with us, Kary.
KARY RADESTOCK
And when I say I have some, what my clients, you know, our clients tend to drive us to be better to do better to work harder to find, you know, the solutions. And one of them who did it really well is harmony extracts, they have the Jerry Garcia CBD brand. And this was a really interesting package. We did four different tincture bottles. And their requirement was and these are white they are, there's no label on them. So they're a direct print. So there's no delamination on the glass can be recycled. There's no petroleum used in these. These are a solid bamboo cap. And normally, the bamboo caps have a plastic insert on the inside. And these are solid bamboo, it was difficult to find, but no, no plastic insert, and the bulbs have no petroleum very, very difficult to find. So these they drove us and they probably pitted us against 10 different packaging companies just to find out who could actually come up with a solution. The other thing we did was a sap jar, which is you know, really beautiful. This cap is not no label, it's a direct print, it's called water transfer. And how they do water transfer is pretty interesting if you guys want to google it, but it has some videos in there. But what they basically do is they'll print whatever the graphic is, or the pattern or whatever it is you're trying to put on a 3d image, it could be a helmet, it could be whatever, something that's rounded, it's not flat, and then they dip it into water. And then squish it around and then dip it out. And so then once they dip it into that water, it receives the effect the ink and then it has to dry and then it's good to go. So that's a water transfer cap. It's pretty cool. But this particular client drove us you know, kind of drove us crazy and that drove us to be better, you know, and that's harmony extracts out of Denver, they're doing such a great job and they're just getting the product out to market. This will be featured in that that article next month in in Mg magazine so I think they're doing they're doing great a lot of 10 manufacturers are doing some pretty cool stuff. But you know the one thing that is difficult you know we have a little that's plastic there is some biodegradable corn material that are is available for these type of inserts. And so tins are pretty cool. We are also I think it was wrong or somebody who asked for it. There's a biodegradable clamshell that has a little bit of seal around it. biodegradable materials are porous, so they're not airtight. Airtight is the bane of our existence when it comes to pre rolls we keep dry or dry. You know, the little Jeter jars we call them Jeter jars, just because Jeter was the first one to do them that those Jeter jars are nice because you could put a seal around them and those are mostly airtight flexible packaging, of course, but that doesn't keep them protected from breakage.
ADRIANA HEMANS
There's always that this comes to, to weighing what's really most important, or a lot of things to consider for sure.
DAVID PALESCHUCK
Kary, thank you so much for sharing everything you shared with us today and actually bringing out samples and showing us there's no it's some it's something our industry definitely has to deal with not only because it's mandated but also because you know if a brand is going to call out that they are eco-friendly, then they really have to write they have to walk the walk.
KARY RADESTOCK
I want brand owners to know you know, just because it's hard, you know it we see you we are with you, we are working on this together and, and you requesting it helps us to be better. So keep your request keep your focus top of mind when working with packaging people because you know a lot of times you get busy you just want to try to give the best price gets you know and get something going for someone. But sometimes your brand owners are the ones that can really push it for you. We check regulations, we have packaging and labeling regulation checklists on our website, if anybody wants to check it out, if you need it for your state, we have most of the most popular states. We don't have every state out there yet. But it's on Hippo packaging.com. And you just, it's under Resources, and you can download, we've probably got maybe 25, Canada, CBD and then, you know, maybe 25 of the states. So we're adding those there.
DAVID PALESCHUCK
Where can people find you?
KARY RADESTOCK
reach out. You can find us at Yeah, Hippo packaging.com on the contact page or connected with me here on LinkedIn.
ADRIANA HEMANS
We love it.
DAVID PALESCHUCK
Thank you, Kary, thank you so much again for sharing everything today with us. And we again, appreciate what you do for the industry.
KARY RADESTOCK
Thank you, David. Thank you, Adriana, for having me on today. I really enjoyed the conversation and thanks for all you guys that came in and chatted with us and listened in. We appreciate it.
ADRIANA HEMANS
Yeah, absolutely.
DAVID PALESCHUCK
Thanks, Kary. As usual, our show goes so fast. The fastest 45 minutes of my week, that's for sure me! That’s our show for today. We’ll be back again next Thursday, June 15th with Eric Mercado, CEO & Founder of Terpli, an AI budtender and eCommerce solution designed to help consumers make the right cannabis choices. We’ll be chatting about "Cannabis & Artificial Intelligence".
ADRIANA HEMANS
We just dropped a link in the chat for next week’s episode. Hit that button to register so you don’t miss it. If you miss us in the meantime, you can re-watch today’s episode, or any of our previous episodes, on our LinkedIn page, Branding Bud Live, or on our YouTube channel. Please give us a follow on LinkedIn to stay on top of everything Branding Bud Live.
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DAVID PALESCHUCK
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Thank you, everybody. See you next week. Bye.
ADRIANA HEMANS
Thank you. Bye.
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