Our Eco Promise
If you have read our ‘about us’ page you will already know a little about our back story, how Silver Mushroom came to be and why, as a company, we care so much about the environment. For those of you who don’t know, Silver Mushroom began as a small family business founded by myself Rebecca and my younger sister Emmie, in the heart of Lancashire. We are both keen walkers and love to be outdoors, it was this shared love of the countryside and nature that led to our increasing awareness of the environmental issues our world must face in the 21st century. This raised awareness has prompted us to make some serious changes to our business that we hope will in time have a big impact on the world we live in.
If you would like to know more about the nitty gritty details about the impacts that modern life is having on our planet please take a look at this article from Nat Geo, please be aware that it does make for a very sobering read. In short, our planet is in a state of dire emergency and we must do something about it. Factors such as climate change, deforestation, air, soil and water pollution, loss of biodiversity, overpopulation and water disposal are all at play when it comes to the balance of our planet. As the human race it is up to us to make the vital choices to help save our Earth before it becomes too late.
Our Packaging
As a company is will come as no shock to you that our impact on the planet is distinctly larger than one person’s alone, that is why we felt it was imperative to make a change and make it fast. As an online company we ship out lots of parcels every single day, due to the nature of the products we sell, these parcels often contain various types of packaging to protect fragile items and ensure they arrive to you in one piece.
As of early 2019 we swapped our stacks of bubblewrap for a material called Geami, which if you have ordered from us before you will recognise as the die-cut aper that stretches to make a 3D honeycomb structure. This structure interlocks around the item being wrapped, with no plastic tape needed to hold it in place. Geami is FSC Certified (C4134738) to ensure responsible natural resource management. We also ditched the plastic air cushions that we once used for void-fill in the boxes for a thick paper alternative. All of our packaging is now 100% recyclable and biodegradable, meaning it can be used for composting, which we will touch on a little later on. 50% of Ranpak’s packaging consists of entirely recycled content to start with.
You can read more about Ranpak’s sustainability promise here.
We do occasionally receive stock deliveries that contain plastic packaging, rather than disposing of this we pass it on to our warehouse and the packing staff incorporate it our parcels meaning that is does not go straight to land fill. If you receive a parcel with a combination of paper and plastic packaging from us, then please continue reading for our tips on what you can do with the left overs once you receive your goods.
Our Products
So you can now sleep tight knowing that if you order from us your parcel is packaged thoughtfully, but what about the actual products we have to offer? If you’ve taken a look at our site before, then you will have noticed that we have many brands for you to choose from. We take the decision to work with other brands very seriously, after all, the products we promote are going to have some future impact on the planet for various different reasons. Firstly, quality, we have hand selected every single brand that you see on our site for their superior quality products. These are products that are guaranteed to last for decades, some even a lifetime, meaning you won’t need to head out and replace said item for a very long time, if ever, reducing your waste. Secondly, we are putting a heavy focus on only taking on brands that can promise their goods are sustainably and ethically sourced wherever possible. Finally, we are adding more and more items that are considered to be ‘eco-friendly’ this consists of 100% GOTS Certified organic textiles, biodegradable kitchenware made from materials such as wheat-fibre and as always, our sustainable glassware.
We believe that our eco-friendly items will blend into your home seamlessly, adding both function and beauty at the same time. We want you to have peace of mind that through shopping with Silver Mushroom you are shopping responsibly. Please view our eco-friendly product range here. Look out for the little leaf on our products to signify that we consider them to be eco-friendly.
What You Can Do Next
After delivery, once you have unboxed your goods from us and are left with a small pile of packaging you then have the option to dispose of the waste responsibly, which we strongly encourage you to do. It might come as a surprise to some of you but there are actually lots of things you can do with your leftover packaging rather than just take it to be recycled.
Let’s get the plastics out of the way first. If you have received some plastic packaging in your parcel from us, rest assured we didn’t purchase this, as mentioned earlier it is our way of re-using it instead of sending it straight to land fill. If you have received bubble wrap then please check out this article on 50 Amazing Ways To Reuse Bubblewrap, then please place into your plastic recycling bin.
Now for the cardboard, there is one surefire way to utilise every bit of cardboard in your parcel and it is going to benefit you greatly in the long run, that is composting. Composting is a great way to use up not only cardboard but left over foods, it prevents more waste going to landfill and creates an incredibly rich soil, perfect for home growing all sorts of fruits and veggies. For more information please read this article on using cardboard for composting, for general information on compost, read this article from Earth Easy. If composting isn’t your thing, please checkout this blog from Family Handy Man on how to reuse your cardboard.
We promise to uphold our goal of trying to become a more ‘eco-friendly’ company, we will continue to make changes wherever possible and do our upmost to reduce our impact on our planet. If you have any advice or ways that you think we could further improve on our promise then we would love to hear from you, please drop us an email via the ‘contact us’ page. Similarly if you have any queries regarding how you can further improve or if you need a little help with what to do with your packaging then please drop us a line or give us a call, we’d love to help.