~Wendell Berry
I have been pondering what to write for this my third Earth Day post, in my last two I introduced you to my father: Earth Day 1970-2011
And talked about my company's vision: Earth Day 2012
So....This year I want to talk a bit about how in small ways we can help to make a difference.
I run three Etsy shops, Nostalgic Summer, Nostalgic Artifacts , and Été Nostalgique De Luxe. Needless to say I use a lot of packing materials, and when I opened Nostalgic Artifacts I was concerned with all that wasteful packing I would have to use for the very fragile items I would be selling.
Here's how in my very small way I am trying to alleviate this problem, and maybe give all of you ideas for keeping your packaging "Green":
90% of the boxes used in all three shops are recycled. I've found if you visit your local business they will be glad to let you take used boxes off their hands, and every package I receive is recycled 100%.
All my packing material is recycled....Shredded magazines, old wrapping paper, etc....
It looks very nice when shredded!
And great in the box!
I do have larger, fragile pieces that shredded paper will not work for, so I use packing peanuts....I KNOW THEY ARE SO BAD!....but I also get these from a local business who would otherwise throw them away, and I feel reuse is a much better idea. I do recommend to all my customers that they reuse these peanuts also.
I enclose Thank You cards in each package I'm shipping out and I use....yes you guessed it....recycled paper! I use paper samples that another business was eliminating.
I know none of these ideas are grandiose, but I feel any small step you can take will help. And if everyone took small steps we would have a grandiose change for our beautiful planet!
I would LOVE more Earth friendly ideas...so please leave them here in the comments.
"When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world." ~John Muir
"We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children." ~Native American Proverb
We are linking this week with:
I love that you do so much with recycle packaging! I never buy peanuts or bubble wrap. I stash it whenever I receive some for future use. Unfortunately most of my orders are shipped a padded mail which are always new. There are a number of little things I do around the house to live greener though. I agree with your that small steps are so important!
ReplyDeleteThank you Miss Val..Glad you like the post. Keep up the "small steps."
DeleteRecycled packaging is AWESOME!!! We re-use all bubble wrap and peanuts that we get from incoming orders. We also use cereal boxes and make them into mailers when we can. And, like you, we'll use shredded paper and magazines for fillers (it works great).
ReplyDeleteNo one should ever think that that even the smallest effort isn't enough, because even just something so small can add up to have big results. =0) It's like I always tell my kids about pennies when they think that saving pennies won't ever amount to anything. If you save enough pennies, you'll see that eventually it all adds up dollars.
Awesome post. Hope your Earth Day was a great day!
~Kim
visiting from Blogging Buddies
www.2justByou.com
Hi Kim,
DeleteThanks for stopping by. I love the cereal box idea! So many little changes like that make a big difference.
Great tips! I too use recycled boxes and packing materials whenever possible, which is most of the time. My neighbor works where she gets me huge trash bags full of shredded paper for our chicken coop. I can also use it for packing.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing it at to What We Accomplished Wednesdays. Have a great week!
Hugs,
Deborah