Giving the Environment A Helping Hand

Lately, we've been thinking about how we can have more sustainable eco-friendly practices when it comes to packaging, as my son and I believe in good environmental stewardship. Being an engineer, I have waste elimination and reduction in my mindset, so whenever I open or send something in a plastic satchel I want to make sure it does not end up in landfill. Not only does it take thousands of years to break down, it can leach chemicals into groundwater or worse, it can end up in waterways to affect wildlife.

So I've been looking for good biodegradable or compostable satchels, and will trial a batch. These beautiful pink satchels are from Hero Packaging, an Aussie startup that have developed zero-waste, biodegradable, compostable mailers. You can read more about them here. If these prove to be a hit, I will be using these from here on. A win for us, the environment, the startup and also to shoppers who are environmentally conscious.

So what have we been doing with the satchels we receive? I've been sending these to Terracycle, who have partnered with Australia Post to recycle satchels and padded mailers. Once collected, the mailing satchels are cleaned and melted into hard plastic that can be remolded to make new recycled products. Read all about it here. Joining the program is free, and you can drop off at recycling partners or post them to Terracycle free.

When sturdier packaging is needed, we recycle boxes that we have received, or ones from Bunnings. We also buy boxes made from recycled paper.

What about resealable bags and bubble wrap? While we currently use resealable bags to protect our toys while in storage, we reuse these bags as much as possible. When we can no longer use, we collect them and drop them off to Coles, who partners with RedCycle. The RedCycle program also recycles bubble wrap! RedCycle converts soft plastics into new products, including outdoor furniture. To read about what plastics Coles accepts for RedCycle, click here.

Well, we hope that this post has been useful and given you some extra ideas about recycling plastics. In the meantime, we'll keep finding ways to make our business eco-friendly and environmentally sustainable.