Sustainability is a nice buzz word. We want it to mean something. To help us make faster strides in this area, we're joining the Slash Packaging movement. In turn, our priorities in the short term are to focus on the following 3 areas:

Recovery - supplying products and packaging that fit at least one of the following categories:

• Biodegradable
• Home compostable
• Curbside recyclable

Production

• Use 100% renewable energy

Distribution

• Volume reduction (reduce the space required for transit and storage)
• Weight reduction (reduce the overall weight in transit)

Steps we've taken to date:

• Pack fragile products with EcoPure® bubble wrap and biodegradable packing peanuts. More info on this below...
• Send orders in recyclable cardboard boxes and satchels
• Selected 100% renewable energy to power our warehouse

Still to do:

• We source and sell products from hundreds of different suppliers. We need to approach each supplier and enquire how they source their packaging materials and what they do to reduce their environmental footprint
• Analyse our current packaging process to identify how we can reduce the volume of packaging we use, and in turn reduce the cubic volume and metric weight of the parcels we send
• Provide more detailed disposal instructions for the products we send customers that are not biodegradable
• Find more detailed information from our packaging suppliers on the certifications or standards they have for the packaging products we purchase
• Provide our customers with detailed stats on the above information
• Share our plans to improve our packaging, reduce our footprint and publish regular updates about our progress

EcoPure bubble wrap

EcoPure bubble wrap contains an organic, non-toxic additive. This attracts bacteria and other microbes to the surface of the bubble wrap. The microbes first colonise then secrete compounds breaking down the plastic. They utilise the carbon in the plastic for energy and leave nil plastic fragments behind once the digestion process is complete. The final by-product is humus, an organic material formed when plant matter decays.

Best practice for EcoPure bubble wrap disposal is to reuse where possible. Otherwise the bubble wrap will completely biodegrade in industrial composting and landfill facilities, not for home composting environments.