Sustainability
The test of sustainable packaging is not what it is made of. It is what happens to it in someone's kitchen thirty seconds after the parcel is opened.
The commitment
Every product is fiber, including the parts that usually are not: the cushioning, the liner, the corner protection and the tape.
Harder than it sounds. Paper cushioning has to beat bubble film on protection, not on sentiment. Otherwise the pack fails, the parcel ships twice, and that is worse for everything than the film would have been.
| We use | Instead of |
|---|---|
| Fluted kraft liner, starch-laminated | Bubble film |
| Molded pulp corner guards | Expanded polystyrene blocks |
| Expanding honeycomb wrap | Loose-fill pellets |
| Water-activated gummed tape | Pressure-sensitive plastic tape |
| Tuck-lock and self-seal closures | Tape and glue |
| Water-based flexo, no barrier coat | Laminated print |
Materials, and what we exclude
What goes in
Recycled kraft and newsprint. Starch adhesive. Water-based flexo ink. Molded pulp with no binder, coating or added color.
What never goes in
Bubble film. Plastic-lined mailers. Polystyrene. Barrier laminates. Plastic tape. Dyed fill. Anything that makes the pack two materials.
End of life
Published against every SKU, rather than implied by a leaf on the box.
Curbside paper
Accepted whole into standard curbside paper collection, with no liner, laminate or adhesive to separate out first. Our ReturnReady listing.
Commercial composting
Disintegrates in commercial composting inside 180 days at 58 °C with no screening residue above 2 mm. Our SoilSafe 180 listing.
A second trip
Several formats return to flat and go out again. Which ones, and how, is on the comparison sheet for each family.
Our listings
Five listings, each tied to a stated test. A product carries one only where every size in the family has earned it.
CircleFibre 90
verified post-consumer recycled content
ReturnReady
accepted in standard curbside paper streams
SoilSafe 180
breaks down in commercial composting within 180 days
ChainMark
fiber traced to managed regrowth forestry
DropRated D3
survives the D3 transit drop sequence loaded to rating
Traced back through every intermediary
Recycled fiber is the majority of what we buy, and it does not arrive with a forest attached. Where virgin fiber is used, our ChainMark listing traces it through every intermediary to managed regrowth forestry, audited annually.
Traced is not the same as sustainable. A chain of custody tells you where fiber came from, not that the forest is better off. What it does is make the question answerable.
| Listing | What it traces |
|---|---|
| ChainMark | Fiber to managed regrowth forestry, audited annually |
| CircleFibre 90 | Post-consumer content, by mill declaration and lot sampling |
What we do not claim
Not carbon neutral. We have not bought offsets and will not describe a box as climate positive.
Not home compostable. Our listing is industrial composting at 58 °C, and conflating the two is the most common misleading claim in this industry.
Never rounded up. Where a size is 88% we publish 88%, beside a size in the same family that is 92%.
Every tested figure shown on this site is provisional and not independently certified.
Order a sample pack
Board is a material you have to hold. Tell us what you ship.