Shipping out pots is no joke—they’re breakable, they’re bulky, they’re super heavy. And as you can imagine, there’s a lot involved with figuring out how the heck we can ship pots both efficiently and sustainably, in every definition of the word.
1. Use mindful materials. Our packaging is 100% curbside recyclable from our boxes and mailers to tape and wrapping.
Geami: There’s no getting around wrapping pots—they’re fragile! Geami is a conscious alternative to bubble wrap that’s curbside recyclable, biodegradable, and sourced sustainably and responsibly. We use Geami to wrap our pottery and other fragile items in both our fulfillment center and our stores. Geami paper is FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) and SFI (Sustainable Forestry Initiative) certified, which ensures the wood harvested for Geami paper was done responsibly in all aspects: socially, economically, and environmentally. Take a look here to see how Geami works and see for yourself below why we (and our pets) love it so much.
Boxes & Tape: The boxes and tape we use are manufactured in facilities that are also FSC and SFI certified and 100% recyclable. We source them from Morrisette, a local North Carolina packing supplies company that focuses on numerous efforts to prioritize sustainability and community service. Alongside their environmentally-focused packaging, they also have a community service committee that organizes and supports efforts for (and with) their teams at 8 branches. And if you're curious about our printed paper tape, it passed Western Michigan University's OCC Equivalency testing protocol, making it the first certified recyclable carton sealing tape ever!
Mailers: If you’re buying something smaller (like a tea towel or a bag of beans), we use 100% recycled and recyclable kraft padded mailers to ship your order. The mailers we use are padded with recycled newspapers instead of bubble wrap!
Choose the smallest box without jeopardizing the life of a pot during shipment (i.e. breaking). Don’t you hate it when you buy a book and it comes in a surfboard-sized box? Size really does matter! The smaller the box, the lower its carbon footprint.
Make every shipment count. Shipping with efficiency keeps from having to fix errors that are both costly to us and the environment. We strive to keep our breakage and error counts down a minimum—we currently have a .07% breakage rate and .02% incorrect shipment rate!
Encourage conscious spending. Trying to influence consumers to make purchases sensibly is no easy feat in today’s society. Here's how we work toward that: