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.

Habitat for one and all...

Spring is bursting out all over. Our area is green and fertile - green with new grass and buds swelling on the trees. At the moment water is abundant and the earth is juicy with potential. This is not always the case (see our post "Water, water everywhere" ) A home full of abundance for human and animal and plant life alike.
I sometimes wonder if those urban dwellers who rarely get to see a mountain, forest, or other wide open and wild expanse, realize this is the source of what makes life possible on Earth.

There is a great learning song for kids by Bill Oliver:

Habitat, Habitat, Have to Have a Habitat
You have to have a Habitat to carry on!

Hear it online.

The ocean is a habitat, a very special habitat
It's where the deepest water's at
It's where the biggest mammal's at
It's where our future food is at
It keeps the atmosphere intact
The ocean is a habitat we depend on!

It is a wonderful ditty to help remind us that this fine planet is a home shared by a large community of creatures, all intertwined. And with Earth Day coming up, a good reminder that our actions all effect the quality of the Earth/Home we share.

While we ponder how to solve the big crises of war and poverty and economics, we cannot afford to let the bigger issue of habitat destruction become collateral damage, a side effect as it were, of our way of life. It is not only the obvious issues like clear cutting and oil spills and CO2 emissions. It is not just changing to energy efficient appliances and not littering. It is tied to every aspect of everything we do. If we poison our home it will make it impossible for us to live. Seems obvious, but it is insidious. The way of life of the human race has changed to where many of the material things we strive for ultimately work against our long term future. Maybe not so long term, anymore.

But there is a growing consciousness of this. There have always been people who recognized that all "progress" wasn't necessarily positive and that understanding has grown. Coupled with tight economic times it is becoming more common to consume more wisely and less excessively. To make choices that are maybe inevitable but also very beneficial.

The river is a habitat, a very special habitat
It's where the freshest water's at
For people, fish, and muskrat
But when people dump their trash
Rivers take the biggest rap
The river is a habitat we depend on!

If each of us makes a commitment to keep their tiny portion of the planet healthy, to keep our room clean, so to speak, it can only make a difference. I have always believed that no action is too small as each bit adds to the whole and helps create the momentum that is so crucial to making change.

People are different than foxes and rabbits
Affect the whole world with their bad habits
Better to love it while we still have it
Or rat ta-tat-tat, our habitat's gone!

Humans are the ones with the power to make a difference. The best way to display our power is to make life on Earth a sustainable proposition. We can do it. We can't afford not to!

One way we can work toward this goal is to use products that are biodegradable. Merriam-Webster defines this thus:

bio·de·grad·able adjective
: capable of being broken down especially into innocuous products by the action of living things (as microorganisms)

Cotton shopping bags are biodegradable, plastic ones... not so much. The soaps and detergents that go down your drain need to be biodegradable - not to leave their byproducts in soil, rivers and the sea forever.
Find our biodegradable soaps and products on our website.

Out with the old, in with the new...

We start the year with a new soap... more about that further down.
____

The dawning of the new year is often a time for house cleaning, literally and figuratively. It amazes me how many things have bypassed earlier attempts to toss out unnecessary stuff. I can find something I haven't seen, used, or missed for a decade and immediately think I cannot live without it!??? How silly!

Discarding those things we no longer need is good for our home, our space, our spirit and, depending on what and how, often good for the someone else. There is often need for those things we no longer regard as necessary to our own lives, be it gently used but wrong size or out of fashion clothing, to that extra pillow or kitchen gadget (I am famous for keeping clothes long past a time I could even fantasize fitting in them again).

Before you purge your closet and cupboards, see what charities and resources are in your area and what they need, you may be inspired to donate even more (and get more taken care of) that you may have thought when you began. And it is important not to take a bunch of stuff that is as useless to the recipient as is it is to you. Often there are even places that are willing to reuse old cardboard boxes or packing peanuts as well as more ordinary household items and clothes.

Needless to say, you should recycle everything that can be recycled. Some things are obvious and easy: aluminum, glass, and paper. Plastics are trickier and electronic equipment, from cell phones to televisions, trickier still. These items are hard to recycle in a way that is environmentally friendly and, in some cases, it can be downright dangerous. While paints and motor oil and such have a special day or method recycle as hazardous waste, as far as I know, they have the method down. Electronics are perhaps the trickiest. Our sleek machines seem to contain a lot of deadly toxins, not least of which is the lead in the Cathode Ray Tubes of old TV's and computer monitors. Many of these get shipped abroad to countries where people are so desperate they think nothing of breathing toxic fumes and polluting their homes and children's environment (all the environment, actually) as they dismantle and melt old components to get the parts of value. Poverty eliminates concern for health and safety.
So please, ask your recycling center how they dispose of this waste and if they have knowledge of where it goes and how it is handled.

On the other hand, we enter the year with a new soap - Sweet Herb. Actually we have had it out since November 2008, but it is still the newest in our family of soaps. enriched with organic hemp seed oil and a soothing blend of essential oils.

This soap has met with rave reviews from our test crew (friends and family), as well as those customers who have tried it, for it’s fresh herbal fragrance, superb silkiness, & luxurious moisturizing qualities.

Hemp seed oil is a rich source of both Omega 6 and Omega 3 Essential Fatty Acids (EFA's), and Vitamin E. These healing enzymes can be absorbed directly into the skin to replenish missing oils, so they are ideally suited for many cosmetic & skin care products.

You can really feel the effects of the hemp seed oil in this soap. It is emollient, and has rejuvenating properties for the skin. Rich in vitamins and minerals, Hemp Seed Oil’s benefits are easily absorbed through the skin, resulting in a more vitamin and mineral enriched soap. See it featured on our web store.