It’s that time again, Plastic Free July, the month that’s drawing even more attention to our massive, world wide, single use plastic catastrophe. This initiative now encompasses 159 countries with over two million people taking part, unfortunately some of the countries that are the largest offenders are not on that list.

I’m still amazed how many products arrive packed in copious amounts of plastic, we only use paper to wrap and send out our products and 98% of the time everything arrives intact. That said, we are always looking for innovative, eco friendly packaging ideas. A couple of weeks ago I read about a very ingenious method!

Sally Flannery makes the most gorgeous, ceramic, reusable mugs (you’re going to love them) and she uses popcorn in her packaging instead of plastic, this is such a great idea! Here’s Sally’s post explaining how she does it – and a few pictures of her beautiful ceramic work too.

 
“Hey lovelies! I’m a ceramic artist passionate about the environment and reducing plastic waste.. ? a few weeks ago I posted and shared that I package my orders in 100% compostable materials.. including popcorn! ? a bunch of people asked me to share how /what I do to package parcels.. so here it is.
The amount of people and businesses (including other ceramicists I know) who have told me you can’t send parcels, especially breakable things, without plastic or bubble wrap is crazy.. I hope that I can help slowly change minds as an example of what is possible.. here is how I packaged a wholesale order of 15 ceramic keep cups (considered a tricky to ship item) with no plastic whatsoever.”

✨Step one- I put each cup in a small box, which doubles as the packaging stores/cafes use. I don’t always use boxes, sometimes I just wrap each piece in brown paper.

✨Step two- l tape the bottom and edges of the box, inside and out with paper based masking tape.

✨step three- I add a layer of popped popcorn to pad the bottom (eat a few handfuls of popcorn while you’re there) ?

✨step four – layer boxes on top of the popcorn leaving a few cm on all sides

✨step five – fill the empty spaces on the edges with popcorn

✨ step six – make sure it’s all compressed, then add popcorn on top, right to the top.

✨step seven – tape around the box a few times as well as the edges to make sure it’s all secure

Basically just use it as you would packing pellets.. they lock together and work really well.. and once the parcel arrives, the popcorn can be put in a green waste bin, composted, or buried. All paper/cardboard can be recycled, reused or composted.

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