Something we’ve never really shouted about before is our eco conscious packaging. And believe us, it deserves shouting about!
We make a guarantee to all our customers that there will never be any single use plastics included in your parcel. We believe that it is our responsibility as a business to not place pressure on our customers to be green. It should be a given that your parcel will not create you any unnecessary household plastic waste.
That is why we have in the last year moved to a revolutionary packaging solution called Flexi-hex which uses a honeycomb-like structure to protect the heavy but fragile glass. Despite being made of fully recyclable paper; the honeycomb structure is strong enough to hold your bottle of gin stable and secure and avoid breakages. Bees really do know what they are doing!
When not using Flexi-hex we have some structural cardboard inserts, specifically designed to secure our bottles within a box firmly with no need for extra packing paper or fillers. By utilising Flexi-hex and specifically designed inserts we are also able to cut down on the size of the outer parcels which in turn cuts down the amount of courier space needed. An all-round win for the environment!
Tape was a big concern of ours in moving to fully recyclable packaging. Plastic is undeniably stronger than paper but is a terribly wasteful material. Therefore, we spent a long time experimenting with various paper tape options. We are confident that the paper tape we have sourced is of such quality and strength that we have a permanent alternative now to plastic parcel tape. We have been using this since 2018!
When dealing with our own carboard waste we pursue environmentally responsible solutions. Approximately 5% of ‘waste’ cardboard is re-used to package products. The remainder is disposed in one of two ways. Working with the Green Farm land manager, Richard Hudson, we provide waste cardboard for the farm’s pig sheds. After the cardboard is ‘played with’ by the pigs it is then gradually trodden into the bedding, which is then composted and returned to the soil as a soil conditioner. At busy times of the year, if we have more cardboard than the pigs need, we use a formal cardboard recycling service. Both ways ensure our cardboard waste never ends up in landfill.
It’s not just in our parcel packaging materials that we are fastidious with. We have also in the last year made the move to using exclusively British sourced glass bottles for our products. We used to source glass from Slovenia and France but in a bid to save on those fuel guzzling air miles we have shifted to Allied Glass in Leeds, less than 40 miles from the distillery. In time we hope to encourage our white label customers to source glass from Leeds too. We hope by the end of 2023 all glass on site will be able to be traced to the North of England.
Minimising our impact on the planet is not just a fad for us. It’s been at the heart of every decision we have made since the start of the business in 2002. All these extra steps taken in the last few years are just one part of the wider picture for us. Be sure to follow along with us as this year in 2022 we begin our journey to officially achieving B CORP accreditation.
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