Packaging

What we tried, and why we stopped

We shipped in compostable mailers for a while. They are a good idea and they did not survive contact with a storeroom: ours started breaking down about six months after purchase, before they had been anywhere near a customer. A bag that fails on the shelf is not a sustainable bag. It is a bag you buy twice.

So we stopped. What follows is what we actually use.

The mailers

Small orders go in a kraft paper mailer lined with bubble wrap. Larger ones, including the five-packs and the gift sets, go in a padded mailer made from recycled material.

Both are composites: paper bonded to plastic in the first, recycled plastic in the second. Recycled content is a fair claim for them. Recyclable is not, unless somebody separates the layers, and almost nobody does. We would rather tell you that than print a leaf on the outside.

Inside the parcel

Amulets and malas travel in a natural canvas pouch with a gold thread. Pendulums go in a ziplock bag. Wands and gift sets come in a recycled kraft box, and so do the incense sticks, the 12-cone boxes and the wood sticks. Those all recycle normally.

The chips and the 24-cone bags are different: paper lined with a food-grade film. That lining is what keeps the resin in, and also what stops those two being compostable.

Nothing printed goes in with them.

1% for the Planet

One percent of our sales goes to environmental nonprofits. It is a certification rather than a statement, which means somebody other than us checks it.