Sustainable packaging all wrapped up
Sustainable packaging has never been so important. A 10 year acceleration in ecommerce adoption and home delivery during COVID means that any small changes to packaging can make a huge difference to the planet. At Something Big we’re walking the walk in the way we package our clients deliveries and thought we’d share with you the simple changes we’ve made.
All boxed up
Off-the-shelf, standard size boxes are cheap, easy to order and arrive quickly but they rarely fit the specific items being sent. This causes two problems: excessive additional packaging is used to fill the voids and protect the items being sent, and the bigger the boxes the fewer that fit in the transport vehicles making courier firms use precious fuel to deliver a lot of fresh air. At Something Big, we’ve replaced the use of standard sizes with bespoke boxes tailored to our needs by working with a specialist box manufacturer, reducing costs on additional packaging whilst being kinder to the planet.
Eradicate the plastic
We’re all aware of the impact of plastic on our oceans and wildlife by now, and many businesses are stepping up to the innovation challenge of replacing single use plastics with eco-friendly alternatives. At Something Big we’ve replaced shiny plastic packaging tape with robust paper tape alternatives, bubble wrap with paper alternatives and standard poster tubes with cardboard, pyramid boxes that eradicate the need for plastic lids.
Biodegradable alternatives
There’s great news for ‘loose fil’, those small white plastic ‘s’ shaped polystyrene chips or little white balls help protect delicate items during delivery, as today biodegradable alternatives are easily available. The alternatives are just as effective and made from renewable sources. At Something Big we’ve replaced all our use of loose fil with natural sustainable packaging which is 100% biodegradable and fully compostable. For magazines and documents, plastic sleeves are also now being replaced with 100% compostable film sleeves made from potato starch.
Recycling made easy
But improving our packaging doesn’t end at our despatch door, we want to encourage recipients of any of our deliveries to do their bit too. To make this easier, we’ve committed to inserting instructions in each package we despatch on how to recycle and handle the disposal of each of the components.
If your communications lead you to produce printed material and you’d like to re-evaluate how you are stepping up to sustainability, talk to us.
