07/05/2024
I'm starting to question how responsible biodegradable products, recently a friend came over and she watched me separate my bread bags, into a separate bag to be recycled separately at the supermarket. Her response
"I've never seen bread bags that can't be recycled"
That really shocked me. The number of people who aren't reading the disposable instructions. The number of people probably wish cycling (putting something non recyclable into the recycle bin. In the hopes it will magically be recycled)
As manufacturers, whether we're making wax melts, jewellery, greetings cards or anything else, we need to provide packaging that is not only sustainable, but responsible.
That responsibility includes ensuring it is easy for the consumer to dispose of it. There shouldn't be complicated instructions.
A few of you have responded with some really interesting and genuinely helpful points, helping to make it easier to understand disposal issues from around the country!
I started to update the kintsugico.uk sustainability to page, to make sure the information around disposal on certain products is clear. And will continue to update as I research further.
There appears to be two major issues in the UK. Each council seems to have different resources, methods, requirements, what the will and won't take, but more importantly it's not even clear how they are disposing of our waste. Industrially compositing isn't widely accessible and the biggest issue is green washing, terms like biodegradable and compostable are used interchangeably and there are many different types of classification which is confusing when making a choice for your business or even as the end consumer disposing of packaging.
Currently I'm toying with PP5 for cards to Amazon under because I directly print the barcodes on the product to cut down on time to make the product and any errors that could ocurr when packaging.
Anyone know anything about recycling in the UK (the actual truth) or thoughts on this topic. Id love to hear 👇🏾
