Tree Huggin' Tuesday: Reusing Packing Supplies

We are very proud of what we have accomplished with Hip Mountain Mama. We have created a business that we truly believe in and that we can be proud to tell others about. Lately, I have been asked by multiple people "What makes your business green?" After answering that question a couple of times I realized that we do an awful lot beyond just selling and actively promoting green products like cloth diapers, reusable bags, reusable utensils, organic cotton toys, hemp clothing, and more.

We purchase wind power for our home and business space, print our Packing Slips and Shipping Labels on half sheets of paper to reduce waste, purchase recycled paper, print our business cards and marketing materials on recycled paper, and use CFL Bulbs.

But the coolest thing that we are doing, which we recommend you do in your area, is that we ship our packages with reused shipping supplies that we receive from other businesses in town. In fact in almost two years of being in business and hundreds of orders shipped, we have never purchased packing peanuts or bubble wrap. We have had to purchase some boxes and envelopes for specific sizes that we use a lot of but still we have saved a lot of used packaging from the landfill.

We have a great system set up with other local business owners. Our friends at Sage Holistic Health save all of the boxes, packing peanuts, and bubble wrap that they receive from suppliers of their vitamins and supplements. These small boxes are the perfect size for many of our products. We also have other friends and business owners saving supplies for us and our hope is that our customers are reusing the packaging and boxes that we send out to them.

You might assume that just recycling boxes is the best thing to do, but there is actually a lot of energy that goes into recycling a box. In our area a box that is recycled is picked up by the city and driven out to the county landfill. There it is sorted and shipped to another recycling site in Denver, then it is sorted again and shipped to an actual recycling plant which is often located out of the state and sometimes even out of the country. Then there is the energy used in the actual recycling process. There is an awful lot of fossil fuels burned for something as simple as recycling a box.

If we can take the boxes from one business or person and reuse it in its current state then we are not only saving money but also saving a lot of resources. Obviously, recycling is a lot better than throwing something away but consider saving your boxes and other waste that could be used by other people or businesses. If we all learn to work together we can make these small changes to be green together.

~Andy

Tree Huggin' Tuesday: Reusing Packing Supplies