These days, more and more businesses are acknowledging their impact on the environment and taking measures to offset their carbon footprints. Many single-use packaging products end up in landfills, where they can sit for decades. Try these environmentally friendly alternatives to packaging products you may already be familiar with.
Cardboard Bubble Wrap
Plastic bubble wrap, while loads of fun for kids, can take up a great deal of space in the trash. When shipping products that need extra cushioning, try a bubble wrap made of upcycled corrugated cardboard. Tiny cuts in the cardboard increase its surface area and create an accordion effect that keeps fragile items secure in transit.
Compostable Packing Peanuts
While Styrofoam still has many uses, the old-fashioned packing peanut is going obsolete. Fill your customer’s compost pile—not their garbage can—with biodegradable packing peanuts made from plant-based materials. These neat little peanuts are particularly adept at cushioning electronics during shipping as they don’t hold static charge the way Styrofoam does.
Recycled Newsprint
Selling some old items on an online marketplace and don’t have any fancy air pillows on hand? Look to your recycling bin. Use a few sheets of yesterday’s newspaper to wrap glass or ceramic items. Crumple up a few more sheets for cushioning material. Just make sure the item won’t absorb any of the ink from that newsprint as it ships!
Reusable Containers
If you’re shipping anything liquid or otherwise messy, encourage your customer to use those bottles and containers multiple times. Plenty of companies make reusable bottles, jars, and containers—often out of post-consumer recycled materials—that hold up to plenty of use beyond the shipping process.
Reduce your business’s impact on the environment by using as many recycled—and recyclable—materials as possible during the packaging and shipping process. Plenty of alternatives to popular packaging methods are both eco-friendly and easy to find.
FILE #: 61871224, By Carolyn Franks, Close Up Shot Of Packing Peanuts For Background
Comments