Shipping Quandary...

There are decisions to make in every aspect of life and business, and it is all too easy to make them lightly... But it can also be a never ending abyss once you delve in. One problem we have pondered on and off has to do with the best way to package our products for shipping. 
There are many things to consider here: cost for the customer; protection of the products; cost to the environment; ease of use... As always, we believe we should reduce, re-use, and recycle as much as possible.

Shipping adds a lot to the cost of a product, especially small and inexpensive, but relatively heavy, item like bars of soap. You can raise the price of the soap to absorb some of this, but that requires price changes at least annually to match the variable cost of shipping. 
We want the package to arrive in good shape, with nothing damaged, smeared, or otherwise different than when we packed it. This means it has to be well padded, fairly snug so it doesn't shift around in transit, and that the packing materials are clean.
To keep the packaging costs down we want the packing material to be light in weight. The lightest packing materials are those styrofoam packing peanuts, bubble wrap and bags of air. However, these are all products that will end up in a landfill, slowly, if ever, breaking down. Not to mention plastic is a petroleum derivative. Not the most environmentally friendly stuff.
OK, so there is crumpled or shredded paper. Crumpled paper compresses, so there is limited use for it. If there is much gap between the soap and the box the weight of the paper it takes to secure the soap can raise the shipping cost considerably. It doesn't help that for all the shippers one ounce over a pound equals 2 pounds, as far as postage goes. 

And then there is the problem of acquiring (and disposing of) the packing materials. The price we pay is part of the price the customer must pay in the end. Clean shredded plain paper is hard to come by here, it's tough to find inexpensive rolls of newsprint anymore, and used newspaper has a problem with ink coming off onto the labels of the soap. 

This also has to take into consideration the cost on the environment. We certainly don't want to encourage the production of more plastic or styrofoam, neither do we want it to end up in a landfill. When we have plain, recycled paper, and in orders where it's weight doesn't add appreciably to the postage, we know it can be re-used, recycled, or will break down into organic matter when tossed in the landfill.

We have looked at different specific eco-friendly packaging materials but, with the small spaces we have to fill and other requirements, they often didn't work for our particular purpose. That doesn't mean they won't work for you - for examples, see: PrairieEcopak™ , EnviroPAK custom molded packaging, and GlobeGuard™ (who also have wonderful recycled cardboard boxes). We use the kraft paper Sizzle Pak shown as fill in gift baskets.
UPDATE: A new resource - EcoEnclose which carries and assortment of eco-friendly packaging for breakable items.


Lightweight, effective, inexpensive, and environmentally friendly. It seems like it should be simple...
But is it better to get new paper with the energy cost of its manufacturing process, or re-use packing peanuts that almost never break down and can be used over and over, keeping them in circulation and out of the landfill - at least for now?
And many people hate the packing peanuts, yet already feel that shipping costs are high and don't want to pay more for the weight incurred by using paper or cardboard. As I said - its a quandary.
 
We have toiled with these issues for years, always done the best we can, and are please we may have finally come up with the best possible solution for us. Introducing Geami packaging! This lightweight, expanded kraft paper and tissue packing material amazingly doesn't seem to compress and fits in the small spaces we need to fill.


So here is what we are doing:
1) Reused or Recycled cardboard boxes, including the US Postal Service's "Cradle to Grave"*certified boxes. All re-usable or recyclable & biodegradable.
2) 100% Post consumer waste (PCW) invoices, labels and shipping labels. All recyclable & biodegradable.
3) Re-used poly-styrene packing peanuts/bubble wrap, etc (rather than throwing in the landfill what comes to us in other packages).
4) Environmentally friendly Geami packaging. All re-usable, recyclable, or biodegradable..


All this puts us just one step closer to having a completely sustainable business from start to finish.
* from Wikipedia:  

Cradle-to-grave is the full Life Cycle Assessment from manufacture ('cradle') to use phase and disposal phase ('grave'). For example, trees produce paper, which can be recycled into low-energy production cellulose (fiberised paper) insulation, then used as an energy-saving device in the ceiling of a home for 40 years, saving 2,000 times the fossil-fuel energy used in its production. After 40 years the cellulose fibers are replaced and the old fibers are disposed of, possibly incinerated. All inputs and outputs are considered for all the phases of the life cycle.

Get your natural & organic soaps sent to you in eco-friendly packaging from the greenest soapmakers on Earth! Simmons Natural Bodycare.