One of the fun things about owning your own business is getting to evaluate your processes to find new efficiencies and improvements (yeah, I know this makes me a total biz nerd). From time to time we have done this with our ingredients to make sure we are sourcing natural, certified organic, sustainably harvested and fair trade when available. We also do this with our packaging, looking for recycled and recyclable containers.
Recently, we were evaluating our shipping processes and realized that we had some room for improvement. We found that we were using lots of plastic bubble wrap, both for wrapping the product and padding within the boxes. Now, the child in me absolutely loves having bubble wrap as twisting and popping it absolutely makes me laugh like I was five years old again. However, the adult in me realizes that such child hood pleasures should probably be sacrificed to reduce plastic consumption.
To find better shipping and packaging solutions we partnered with a company called ecoenclose .
Ecoenclose provides a wide range of shipping supplies including mailers, boxes, bags, cushioning, tape and labels.
We have started using the Greenwrap (above) along with corrugated bubble (below) to eliminate the use of plastic bubble wrap in shipping our retail packages.
The corrugated bubble is an especially amazing product. It is made from 100% recycled cardboard made entirely from post-consumer and post-industrial waste. Once you unwrap your Whispering Willow goodies you can recycled the corrugated bubble or reuse it for packing items for storage, toss it in your compost with any veggie scraps or lay it down in your garden or flower beds to prevent weed growth. The options are endless.
If you have any suggestions for how we can continue to make our products or our business more eco-friendly, please add a comment below or send us an email at info@whisperingwillow.net.
Be Well,
W