Hobby & Craft Forums

Thank you. x

That does sound a good Idea as long as they are not too heavy (for delivery costs)

Balsa wood is very light, so should be okay. I will get some and make a mock up and see what it weighs.

Hi there,

Packaging is soo vital it's really worth taking the extra time & effort to get it right even it means paying a few extra sheckles and taking a little longer to do it.

We're currently reviewing our packaging since we're beginning to get fairly large orders for companies wanting our soaps under their own label and need to speed up our packaging process a little.

You mentioned "It defeats the object with the cellophane though I think, the cellophane will be neither recycled nor recyclable."

Cellophane is derived from organic material, there is also potato starch wrapping that we've been experimenting with on the ethical side of things. You can also buy cellophane that has been coated in polymers - 'polymerised' which are essentially enzymes that help to break the wrap down in the environment.

However, we want to be absolutely sure about the ethical side of our packaging and I wrote to wrap.org, a not for profit organisation, that has a mandate to help companies to reduce their footprint around their product wrapping.

If you're interested, here's Peter Skelton's response (from wrap.org)

Dear Mr Allen

Thank you for your enquiry.

While I commend you in your intentions and desire to move to a more ‘environmentally friendly’ packaging material, there are many misconceptions surrounding biopolymers and I would question the logic that biodegradable materials are necessarily the best environmental route.

Source:

Biodegrable films may have a biomass as a source but they need a lot of energy, oil, fertiliser etc to grow and produce so they are not ‘zero carbon’

Disposal:

Films are rarely collected for recycling , oil based or biodegradable, so they will end up in landfill if thrown away. Oil based films will lie inert but biodegradable ones will degrade in oxygen free environment and release methane a very powerful green house gas.

The best option for compostable packaging is for home compostable disposal. These could be paper based or biopolymers which breakdown in low temperatures. They tend to have poor moisture and oxygen barrier properties though. While c25% of homes have a compost bin only a % will compost packaging so this will mean the vast majority will be landfilled.

The suppliers how might have a home compostable film are Novamont or Amcor Flexibles so it may be worth contacting them.

Product damage:

Protecting the soap and avoiding damage/product loss is the key thing so any material that might cause more soap cracking and rejection should obviously be avoided.

Labelling

Any environmental labelling should also be in line with DEFRA's Green Claims Code which is enforced by Trading Standards http://www.defra.gov.uk/Environment/con ... /index.htm.

So sorry I have no great solution, but sticking with (cheaper) conventional film and stating on pack why you are using film could be one option.

The only other option could be a paper wrap + laminated polymer sealing layer - but this could be expensive? This could then potentially be labelled as ‘recycle with card’ if the polymer layer was on one side only.

Please see the attached policy summary for your information too

Please contact me again if you require any further information about the above.

Regards
Peter Skelton

A little of your main topic for this post but hope it's of interest none the less.

That is fantsticly helpful information and will be of gret use to many who come here present and future.

Thank you for taking the time to share that with us. Very greatful.

Yes thank you, especially given that people are really concerned over where their packaging come now days and whether it's biodegradable and from sustainable sources. Brilliant post!!!

Nickie wrote:Yes thank you, especially given that people are really concerned over where their packaging come now days and whether it's biodegradable and from sustainable sources. Brilliant post!!!

I am sure lots of people struggle with being ethical and green.. what seems a simple solution is often far more complex to deliver..

Could that post be re done and made in to a sticky as "useful info".. I am sure lots of people joining the forum in future will find it invaluable?

We wrestled with the idea of switching our cardboard (postal) kit boxes to plastic lunch boxes but on balance decided that a cardboard box probably just gets discarded (and not always in the recyling bin) whereas our plastic ones are really useful and likely to be used for something (maybe even a lunch box!) and are likely to be kept for years...also theey are recylable....

We are toying with the idea of having a refill kit - but haven't quite decided how that will work as we already sell all the bits seperately...

And I've just spent aa large proportion of my pre-Chrimbo profits on pretty boxes and ribbons for the secret project

This is good to go to especially if you want large amounts and it's free - but you have to register

http://www.thenec.co.uk/whatson/packaginginnovations

judivenn wrote:We wrestled with the idea of switching our cardboard (postal) kit boxes to plastic lunch boxes but on balance decided that a cardboard box probably just gets discarded (and not always in the recyling bin) whereas our plastic ones are really useful and likely to be used for something (maybe even a lunch box!) and are likely to be kept for years...also theey are recylable....

We are toying with the idea of having a refill kit - but haven't quite decided how that will work as we already sell all the bits seperately...

And I've just spent aa large proportion of my pre-Chrimbo profits on pretty boxes and ribbons for the secret project

"secret project"??