Naked Cards and other stories. Our efforts to reduce our plastic packaging.

Today is the launch day of the Naked Cards campaign. It's a little effort from my friend Becka Griffin and I to help reduce plastic waste in our industry. We thought that a small step in the right direction would be to stop sending greetings cards out in the post in a plastic sleeve or 'cello bag' as we call them. It's always been standard practice, I think because it looks 'professional'. But the card is in a board backed envelope and generally has a dispatch note with it so it really isn't needed. 

We're hoping that other card sellers will take the Naked Cards Pledge and stop using cello bags for cards bought online. There's other things we're suggesting too, but the first step is those pesky cello bags. 

Bookishly have made some other decisions with regards to waste recently. We've switched our envelopes that come with the cards to recycled ones. We're also swapping from padded envelopes and bubble wrap to cardboard wraps for most of our products. We've got some old packaging to use up first but you'll see the change soon. Some of our cards are still in cellos but we won't be putting any new ones in so they will soon go.

We are also considering swapping to biodegradable cello bags for our unframed prints. I'm still looking into this one. There might be a suitable paper solution. 

We're not going to be completly plastic free, but we're making good steps in the right direction. As a small business we need to balance cost and time wherever we can. For example, book wraps are more expensive than padded envelope and bubble wrap, but they look nicer and are quicker to use. So it makes sense to go green there. But with A4 prints, the cello bags are much quicker than wrapping in tissue paper, so we're looking for other solutions there. Biodegradable cellos might be the answer. 

Please help us spread the word with the Naked Cards campaign. You can visit us on Facebook and Instagram, and there's a website too. www.nakedcards.co.uk. If you know any designers who might be interested in taking the pledge let them know!

 Louise x