So, perhaps you have been working to get rid of plastics in your life for a month or two now or perhaps not. Either way, have you taken a look at packages you mail? The tape is plastic, the bubble wrap (even though I know it’s a blast to pop) is plastic, the envelopes are often plastic, and the packing peanuts are Styrofoam. Pretty much when you mail someone a box the only that that will be gone in 20 years is the box, everything else will still be hanging around somewhere. Here are some non-plastic ways to ship.
Also: When you ORDER something, in the “additional comments/notes” section of the order ask to have no plastic in your packaging. You could say you are allergic if you want. You’d be surprised how many companies will abide by your request.
Freecycle is a community through yahoo. There is one community per geographical location (pretty much, small communities might not find one yet). On this website you can post things you want to give away or things you need. People post packaging supplies pretty regularly to give away after a move. These would be free for you as well as save them from the landfill. From their website “Welcome! The Freecycle Network™ is made up of 4,882 groups with 6,950,000 members across the globe. It's a grassroots and entirely nonprofit movement of people who are giving (& getting) stuff for free in their own towns. It's all about reuse and keeping good stuff out of landfills. Each local group is moderated by a local volunteer (them's good people). Membership is free. To sign up, find your community by entering it into the search box above or by clicking on “Browse Groups” above the search box. Have fun!”
Reuse: Reuse the packaging that you get things in. I have a shelf in my closet dedicated to saving all of these things; this way whenever I need to mail something out I don’t need to purchase packaging materials.
Caremail® is a product line by the Duck brand (think Duck tape). There are recycled boxes, paper packaging, biodegradable packing peanuts, etc. Beware, however, much of the packaging protection (peanuts etc) come in a plastic bag.
Tape:
I bet you never really thought about the fact that most packaging tape is plastic. Not to fear! There are paper alternatives.
Kraft Flatback Paper Packaging Tape From the website: “Kraft Flatback Paper Packaging Tape is a brown color kraft flatback paper coated with a natural/synthetic rubber blend adhesive system. Good for carton sealing applications, moderate demand splicing applications, tabbing and/or core starting. Complies with Postal Regulation for Uninsured Packages. May be used in picture framing applications to seal back of frame/artwork due to its ability to stick to its own backing. This tape is a pressure-sensitive adhesive tape and does not need water to activate it like a gummed paper tape”
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