Our packaging journey
Our packaging journey
Creating our first products was a long journey and packaging was our biggest headache! The choices are endless but being a small business and trying to be sustainable really narrows them down.
There are different levels of packaging that we had to take into consideration: primary, secondary and shipping packaging, each one serving a different purpose. Primary packaging is the packaging in direct contact with the actual cosmetic product. Its main purpose is to contain the product and of course, preserve and protect it. For example, the jar of a face mask or the dropper bottle of a serum is considered primary packaging. Secondary packaging is the packaging of the primary packaging - who would have thought. It not only protects primary packaging but also makes storage and transfer easier. The most used kind of secondary packaging is paper boxes. And last but not least there’s the shipping packaging. Its main role is to protect the product/s during their journey.
Secondary and shipping packaging are usually the first things that end up in the trash when it comes to new products. So our first idea was to reduce the materials involved by skipping secondary and minimizing shipping packaging. Our first option was bioplastic or post-consumer recycled tubes. The bioplastic version is made from renewable sources instead of fossil fuels and the post-consumer recycled is pretty self-explanatory. Both versions were fully recyclable. But what’s important is that tubes would allow us to avoid secondary packaging completely as they’d give us enough space for all the required info. They are not fragile so we could keep shipping packaging to a minimum. Unfortunately, the minimum order required for either of the tubes was too large for a small company in its first steps. So we moved to our second choice, glass jars. The cap and the lid of the jar are still plastic (PP) but fully recyclable. We tried to fit all the info that is required on the jar to avoid secondary packaging but it was impossible. As a result, we added a paper box as secondary packaging.
Sadly, jars are fragile and we have to make sure that they arrive intact to you. As a result, we cannot completely avoid shipping packaging but we tried to reduce it to what we believe is absolutely necessary for the safety of the order. The boxes, the wrapping paper, even the tape we use to pack your orders are made from paper. We highly encourage you to keep and reuse any part of the packaging that arrives with your order if you can and want to. If not, you can always recycle them according to your local plan.
The decisions concerning packaging are not always easy. Prices, quantities and availability can be a big problem for smaller businesses especially when aiming for sustainability. On top of that, packaging still needs to convey the message of the brand, protect the products and bring a smile to your face when your order arrives. At love&strife we focus on making informed decisions regarding sustainability and better ones as we grow as a company.