Green Packaging; Why Does it Matter?

Think about the average package you order online. What does it contain? Styrofoam, packing peanuts, bubble wrap, tape and hard plastics. All items that are not easy to recycle, their one-time use doesn't make them sustainable either. And we, as a society, ship out millions of packages a day only for their packing materials to be tossed in the garbage can. However there is one key packing material that can be recycled over and over again; cardboard.

Cardboard is an excellent recycled material and can be re-used or even down-cycled into other paper products such as cereal boxes or shoe box fitters. In fact we recycle our own cardboard. Any package that is shipped to our facility we save and re-use the cardboard. By running the used cardboard through our cardboard shredder we create our own packing materials to be used for new shipments. This is important since it takes three tons of trees to make one ton of virgin card. However, recycling one ton of cardboard can eliminate up to nine cubic yards of landfill space.

Paper products in general are one of the easiest materials to recycle and are versatile in their utility. 

This versatility includes geami paper packaging. Geami is a multinational paper packing material made of 100% recycled and biodegradable paper. It replaces difficult to recycle packing materials such as Styrofoam, bubble wrap and plastic molds. It is compact, easy to re-use and safe. All of our products, including our glass, get shipped out with geami paper and arrive to our customers safe and sound without the need for unnecessary packing materials that would otherwise end up in landfills. 

We also use water activated kraft paper-tape reinforced with string to secure our packages. Kraft paper is a bio-based product that is unbleached with minimal chemical treatment. 

But our commitment to sustainability is not just limited to our packing products. We do not use store bought chemical glass cleaner and instead just use a mixture of water and isopropyl alcohol for clear and streak-free glass. 

At Bicycle Glass we use green packaging as well as 100% recycled glass so that we can commit to being a sustainable company that's committed to the environment.