Our Journey to Becoming Eco-Friendly

Plastic or Paper?

We are all aware of the importance of being environmentally conscious and trying to reduce our use of plastic due to the resources required to produce these materials and the length of time for them to breakdown. Here at Garden Wildlife Direct, we are passionate about actively working towards reducing plastic pollution. To do this, we are consistently cutting down on plastic packaging, and where possible replacing plastic bags and boxes with paper alternatives.

Everyone needs to be thinking about ways to remove plastic from their lives wherever possible, and businesses are no exception. Due to the nature of our products, there are some barriers to overcome to ensure that we working towards being more eco-friendly whilst still offering exceptional quality and service to our customers.

1. Whether the packaging is heavy duty enough not to rip in transit.

2. That our packaging machines can handle the different packaging.

3. Our warehouse and storage is appropriate for the new packaging.

4. The packaging is fully sustainable.

You may notice that with our paper recyclable packaging, natural oils from some products can seep out. This can discolour the bag and leave a wet look on the packaging. To maintain product freshness (and keep your garden birds happy) we recommend transferring your seed to an air tight container - and then, make sure to recycle the paper packaging! Discover which Garden Wildlife Direct products offer recyclable packaging on our website here.

As we work towards plastic free packaging, they are some barriers we face. Despite efforts to switch to more environmentally friendly paper packaging, this is unfortunately unsuitable for packaging bird peanuts due to their high oil content, which can cause the bag to dampen and tear. This consequently reduces the quality of the product inside and affects the level of service we can offer our customers. However, the plastic used for packaging peanuts is still recyclable, so please check with your local council for further information.

To reduce damage to products, when shipping seed in paper bags we often then place them within a hessian sack. Hessian is a plant-based material that is completely biodegradable and recyclable. So, if you place an order and receive a hessian sack as the outer shipping material, don't panic! This is not plastic, just a durable, environmentally friendly level protective material that means your order gets to you safely and without damage.

Plastic Free Products