Posted on Leave a comment

A complete guide to using sustainable packaging from Saint Valentines.

sustainable energy from wind turbines
sustainable packaging sourced at Saint Valentines

The concept of “going green” isn’t just idealistic anymore—modern customers care about sustainability. Where possible we use recycled & recyclable products. We want to contribute to a better future.

Our planet

Sustainable packaging is crucial at Saint Valentine’s Liquorice Company. We are doing our very best to be environmentally friendly. We send your liquorice to you in 100% recycled and recyclable packaging, using cardboard boxes and paper packing. Plus, two years ago, we started using Nature Flex biodegradable, compostable film for all our bags. There’s always more we can do, and we’re making an effort to up-level our business.

Recycle, Reuse & Reduce

Recycling, reuse and reduce. These are crucial elements of our mindset and have always helped us instigate a sustainable approach to our business and business waste. In this day and age, knowing what we know about plastics, microplastics, toxic chemicals, and everything else that pollutes this Earth, shifting to a sustainable framework is crucial—yet it’s still intimidating and potentially overwhelming for many small businesses.

We have been recycling our bulk packaging since our first years in business. Pallets, cardboard boxes, plastic tubs, inner film bags have been repurposed by schools, hauliers, charities and recycling centres. To this day, we reuse what we can.

Industry catch up

For our purposes, we want sustainable, plastic-free packaging, labelling, shipping materials. We recognise there is always more to do, and thankfully the industry is changing processes quickly. As a micro-business, we can adapt rapidly to new products and ideas. In turn, our aim is that our customers also benefit from our policy.

Packaging

First, we should know the differences between various sustainable packaging options.

  • Biodegradable packaging is a good step in the right direction but the weakest of the options because there’s no time constraint on how long it will take for an item to break down.
  • Compostable packaging is better, but your customers will need to make sure they properly compost the package—otherwise, it can just wind up in a landfill.
  • Recyclable packaging is the best, according to some industry leaders, as it can be broken down and reused repeatedly.

From there, we figure out how to use sustainable materials for every element of our packaging.

  • The box. Cardboard is already recyclable, but you can take things further by using boxes made from 100 per cent post-consumer recycled content and printing on the boxes with chemical-free inks.
  • The bag. Typical polypropylene films aren’t easily recyclable, so we decided on Biodegradable & Compostable film. And we opted for cardboard mailing boxes with non-toxic non-plastic adhesive paper tape.
  • The infill. We have always recycled airbags from bulk and now use 100 recycled kraft paper.
  • The inserts. We want to take our printing cards on 100 per cent post-consumer recycled material even further and print on a plant-based paper that a customer can grow into flowers.
  • The labels. Our labels printers are on 100 per cent post-consumer recycled paper, but again we want to take it even further and print with plant-based inks and paper.
  • The sealing tape. 100% plastic-free paper tape

Moving forward

There are sustainable options out there for us—and they matter to us, and we think you are our customers.

The definition of Sustainable Packaging is:

The development and use of packaging results in improved sustainability. This involves increased use of life cycle inventory (LCI) and life cycle assessment to help guide the use of packaging, which reduces the environmental impact and ecological footprint.”

Ref:

(1) Eighty-one per cent of people worldwide believe companies should help improve the environment. How to use sustainable packaging for your eCommerce store …. https://jilt.com/blog/sustainable-packaging/

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.