Welcome to House of Packaging - a small business offering high quality eco-friendly packaging with low minimum quantities to other small businesses.

 

What made me want to open a packaging business?

I'm a details person! I love planning, organisation, new stationery, laying tables, wrapping presents, you get the idea! Having owned a small gift business for eight years, I always tried to make the packaging an experience for the customer - the package your item arrives in is the first impression of your business.  Why wouldn't you want to make it look as good as the contents inside?!

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However over the years I became disheartened by the options available to a small business like mine. 

- I couldn't afford to purchase packaging in large quantities in order to get it at an affordable rate.  Purchasing in small quantities often means you have to pay a premium. 

- If I purchased in larger quantities in order to guarantee the lowest price, I struggled to store them.

- I couldn't find all the packaging I wanted in one place, so would end up purchasing mailing bags, boxes, tissue paper, stickers, insert cards from multiple outlets and would pay varying delivery costs on top, again pushing the price up.

- So many packaging options are not eco-friendly.  Let's be honest - most packaging ends up straight in the bin.  A large amount of this is sadly not recycled and ends up in landfill.  This was always forefront in my mind but there are not a lot of robust, waterproof, affordable eco friendly packaging options out there.

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After taking a few years out from running a small business, I came back to work for myself again and found that nothing had improved on the packaging front.  If there were eco-friendly options available in low minimum quantities, they were expensive and in dull boring colours!

 

So.......I decided to launch *HOUSE OF PACKAGING*

in order to offer small businesses affordable, eco-friendly and fun packaging in low minimum quantities to help them stand out from the crowd and make a great first impression.

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Choosing the right materials.

I spent 9 months researching all of the options available.  Focusing on the House of Packaging mailing bags first, it really has been a labour of love and it has been really important to me to source the most environmentally friendly materials.  Little did I know what a hard decision process I would face!

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Most mailers are recyclable but tragically a lot of them end up in landfill for a number of reasons. When this happens it can take decades for them to break down.

 

Compostable mailers are often considered as the most eco-friendly option, but they use more fossil fuels in the manufacturing stage which isn't widely known.  They are however some of the quickest materials to break down but only when they are given the perfect environment in which to break down in, which is not always the case.  They are also much thinner and less durable than alternatives and their short lifespan can also be an issue as they often need to be used within 2-3 months.

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Biodegradable mailers offer the robustness and longevity of regular polymailers but will then break down into carbon dioxide, water and biomass when they are no longer useful and they leave no waste behind.

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There is unlikely to ever be a time when we don't need waterproof mailing bags as an option to send items in.  For me, the biggest problem from this type of packaging is the use of regular polyethylene bags that may take up to 400 years to decompose!  Knowing the drawbacks of compostable mailers, it made most sense to me to adopt biodegradable options.

 

House of Packaging biodegradable mailers can be reused many times (especially with their second adhesive strip), they can then be recycled but if for any reason any of them bypass recycling and end up in landfill or the wider environment, they will break down into carbon dioxide, water and biomass within 12-24 months.

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We can all make a difference and we have a responsibility to make good informed choices about the packaging we use.

 

Lots of small businesses choosing to use sustainable packaging =

a big impact on the environment.

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