Packaging
We're being as environmentally conscious as we can think to be. And, we aspire to learn more and get a little better every year!
At the moment, we use:
- Food-safe, reusable, and recyclable metal tins made by Specialty Bottle in Seattle to hold the lotion bars, salves, balms, and lip balms. Most* salves, balms, and lip balm containers have screw-top lids, so the lid doesn't easily slide off if it lives in your purse or backpack for a while. The lotion bars have a slip-off lid, and given that it melts easily at body temperature, they should never be stored in a hot car or hot anywhere else. Labels made by Avery and OnlineLabels.com. *Currently the Whidbey Blister Balm has a slip-top lid.
- Small, molded fiber pulp boxes and a small paper wrap and stick-on labels to wrap our soaps, shampoo bars, dish soap bars, and dog shampoo bars. Boxes are created by Sustainable Packaging Industries (SPI) and are plastic-free, made from recycled cardboard, and are reusable and recyclable. No bleach, dyes, or glue. Labels are by Avery, paper is usually from PaperMart and sometimes from Michael's. Out of the Ritual Mischief studio itself, we also sell these items bare naked (no packaging), and you are welcome to request no packaging--for only these products--when you order online. (If we ship with no packaging, item names will be written inside the shipping box and on shipping filler).
- Reusable glass bottles with metal tops from Specialty Bottle in Seattle and reusable glass bottles with metal roller balls and a plastic top by Zenith Supplies in Seattle to hold the body and massage oils. We also have one large batch of 2-oz pump tops (with plastic tops) that we're using up and don't intend to order bottles with plastic tops again. Nothing we offer is single-use plastic, and we offer half-price refills of oils (any of our oils into the bottle you bring back) to locals to encourage reuse of these glass bottles.
- A small, card-stock paper square tag with product info accompanies our dried plant offerings (sleep and dream pillows, sachets, and closet bags). This year we worked with neighbors Feather & Fox in Langley to create reusable cotton bags with zippers for the sleep and dream pillows. We create the tags ourselves using cardstock paper from Papermart or Michael's. We will be offering half-price refills of sleep and dream pillows to locals, from our herbal studio, starting in 2023.
- The locally made western red cedar soap rest by Teresa at Mountain Tree Farm in Arlington, WA and body and dish scrubbies made by Gina White in Seattle have no packaging at all.
- For shipping, we use recycled cardboard boxes (some from EcoSwift, Tailored Packaging, and Amazon), reused paper (mostly from our Specialty Bottle orders), tissue paper (FSC® certified, ensuring that these products come from responsibly managed forests from Papermart), and/or wood wool (Wasserstrom Restaurant Supply). We use reused paper bags and paper bags by DreamBag (FSC compliant and recyclable and reusable) for carry away products in for those who shop in the herbal studio. We use the same (as above) tissue paper for gifts and gift sets. More than half the people who shop at our studio bring their own bags and that percentage grows every year--so we often don't have to use a paper bag at all--because Whidbey Island people and visitors totally rock!