Plastic out of the whole chain. Not just the box.
Most plastic-free efforts stop at the shipping mailer. Ours starts at the mill and ends at your customer's door: the product, the factory, the freight, the warehouse, the packaging, and the words you use to describe it. We did it for FiveADRIFT. We do it for other brands.
THE CASE STUDY IS US
Every claim on this site had to survive our own audit first.
FiveADRIFT is a Certified B Corporation founded in 2019. We banned plastic from our products, our packaging, and our supply chain from day one, then we did the unglamorous work of making the ban hold: material specs to the mill, packaging rebuilt from paper and hemp, written requirements to our fulfillment partner, and spot checks when a roll of the wrong tape showed up anyway. We learned what substitutes actually perform, what they cost, and what you can honestly say afterward. Read this site closely. It says "funds the removal," not "removes." It says "banned," not "100%." That discipline is the product.
FiveADRIFT is a U.S. partner of Plastic Odyssey and a supporting brand of The Ocean Awakens, NYC Climate Week 2026.
CLAIMS WE RETIRED
What we used to say, and why we stopped.
Every brand has these. Most never publish them. Ours:
Each towel removes 500 plastic bottles from the ocean.
Each towel funds the removal of 500 plastic bottles from the ocean.
We fund the removal. Our partners do the removing. The verb was doing work it hadn't earned.
100% plastic-free supply chain.
We banned plastic from our products, our packaging, and our supply chain.
A ban is a policy we set and enforce. "100%" is an outcome we'd have to re-prove every time a warehouse reaches for the wrong tape. We publish the rule, and we publish what happens when it's broken.
Zero-waste towel.
Hemp and organic cotton. No synthetic fibers.
"Zero waste" is a claim about a whole lifecycle, including things we don't control. "No synthetic fibers" is a claim about the towel, which we do.
The Claims Review does this for your brand in a week.
WHERE IT HIDES
The plastic your packaging vendor never looked for.
Swapping the mailer is the easy part. This is the rest of the list.
- Polybags on every unit leaving the factory
- Polyester sewing thread and woven labels
- Plastic fasteners on hangtags
- Stretch wrap on every inbound pallet
- Tape, void fill, and strapping at the 3PL
- "Recyclable" paper mailers with a plastic window or plastic tear strip
- Plastic-coated tissue, stickers, and label stock
- Synthetic dyes and finishes sold to you as "natural"
If you have never walked your chain from fiber to doorstep, at least four of these are in it right now.
PRINCIPALS
Michelle Keefe
Co-founder. Master's in Environmental Management, Harvard University. Michelle leads the audit: materials, chemistry, and the environmental case for every substitution we recommend.
Harry Schechter
Co-founder. Harry leads the operational side: manufacturing specs, packaging sourcing, fulfillment partner requirements, and enforcement. He built FiveADRIFT's plastic-free supply chain himself and still runs it.
STEAL OUR BAN
The document we send our suppliers. Take it.
This is the plastic ban we issue to every mill, factory, forwarder, and fulfillment partner we work with, names removed. It defines what counts as plastic (compostable and recycled included), lists what's prohibited at every stage from thread to pallet wrap, and sets out how we verify and what happens when someone slips. Writing the rule takes an afternoon. Holding it is the work.
HOW WE WORK
Fixed scope. Nothing to sell you.
We don't sell packaging, offsets, or certificates. The work is the product, so the answer is never "buy our box."
00
Claims Review
Every public claim you make about plastic and materials, on your site, your packaging, and your product pages, read against what you can actually substantiate today. You get a marked-up list: what survives, what doesn't, and the exact rewrite for each line. Most brands start here.
One week. Fixed fee: $2,500.
01
Full-Chain Plastic Audit
Every plastic touchpoint from raw material to your customer's doorstep, mapped and scored. Product, packaging, inbound freight, warehouse, outbound. We talk to your mill, your factory, and your 3PL, not just your packaging rep. You get one document: where the plastic is, why it's there, what it would take to remove it, and which of your current public claims survive.
Three to four weeks. Fixed fee: $25,000.
Less than two months of a sustainability hire who has never done it.
Guarantee: If the audit finds fewer than four plastic touchpoints in your chain, it's free.
Guarantee terms
"Touchpoint" means a distinct plastic material at a distinct stage (product, component, retail packaging, inbound freight, warehouse, outbound). Counted from the supplier declarations, the receiving inspection, and one test order placed by us. Applies to a brand's first Full-Chain Plastic Audit. FiveADRIFT's determination is final. Not available to brands that have completed a FiveADRIFT Removal Roadmap.
02
Removal Roadmap
The audit turned into a plan you can execute. Substitutions that actually perform, supplier spec sheets you can send tomorrow, packaging redesign, cost deltas per unit, and the sequence that won't break your warehouse. We sit on the calls with your factory.
Scoped after the audit.
03
Claims and Enforcement
The ban, written down and held. Supplier and 3PL requirement language, a spot-check cadence, and a standing review of everything you say publicly about plastic and materials, so what you say is what you can defend. We hold ourselves to this standard; it's why this page says "banned" and never "100%."
Quarterly retainer.
Built for brands that ship physical product.
FOR
- Consumer brands that own their materials and packaging decisions
- Founders who have made a plastic promise, or want to, and want it to be true
- Certified B Corps and companies in the certification process
- Brands facing retailer, wholesale, or state substantiation requirements
NOT FOR
- Brands looking for a badge without changing the product
- Brands that want to offset plastic rather than remove it
- Anyone who needs the answer to be "keep the polybag"
Tell us about your supply chain.
Five questions. We read every message ourselves and reply the same day.