If you don’t know the story of The Tiny Box Company or didn’t see us on Dragon’s Den, here’s what happened. While founding our parent company, The Tiny Difference Company, Rachel was attempting to source packaging for jewellery made in ethical factories in Africa. It stood to reason that an ethical company should be as responsible as possible in as many areas as possible, so the decision to use recycled packaging was a no-brainer. Therefore, Rachel searched the UK for attractive recycled packaging in which to sell the jewellery but, as she explained to the Dragons, it was an impossible task. On asking packing companies if their products were recycled, she got the same response over and over again – “our products are recyclable but not recycled”.
Well, hang on. It’s cardboard. Of course it’s recyclable. In fact, most things are. Paper, metal, glass, many types of plastic – these things can all be recycled – but if they are not and instead just thrown into landfill as waste, then their recyclable properties are meaningless. Many companies are claiming green credentials by stating that their products are recyclable. An article by Dr. Seetha Coleman-Kammula, founder of Simply Sustain LLC, highlights a target set by coffee giant Starbucks to reduce their environmental burden by making 100% of their cups recyclable by 2012. But, as Dr. Coleman-Kammula points out, well, they are already. However, for materials to be recycled in significant amounts, she argues “that there has to be a whole lot of infrastructure in place to make it all happen in an economically and socially sustainable way”. She goes onto say that the end result of recyclable products actually becoming recycled requires a massive collaborative effort between Starbucks to persuade the consumer to recycle, the consumer and also waste sorters, in areas where waste is actually sorted.
As Rachel discovered, very little packaging is actually recycled, especially in the UK, despite the success of kerbside recycling projects and the significant drop in price of recycled materials during the recession. While we like to know that our packaging is recyclable, especially food packaging, it makes no difference if we don’t drop it into our blue bins. As such, it is somewhat misleading of companies to claim environmental responsibility by providing recyclable packaging that, especially in the case of Starbucks, will probably be chucked in the bin somewhere down the road.
PS If you didn’t guess, that’s how Tiny Box was born.
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1 comment:
This is a fair assessment I think. It also brings to mind, for me, the need to make recycling 'user-friendly'. That is to say, that the more preparation that needs to be done by a consumer before their waste packaging can be placed for recycling (such as washing, removing of labels, lids, etc) the less likely that the product will be recycled by them.
I have signficant experience of recycling from a consumer perspective only in two countries - the UK and Germany - and from my own experience, it is clear that there is a stark difference in attitude between the two countries with regard to recycling. Very little waste was not recycled in Germany. Contrast that with here in the UK, both as commented in the above and in my own observation...
I think the article is right that it is necessary to persuade all parties to understand their role - consumers need to understand their duty to actually recycle their purchased goods' packaging, and processors need to understand that they need to take a more pragmatic attitude to how they accept waste, and yes, retailers need to be honest with themselves and take responsibility for the use of their product.
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