Hello there!
We are so excited to tell you about our new packaging materials for your shipments. We are always looking for new ways to reduce our environmental footprint and help to do our part in making things better in any way that we can.
Our goal is 100% curbside recyclable packaging. Too many companies use shipping materials that end up right in landfills or packages they claim are recyclable, but only if you drive or mail them to a special place that accepts those types of materials. Others use mailers that claim to be compostable or biodegradable, but they actually are not or only at special facilities, not at home. Putting the onus on people to drive to or mail materials to special facilities is unrealistic, so almost all of those materials end up in landfills. So making sure materials can be recycled in standard recycling bins or composted at home was essential for us.
We have also been working with the companies we get products from to reduce their plastic use and have succeeded in getting many of them to switch to more sustainable packaging for their shipments. This effort has resulted in tons of plastics not being used or created! We also reuse the paper shipping materials we get from them to wrap your products, resulting in further waste reduction.
Here are some of the awesome things we are doing:
The paper we print your receipts on is produced in Florida from used food waste containers like coffee cups and takeout containers. It is 100% post-consumer recycled. All of this is taken from within 300 miles of the plant where it is produced, unlike most recycled paper, which is made from paper products sent to China to be recycled and then shipped back to the United States.
Our shipping boxes are made from recycled cardboard and are made using materials that are part of the sustainable forest initiative. They are 100% curbside recyclable. Sometimes you may receive a package with a box that seems to have been reused. That is part of our commitment to reducing the amount of material we use and keeping as much material as possible out of waste streams. It is far more environmentally friendly to reuse a box than a new one, even one made from recycled materials.
We have partnered with an incredible company, Ecoenclose. They supply our water-activated paper tape, shipping labels, padded mailers, twine, stickers, and promotional materials. Nearly everything they produce is made in the USA, with sustainability at the forefront. They did not pay us or give us free materials for this endorsement. We just love partnering with awesome companies who share our values.
We use water-activated paper tape to seal the boxes. Just by using this eco-friendly tape instead of plastic tape, we will save over one thousand pounds of plastic from being used and produced each year.
Our padded mailers are made with 100% recycled paper, twenty percent of which is post-consumer recycled. The padding is made from upcycled newspaper. This mailer is 100% curbside recyclable and biodegradable.
Our gusseted kraft mailers are made from 100% recycled paper, ninety percent of which is post-consumer recycled.
Shipping labels were one of our company's biggest sources of waste, and we were desperate to find a solution. Normally the backing that labels come on cannot be recycled because of the material it is made from, so thousands of pages each year end up right in the trash. We recently discovered mailing labels that feature a zero-waste liner that is curbside recyclable and made from post-consumer materials. Now instead of thousands of pages going to the landfill each year, 100 percent of these sheets are recycled!
We have replaced rubber bands with twine made from sustainably grown hemp from Eastern Europe. This twine is biodegradable and home compostable.
Fill is the material that goes into the box to cushion and protect the contents from breaking. This is the type of material that is most used for shipping. We go through tons of this stuff each year, so finding an eco-friendly version of this was essential. We use kraft paper that is made from 100% recycled paper, with 30% of that being post-consumer waste. It is curbside recyclable. In the future, as hemp and agriculture waste-based fill becomes more available, we will be switching to those.
Ninety-eight percent of our shipments are now shipped with 100% curbside recyclable materials!
Now you might be wondering why your shipments sometimes come with bubble wrap, packing peanuts, or other packing materials. Sometimes the companies we purchase products from use packing material that is not environmentally friendly. While we have helped many of them switch over, some still use those materials. Rather than throw them away, the more environmentally friendly solution is to reuse them. So if you see these types of materials in your shipment, know that we did not purchase them, they were reused, and no new plastic materials were created to ship your order.
Our company is actually now a negative waste company. That means we remove more material from the waste stream than we create! We encourage employees to bring clean materials from home that can be used as fill for shipments rather than throwing them away. Through this process, we have taken many tons of material out of the waste stream!
Thank you so much for your continued support of our small family-owned business and our mission of providing ethically produced, farm-to-bottle supplements that help improve the lives of farmers and laborers worldwide!
