The rapid adoption of the internet paves the way for more consumers to shop online. In 2020 alone, more than two trillion people purchased products or services online and e-retail sales exceeded $4.2 trillion globally.
If you’re one of the millions of consumers adding to cart more than usual especially in this pandemic, you’re not alone. Based on a recent survey of Oceana.org, 54% of Amazon customers in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States have been online shopping throughout the pandemic.
Americans alone use more than 380 billion plastic wraps and bags annually. However, what happens to those plastic packaging materials – including bubble wraps, air pillows, and plastic bags once thrown away?
They do not degrade but remain in their form for many, many years, becoming a threat to ocean life, including turtles and other sea creatures that mistakenly swallow and eat plastics for food. This causes intestinal clogging and later starvation and death.
Let’s tackle plastic pollution – by reducing single-use plastics!
- If you’re an e-commerce or e-retail business owner, you can consider switching to compostable mailers in shipping your products.
- If you’re a consumer, you can consider supporting eco-friendly and environmentally-conscious online sellers who use compostable mailers in their packaging. You can also start using reusable, non-plastic mailers and wraps in your daily life.
But what is a compostable, reusable packaging anyway?
It is the more sustainable, eco-friendlier packaging solution than single-use plastics are. It is made of compostable materials – 20 to 30% cornstarch or PLA and between 70-80% co-polymer. They are home and industrial compostable, bio-derived materials, which can quickly be composted in the garden soil along with other biodegradable wastes.
For example, our environmentally-friendly packaging from biopolymers are certified and recognized by authorities, including DINCERTCO and Australasian Bioplastics Association, to be sustainable and compostable (composts in six months), leaving no harmful residues in the environment once they start degrading.
Compostable Mailer Benefits
Plastic reduction
It gives us an opportunity to break free from the never-ending plastic pollution cycle that does no good for the environment and our health. It is about the time to stop plastics from dominating our lives.
Compostable mailers are processed and manufactured with sustainability practices. Simply using them is a sustainable alternative that leaves a huge impact to the Earth we’re living in because it can lessen plastic pollution and save marine life.
They’re a sustainable shipping method compared to plastics.
To begin with the sustainable living movement, let’s support businesses that offer compostable mailer packaging. In this sense, we can encourage other e-commerce businesses to do the same! Soon, there will be more environmentally-conscious businesses in this world. Thus, we can slowly but surely break free from plastic.
Environmentally-friendly
The pandemic has generated an increase in waste, with plastic pollution becoming a top concern. In the last months, the rise of online shopping demand has resulted to a surge in plastic waste, but more people are becoming aware of this and willing to participate in change.
According to the recent McKinsey.com survey “Sustainability in packaging: Inside the minds of US consumers,” consumers are willing to pay more for green. However, they would also want to buy more sustainably packaged goods if more were available and better labeled.
Cost-effective
From an online business standpoint, using more cost-effective shipping options is the better choice. For instance, as the shipping costs is also determined by weight, compostable mailers can be an excellent alternative to a box. They are smaller and lighter, reducing the shipping costs overall. And with a more affordable shipping costs, consumers are likelier to buy from an online merchant that uses a more cost-effective packaging than from ones that charge more.
Branding
According to Stanford Social Innovation Review, more than 90% of CEOs say that sustainability is crucial to their business’ success, so many are developing sustainability practices, products, and services for consumers.
So, if you’re a business owner that wants to begin your quest to sustainability and position your company as a sustainable business brand, use not only sustainable manufacturing processes but also compostable packaging materials to ship your products.
This does not only attract more customers but also encourage retention, loyalty, and word of mouth marketing.
Sustainability, after all, is not just a marketing technique to promote your brand, but it’s also a worldwide movement that saves the Earth and reduces plastic waste.
Make that switch to sustainable, compostable mailers, and attract eco-friendly consumers your way.
Compostable
These mailers disintegrate by up to 90% into smaller bits within 12 weeks, and do not pose any negative effects in composting. It can be composted safely along with other biodegradable and natural wastes into the garden soil or be disposed in the community. They help reduce plastic wastes and water pollution.
In Summary
Compostable mailers offer far more advantages than plastic mailers. They are compostable and eco-friendly. They don’t contribute to water, soil, and air pollution and take a shorter time to disintegrate than plastic does. They are made of bio-sourced materials and not cause allergic reactions and health issues to humans.
Brands looking for sustainable business practices can start with alternative to plastic shipping materials, including compostable mailers. Being more socially and environmentally responsible, they can better position themselves in their industries and build trust and loyalty of their customers.
Customers are becoming more aware about the environmental and health impact of plastic packaging materials and plastic items in general. They are willing to pay more for products labeled as sustainable, provided more of these products become more available for them.
We only have one Earth, one home. Let’s reduce plastic waste and make it a safer, healthier place for all of us. Ditch the plastic shipping items. Switch to compostable mailers!