10 Ways to Ship Green

There isn’t a way to send packages without creating environmental waste but you can limit it. Here are 10 ways to ship green:

1. Reuse boxes and packing materials. These represent energy already expended to manufacture the materials. Extend the life of the materials by reusing them. 
2. Before you buy new boxes, even those made from recycled materials, reuse corrugated cardboard boxes made from virgin material. Inquire at stores for boxes they will discard.
3. If you can’t remove the labels or tape from a box, turn it inside out. Break open the bottom seams and the side seam, which you can see inside the box. Refold the box inside out and secure the seams with packing tape.
4. Use the smallest size box necessary – you’ll need less packing material. Larger boxes can be cut down to a smaller size.
5. Use old bubble wrap, packing peanuts, tissue paper, boxes, crumbled newspaper and magazine pages for packing material.
6. Make the packaging part of the gift in the case of towels or a scarf.
7. Use reusable containers like Tupperware to send food.
8. Buy Used Cardboard Boxes (UCB) before you buy new. UCB buys used boxes from large manufacturers and distribution centers and sells them for less than the cost of new boxes. If you absolutely must buy new, buy corrugated cardboard boxes made from recycled fibers.
9. If you don’t have packing materials that you can reuse, try biodegradable packing peanuts, made from potato or corn startch.
10. Resist buying new bubble wrap or styrofoam packing peanuts. They are a petroleum derived product and can’t be recycled. Moving companies use newsprint for packing material, which can be recycled.

Recycle:

1. We take our unwanted packing materials to a locally owned shipping store. They’ve even taken the molded styrofoam that our lights arrived in and reused it to ship pots.
2. Clean, unwanted polystyrene peanuts are accepted at 1,500 packaging stores around the US. Call the Plastic Loosefill Council’s Peanut Hotline at 1-800-828-2214 for the names of local businesses that accept them. (UPS is one of them).
3. If you need help finding a place to recycle your shipping materials, Earth 911 can help you out.

Shipping Green:

According to Climate Counts, the following shippers are listed in order of their scorecards.

1. DHL – 45
2. USPS – 43
3. UPS - 39
4. FedEx – 28

Climate Counts rates companies from 0 to 100 and ranks them against their main competitors. They score companies using 22 questions that determine if they’ve: MEASURED their climate footprint; REDUCED their climate impact; SUPPORTED (or blocked) progressive climate policy initiatives; and made their climate protection efforts PUBLIC and TRANSPARENT. Download their handy pocket guide for reference.

Resources:

• Climate Counts
• Earth 911
• Plastic Loosefill Council’s Peanut Hotline
• Used Cardboard Boxes

Related Posts:

• Company Scorecards – The Best and the Worst 
• Moving Day 

Enjoy this post? Get more like it. Subscribe in a reader or by Email.