Our passion at Carver Gifts has always been to make great gifts. So much so, that it’s our motto. Over the past year and a half we’ve make it our new passion to find a way to create beautiful Eco-friendly gifts. This was not easy, but we did it. We researched and talked to so many people, finding that only in the last few months have we really found the information we were looking for. This being because the Eco-consumer has really come out of the woodwork demanding an eco-option.
The issue we were having at Carver Gifts was packaging. How could we become Eco-friendly and still look great. Well we did it! We found a way to be esthetically pleasing and be kind to the earth. Before going on and telling you about our Eureka moment, let us back track to the ideas we originally had and the reasons we decided against them.
Our first option was to have recycling bins(boxes smaller than the curbside ones) made. Every supplier we spoke with mainly in Ontario and in the U.S. insisted that we have the bins designed by engineers before they created them for us. This left us perplexed as to why we would have to redesign a box so widely used. Not to mention our carbon footprint.
The second option was recycled cardboard box. This box would contain a percentage of post consumer waste. Well that was the tricky part. Every time we would get boxes made, we would never be sure what percentage of post consumer waste we would get. As well as a certain percentage would still be new material which we don’t want. The die cuts would still have to be constructed and boxes printed. The overall project used up way too much energy and had way to much of a carbon footprint.
So, our thoughts went a little like this…
Hmmm what am I going to do with all these reusable shopping bags? So many companies are giving away or people forget their bags at home and buy new ones. Eureka! We’ll use them to make our beautiful gift baskets. Now we not going to waste resources on creating new products. We can purchase them locally eliminating a lot of transportation, time and gas.
We will not be eliminating our baskets but giving our consumers an Eco-friendly, green option. These baskets will be made with the reused shopping bags, biodegradable cellophane, raffia and old magazine pages for the bows. Inside we will provide you with the information on how to recycle all the products used to construct the basket. Then all the Eco-friendly baskets purchased will have $5.00 donated to the David Suzuki Foundation. We will ALL benefit from the amazing work done by the foundation.