As I mentioned in the last post, there is some dispute about reusing packaging, but I personally believe that recycling is less wasteful, saves resources and is totally acceptable when done right. As long as the packaging you’re reusing is still useable, for example, it’s not torn, full of holes or weakened by its previous mailing, you can use it. Not only do you save resources, but you save money as well and that’s becoming more and more important.
Bubble Mailers, if still intact, not torn, and most bubbles still inflated, are still useable. Just cover up or black out the labels, barcodes and stamps and you’re good to go. You can also customize the outer packaging by cover it with plain paper, a brown paper bag or wrapping paper. If not in good enough shape, you still have options! You can tear the mailer open or into strips to wrap fragile items, or use as extra packing material along with newspaper or packing peanuts.
As shown in the picture above, a damaged mailer can be opened at the seams and used to wrap an item before immersing in bubbles or another cushioning material. Boxes can have a long life if they aren’t damaged in transit and are made of strong or thick cardboard. Cardboard boxes can be reissued whole, or cut up into pieces to reinforce boxes and protect items. (I’ll show how to reinforce boxes later on. It’s a cool trick!)
Packing peanuts, bubble wrap, and newspaper can all be reused as long as they aren’t damaged or the bubbles popped. If you think about it, these materials are IN the box or packaging, and are less prone to damage, and can be reused several times.
TIPSYou don’t need a huge budget for shipping supplies. You can easily collect gently used materials and reuse them. The one supply you have to buy new is tape, and will probably be the thing you spend the most on.
1) Ask friends, family, neighbors and co-workers to save boxes, mailers, bubble wrap and peanuts and give them to you.
2) If your job has lots of left over boxes that just get thrown away (or hopefully recycled!), ask a manager or your boss if you can have those boxes or materials.
3) At my job, our UPS driver picks us up free packing peanuts at a local grocery store that they deliver to. The store doesn’t need them, so instead of throwing them out, we now get free packing peanuts. Ask around if you know someone who works at a grocery store or other business that receives a lot of packages, or maybe talk to a manager. They may feel better that the bubbles will be reused rather than thrown away and filling up their dumpsters.
4) A lot of other businesses like restaurants, schools and offices receive many packages and have many left over boxes. They can be used whole or as cardboard. You may have friends or family who work at one of these places and can get these leftovers for you.
Reusing materials is very resourceful, you slow down materials from heading to the trash and you save money which both benefits you and your customers as you can keep costs down. Saving on shipping costs is really important, which customers are very sensitive to.
There is a right and a wrong way to do this. You can show sloppy work and packaging by using unusable materials- bubble wrap with all bubbles popped, boxes with holes and weak spots, and mailers that are falling apart. This will make you look unprofessional, so focus on my points above. The most important thing is that the items inside the packaging are protected. You also want the packaging to look nice and be appealing.
