Here are some green shipping tips from BubbleFAST! When you have items you need to package and ship, your main priority is ensuring the items arrive at their destination safely. Most people also want to save money and act in a way that is environmentally responsible. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, 31% of municipal solid waste comes from containers and other packaging materials. The following green shipping tips will help you package and ship your products safely and securely without breaking the bank, while also promoting environmental best practices.
Re-Use When Possible
Even though we are in the business of selling shipping supplies, one of top tips is to reuse supplies when possible. When our suppliers send us merchandise in sturdy boxes, we regularly re-use them to ship our own products, which helps us save money and reduce our output of waste. In addition, bubble cushioning, packing peanuts, and air pillows can be used multiple times as long as they are clean, odor-free, and undamaged. Of course, it is important to exercise care when reusing boxes. Boxes can lose up to 60% of their strength after their first use, especially if the boxes are made from recycled cardboard. It is important to check the quality of the packaging materials before reusing them, but in many cases, the packaging supplies will be in good enough condition to use them again. Even if you have no use for them, check with your family and friends. You probably know someone who can make good use of them.
Use Eco-Friendly Supplies
BubbleFast has an expansive inventory of eco-friendly shipping supplies that we have carefully chosen and tested for quality. Visit our “Earth-Friendly” category to explore options like Green Bubble Cushioning, Biodegradable Packing Peanuts, Biodegradable Poly Bags, Biodegradable Padded Mailers and more. When you choose to use sustainable shipping supplies, you help minimize the heaps of packaging products that end up in landfills, which is more important than ever.
Avoid Overpacking
While we certainly want you to protect the items you ship, you can save money and help the environment, simply by using moderation when packing. While most people recognize that soft goods like sweaters and blankets do not require protective padding, there are lots of other products that are super durable and require little to no padding. For example, something like a pen may only need a small amount of padding. You don’t need to fill the whole box with packing peanuts to keep it safe.
Use the Right Size Boxes
Using the right size box reduces the amount of packing materials you need to use, which, in turn, reduces waste. It also saves you money on packaging supplies and may even lower the cost of shipping. Consider purchasing multi-depth boxes. This is an excellent money-saving tip because multi-depth boxes can be scored at multiple intervals, allowing you to adjust the height and fold down the sides to create a custom-sized box. If purchased in bulk, multi-depth boxes allow you to accommodate many different sized items with one purchase, which is a great solution for stores that sell a wide variety of items.
Consolidate Shipments
If you have to ship multiple items to the same address, consolidating the shipment into one package is one way to save money and reduce waste. While this isn’t always practical, since fragile items need to be packaged separately if you want them to arrive at their destination safe and sound, it is a smart way to reduce your shipping costs when shipping items that aren’t fragile. It also makes transportation more efficient, which helps the shipping carriers.
Ship Ground
While air travel is sometimes unavoidable, such as for international deliveries, you can help the environment and your wallet by choosing ground shipping over air shipping when possible. Ground shipping is not only substantially more affordable than air travel, it is also significantly more energy efficient.
Green shipping practices have become more popular in recent years and for good reason. Whether it is the use of sustainable shipping materials, the practice of recycling and reusing boxes, or efficiency hacks like consolidating shipments and the use of multi-depth boxes, green shipping practices efficiently and effectively ship products in a way that allows you to do your part to help the environment.
Ready to elevate your shipping experience? Explore our BubbleFAST Store for innovative, eco-friendly packing solutions, and join the BubbleFAST family today!
