We’ve all known for a long time about the importance of recycling, and at Priory Direct, we know there’s so many benefits of recycling, including discovering that 70% less energy is needed to recycle paper as opposed to making it from raw materials. But what if there was something better than 70% less energy? What if I told you there is? Reuse your everyday items, reuse your every-so-often items and turn ‘single-use-plastic’ into frequently used essential.
Your packaging choices are certainly no exception here either, you just need to find some excellent solutions which will work for your business. Here’s just a few of our best suggestions:
Paper Bags
I’m sure you’ll all remember that in October 2015, England introduced a 5p plastic bag fee with the hope that the cost of the bags would reduce unnecessary plastic usage. 4 years on from this, and I have a stash of bags for life at home, which never make it back to the supermarket and I spend the entire time there reprimanding myself about not bringing my bags with me. Instead of making me pay for my idiocy, why not completely eliminate plastic bag production and swap to paper alternatives? We saw that paper takes 2-6 weeks to biodegrade, compared to the 500 years for a plastic bag to breakdown, so this sustainable, eco-friendly swap would not only help to get rid of plastic bags, but would dramatically reduce our impact on the environment as they can be reused time and time again (provided you remember to take them with you when you do your shopping…). For your groceries or for gifts, paper bags are the perfect choice.
ColomPac Return Boxes
Return Boxes from ColomPac® offer a seamless solution for an eco-friendly eCommerce business; a professional despatch and returns process all in one cardboard box. A simple, yet ingenious, way to minimise environmental impact by eliminating waste, these reusable returns boxes have a dual seal so you can send your items in a protective and secure fully recyclable, biodegradable, and sustainably made box, and if needed, your customers can return items in the exact same packaging – efficient, easy, and environmentally friendly as possible, there’s no need for your customer to source additional adhesives or packaging. The future packaging choice for all online businesses.
Packing Peanuts
Protective, planet-loving, and reusable – and not necessarily in the conventional sense. Packing peanuts are a popular and excellent choice of robust void fill for your despatches which can be reused by your customer for their own orders, for returning goods, or for their garden…Starch based packing peanuts are not only biodegradable, but fully compostable too, so you can encourage your customers to give back to the planet and instead of increasing their impact on the environment, easily and simply reduce it instead, and give the soil a boost too!
Cardboard Shredders
Start reusing right in your warehouse by turning your cardboard waste into protective packaging material gold. Instead of throwing your unneeded or unwanted cardboard packaging away, use Cardboard Shredders to revolutionise your business’ packing operation. Cardboard shredders are a free, environmentally friendly cardboard bulk void fill and protective matting material which you can use for your despatches instead of plastic bubble wrap; reducing your packaging costs, your volume of disposal, and most significantly, your impact on the environment as it will biodegrade within 3 months – win win!
Ask the experts
Reusing your packaging in either a conventional or more unconventional way will only help to reduce our impact on the environment and pave the way to a greener future for us all. We hope this has given you all the information you could need to know about the importance of trying to swap to reusable packaging, and probably a little bit more too. We pride ourselves on our service and sharing our knowledge wherever possible, so if you have any questions then please speak to us on live chat, give us a call on 01622 580100, or use our Contact page.
eCommerce operations are our speciality and we can advise on all aspects of despatch to assist you in perfecting your process, so please get in touch – we’ll be happy to help.
