our tiny bees

recycling and our packaging

It’s very hard for a company like ours to give advice on recycling as every council has a different level and acceptance of recyclable materials. With this in mind, our initial view is to create concentrated products - that contain no filler, so our 45ml hand balms, for example, have the same amount of active ingredients as a typical 200g (or often more) hand cream (containing water and chemical preservatives).

So from the start, we use less material and our products last longer.

Balms - Our tins are Aluminium and Widely recyclable. Look for 41 (ALU) on the recycling chart - they should be accepted wherever drinks cans are.

Our Bath Melts are in 0.2g of PP plastic - this is widely recyclable - look for 5 (PP) on the recycling chart.

Our Body Oils come in brown glass - widely recycled. The pump, as yet, cannot.

Soap Boxes, can be recycled where magazines are accepted, this is currently council-dependent.

Packaging - we use cardboard to get your orders to you and any booklets, invoices, or void fill is also recyclable under 22 (PAP). Please also note if you compost brown paper will be munched by worms etc very readily.

Honesty…

We are also very keen to avoid ‘dishonest’ eco-friendly alternatives, much like the cotton shopping bag issue (Studies show cotton bags must be reused thousands of times before they meet the environmental performance of plastic bags).

There is an alternative to our bath melt packaging for example that is ‘compostable’ however our research has shown that - a) it is only compostable at commercial high temperatures and b) as waste collection believe it is plastic it can often cause whole batches of green waste to be seen as contaminated, and taken to landfill - with the horrendous methane production to follow. So on the balance of them being recyclable, we chose recyclable and a tiny amount of plastic.

Our main packaging is paper, aluminium, glass and a tiny amount of plastic - nearly all PP. All widely recyclable all over the UK. All our paper and cardboard can be composted (worms love cardboard in a compost heap).

And a note from composting lovers - please if you don’t already - please find a quiet, out-of-the-way place in your garden and just put green waste, veg scraps and cardboard there. Not only will you avoid huge amounts of methane production if those same items went to landfill, but you’ll also increase biodiversity and end up with compost once a million worms and beetles have enjoyed eating and living there.

We always have an ear to the ground about any product that we can use that can lessen our impact, but feel safe in the knowledge that even before you’ve ordered a product - it’s footprint is about as small as can be for any similar product on the market.

Team OTB