Far South Coast cosmetic business, Saarinen Organics claims a first in end-to-end sustainability and packaging reuse| Video

The couple grow their own herbs for organic cosmetics and live totally off-grid with all their production processes fed by solar generated and battery stored electricity.

Now they have gone a step further in their passion to live, and produce in an end-to-end sustainable way, by recycling their packaging.

It might sound like a simple idea but the Saarinen's aren't putting packaging in recycle bins, they are reusing it for their products, and that's where it becomes complex.

Ensuring that any bacteria is removed from the returned packaged before its reuse is critical and has meant a $180,000 investment for the family whose property and gardens were destroyed in the bushfires of 2019/20.

Kay said they have now replanted and have about half the gardens working and live in "a one and half bedroom straw bale home".

The Saarinens chose wisely when they first decided to use aluminium and glass packaging for their products because Gregg said they can be recycled "infinitely".

"To reuse the packaging it has to be handled in a separate room from the lab (where they make the products). And so we had to build a separate room, stainless steel and tiled," Kay said.

"When the packaging comes back it goes into a commercial grade dishwasher and then into a hospital-grade sterilising machine called an autoclave."

They had to jump through a lot of hoops to get approval because of COVID, and also being the first meant a lot of regulation and cost, Kay said.

"It's a huge leap of faith to do it and a lot of entrepreneurs told us not to do it but our passion is to have a true eco system.

"It's not just our business, it's our life. We put our personal passions into our business. This is not just a business or money, it's our life," Kay said.

They use standalone solar power and part of the investment cost was upping their solar power to be able to have enough electricity for the new equipment.

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What it means for customers is they can bring their packaging back to one of three sites, Sprout, Eden, Bega Valley Marketplace, Bega, Markets on Lamont in Bermagui or return via mail.

"We've been on a sustainability journey for a long time. People want producers to take responsibility," Kay said.

"We wanted to create a full circular economy with a return-reuse packaging system. After spending countless hours researching how to have truly sustainable skin care packaging, we have set a new standard and created a process that ensures zero waste by reusing packaging. And it's all powered by 100 per cent self-generated off-grid solar electricity," Kay said.

Gregg said they were taking responsibility for their environmental impact.

"We grow our own skin care herbs using regenerative farming by improving the soil and storing carbon. We build carbon credits, we don't buy them."

It's a business model which is ringing true for a growing number of consumers who want to know the eco credentials of what they purchase. Early on in the 15-year-old buiness many of the sales were in the Bega Valley but now Kay said around 50 per cent of their business is outside the local area.

READ ALSO: Organic business growth blooms in Wyndham