UPDATED AUGUST 2026
We're taking action to reduce plastics in our operations.
- In 2019, we committed in this blog post to eliminate single-use plastics in our product packaging. We no longer purchase single-use plastic packaging materials.
- In 2021, we expanded our commitment, reducing single-use plastics everywhere else in our business operations.
- In 2026, we expanded our scope, committing to transparency in all plastics and petroleum-derived materials for the products themselves.
As a small business, this can seem daunting. That's why we're sharing our story. Here's how we eliminating plastics at our small business, and how you can, too!
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Wait, But Why?
We live and work near the ocean, and we experience plastic debris on our beaches. We know how big the problem is. We do our part to help with beach clean-up days but it's not enough. The world is drowning in plastics.
Meanwhile, although we already operate by strong sustainability values, we wanted to do better in the use of plastics.
There are two main plastics problems:
- Not enough durability and limited options for reuse and recycling
- The sheer volume of plastics that are designed to be destroyed and disposed after only one use ("single-use plastics").
It was hard to know where to begin, but as the saying goes, a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. And the UN has made it easy for us all to know what that first step should be.
In 2018, the UN announced the elimination of single-use plastics as our global top priority - for the oceans, for the food chain, and for our own health.
United Nations Environment Program Report, 2018
Plastic packaging accounts for nearly half of all plastic waste globally, and much of it is thrown away within just a few minutes of its first use. Much plastic may be single-use, but that does not mean it is easily disposable. When discarded in landfills or in the environment, plastic can take up to a thousand years to decompose....The most common single-use plastics found in the environment are, in order of magnitude, cigarette butts, plastic drinking bottles, plastic bottle caps, food wrappers, plastic grocery bags, plastic lids, straws and stirrers, other types of plastic bags, and foam take-away containers.
- Single-Use Plastics: A Road Map to Sustainability
We used the UN Report's road map to help guide our program to end single-use plastics, focusing on the products we send out first, with an extension goal of reducing what we bring in and use for our operations.
Our Program to Eliminate Single-Use Plastics
1. Identify the most problematic single-use plastics in your business
As a small operation focusing on products made from natural materials, this was relatively straightforward.
To inventory our plastics, we reviewed our finished goods and raw materials inventory lists. Then we did a walk-through of our operations areas. Conclusions:
- Unwanted single-use plastics come to us via suppliers as part of our raw materials and operations (such as packages of screws or food supplies in the office)
- We purchase and send out plastics out to our customers with our products as packaging and shipping materials.
Of the two, clearly the most problematic and most solvable single-use plastics are the ones we choose to buy and send out to our customers for our products:
- Packaging Materials: In 2019, we purchased single-use poly bags for a few of our products (such as small kits like drawer pull hardware kits) that were secured with a staple. Once opened, they were trash. We also used resealable poly bags for some of our products (such as the bandana) which could theoretically be re-used at least once (but realistically, who does that?). These poly bags were thus the most problematic area of our business and where we could have the greatest impact.
- Shipping Materials: First, we re-use up-cycled shipping materials first (as much as available, even when it is plastic). Second, we then fall back on newly-purchased shipping materials. Most of the shipping materials we purchased were made of recycled paper such as boxes, but in 2019 we also used bubble mailers (which have a plastic bubble sleeve on the inside of a recycled kraft paper exterior, rendering the paper un-recyclable), recycled plastic poly mailers from EcoEnclose, and plastic bubble wrap. Shipping mailers had complicated environmental trade-offs: reducing weight can reduce fuel usage during transport. All of the plastic shipping materials can be re-used (we re-use the ones that come to us), and do provide a rare use for recycled plastics. We can have an impact by choosing less plastic material in our shipping, but each choice had to be carefully weighed and they were less problematic.
2. Consider and implement the best actions to tackle the problem
- Single-Use Poly Bag Packaging Eliminated. Walnut committed to eliminating single-use plastic bags in our product packaging in 2019. As of this writing, that effort was a complete and ongoing success. Once we identified appropriate biodegradable alternatives (recycled kraft coin envelopes and glassine paper bags), they were straightforward to continue sourcing. Glassine in particular provided many of the qualifies we needed for our products: resistance to grease and water and were also semi-transparent. These paper alternatives cost slightly more but the additional cost is insignificant to our material costs and did not change product prices.
- Multi-Use (Resealable) Poly Bag Packaging Eliminated. Walnut also eliminated re-sealable plastic bags in our product packaging in 2019, even though it was not technically "single-use." We identified recycled kraft merchandise bags and glassine paper bags as biodegradable alternatives. In some cases these paper alternatives are actually less expensive than plastics. In other cases, the additional cost was insignificant to product pricing.
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Shipping Material Plastics Strategically Reduced. Walnut reduced plastic packaging in our shipping materials and made several improvements and reductions, but we have stopped short of an outright ban on shipping material plastics and have had to regularly re-evaluate. Finding a non-plastic, lightweight, cost-absorbable alternative to the bubble mailer is our continuing quest.
- In 2019, we sourced a company with aligned values to purchase our shipping materials from: EcoEnclose. We stopped purchasing plastic bubble mailers in favor of padded kraft mailers filled with recycled wood cellulose. Unfortunately, that was not a success. The padded kraft mailers not only cost significantly more but they weighed significantly more than the plastic bubble mailers. The additional weight bumped up the shipping rates and had its own negative impact on the carbon footprint of delivery, requiring more fuel during transportation.
- In 2021, we focused on finding a better alternative, which included a combination of recycled kraft paperboard mailers along with kraft "green wrap" and/or recycled newsprint sheets for cushioning. This provided a satisfactory combination of durability, paper content, and weight, but the green wraps could be pricy and the newspaper could be heavy, looked off-brand, and were hard to source.
- By 2026, we had mostly settled on a combination of lightweight recycled Kraft paper mailers, with the product folded inside scraps of corrugated cardboard. However, we still use recycled-content plastic bubble mailers for many international packages, because the weight/fuel savings seems more important given the distance it's traveling.
- Office Operations Single-Use Packaging Reduced. Walnut continues to be thoughtful consumers for its internal office and business operation purchases. When possible, we choose bulk purchases (such as looseleaf tea or wholesale hardware quantities) and suppliers with aligned values.
- Program Constantly Tracked and Re-evaluted. Walnut is keeping this program going by having one point person dedicated to this initiative who will review and research all sourcing choices and purchases(Valerie), re-evaluating the purchases at least once/year or once/purchase, depending on frequency.
Lessons Learned: How to Reduce Single-Use Plastics
We are writing this blog post because we want to raise public awareness about single-use plastics. We were inspired to do this after reading the UN report and watching David Attenborough's Blue Planet II and the Story of Plastic while stitching together our leather goods at night.
We hope that by adapting the UN's single-use plastics road map to a small business and providing our analysis transparently, we can provide a model for other small businesses to crib.
Here's what you can do to help:
- Check out the Resources section below to learn more
- Support businesses who are doing their part to reduce single-use plastics
- Share this article with other small businesses
- Recycle and reuse your shipping materials:
- Cardboard boxes can be recycled (or composted in some cases!)
- Clean packaging peanuts can be brought to participating UPS stores for re-use
- Consider opening your plastic bubble mailers and poly mailers gently and offer them to their local businesses for re-use. Bubble mailers and poly mailers are often thrown away, but if you know a friend with a small business like an Etsy shop, they may be happy to use them as we were. In Portland, our local craft re-use center, SCRAP PDX, could hardly keep enough used bubble mailers in stock at one point because so many small makers demanded them!
Tip: How to open mailers for re-use
To open a bubble mailer or poly mailer so that it can be re-used, first resist the temptation to rip or tear apart with your hands.
Take out scissors and cut open the materials along the seams were they were originally sealed. The goal is for the next user to simply re-tape it shut in the same place it was first taped or cut:
- cut cleanly across the top of the package, or
- score the tape with the scissors and open at the tape line, or
- slide the scissors underneath the envelope flap and cut right above the glue line.
Don't worry bout removing all traces of previous use. If you try to remove tape or adhered paper, it can often unintentionally create damage that makes the mailer un-usable. The sealing materials (tape or excess flaps) can stay right where they are and the next user can tape right on top of them. Labels and logos can be covered with the next label or with Kraft tape or "block-out" labels.
Conclusion
The planning of this program and this exercise took us about five hours, and was totally worth the thought exercise. By looking at everything we do, it challenged us to make improvements we might not have considered before.
It also helped us really hone in on the most problematic plastics in our business and identify our highest priorities, so that finding implementable solutions was relatively easy because the list was short. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.
We were surprised and pleased to find out we could eliminate the worst plastics in our business for either insignificant cost increases or actual cost savings. Most of these changes we can implement immediately and with surprisingly little effort.
Resources - Further Reading
More Resources
- Watch The Story of Plastic
- Learn more in the NYT article, Life Without Plastic is Possible. It's Just Very Hard
- Watch Blue Planet II
- Read the UN Report on Single-Use Plastics
- National Geographic is tracking the progress being made on tackling this solution. Follow along as the world wakes up to the plastic pollution crisis.
- Join musician Jack Johnson in going plastic-free
- Take the #OneLessStraw pledge
- Comedian John Oliver summarized the issues with plastics on a March 2021 segment of Last Week Tonight:
walnutstudiolo
July 11, 2023
Love this! Thank you @nicolefw!