How Thrive Market and rePurpose Global Are Encouraging Brands to Reduce Their Plastic Use

Even the most well-intentioned brands have issues addressing their plastic use. The reality is that plastic is an incredibly common, affordable, and practical material for things like packaging and shipping; unfortunately, it’s also polluting our planet at a rate that recycling alone cannot begin to address. 

Thanks to our partnership with rePurpose Global, the world’s leading plastic action platform, we’ve been able to tackle minimizing our own plastic footprint at Thrive Market. In 2023, we became Plastic Neutral Certified, meaning we measure how much plastic we use in shipping materials for all member orders and packaging for all products in Thrive Market’s brands, then recover that same amount of plastic from nature. “Being Plastic Neutral Certified through rePurpose Global marks our commitment to transparent progress on our footprint reduction and direct investment in projects that fight the global plastic pollution crisis,” says Thrive Market’s Director of Mission, Kristin De Simone. 

Now, we’re working alongside rePurpose Global to help other brands achieve this same type of progress toward plastic reduction. In 2023, we joined forces to create Thriving Together, a plastic action working group that assists conscious brands in Thrive Market’s network with developing and refining their plastic reduction efforts. 

The Thrive Market x rePurpose Global Plastic Action Working Group  

“Some of the biggest players that can nudge brands to take sustainable action are the retailers,” says Kareena Fagwani, Senior Manager of Growth and Partnerships at rePurpose Global. “Our idea was, How do we make Thrive Market the force of good to all of the brands in the Thrive Market network?” 

In the first year, we had more than 100 brands across multiple industries join the group. Now that we’re in our second year, we’re excited to share the progress we’ve made together toward a plastic-free future.

Year 1: 2023 

In Year 1 after joining the plastic action working group, brands were immersed in education and development surrounding plastic reduction. There weren’t any mandatory milestones brands had to achieve in this first year; all actions were completely voluntary, and consisted mostly of educational webinars that helped participants understand their plastic footprint, different policies that affect their businesses, communication strategies surrounding their plastic action, and how they can build a five-year strategy toward plastic reduction. 

During this first year… 

• 102 brands across multiple industries joined the group 
• 128 representatives from member brands took part in programming 
• These representatives attended 5 thought leadership webinars throughout the year  

Year 2: 2024

In their second year after joining the plastic action working group, participating brands who opted to move forward shifted from educational goals to action-oriented milestones within the plastic action framework:

1. By June 1, 2024: Assess the state of the brand’s plastic usage and build strategies for 2024 plastic reduction and recovery goals
2. By November 1, 2024: Take measurable plastic action by committing to a minimum of 25% plastic recovery or reduction
3. By February 1, 2025: Achieve 100% of goals set for 2024 plastic reduction and recovery goals 

When brands reach each of these targets, they’ll be rewarded by Thrive Market and rePurpose Global to both honor them for the progress they’ve achieved so far and to help further their progress even more. Some rewards include experiential tours, prestigious marketing placements, and even matching a percentage of their plastic recovery efforts.

“The brands have some really creative reduction and recovery strategies,” Fagwani says. “Some of them want to reduce their packaging by a certain percentage by next year; some of them are finding it very difficult to reduce plastic, but they have committed to a 100% plastic recovery initiative where they fund the recovery of plastic from nature.” 

During this second year… 

• 128 brands are taking part in the working group 
• 173 representatives from member brands are taking part in programming 
• Together, Thrive Market and the participating brands have recovered 800,000+ pounds of plastic (to date) 

Celebrating Brands That Take Action Against Plastic 

While joining the plastic action working group ensures that brands are committed to learning more about plastic recovery, the major hope is that brands will commit to actually reduce and recover plastic waste in their own business practices. We’re excited to say that in the first two years that the group has been active, we’ve had a handful of bold, committed brands opt to take part in these measurable initiatives. 

In 2023, of the 102 brands who initially joined the working group, 11 brands committed to 1.) plastic reduction and recovery strategies and 2.) a plastic footprinting assessment. 

In addition to Thrive Market, those brands were: 

• Blue Stripes
• Saalt
• Cure
• Earth Mama
• Pulp Pantry
• Llama Naturals
• Ursa Major
• Neptune
• Clif Bar
• FoodMatch 

In addition to the 11 from the previous year, in 2024, we saw 5 more brands commit to plastic reduction and recovery strategies and a plastic footprinting assessment. 

Those brands were: 

• Dropps
• Olyra
• Skout Organic
• Doctor In the Kitchen
• Banyan Botanicals

Thrive Market’s Commitment to Recovering 1 Million Pounds of Plastic Waste From Nature 

In early 2023, our CEO and co-founder Nick Green announced an ambitious goal to recover 1 million pounds of plastic waste through our work with rePurpose Global. In order to do this, it will take the strength of not just Thrive Market, but also the brand members who are now part of the plastic action working group. 

As of mid-2025, we’ve surpassed that goal — and then some. To date, we’ve recovered 1,551,750 pounds of plastic waste as an organization. 

Announcing the Packaging Action Network: Our Next Plastic Reduction Endeavor with rePurpose Global 

In early 2025, we decided to sunset our plastic action working group and co-launched the Packaging Action Network with rePurpose Global and likeminded companies like Grove Collaborative, UNFI, and Naturally Network. The network is a data-driven forum to help growing CPG brands turn sustainability conversations into action. With this new group, we’re able to share insights on our sustainability efforts, collaborate with other brands, and learn practical solutions to drive measurable change at scale.

Here’s how the Packaging Action Network works: 

1. Rewards Promoting Action

The Packaging Action Network gathered exclusive rewards from retailers, distributors, and industry coalitions to incentivize brands making meaningful strides in sustainable packaging. From shopper marketing discounts to special retail media campaigns, taking action on sustainability is rewarded with tangible benefits.

2. Data Centric Measurable Progress

Every initiative is guided by real-world data and measurable outcomes, ensuring informed decisions and meaningful impact.

3. CPG Leadership

With packaging at the center of the waste crisis, the CPG sector is uniquely positioned to drive systemic change in the circular economy. We focus on helping solve the specific challenges of growing brands within the value chain, and beyond.

4. Transparency & Collaboration

The Packaging Action Network fosters open disclosure and pre-competitive collaboration, recognizing that shared insights accelerate industry-wide progress.

A Path Forward: How We’re Tackling Our Plastic Use (Updated June 2025) 

Thanks to rePurpose Global, we’ve been able to continually shift our strategy for addressing our own plastic use as needed. These are the current actionable steps we’re taking:

• We’re assessing owned brand products to identify opportunities to improve packaging
• We’re setting internal goals to reduce virgin plastic use
• We’re increasing consumer education around recycling (for example, by adding How2Recycle labels to packaging on our owned brand products)