Who We Are

Hi, we're Doug and Mary, the couple behind Coconut Island Company. In the picture is Doug with our energetic little girl Hansa during a family trip to Lake Harris in New Zealand.

After traveling the globe for 10+ years, first as a couple fresh out of college, then as a family with the arrivals of our children Oscar and Hansa, who were born in Thailand, we noticed a significantly worsening and alarming trend in trash pollution. Natural sites of incredible beauty were becoming degraded and starting to look like dumping grounds. Rivers, oceans, beaches, mountains, forests, jungles and parks had come to resemble the overspill from a landfill. It was heartbreaking.

We continued seeing the same situation repeated across different regions, islands, countries and continents over and over throughout the years, to the point where it became clear that these places were at breaking point.

Whatever your views on the significance of climate change, it’s difficult for anyone to deny that as a race, humans have enjoyed a culture of extreme excess the world over that has enriched many but at a severe cost (just 20 companies are responsible for 50% of the worlds single-use plastic). For example: Humans are currently using about 1.2 million plastic bottles per minute in total. Having that luxury is a privilege, it means many of us have access to clean drinking water where before there was none, but it’s also an insane statistic when we consider the actual need for a plastic bottle, the source of those bottles, where they eventually end up and alternative solutions. So in order for us to change this for future generations, do we have to go back to living like we did in the stone age?

There must be some alternatives.

Needless to say, the majority of the trash we were seeing across the globe in places once of natural beauty came from incredibly profitable, multinational corporations. In many instances it had washed up from the sea, been dumped, blown out of processing facilities or been imported. The statistics show that this has only started happening in recent history but is increasing at an alarming rate.

Having spent time in these places and learned about the regions, the cultures and the people, we discovered something that seems obvious in hindsight; that this had only started happening in the last 15-25 years. This prompted us to ask the question; what changed?

Many local people in these regions did not use vast amounts of plastic, it was clear they were not responsible and had been stewards of the land and regions for generations, living with nature rather than exploiting and destroying it. They also lived in regions with relatively poor infrastructure, meaning no garbage collection, so what were they doing that had allowed them to live comfortably, with the land for so long without turning it into a garbage heap?

After time spent in different parts of the world, with different cultures and people, the answers to our questions quickly became abundantly clear.

Local populations had simply used generation-old techniques to create everyday products using natural ingredients taken from, in a sustainable way, the environment surrounding them. Soaps and shampoos made from fruit oils, plants, herbs and minerals and stored in bamboo tubs, seating mats made from bamboo and palm fibers, coconut shells used as bowls, coconut oil for cooking and lotions.

These products made absolute sense, many had multiple uses an could be reused but if not, all would have been returned to the earth as nourishment for future generations. What’s more is that the products were more often than not, much higher quality, more practical and effective and all-round healthier than our “modern” alternatives.

Seeing this, we decided our mission would be to reintroduce natural, sustainable and healthy alternative products through our store. Everything we carry is made from natural materials and will either be reusable or biodegradable and every customer we convert from buying their cosmetics, kitchen utensils, cleaning products from a plastic producing corporation to buying from us, is a victory for the planet and future generations.