Small Sustainable Changes Have a Big Impact

When it comes to running a sustainable business not only do you have to make important decisions on your product, but also on sourcing, packaging, and many other areas.

If you’re currently looking at starting a business, or are considering switching your existing business to a more eco-friendly model, it can be difficult to know where to begin!

Eliminate Wasteful Packaging

It can be tempting to jump right in. Of course! You want to be able to buy everything you might need to ensure than your business is sustainable. Yet, the best place to begin is often by eliminating what you don’t need! Eliminating wasteful packaging from your business ensures that the waste is not created in the first place. It is a wonderful place to begin your sustainability journey.

Start Small

Consider fruit stickers - Each piece of fruit at the grocery store has at least one small plastic sticker. According to the USDA, Americans ate 116 lbs of fruit per capita in 2017 (US Department of Agriculture; Economic Research Service. Per capita consumption of fresh fruit in the United States from 2000 to 2017). Over time, that small sticker on one piece of fruit adds up to a lot of plastic waste. So, what if we switched it out to a compostable sticker?

Product packaging and labels can be overlooked when a business decides to adopt a more sustainable model. If something as simple as changing fruit stickers from plastic to compostable can have such a large impact - imagine the effect of eliminating wasteful packaging from your product line!

Choose Compostable

Sometimes it is not possible to remove packaging from your business entirely. This is where re-usable or compostable packaging comes in!

Remember the fruit stickers? Retailers use them to accurately track their inventory. Tracking inventory of perishable products helps to streamline production and eliminate waste in the store.

By switching to compostable fruit stickers retailers are still able to see how much produce they are selling. They’re able to eliminate plastic waste because the label can be sent, along with the fruit scraps or peel, to be composted with no fear of plastic contamination.

Compostable packaging and labels are a great choice for eco-friendly products. Even a small change, such as switching to compostable labels, can have a huge impact on eliminating waste!