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Ship Green Packages This Holiday Season
If you’re planning on shipping green holiday gifts to friends and family this season here's how to keep it green:
Start saving boxes now: Recycled boxes and recycled heavy envelopes are great alternatives to buying new. Some places will not ship boxes with lots of pictures or text on them, but you can fix this issue with some plain brown recycled kraft wrap
.
Send green gifts that don't need protection to cut down on packaging materials. For example, a cool eco-tee doesn't need protection but a recycled glass vase does.
Use biodegradable packing peanuts – unlike polystyrene packing peanuts, biodegradable ones dissolve in water and can even be composted.
Never recycle old newspapers as packing material for nice gifts that may get ink marked. Shredded newspaper is fine for gifts that are enclosed in a separate gift bag or box. Shredded newspaper also provides better overall protection than crumpled but only if you use an ample amount.
Try Padding Paper – Unlike newspaper Padding Paper won't mark up gifts and it’s 100% recyclable and has a honeycomb-embossed corrugated texture which provides impact-absorbing qualities around delicate items like glass or china.
If you're in the U.S. you can skip a drive to the post office and have the postal carrier pick your packages up for you - he or she is already in your neighborhood anyhow. You can also have packaging materials and stamps brought right to you or even print out shipping labels at home. See all the green options that USPS offers.
Skip the bubble wrap - although if it's a must have, you can send a note along to your friend that says how to reuse bubble wrap.
Last of all forget mailing gifts at all if you don't need to. Plenty of places will ship to your friends and family direct which is much better for your carbon footprint than a gift being shipped to you then you re-shipping it. Also, if you're sending many gifts to one area of the world (say all your family lives in Chicago) ship all the gifts to one house where everyone is gathering which not only saves money but saves the post office trips.
Start saving boxes now: Recycled boxes and recycled heavy envelopes are great alternatives to buying new. Some places will not ship boxes with lots of pictures or text on them, but you can fix this issue with some plain brown recycled kraft wrap
.Send green gifts that don't need protection to cut down on packaging materials. For example, a cool eco-tee doesn't need protection but a recycled glass vase does.
Use biodegradable packing peanuts – unlike polystyrene packing peanuts, biodegradable ones dissolve in water and can even be composted.
Never recycle old newspapers as packing material for nice gifts that may get ink marked. Shredded newspaper is fine for gifts that are enclosed in a separate gift bag or box. Shredded newspaper also provides better overall protection than crumpled but only if you use an ample amount.
Try Padding Paper – Unlike newspaper Padding Paper won't mark up gifts and it’s 100% recyclable and has a honeycomb-embossed corrugated texture which provides impact-absorbing qualities around delicate items like glass or china.
If you're in the U.S. you can skip a drive to the post office and have the postal carrier pick your packages up for you - he or she is already in your neighborhood anyhow. You can also have packaging materials and stamps brought right to you or even print out shipping labels at home. See all the green options that USPS offers.
Skip the bubble wrap - although if it's a must have, you can send a note along to your friend that says how to reuse bubble wrap.
Last of all forget mailing gifts at all if you don't need to. Plenty of places will ship to your friends and family direct which is much better for your carbon footprint than a gift being shipped to you then you re-shipping it. Also, if you're sending many gifts to one area of the world (say all your family lives in Chicago) ship all the gifts to one house where everyone is gathering which not only saves money but saves the post office trips.
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