NO plastic please.
•Posted on February 12 2018
We often get emails asking about plastic use in our shipping, so I thought I would answer a few questions for you all.
Our production doesn't consist of any plastic, this includes our garments, no Polyester or Nylon (Polyamide) just natural fibres like cotton, linen, silk and merino wool. We also use regenerated cellulose fabrics like Bamboo, Tencel, Cupro, Modal and Viscose. All these fabrics are biodegradable and do NOT shed synthetic fibres that are now found in marine life.
When our garments are made, they are placed on our recycled cardboard hangers, picked up in our fuel efficient van and brought back to our studio. This is a contrast to all off-shore garments which are individually wrapped in plastic, then shipped long distances.
When we ship out to retail stores or online customers we wrap the garments in recycled Kraft paper, secured with paper masking tape that is easily removed, then placed in either a recycled paper jiffy bags or recycled cardboard boxes depending on the size of the order. Many customers reuse the wrapping paper and jiffy bag when sending back returns etc, so the packaging gets a second life. All our packaging can simply be put in a worm farm or compost to enrich your garden.
Sometimes we may use a strip of packing tape to secure the jiffy bag closed. This is because we find that the sticky on the jiffy bags are not enough to keep your delivery secure sometimes. This strip of packing tape can be removed and the remainder is then biodegradable.
The fabric is delivered to us in large rolls which are put into plastic bags to protect them during shipping. Most of our current fabric suppliers use plastic that breaks down. This is great except when we store rolls in them for a while, in which they start to degrade and become broken down. At least we know they do biodegrade!
The only plastic bags we use in our stockroom are zip lock bags that get used over and over again for many years. We fold many garments after washing them and store the sizes and colours separately in these bags. They are also used to put buttons and haberdashery etc in the send to our makers, then reused again for the next order. We have no single use plastic bags in our business.
One of our wholesale customers Kathy who has beautiful store 'Silk and Cotton' in Bellingen, has made gardens from the cardboard boxes that her stock is delivered in. She simply takes off the packing tape and has nice sized cardboard bases to build new 'RANT gardens' with. This makes us smile, such a good use for them and we like seeing the produce that she grows.
Below is the new one this year being created with newspaper then the RANT boxes.
The last pic is the garden from last year filled with edible veggies.
We love the fact that our customers understand sustainable practices and even better that they share them with us.
Remember we are a small business and like to interact with our customers via email or the phone (during business hours), so if want to share something with us, don't be shy. Another way to interact is Instagram @sustainable_fashion which I post on.
We do not have Facebook but Jason does like to share things on Twitter @rantclothing.
Cheers
Sarah
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