Happy Christmas from Tiny Box

We at The Tiny Box Company would like to wish all our readers a very Happy Christmas and an exciting New Year.

This year has been economically challenging for the majority this year and we are extremely thankful for the custom we have received. It is heartening to know that even in such adverse financial conditions, many people are making sustainable and ethical choices when it comes to purchasing packaging.

We would like to thank everyone for their support this year and we especially appreciate the patience of those whose orders were affected by the snow.

With our thanks and best wishes,

All at The Tiny Box Company

Confused? Recycled vs. Recyclable

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.
New Member of Staff