3 Steps - Making My Gift Collections Eco-friendly And Sustainable

It is important to me to ensure that my products do not contribute to harmful waste in the environment.

At home wherever possible, we avoid buying products wrapped in plastic. We buy our fruit and veg from a traditional green grocer. I can now buy certain food stuffs in two local shops that are sold loose so i only buy what I need paper packaging. I can also refill containers with household cleaning products, shampoo and soap.

This has only increased my awareness of the volume of packaging that gets thrown out by the average household. It’s made me examine the packaging of my own products and question what I can do to reduce my use of single use plastic packaging.

Step 1 - Starting with Greeting Cards

An easy win was getting rid of the polypropylene envelopes that package my greeting cards. This year I took the decision to sell my greetings cards without the plastic envelope. We spoke to my retail customers and most of them welcomed the initiative. While I was at it, I replaced the white envelopes with recycled ones and ensured the card paper stock comes from sustainable forestry.

My pain concern was whether card and envelope would get separated in store, so the card and envelope are held together by a sticker. I was also concerned whether the cards and envelopes would get damaged increasing wastage. This has not proved to be a problem.

There were some teething problems with the sticker. Occasionally, it was inclined to peel the surface off the unprinted area on the back of the card. My card supplier he’s found a solution, printing a small sticker ‘footprint’ on the back of the card.

Eco-friendly greeting cards and envelopes - environmentally sustainable, single use plastic free.

Sticker tab to hold the card and envelope together

Step 2

I supply The National Trust. From the beginning of 2022 their policy on plastic changes and they will no longer accept any products with single use plastic. I have now turned my attention to the mini print box framed prints and open edition prints.

The frames for the mini prints come with a protective bubble wrap envelope (albeit recycled). This has to go, regardless of the protection it offers against moisture, or physical damage.

Our first port of call was to speak to the supplier. They are very aware of the issue but they haven’t got a solution - yet - and I’m a very tiny cog in their business so I don’t exert a huge amount of influence. I will be substituting plastic for paper bubble wrap. I’m still to work out what to do with the bubble wrap envelopes I’m left with. I’m in touch with my local town council to see if they can offer any solutions.

Step 3

The biggest challenge is to remove single use cellophane wrapping that protects my open edition prints from damage when they are displayed and handled in store and in the post.

Being forced to look at things differently opens up new possible opportunities though.

At the moment, I’m trying to find

a suitable paper/card envelope. The envelopes have to be the right size - it’s not practical to get them made to size.

This may involve reducing the mount size so I’m at the possibility of making the mounts suitable for framing in standard IKEA frames. This will mean customers can frame a print on a budget.

We are continuing to work with The National Trust to figure out

the best way to display the prints when out on display.

I may not be able to eliminate the cello wrap completely but compostable/bio-degradable cello wrap isn’t really an answer. It very much depends on industrialised composting facilities in your area. It doesn’t really work in the standard home compost heap either - if you have one! It goes into landfill anyway.

I need to find a solution soon.

How do I protect these prints without cellophane?

Could they be displayed in IKEA frames in store?