Environmental policy

 Our Environmental Policy

Daisy Gifts Ltd is working to limit our impact on the environment and here we have outlined the steps we are taking. This is an ongoing process and we are very much “in conversion” – trying out new products and sourcing new options.

Update 2023 – We are continuing to strive for sustainability

The collage below summarises a few of our activities for 2023:

• We have been sourcing more fresh flowers locally – the cherry blossom in the pic and most of our pressed flowers are actually from our own Sussex garden!
• Continuing to use glassing bags for small items like a handful of biodegradable petal confetti.
• We use paper bags wherever we can.
• Drying more of our own flowers. Ruth has experimented with many varieties over the years and now has a good idea of which ones work. We try to only dry UK grown varieties to keep down the carbon footprint. The great thing about drying our own during the summer months is that unlike a commercial dryer we can do it without applying heat or using electricity. You can read more about our drying methods on the blog.
• We continue to source our delphinium petal confetti from a UK grower and if you buy a 1 litre pack it will be sent in a compostable cellophane bag made from cornstarch.
• Using paper packaging wherever we can as you can see wrapping the Billy Buttons below.
• We have been buying more UK dried flowers.
• We’re reusing postal boxes – look out for a cute sticker like the one below!

Our environmental efforts 2023 compared with 2022

• Whereas in 2022 there were a few supply chain issues due to the pandemic, these have now straightened out although we still can’t get biodegradable plastic bags for our lavender in all the sizes we’d like.
• We found that the larger glassine bags we used to use for sending out confetti petals tended to become a little wrinkled in the post so have returned to UK manufactured compostable plant based bags which look exactly like cellophane – and they even have a label on so you can tell the difference!
• We have now completely stopped buying bubblewrap – if you receive any in your parcel it’s because we’re reusing it. Local businesses have started bringing us their spare packaging rather than binning it!

Update 2022 – Improving our dried flowers packaging

We have had a good relationship with our local recycling company for at least five years.

Over the pandemic and during the cost of living crisis we have been continuing to try and improve our carbon footprint but it has been harder due to availability issues and escalating prices.

• In general we have been using more paper packaging in place of bubblewrap.
• We have found that biodegradable bubblewrap has been much harder to get hold of, although we have found a new source as I write this.
• We’re still using biodegradable plastic bags and mailers for our loose lavender, except for the occasional supply blip. (Although we still can’t get all the sizes we’d like of biodegradable plastic bags). We’d like to be able to use paper mailers but worry about our dried flowers becoming damp in the post.
• There has been a cardboard box shortage which has meant we’ve been trying out new shapes and sizes when our regular ones weren’t available.
• We’re using more paper bags than ever.
• We ditched the compostable cellophane bags because they weren’t distinguishable from ordinary cellophane which can be a problem for recycling.
• We have been able to pass on more of our carboard waste for re-use rather than recycling it straight away – we have some local businesses that are able to re-use a few damaged boxes where we can’t.

Update 2020 – Reducing floristry waste

Over the last year or so, we have tried to reduce our use of plastics further. So do scroll down the page for our long standing policies. In addition to these we have recently:

• Increased our use of environmentally friendly biodegradable glassine paper bags (mostly made in the UK) for light items and flower petal confetti
• Switched out some of our biodegradable plastic bubble wrap for paper packaging
• Switched out most of our parcel tape for paper tape
• Recycled more plastic, paper and card than ever
• Adopted a zero landfill policy

 

The rest of this article was written in late 2018:

Reducing our use of plastics for dried flowers deliveries

This is currently one of the biggest environmental topics. Until now we have traded off our wish to reduce our environmental impact against the need for customers to receive their orders dry and undamaged, and the hope that they will also receive their items attractively packaged. But now we have been looking into biodegradable plastics and have seen the improvements that have been made in the last few years.

Most items have always been sent in recycled / recyclable cardboard boxes together with green coloured biodegradable bubble wrap, with a few items sent out in plastic mailing bags. As of October 2018, we are switching our mailing bags to dark green Eco Friendly bags (used as the background in the above image). These are made in the UK from 100% recycled material with biodegradable additive. We are also using biodegradable documents enclosed labels where needed.

Biodegradable cellophane

Historically we used to love cellophane bags as they display our small dried flowers such as delphinium petals and dried rose buds really well, but realise that they are becoming unacceptable. We have managed to source some crystal clear bags made from renewable corn/potato starch, which are fully biodegradable and compostable. These are not labelled biodegradable, but can be identified by the white lines left in the bag when scrunched and the noisy crisp packet sound! (If in doubt you can always ask us). The first item we plan to send out with this packaging is one litre packs of delphinium petals, which are themselves perfect biodegradable confetti!

This eco cellophane is great for small items – we have managed to source them up to A4 size (if you know someone who does A3 do let us know!).

Biodegradable plastic and glassine

Lavender and larger packs tend to be sent out in a plastic bag tied at the top so it can be opened and resealed. We are going over to UK made biodegradable bags for this – see the leaf design in the image above.

Smaller packs containing just a handful or two of flowers will be going over to UK made renewable cellulose glassine bags which are 100% recyclable.

But please bear with us as rolling all this out will take time.

Orders may continue to contain a small amount of non-recyclable plastic for the following reasons:

• As mentioned above, we are still trying to source particular sizes of the biodegradable bags
• Our biodegradable bag supplier might be temporarily out of stock
• If an item is delivered to us from a supplier with plastic packaging (e.g. occasionally bunches are sent to us with a cellophane wrap, and organza bags come to us in a cellophane bag)
• If we are re-using white bubblewrap and/or protective pillows we have received with deliveries
• We are still selling plastic items, but running down our stock and not replacing it

We recycle our dried flower shop waste and packaging