It's been awhile since my 2019 post about eco-friendly packaging and shipping materials, and a lot has changed since then, so I thought I'd add an update about how we're currently shipping our online orders without any plastic! As a small business, it's really important for us to do our part to reduce our footprint. Little bits of plastic can really add up! It's a process finding the right suppliers and supplies, but it's a rewarding and important one.
First, we replaced the plastic sleeve for our greeting cards with glassine bags. Glassine paper looks a bit like wax paper except it's fully recyclable and compostable. It's made from supercalendering the paper so that the fibers face all the same direction, making it stronger and partially clear. It's also water resistant,
pH neutral and acid-free, making it a perfect substitute for plastic sleeves. I use 5x7 glassine bags for shipping cards, or a 3x4 glassine bag for multiple stickers, closed with a cute paper sticker. First I tried shipping without any liner bag at all inside the outer envelope, but the cards were getting too roughed up inside the envelope and so I had to come up with something, and glassine bags were perfect.
If you do need completely transparent bags, like for wholesale shops or in person events for example, Clearbags.com makes an eco bag in tons of different sizes. It's a plant based compostable bag that looks just like a plastic one! I have tested these out and left a few sitting in storage for years just to make sure they wouldn't break down over time (for instance, in a wholesale shop) and they stayed in perfect condition. I'd recommend you test them out as well, just in case for different climates and environments. We plan to switch to these fully for wholesale orders and events once our current inventory runs out, and we'll continue to use glassine bags for shipping.
For flat items like cards and stickers, we mail them in a basic A7 kraft envelope with postage stamps. I like to print a fun design on the back, or use rubber stamps with my logo, to make it cute!
For the bulkier items like washi tapes, enamel pins, or pinback buttons, I use a plastic free padded mailer. Nowadays, these are much easier to find and back in my 2019 blog post I wasn't able to find something with absolutely no plastic. Luckily now, they're much more common. You can search Amazon or the web for "curbside recyclable padded mailer" and there are lots of options. I did have to switch from 4x6 size to 6x8 since there are still limited sizes for these, but I'm waiting for someone to make the extra small #0000 size bags in recyclable materials. Let me know if you find one!
For large orders, I just use a kraft clamshell box with cute tissue paper inside and close it up with paper tape (not plastic).
I hope this was helpful, and if you have any more tips or resources, please add them in the comments!
