History of Eco-Products

Early Years: 1990 – 1993 In the summer following his graduation from college, a young man and his father were hiking together in Rocky Mountain National Park when the father decided to pitch a simple business concept. The general idea was to provide products manufactured from recycled content to businesses in central Colorado. With an idea, a garage, and a few grants to write a business plan, Eco-Products was officially founded by Kent and Steve Savage on October 1, 1990. At first the targets were simply businesses that used large quantities of paper products including office paper, toilet paper, and paper towels. While the demand for these products was consistent, many competitors already offered products manufactured with recycled content. This precipitated a shift toward foodservice disposables and janitorial supplies in 1993.

From Retail Distribution to Wholesale Manufacturing: 1993 – 2005 For the next 15 years, Eco-Products would grow at a slow yet methodical pace by purchasing recycled content products from larger companies and distributing them to businesses in the greater Denver/Boulder area and beyond as awareness of environmental issues grew steadily. Over time, Eco-Products grew into one of the leading distributors of environmentally friendly products in the country.
	In 2005 Steve introduced a new wrinkle into the business model. Rather than operating strictly as a distributor for other firms, Eco-Products invested for the first time in the manufacture of its own products. These products would utilize a new technology that replaced traditional petroleum based plastic with “corn plastic”, and traditional styrofoam with sugarcane. The result of this shift was a new and unique value proposition never before seen in the marketplace – one that would offer customers compostable products made from renewable resources, equal in quality to traditional plastics, and competitive in price.

High Growth: 2005 – Today The shift towards wholesale manufacturing brought rapid growth. Since 2005, the number of employees has increased from 10 to more than 50. A retail arm selling a wide array of sustainable home wares called Ellie’s Eco Home Center was spun off in late 2007, and the core business has continued to thrive with the support of loyal customers across the country. In the fall of 2009, Eco-Products brought its first product to market made from recycled content – a paper hot cup made with 24% post consumer recycled fiber. We can’t wait for the day when we can make all of our recycled content products from 100% post consumer material, but we’re not there yet. Eco-Products is based in Boulder, Colorado and operates from a corporate headquarters that features one of the largest private solar power installations in Boulder County — a 49KW system that produces the majority of the building’s energy needs. We are lucky to live in a city where recycling and composting are available to businesses and residents, and we try to send as little waste to the landfill as we possibly can. Our mission is to educate the global community on how traditional plastics represent a gross misuse of our finite natural resources, on how true zero-waste businesses, households, and communities can be created when people are willing to make small changes, and to offer as many alternatives to conventional foodservice products as we possibly can.