At Pretty Little Party Shop we love celebrating all of life's moments, but we also love our planet. We are excited to announce that we have made a commitment to grow our selection of eco-friendly party supplies and to increase our offering of reusable party products.
Our little shop has been on a journey of discovery to source more eco-friendly alternatives that we can offer our customers in place of many of the usual party essentials. We still have a long way to go but are delighted that we now offer a more sustainable alternative for a wide range of party products from balloon weights to cutlery. Where a product is not eco-friendly we urge our customers to store and to reuse wherever possible, we are always happy to advise on a particular product and the best way that it should be disposed of.
We plan to further increase our offering of eco-friendly party supplies, biodegradable tableware and reusable items whilst decreasing single use products.
Our eco-friendly push does not end at our products. We aim to reduce and minimise our impact on the worlds resources in other ways and have targeted ourselves to source packaging from the best recycled or reused materials that are available to us.
Here are just some of the changes that we have made to honour our commitment to the environment:
PRODUCTS
- We strive to offer a more eco-friendly alternative for every product type and a large and ever expanding offering of eco-friendly party supplies.
- We prioritise eco-friendly and sustainable new products above any other.
- We advise our customers on a products eco-friendly credentials and offer clear advise on how products can be reused or recycled etc
- Our forward planning includes the reduction of the number of single use plastics and non sustainable products.
- We continually challenge our suppliers to provide eco-friendly alternatives
- We purchase in large quantities to reduce the carbon footprint
- We use a carbon-neutral web hosting company.
SHIPPING
- We use a carbon-neutral courier company for our Next Day Delivery Service
- We use a thermal printer to print shipping labels to reduce ink
- We minimise packaging and choose recycled and recyclable packaging where possible. see below
PACKAGING
- Our goal is always to minimise the use of packaging wherever possible but please note that we do also sell products that are pre-packaged by our suppliers too. Please note that items that have been packaged by our suppliers may not be biodegradable or recyclable.
- We use two types of packaging bag, biodegradable pla bags and recyclable polypropylene bags for packaging balloons and other items ourselves. Please note that items that have been packaged by our suppliers may not be biodegradable or recyclable.
- Naked products! You will find that some of our products will come un-packaged, particularly our range of biodegradable tableware, other products may be packaged together rather than separately to lessen packaging.
- We aim to source cardboard boxes with a high recycled content.
- We use 100% recyclable kraft paper parcel tape
- Our courier bags are 100% recyclable
- We DO NOT purchase any bubble wrap or plastic/foam chips etc to use as parcel filler (if a supplier sends products to us packaged this way we may re-use where we cannot recycle).
- Our choice of parcel filler is sustainable paper packaging
- We reuse any incoming packaging materials where possible
- We package in appropriate sized boxed to reduce packaging and aim to use one box per customer (not a box inside a box as is often the case).
- We take care to separate all of our recycling materials and recycle or reuse 100% of our cardboard waste and all recyclable plastics.
- We are continually moving towards using more sustainable packaging materials as they become available.
Understanding all the different eco terms can be confusing, here are some key definitions that have been put together by the fabulous people at Talking Tables, we hope you find it useful:
- Eco – Being environmentally friendly
- Sustainable – Use of natural resources kept at a level unlikely to damage the environment.
- Biodegradable – Breaks down naturally without causing any harm to the environment.
- Degradable – Breaks down into micro size pieces due to its chemical make up
- Industrial Compostable – Biodegrades in an industrial environment only.
- Home Compostable – Biodegrades in home compostable conditions.
- Recyclable – Materials or waste that can be processed and used again.
- Widely Recyclable – Waste most likely to be collected as part of household recycling.
- Single Use – Designed to be used once and then thrown away.
- Reusable – Designed to be used multiple times before being thrown away.
- Sustainable Sourced – Using social, ethical and environmental factors to decide whether to use a supplier.
- PLA - PLA stands for Polylactic Acid. Talking Tables are not pursuing the use of this material as the ability to get PLA products correctly disposed of is not widely available. The material can even end up causing negative affects to the current recycling streams as it is not recyclable.
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BPA – BPA stands for Bisphenol A and has been linked to causing medical conditions. It is soluble therefore when in contact with liquids can seep into food. BPA free products are tested to confirm that they do not contain this harmful chemical.
Join Us!
We can't travel our Eco journey alone. We will be encouraging our suppliers, manufactures, couriers, accountants and all our party friends to take this trip with us and continue to encourage them to offer us more sustainable and planet friendly products and services. We also want our amazing customers to get involved, please let us know what you like and dislike, what you want for your parties in the 2020's and let us know of your eco-friendly party ideas!