We try to cut excess waste whenever possible, especially when it comes to shipping. We choose packaging materials that are biodegradable, lightweight and highly protective to reduce the overall carbon footprint of Wild Rose.
First and foremost, we favor packaging that is protective. The act of shipping itself uses quite a lot of fuel, so we don't want to risk breakage that will require orders to be reshipped. Everything but the smallest items (like lip balms and perfume vials) are shipped in sturdy corrugated fold and tuck boxes that require little tape. This makes our shipments virtually indestructible - we have just a handful of damaged shipments each year.
For cushioning, we use biodegradable vegetable starch peanuts and a paper bubble wrap alternative called Greenwrap. Greenwrap is not only super durable and lightweight, it is also very attractive. Most customers find that our items shipped in Greenwrap are perfect as-is for gift giving. In fact, we recently stopped gift wrapping all of our gift sets because we found that most of the reusable bags we used were being thrown away. To us, this seemed like an unnecessary cost and waste for everyone, so we switched to Greenwrap as gift wrap!
We also print our invoices and labels together on integrated labels, reducing the over all paper use of our business. Our shipping labels themselves are biodegradable and in most cases are used to secure boxes instead of tape. This means that many of our small packages are shipped in entirely biodegradable packaging.
We hope that our customers recognize these efforts and take it a step further by reusing or recycling the shipping materials found in their Wild Rose orders. Small steps to reduce waste have a big impact!
