Dried flowers and dried lavender shop Est. 2002
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 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.
- 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 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.
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!).
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
We have a contract with a local recycling company who take any cardboard we can't re-use. They also take our plastics and paper. We re-use boxes, bubblewrap and paper wadding sent to us by suppliers too.
Any waste from the dried flowers and dried lavender themselves goes home with us for composting in the garden!
More information about our website, shop, dried flowers and dried lavender