Our Plastics Challenge

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Our Packaging Policy at Boxworth Botanicals is to make all of our packaging Compostable, Biodegradable, Reusable and Recyclable

We are well on our way now!

Bottles, pots and refillable airless pumps are either part recycled, certainly fully recyclable, refillable and reusable.

We are all super aware of the issues around plastics and our environment and climate change since ‘Blue Planet’, War on Plastic and many media sources.

Being responsible citizens we all want to do our part for our world but it is really quite a tricky challenge to make radical changes quickly because there is still very little being manufactured especially for the skincare industry and even more especially for those of us who use pure essential oils in our products. However, we won’t be beaten by this!

In the world of Boxworth Botanicals, natural, vegan beauty products, beautiful gifts and natural remedies using essential oils, we find ourselves needing to think very creatively!

You will know yourselves how much branded packaging you see or receive every day and we want to make our packaging useful as well as promote our brand.

As a small independent business we have the flexibility to make change fast even though it can be time consuming to make the wholesale change that we’ve committed to. We pride ourselves on producing the best quality products in the most natural way possible for our customers and we are very proud of what we have done so far!

These are the changes we have already made

All our cellophane packaging for wrapping on gifts and soaps and products are now all compostable and biodegradable.

We are replacing our gift pouches with lovely cotton drawstring bags. They are beautiful, useful and already so popular! Fully reusable many times over.

Any boxes we use are cardboard which is recyclable and reusable and we have some new carry bags for gifts which look good and are compostable and biodegradable too. It is quite a challenge to find quality packaging which is environmentally friendly and colourful and attractive for gifts that people would like to buy.

The parcels we send out by post every day are made from recyclable cardboard; the white packing peanuts are fully compostable (that’s the technical term! We call them many other things especially when they seem to spread themselves everywhere!) They’ll melt away in the green compost bins and of course are reusable many times over. The tissue paper is acid free and recyclable and most definitely reusable.

Because we use essential oils as the fresh active ingredients in our products, we buy from a company in Europe who only use a small amount of virgin PET plastic, with the rest being made up with already recycled ingredients. By next year they will be 100% recycled and fully recyclable.

We do use glass jars and are going to offer a glass jar alternative but on the whole we use recycled or recyclable PET plastic where possible. The reason for this is that jars made from PET plastic, are safe to use at home because they don’t break and PET doesn't leave harmful residues in the soil like many other plastics. Also from an environmental aspect PET plastic takes much less time and far less energy to recycle than glass which is heavier.

Naturally we really want to offer a refill service which is currently on the drawing board for next year. However, we are offering more and more of the large containers of your favourite products at economical prices so you can fill up your own jars. Some of our retailers will be selling some of our products as refills in the coming months and we are looking into other options too.

Things are not perfect yet but we are getting there ..

Manufacturers are only just beginning to think of new ways of making fully recyclable and biodegradable packaging and pots to meet market needs and it will take some time yet to really get under way.

We’d be really pleased if you’d support us by continuing to buy our products while we are on this journey!

We thought you’d like to see this.

It’s a wonderful example of recycling and reusing our containers. Janet,one of our team, who many of you will know, grows her spider plants in the used 50ml pumps! And to make it even better, Spider plants are fantastic indoor plants that produce oxygen to purify the air, they absorb carbon monoxide and formaldehyde (the poison often left in the air by chemicals and fragrances)