In today's throwaway culture, many products are used once then sent to a landfill.

With billions of people on the planet, that habit adds up quickly.

"Carolina Impact's" Jason Terzis shows us how one local company works to reduce waste.

- Well, over the years we have become a what do I need right now kind of culture.

A water bottle, a takeout container from a restaurant, a plastic cup, things we use in the moment when we need them, then immediately toss them away.

Traveling the world with the US military, the person we're about to introduce you to saw firsthand how bad things have gotten in terms of plastics and landfills and all the sorts and mess out there.

And he went ahead and made it his life's mission to do something about it.

Even going swimming with the sharks.

- [Emcee] First in the tank is an environmentally minded innovation in laundry care.

- [Jason] January, 2022.

"Shark Tank", season 13, featuring a little local flare.

- Hello Sharks.

I'm Chris.

- And I'm also Chris.

We're the founders of Sheets Laundry Club from Mooresville, North Carolina and we're seeking $500,000 for 5% of our company.

- Filled out a massive application.

Thought man, what the heck?

It's worth a shot.

- [Jason] Entrepreneur Chris Videau going swimming with the sharks.

- Get selected, which is a feat in itself.

My understanding is it's less than 200 for every 50,000 applicants.

- [Jason] Chris and his then partner Chris pitching their new company to the Sharks.

- Sharks, in my 20 years in the US Army flying helicopters, I was able to get a bird's eye view of the world's plastic crisis.

I was shocked by the way other countries were disposing of plastic.

So all of that trash, anything and everything you can imagine trash wise that we would throw in a trashcan here gets put into a burn pit there and they burned 24/7.

Eventually you find out that likely the dioxins that were in a lot of that plastic that was being burned on a daily basis and translated to permanent lung damage.

- [Jason] Chris's plan after retiring from the Army was to become an emergency medical services pilot.

- And then come to find out the damage in my lungs, I can't qualify for a flight physical going forward.

So six months from retirement, got a 3-year-old and a wife and it's like what am I gonna do to support my family?

- [Jason] Chris's wife, Laurian also served her country.

- I worked both explosive and narcotic detection dogs.

I worked with the Secret Service and did a lot of sweeps for the president, vice president - [Jason] Like Chris, Laurian was raised in California and raised to be aware of the environment.

- Weekends always spent out on the beach picking up trash and just making sure the beach was clean.

That's kind of how I was raised.

- [Jason] Wanting to create something that would allow for a more sustainable future, Chris had an idea, create a laundry detergent that works just as well as the big name brands but without the bulky plastic containers.

- I think in the US alone about 900 million plastic detergent jugs wind up in our landfills.

So really researched it.

Researched the the plastic aspect of it and then kind of come up with the, we came up with the concept of sheets because we could then package it in a box.

- That's when sheets kind of came about 'cause we're like, you know, we need to make something that we can make a difference.

- But you know, the better part of 12 months testing with the contract manufacturers, working with a chemist here to kind of change formulations to develop a product that actually worked.

It's lightweight, it's mess free, it's easy to use and best of all, it's 100% plastic free from start to finish.

- You very simply take one sheet of detergent and you toss it in with your dirty laundry.

- [Jason] They created sheets in 2019, three years later getting the opportunity to pitch it for further investment on "Shark Tank".

- And as soon as it hits the cold water, it begins to dissolve.

Now once you've done that, go ahead, grab your lid and we're going to shake it for a few seconds.

(intense music) Abracadabra.

- Bubbles.

- We have turned your detergent sheet- Wow.

- Into- - That's great.

- The response that we got from "Shark Tank" itself, it was just amazing.

- Sharks, it's obvious we care about the planet, so- - [Both Together] Which one of you wants to get it hooked on creating a plastic free tomorrow?

- It really took us from, you know, down here and it put us up here overnight.

I will give you 500,000 bucks for 10% of the company.

- Alright, we're ready.

- Decision made, we'll do it.

Thank you.

Appreciate it.

Thank you Daniel.

- Thank you so much.

- We appreciate it.

- We're so excited.

- Congratulations guys.

Well done.

- Thank you.

- Good luck guys.

- [Jason] They left the show with a deal in place, but after the cameras stopped rolling and they got down to real business, the deal fizzled out.

- And unfortunately it just didn't work out there.

The terms that Daniel was comfortable with and we were comfortable with weren't aligned.

- [Jason] Chris's "Shark Tank" partner, Chris, left the company.

Laurian then became co-owner and together they've been building the business.

- It's a hard industry to penetrate, right?

And it's, and it's a hard product to market.

So laundry detergent's not exciting.

It's not fun.

Nine outta 10 people you'll talk to, they're buying the same detergent their parents bought.

The lab is Theo, the silver and, or silver and tan.

The lilac and tan I guess is Goose and the Black and Tan is Maverick.

- [Jason] Along with their dogs and nine employees, they run the Mooresville offices and warehouse and they'll soon be opening a new production facility in Statesville.

- So the guys here in the morning, every day they start out by packing online orders.

So every day they're in here fulfilling orders that were placed within the last 24 hours.

- So what you're seeing here that's being filled, those are all of our online orders for subscriptions, one-time purchases all directly from our website - [Jason] With in-store contracts with Harris Teeter in the Carolinas and Meyer in the upper Midwest, Sheets' products are on the shelves in 1,800 stores worldwide with 75,000 loyal customers.

- If someone had asked me five years ago that Sheets laundry Club would be doing the good and has gotten as big as it was, I probably would've just laughed at you.

I believed in the concept.

I believed in getting rid of plastic.

I just never thought it would take off this big.

- So whether a consumer actually understands the plastic crisis that's occurring within the world or not, when they support the brands that are plastic free such as ourselves that don't require, you know, more money or instructions on how to use it's actually easier to use than a liquid detergent.

We're still winning at the end of the day because it's one less jug making it to the oceans and landfills - [Jason] Making a difference as small as it may be, one plastic bottle at a time.

- Okay, so I brought you this story idea.

- Yeah> - Because I saw it on "Shark Tank".

- Yeah.

- Talk to me about how much impact this group has made.

- Well, they've been around for about six years.

They started right as the pandemic was getting going, but since then they've really kind of taken off.

And by Chris's measurement, the Sheets paper products have so far saved about 2.7 million plastic containers from reaching landfills.

It's a lot, but merely a drop in the bucket as far as worldwide consumption of plastics.

He's just trying to do something about it.

So he's making his mark as is his wife.

But you know, really trying to send a message like we as a society and as a global economy, we need to do better.

- Absolutely.

And one person can make a big difference.

Thanks for sharing his story.

- Absolutely.