April is a very busy month around here. We spend hour and hours, days and days cutting back the dead perennials and making room for spring growth. We are also getting our annual garden beds prepped for planting; and getting our spring greens in the ground. The Earth provides us with our medicinal herbs and most of our food, so we try to give back to her whenever possible.
We support Mama Earth by composting; replenishing her soil with nutrients that our crops deplete from her. We till minimally to reduce the impact to soil erosion and we choose to package and ship our products in eco-friendly containers.
We bottle our tinctures, sprays and electuaries in reusable glass jars. Our salves and balms are made in reusable, recyclable tins and our teas are packaged in eco-friendly, compostable kraft bags. If you have ever received our seasonal subscription box it has arrived in this beautiful 100% recycled branded box from Ecoenclose; made from 95% post-consumer waste and is completely recyclable.
When you open your herbal package you will find completely recycled tissue paper enveloping your purchase. Peel back those natural layers to reveal products cushioned by Green Way eco-friendly, 100% recycled paper shred fill. Both of these items are completely recyclable, so please keep the cycle going by reusing and/or recycling them.
The "bubble wrap" we use to protect your products from damage during shipping is referred to as "green wrap." Green Wrap is an eco-friendly paper alternative to traditional bubble wrap by offering similar cushioning protection, but is naturally biodegradable, compostable and fully recyclable.
Everything is completely packaged in recycled/recyclable materials, right down to the sticker we use to adhere your shipping address on. The labels are not only recyclable, they have a zero waste release liner made with 100% post consumer waste and is curbside recyclable with standard paper!
We are always on the lookout for ways to step up our recycling game. There was a struggle to find the right packaging to ship our a la carte products; our large subscription boxes did not seem to make sense to utilize when shipping 1-3 products.
We received some sample branded "eco-friendly" bags from a company. While they are beautiful to look at, they feel a little too plastic to me and I question the true recyclability of the low-density polyethylene material.
I kept my eyes peeled and discovered the company that makes our boxes has started making 100% recycled padded mailers. Upcycled newspaper is matted into a layer of cushioning, then sandwiched between two layers of recycled kraft paper, giving us a protected, eco-friendly way to ship your a la carte items to your door. We cannot wait to get our hands on these new arrivals. In the meantime, we do not want to waste the other samples that we received. A few of you may find your purchases arriving in the poly-mailers until we make it through the batch. Note, we also cushion the package with reused "padding" that comes in the boxes we get from ordering oils and butters in bulk.
My Herbal Apothecary is a proud "Green Bean" sponsor of this year's Pa VegFest. This means that we not only LOVE and completely support this plant-based event, but that we are also including 500 samples of our favorite teas for the participant's totes bags. The same company that we purchase our branded boxes and padded mailers from, helped us create this recycled tag to attach to each tea sample bag!.
We put a lot of love, work and thought into how we operate this business and we hope that it shows through. How are you supporting the Earth today and every day?
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