The Live Lightly Podcast

Jessica (00:00)
Welcome back to season two of the Live Lightly podcast. I'm your host, Jessica Franklin. In season one, we took a look at plastics from many different angles, starting with how it's made, its many different environmental impacts, and how science is now finding microplastics inside humans, and what that actually might mean for our health. Here in season two, I'm talking to founders of brands with innovative household products designed intentionally to help reduce microplastic exposure.

And today I'm joined by Jen Moore, co-founder of Pura, a company forging the way with innovative plastic-free reusable bottles designed to grow with your child. Thank you so much for joining me today, Jen. It's a pleasure to have you here.

Jen Moore (00:40)
Thank you, Jessica. I'm really excited about our talk.

Jessica (00:42)
this is actually a very special episode for me because it takes me all the way back to the beginning. Your product was the very first one that I sought out when I saw that first BPA-free label on a sippy cup. And I took a moment after that first thinking, good, BPA-free. That's great that it's free of BPA, but what is BPA?

Jen Moore (01:02)
So awesome.

a long time ago.

Jessica (01:08)
I took a while to wrap my head around plastic, what it is, what is BPA, and after I learned about that, I decided to not only swap out the things that were coming into contact with my son through food and beverages, but pretty much everything. So the whole journey started with that one little label and just grew from there. I started questioning everything. And when I was looking for bottles,

to replace the sippy cups. It was literally like crickets. There was really nothing out there and then finally I stumbled upon Pura You guys had been out a little while but it was at a time where I started looking first, you know, in a store.

and then on Amazon, and then I had to branch out and just look on the internet. So it was that interesting time where you started to actually use the internet more for finding specific products.

Jen Moore (02:02)
starting Pura was kind of similar, that we were looking for products with no plastic and having to go to stores, not finding anything, going online, and not finding what we wanted.

Jessica (02:15)
because long before most people were even thinking about microplastic exposure, you were asking the deeper questions I'd to have you go back and start at the beginning. What was going on in your life at this time as a parent? was there a specific moment?

like I had that really made you pause and question things.

Jen Moore (02:37)
Yeah, we really thank our son who's now 21, who was two at the time, for Pura because, it's a time where...

I would describe it as you're surviving. You have an infant and a two-year-old and you're just getting through the days. You're not really fully present. You're just going through the motions. But anyway, our second child was underweight.

He wasn't on the charts. They wanted us to supplement him. And the supplement they wanted us to give him ⁓ had a really strong smell of vitamins and preservatives. That's a whole nother story. anyway, of course, the doctor says you need to give this to your child. We started out giving it to him. And because he hadn't been bottle fed, we grabbed what was in the cupboard, which was my two year old's plastic sippy cup. And that's what was in everyone's

Jessica (03:20)
Yeah.

Jen Moore (03:35)
cupboards, This was 2007, Anyway, we used the supplement and the smell just permeated the plastic sippy cup. No matter how we cleaned it, if we gave it to our two-year-old, he would say, nope, it smells bad. He would say, it smells bad.

Jessica (03:50)
Mmm.

Jen Moore (03:52)
⁓ And so we started looking for something else to use that we could clean more easily, that didn't hold that smell. that moment made us really kind of start questioning the plastic we were using in our kitchen. And if we can't clean it and the smell is sticking in there, it just didn't feel right or safe.

And so we started looking into it. ⁓ And that's when we just started reading about all the chemicals in plastic and what leaches, what doesn't leach. Most everything leaches. Anyway, so that was kind of our moment. And then like you, we went online and tried to find alternatives without plastic. And it was really hard. was not possible to find anything without plastic that had a toddler appropriate top.

So we found some, SIG had some aluminum bottles, we found a clean canteen, but those all had plastic sippies on the top. And so the smell, again, would get into those plastic parts. So we just started researching, started looking, we started, we knew we wanted to work with stainless steel. know, stainless steel is really classified as a material that doesn't leach. It doesn't absorb, it doesn't leach, it's been used, it's

and used in like milk pasteurization for over a hundred years and medical devices. So we felt really comfortable with that material. But then what's an appropriate spout because stainless steel, that's too hard. That's not appropriate in a toddler's mouth. ⁓ So that's where we came to silicone and medical grade silicone seemed really like the best choice. Infant nipples were being made out of silicone for ages. And ⁓ then

you know, we started designing bottles and making prototypes and going through the whole process. But that was kind of our moment where we said, the market does not have what we want. ⁓ What can we make? And what's safe for our family, for children? ⁓

Jessica (05:49)
Thank

Jen Moore (06:06)
You know, what you choose to put in your own body as an adult, you know, can be questionable at times, but we all want to give these innocent, young offspring, you know. We want them to have the best chance and the best products.

Jessica (06:10)
Thanks

And the fact that we even have to think about knowing the materials that we're purchasing for children and for infants and for ourselves for that matter. I think that's a newer awareness that's starting to come. I think maybe it started with food, right? You had organic and not organic and then you start questioning things like, why does it have to be non-GMO and organic? And so then you start thinking, OK, so what about this product?

when you were having this conversation with other parents, what kind of reactions were you hearing from them?

Jen Moore (06:53)
Right, so we started Pura not quite a year before all the information on BPA came out. ⁓ So we thought...

this is going to be huge. We're already doing it. We already have our prototypes. It helped us double down on the whole concept of zero plastic. We were like, great, now we find out these sippy cups had BPA, anything that was rigid. ⁓ And we were really untrusting. BPA free came out immediately, right?

all these big ⁓ baby bottle brands, weren't gonna just not sell baby bottles. So they replaced that BPA right away and we were already in that research mode and we knew.

that there was a lot more wrong with plastic and plastic tops and plastic sippy tops than just the BPA. And sure enough, you know, it came out later that BPA free was really more of a marketing scheme because BPA in most cases was replaced by BPS that does the same thing, but hasn't yet been outlawed.

A lot of people were fine with BPA free.

A lot of people were really happy to see something that was 100 % plastic free. We had a lot of grandparents at, we'd go to public ⁓ consumer shows, grandparents would say, my gosh, I wish I would have had this when I had my child. They'd be with their daughter, ⁓ maybe like at a show for expecting parents. And we had these grandparents dragging ⁓ their daughters over and...

It was really cool. But a lot of people just kept walking. People were really by and far fine with BPA-free plastic. we found our market. It was smaller than we had anticipated. We sort of had to shift from a fast growth to a more steady ⁓ growth. just kept working. But we also found that in Asia,

and Europe.

they were not trusting of BPA-free plastic. ⁓ And so we were able to focus and grow those markets, Europe in particular. We were bigger there than in the US for years. we would just meet, in the US, we just try to meet customers where they are. If they're interested in saving money, because our system, ⁓ one bottle works with eight different lids, and you can use it for your infant, and then,

then

that same bottle can go to kindergarten with your child. People would be interested in that, simplifying things. So they were interested in the fact that you could take everything apart and boil, sterilize it if you wanted.

So we would find what it was about Pure Our products that interested the customer and try and meet them where they are and help them with whatever problem they were having. If they weren't having a problem with plastic,

we again, you meet the customer where they are and support them with what's important to them. There are lots of studies that will say that the most overwhelming thing is new to new parents is all this information. They're just trying to find their way. The same as we did, you know, you're sleep deprived. You're not firing on all cylinders. So, ⁓ you know, the information is there. And like you, if you're looking for something plastic free, you're going to find

But if you're just looking for a great bottle, you're going to find us too. And then you're going to go, and it's plastic free? Wow, cool. That's just a bonus. that's how we approach things for years.

of course with the whole microplastic findings and as the public, it's like the kids that grew up knowing to recycle, caring about the environment, those are now the parents were selling to. So it's almost like we had to wait until the next generation came along that just had more interest in being caretakers of this earth.

Jessica (11:19)
it's good that you didn't get discouraged initially and that you found different ways to focus your attention, because it sounds like it could have been a very- one of those moments where you could have been easily discouraged and felt like giving up. And I'm sure that there were those moments where you felt like giving up. Did you ever have any of those?

Jen Moore (11:37)
so many times, ⁓ you know, if something just didn't work out the way we wanted, ⁓ we have incredibly strict quality control protocol. And we've had manufacturing partners that are like, nope, you have to take that. And we're like, nope, we are not taking it.

and change partners whenever we needed to if they can't make it to our level. So yeah, there were lots of opportunities to be discouraged, like our sport top. also, you know it's different now. A lot of products are made out of silicone now. When we were doing this, very little.

was made out of silicone besides infant nipples. So we are trying to manipulate this material to make a sports top, for example. In the meantime, our manufacturing partners are making sports bottles for all the big brands, putting plastic tops on them.

and they over and over, just let us make these bottles for you with a plastic top. Everything else will be not plastic, just the top. And we just wouldn't accept it. So we, I think it took us over two years and about six prototypes to develop our 100 % plastic free silicone sport top. And that...

was a moment where we were like maybe we'll just keep doing baby bottles and sippy cups, maybe we don't want to move into sport bottles, ⁓ but we just kept plugging away and yeah.

So we were the first 100 % plastic-free sports bottle with a sports top. Not just a screw-on plug, but something that really you can drink on the go. You can drink in the car and not spill all over yourself. So we persevered.

Jessica (13:31)
definitely

something to feel proud about. What made you commit to creating this fully plastic-free solution even when it wasn't widely understood or even that people weren't even looking for it?

Jen Moore (13:43)
we saw the need in our own household and the benefits of having something that was plastic free. Silicone tops can be boiled, sterilized, they can go in the dishwasher, and they're not leaching chemicals. ⁓

we just kept believing there was a market for it. And there was. Not as big as we expected at first, like I said. But we were getting really positive feedback going to consumer shows. at one point. We were in over a thousand Kroger stores.

grocers were seeing the growth of

organic food purchases. And actually one of the reasons we're not still in those stores is because they took over most of the baby aisle to have more organic baby food offerings. They wanted more things that people buy daily, not a sippy cup every ⁓ month or three months or whatever. So we saw that one of the biggest grocery chains in the US was valuing a plastic-free bottle. And it was because they were seeing this move

towards organics. Ultimately was our the ending of our partnership there so we had

Moments of you know, this is going in the right direction. Like I said Europe was doing great so it just took a little bit of time but after the first few years we are in the black and so We just weren't looking for a windfall. We were looking to just take care of our family and continue producing what we felt really good about so we just kept moving forward

2008 was a great year for us. Really felt like we were gaining momentum and things like Instagram algorithms would change and that'd be a setback. COVID, COVID was a huge setback for us. It was just a really a time of uncertainty for people. But as we came out of COVID and...

kept moving forward, that's really when we saw Americans care about health. They do, and when you make it easy for them and really present clear information, these are our materials. We only use stainless steel, food grade stainless steel, medical grade silicone. And just keep educating, because even silicone can be...

You know, we found out early on, ⁓ so are you wanting silicone that meets US standards or European standards? And we're like, what are you talking about? ⁓ well, most US companies.

when they're making products for the US, they only use silicone that meets US standards because European standards are so much higher. So right then we're like, we're parents, we're making products for children. If there is a better quality silicone, we want that. So we started from the beginning, always making products that met all the European regulations, but providing that same product to US consumers.

Jessica (16:44)
I love that. As you look back now, how do you think that being a parent And knowing that you stayed the course, even when people didn't fully understand, what are you most proud of?

Jen Moore (16:54)
You know, as parents, you're always trying to be the best version of yourself for your children. mean, they were there every step of the way. So when they were toddlers...

my mom or I have a younger sister who was still in college, they'd come and help us stay in the hotel room with the kids and we'd run to the trade show and then when we had a few staff members, we'd trade off. My husband or I would be with the kids, we'd switch off being at the show and then as soon as they could, they started coming with us. ⁓ They could give you the spiel at eight and 10 years old. They loved consumer shows.

helping people check out and swiping their credit cards that was like super cool to them. Anyway they had fun with it it was I think being parents and you're not going away to your job and

living by a different set of rules, where it's just profit-driven and cutting corners where you can. I think that from the beginning, was very much, this is a product for our family, and we have high standards for what we wanna give our children, and it's for families. And I can't tell you how many times we were...

cautioned or advised to do things differently and we just didn't. were not gonna, because it wasn't in line with our values. ⁓ And really one of the best moments for me was meeting Amy Ziff ⁓ at a natural product show and she was in the process of founding Made Safe. And.

I had recently asked our US labs, you you do all this third party ⁓ professional lab testing on your products. I had asked them if they could test our products for all EA's. So any material... ⁓

or any part of a product that could cause ⁓ estrogenic activity, could mess with the endocrine system at all? ⁓ And the first answer was, yes, yes, we can develop a test for you. And I was like, this is awesome. Two weeks later, they come back, and not one of their customers was interested.

manufacturers did not want to know what was in their products. They just want to know that it's BPA free. They don't want to know that there's also BPS and that that is causing disruption to endocrine systems the same way that BPA did. They didn't want to run those tests at all.

Which in hindsight I'm like, okay, so the only reason they were gonna do the test for us was if they could sell it to more of their clients. And shortly after that, Amy Ziff was in my booth and asking if we were ever interested in knowing more about the silicone we were using. she was developing a test to

test it for 80,000 known toxins. And ⁓ we said, yeah, we are interested. So we were their first brand to run through this very sophisticated testing and came back all clear. 80,000 known toxins. ⁓

and they still do that screening for brands. So we still have everything reviewed and material screening with MadeSafe. But that was just so cool to have someone speaking your same language.

Jessica (20:42)
Right. It

can be lonely out here.

that's definitely something to be proud of. I didn't know that you were her first confirmed product. That's amazing.

she's definitely made a way and forged a path for, think, helping to create that consumer awareness around products that we're using around our children and our families. So somebody had to be the first one willing to do it. And you were pretty confident in the fact that you would pass, I'm sure. But you were also open to the fact that you might not, right?

Jen Moore (21:12)
We didn't... yeah,

I mean we we'd asked a lot of questions and ran a lot of testing and Europe does have very strict testing

people can look up more information on that. Look up REACH, R-E-A-C-H. So they're looking at, because there are so many chemicals in use, over 80,000 chemicals in use and 700 or more introduced every year. So there are organizations that are looking for

what are those bad chemicals that we should start advising brands not to use. yeah, it's all really important work.

Jessica (22:01)
inside the master class, for sure, we can talk a lot more about the details because

once you start asking questions about what materials the products use every day are made with, it can start to feel a little bit overwhelming

So inside the Hidden Microplastics in Your Home Masterclass, we're focusing on the biggest and most impactful swaps to make first.

you're going to.

talk us through what people should really be looking for when it comes to the materials that are used in reusable bottles. It's not an easy swap to make. There's a lot of little nuances that you need to be aware But before we go, Jen, is there anything else that you would like to share to inspire anyone listening who may have an idea for a product that could help us lower our exposure to microplastics inside of our homes?

Jen Moore (22:54)
that the best products come from people who are inspired and really enthusiastic about what they're doing.

I would encourage people if they feel like there is something lacking that's not good enough for them or there's something that they enjoy and know is healthy and they feel like they want to share that with the world, ⁓ follow your passion. You might have to do it on the side for a while and keep your day job, but follow your passion because products that come from

Jessica (23:22)
Thank

Jen Moore (23:28)
authenticity and passion and ⁓ hard work. ⁓ Yeah, don't underestimate how much hard work it requires, but yeah. But yeah, I would say follow your passion because that usually has ⁓ a good ending when paired with hard work.

Jessica (23:36)
That's a great tip.

Yes, well thank you for everything that you've shared with us today and we'll see you inside the master class.

Jen Moore (23:57)
Thank you.