The Sustainable Solution's We Use To Do Our Part
As a business that primarily sells eco-friendly products, such as; recycled yarns and cord, compostable gifting materials, or items made to last, we try our hardest to make every part of the purchasing and receiving of orders as sustainable as possible!
📦 When receiving your orders through the mail, you may notice that your box doesn't look new. We reuse any box that comes into our possession! We estimate maybe 90% of the orders we ship are packaged with reused boxes, reused packing paper, and reused bubble wrap. The other 10% is for the oddly/large sized orders we've had no boxes available to ship with.
Back in March of 2023, we introduced new business cards and marketing postcards that we take to shows and include in your online orders. VistaPrint now offers to print your items on 100% recycled card so as you can imagine, this was a very exciting discovery and what our marketing materials are made of!
Recently, we have also moved into using more sustainable shipping labels! We now use a Munbyn machine and with the labels they sell. They are FSC®-certified, BPA Free, Waterproof, and Oil-proof. This machine helps us cut down on all the paper waste we were originally accumulating and eliminates the need for printing one shipping label per 8.5" x 11" sheet.
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What Do We Have Planned For The Future?
- Once we are able to upgrade to a POS system with physical receipt capabilities, we will utilize an eco-friendly alternative to virgin paper. Paper rolls that are 100% recyclable from a company called [Eco-Chit] 🍃
- In the future, we also plan to bring in compostable shipping poly bags so that once your order arrives with you, the material can either be recycled, reused, or composted. 🌱
- Although we reuse every box that comes into our possession, there are some orders that we just don't have the right size box for. Eventually we will make sure to purchase our additional boxes made from recycled materials!
- You'll notice that unfortunately, not all of our products are eco-friendly. We do plan to change this! We are on the search for a sustainable furry yarn that is similar in feel/look of Hobbii's honey bunny. This is the yarn we have been using for our stuffied items. As of recently (Oct 2023), we have decided to discontinue our current stock until an alternative is found. Our website will now be filled primarily with eco-friendly handmade items or sustainable crafting/gifting materials.
- Additionally, we are also discontinuing the first collection of handmade items that our business started selling in 2021. (Scoobies /Scoubidous). Our handmade keyrings are currently made from a plastic lacing and so far we just haven't found an exact sustainable replacement. We are, however, considering other materials to use in place but sadly the colors just won't be the same. Our current choice for replacement is our 3mm braided cord - if anyone has any other suggestions, please get in touch with us or leave a comment below!
📈 Our business' has grown substantially over the last 6 months and we couldn't be more grateful! We've been able to introduce many new additions to our store, purchased our Munbyn label machine, more Bobbiny colors and styles, and we've almost made a restock order a month! We hope to make Crafty Stars the home of eco-friendly crafts and gifting products and with each order we receive, everything is reinvested back into making our business bigger!
Everyone who orders from us contributes everyday to making our dream of working full-time in a store-setting a reality. We truly hope everyone enjoys their purchases from us! If you have any questions or concerns, please get in touch with us so we can give you a hand! 💚
We have many different ideas and suppliers in mind for the future and we can't wait to share them with you when the time comes!
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📌 Do you have a supplier/brand suggestion for us? Maybe even a product you would love for us to carry and see available?
Send us an email with the tagline (Supplier Suggestion:).
Do your part today and reduce, reuse, and recycle!
Credits:
Recycled Logo - <a href="https://www.freepik.com/free-photo/green-recycling-icon-design-element_15559635.htm#query=recycle%20symbol&position=16&from_view=keyword&track=ais">Image by rawpixel.com</a> on Freepik