Sending plastic packing
With Earth Day taking place on 22 April, we take a look at all we’re doing to try to make sure the products we sell in our shop are environmentally friendly.
‘We know sustainability is incredibly important to our young members and volunteers.’
Nicola Robinson, Interim buying manager
Did you know, there are an astonishing 5 trillion tonnes of plastic floating around in our oceans? And more than 40% of plastic is only used once before being thrown away and not recycled?
We know our members care passionately about protecting the environment. Facts like these highlight just how important it is for us to be eco-conscious and cut the plastic we use to produce and package our products.
2021 is a big year for conversations around climate change and the environment, with the UK hosting the UN Climate Change Conference COP26 in Glasgow in November. And on 22 April, a billion people will come together to call for change to protect our environment as part of Earth Day - and we want to be part of the fight.
‘We want to do the right thing for the planet. We know sustainability is incredibly important to our young members and volunteers, and we’re working on lots of exciting changes,’ says Nicola Robinson, interim buying manager at Girlguiding and the trading team’s environmental lead.
The plastic conundrum
Cutting the plastic we use in our products and packaging is really important to us; there’s no doubt it can be bad for the environment. But at the same time, plastic is incredibly useful, readily available, and durable, often saving products from being damaged and wasted. So, we can’t replace it entirely.
‘Plastic protects our products, especially things like uniform that can sit in our warehouse for two years,’ says Nicola. ‘It also helps us separate out products so we can count, process, and pack them more efficiently.
‘However, we’re dedicated to using alternatives wherever we can. And where we do use plastic, we do our best to make sure it can be recycled properly.’
Our green journey
Our buying department is working hard in lots of ways, big and small, to cut plastic and become more sustainable. Here are just a few things we’re doing at the moment.
1. Reviewing our packaging
We’ve been working hard to make our packaging greener.
‘We went through everything in our warehouse and looked at how it was packaged. It was an eye-opener,’ says Nicola. ‘We quickly realised we could make changes to be more environmentally friendly by cutting out packaging where it wasn’t necessary and looking at alternatives.’ We now have recycled and recyclable box filler and use paper-boarded envelopes instead of blue plastic bags. That’s meant around 38,000 fewer plastic bags going into landfill over the course of a year. ‘Where we still needed to use plastic, we got in touch with our suppliers to ask what type of plastic it was. The uniform items were already coming in low-density polyethylene (LDPE) packaging. This is now labelled so the customer knows they can recycle this at their local supermarket,’ says Nicola. ‘Now we’re working on using LDPE for all our plastic packaging.’
“We want to find more sustainable packaging and materials that work with all our products and suppliers.”
Nicola Robinson, Interim buying manager
2. Using sustainable paper
Paper is another material that causes huge environmental problems, from deforestation to enormous water and energy use.
We’re working to source all our paper from sustainable sources. For packaging our publications, like our catalogue, we’ve switched to paper envelopes rather than plastic films to keep them safe as they’re delivered.
3. Testing new eco-friendly materials
There are new greener packaging materials coming on to the market all the time and we’re always ready to test them out. ‘As alternative options arrive on the market, we look at the pros and cons, and test and trial them. We want to find more sustainable packaging and materials that work with all our products and suppliers,’ explains Nicola. ‘When we’re sourcing new products, we always try to avoid single-use plastics. If we can use a recyclable version, then we do. Look out for recycling symbols in our catalogue and on new products.’
4. Supporting Earth Day
For the first time, this year we’ve created a woven badge for Earth Day, so members can show their support and commitment to working to restore our earth. Like all our woven badges, the Earth Day badge will come in a paper bag, rather than plastic – a change we made to be more eco-friendly. At the beginning of 2021 we had one supplier who packaged woven badges in sustainable paper envelopes. We’ve worked closely with the remaining two suppliers and going forward, all new orders for woven badges will be in paper envelopes. We estimate this will save 117,000 plastic bags over the coming year. We are tackling packaging for the metal badges as we speak!
Covid-19 challenges
At the beginning of 2020, we were making great progress towards improving our packaging. But then along came Covid-19. Shops around the world had to close and lots of people started ordering more online. This meant huge demand for packaging. At times, the environmentally friendly packaging we’d like to use has been in short supply, and unfortunately on occasion we’ve had to resort to less-than-ideal alternatives. ‘We’re doing the best we can with the limitations that Covid is imposing. We’re constantly assessing supply chains and looking for new eco-friendly suppliers. We recently found wonderful packaging from a supplier, envelopes which are produced from a by-product of sugar cane grown on reclaimed wasteland, and they’re a sustainable alternative to standard polythene mailing bags,’ says Andrea Mountford, facilities manager in Girlguiding's trading team.
The future
We're dedicated to getting back on track after Covid-19, continuing to make changes, and to making Girlguiding a leader in sustainability. ‘Sustainability will always be a work in progress and isn’t an overnight process. We’re working hard behind the scenes,’ says Nicola. ‘But we are absolutely committed to it. We know it’s what our members want and we’re passionate about making change happen.’
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