Over a year ago I attended a Mompreneur conference; a day of listening to women talk about what inspired them to start their business. One panel discussion resonated so much with me, I sat with silent tears feeling I had failed in a very important aspect of my business. Every woman on this panel knew their WHY. They were so clear on why they were doing what they do. Their personal values aligned perfectly with their business values and they were rocking it. I left knowing that the right next step for me and my business was to confirm my own WHY.
I kept a card from this conference that asks what is your Ikigai, your reason for being, another way of asking about your WHY. What is the unspoken driver that propels me to do what I do?
I have always been environmentally minded. I even went so far last year as to use a bar of soap for our dishes (FYI it didn’t work). My husband studied Environmental Science in Sweden and from my early 20’s introduced me to the idea of the life cycle of a product.
When I started Tiny Teethers, I loved the idea of silicone teethers. Silicone is a great alternative to plastic and safe for little ones to teethe on. However, it was next to impossible to find a company that recycled silicone as it cannot be recycled by traditional means and shouldn’t be tossed in the trash.
So, while my company was making modern, safe and affordable teethers for parents and their little ones, this wasn’t fully aligned with my true environmental point of view. Thankfully, last year, after much research, I found a North American based company that recycles everything…including silicone.
And this brings me back to my WHY, the one that felt so elusive at that Mompreneur conference.
We give back to environmental causes by creating eco-friendly, recyclable baby and children's products that help foster creativity and a sense for the natural world.
Tiny Teethers can continue to create safe, durable silicon-based products and as importantly dispose of them safely, in a manner that fits with my dedicated environmentally conscious lifestyle.
To that end, we’re proud to announce that in 2021 Tiny Teethers is going to launch an envelope recycling program.
When you are finished with your teether, you’ll be able to contact Terracycle for a free shipping label. All you need to do is put the teether in an envelope and pop it in the mail. We’ll take the recycling from there.
This makes me SO happy because during this time the silicone industry has exploded. Now parents are moving from plastic to silicone: silicone teethers, silicone bibs, silicone bowls, silicone utensils, silicone place mats, and silicone toys.
Eventually, we are hoping to partner with Walmart on a national silicone recycling program. This is ideal: for people to be able to bring in any of their used silicone items for recycling. Working on putting this program in place brings me such joy and is the first step for our company to fully embrace why we do what we do.
We love creating cute teether for your little one, we love providing these teethers at an affordable price, and finally, we love that we can responsibly close the circle with a recycling program in place.
