Reducing our plastics and providing sustainable products...
A couple of years ago I had the great pleasure of meeting Claire Sumners, and environmentalist who is passionate about reducing single use plastics and waste in our world. We became friends and she has inspired me not only at home but also at Boxbird to really look at my waste and ways to reduce my footprint on the planet.
I'll be honest im not perfect, but I am making small changes all the time which I guess add up!
At Boxbird we have massively reduced our cellophane wrap use, we are trying to move away from plastic parcel tapes and are now on our third paper tape experiment! Most of our packaging is cardboard and paper which can be recycled.
Our products are also sustainable, they are not single use and last a life time which makes us feel pretty good! I think you will agree it's fairly unlikely that people will stick their prints in the bin after a few years like toys that kids grow out of, or another pair of festive dooley boppers no one really wanted or needed
But one big thing that stands out as a problem for me is the plastic ends to our postal tubes.
A far as I can tell they cant be recycled, and they cant really be reused for anything else and generally end up in the rubbish bin and then on landfill. We are fairly small fry in the art selling world, and if just our little gallery is creating 10 kilos of plastic waste a year from the end caps then do the math on the 1500 galleries, and hundred thousand artists in the UK alone and we are talking tonnes of waste being created a year!
So, im putting this out to the world that there must be a better option, a sustainable, recyclable or compost-able option which can become industry standard! Ill keep you posted on what I discover!
Alice xxx
