PACKAGING

We wrap our products in recycled tissue paper and send them to you in boxes made of recycled cardboard. Both of these materials can be placed in your home recycling bin. Our flyers are printed on recycled and recyclable paper using vegetable oil based inks.

Some of our products are individually wrapped in plastic bags. The bags we use are made of polypropylene, which is recyclable. If your local council doesn’t accept it, you can take it to your local supermarket for recycling.

In general, packaging is a difficult thing to do sustainably. Plastic has serious end-of-life problems, including environmental pollution and wildlife destruction. However, its production process is less energy intensive than paper and some life-cycle studies have found that it has an overall lower carbon footprint. We are looking into compostable packaging, but it currently seems unsuitable as it only lasts a few months and our stock is sometimes in storage for longer than this. We are also considering recycled cotton bags, but as more and more brands are packing their products in them, we are concerned that the customer will end up with too many and will have to throw them away. Cotton is difficult to recycle and many kerbside recycling services do not accept it, so these bags are likely to end up in landfill. For these reasons, we are sticking mostly with recyclable paper and plastic for the time being.

We try to stay on top of the latest research in sustainable packaging and are keen to hear customers’ opinions on this topic. If you have any feedback on our packaging or any ideas about how we could make it more sustainable, please email us at info@ecosophy.co.uk