Reuse and Recycling of Packaging Materials

Every day we receive deliveries from our suppliers. These deliveries come in a huge range of cardboard boxes, with a variety of packaging materials inside.

We have always been keen to be as environmentally responsible as possible, and it we feel it is wrong to dispose of  these boxes and packaging materials, and then buy new ones to send out our internet orders.

As a result wherever possible we reuse the boxes we are sent and the packaging materials inside them. We always carefully select the boxes to be reused, only using ones that are in good condition, and suitable for the job. But it does mean that they often have marks on them, old delivery stickers, and sometimes product descriptions

It’s nice to have things delivered in shiny new boxes, and we know that first impressions count. But we hope that when our customers see a reused box arrive on their doorstep, their first impression is not of a box with a couple of superfluous stickers on it, but instead of a responsible company doing their best to minimise their impact on the environment.

Despite reusing boxes for internet orders, every year we send tonnes of cardboard to be recycled. Recycling, though better than going to a landfill still uses a huge amount of energy to create a new product. Reusing materials costs no energy at all.

This policy of reuse isn’t always easy, as we never have a 'standard’ size box to pick off the shelf or a bag full of uniform packaing material. For every order we have to spend time looking through our collection of saved boxes and packaging materials to find something suitable. Sometimes we even have to resort to making our own special box by modifying an existing one! Though we save money on buying a new box, often the time spent in reusing an old box far outweighs this saving, but we feel is a worthwhile investment.

All we ask is that when you have unpacked your delivery, you in turn do your best to reuse of recycle all the packing material. This way between us we can all help minimise our impact on the environment.