Reduce Reuse and Recycle

Looking across social media and talking with friends locally it feels like everyone is finally trying to tackle plastic waste. I quite like the mantra reduce reuse and recycle. It feels like the right approach perhaps for limiting the impact of the studio… something i’d like to do this year. There’s a few changes already in place and we’ve been busy researching on our options. We’ll try to reduce reuse and recycle where we can and report back with any progress.

Reduce Plastic Options

A lot of cardboard and paper naturally gets used but it would be wonderful to reduce the amount of cellophane used on the merchandise. Customers on the Etsy shop will be given the choice to remove plastic from their order. Their items will be wrapped in tissue paper instead. Over the next few months you’ll see more options appearing on the studio shop listings too. Although cellophane is technically recyclable it’s an item that perhaps can be reduced for individual sales.

But wholesale customers will probably want to keep cellophane wrapping as spoiled stock adds to general waste. Sadly we’ve not yet found a compostable film to replace the regular cellophane. Most options we’ve spotted (advertised as green) are sadly only compostable on an industrial scale rather than the green bin at home. If you know of a home compostable film (suitable for paper, card stock that is) we’d love to hear from you!

Reuse Packing & Reduce Delivery Materials

There are a few changes that can be made to delivery packages. The majority of orders can be sent in paper or cardboard only packaging. The Jiffy brand actually makes a paper only padded bag rather than the bubble wrapped versions. I’m not sure why more people don’t switch to those, they may be a little heavier but not significantly so. We already use cardboard backed envelopes for smaller greeting card orders and for individual art prints.

Of course we still receive many padded envelopes from other sellers when we order items online, so if you do get a plastic lined envelope from us it will be a reused one!

Deliveries to the studio, materials and frames often come in very large cardboard boxes with lots of filler. These are always reused for customer deliveries when framed prints need to be shipped. Where fresh or extra filler is required we now have a roll of recycled filler paper to reduce the need for bubble wrap. But where bubble wrap can’t be avoided I was particularly pleased to find a degradable variety. This one is intended to break down to over 6-18 months to natural biomass. Although the science is still being disputed it looks compelling when compared to the conventional plastic version.

Recycle the Rest

We’ve been very keen to recycle more around the house, although our local council keep the recycling to quite specific items (we finally have curb-side glass collection!). With more recycling to be done from the studio too we’ll probably need a little recycling area next to the studio. There’s space around the side for separate bins, collecting together extra things that don’t go with the main recycling. The plan is to sort batteries, bulbs, print cartridges, bags/bubble wrap and more so they can be recycled separately.

Certainly plenty to be done. But we’ll keep an eye on how the next few months go. How much we can truly reduce reuse and recycle in 2020?!