Is your business ready for the Festive Season rush?

Christmas is by far one of the busiest and most celebrated holidays in South Africa. It’s a time where our customers eat more food, spend more money, and of course take time to enjoy the company of their family and friends.

But whilst our customers feast, wine and dine, and in turn our business power through December and into January, what toll does all of this Festive Season celebrating have on the environment? 

There are a few elements of all this celebrating in particular that have quite a lasting impact on the environment:

1. The wrapping paper and packaging that customers purchase, use and discard during the Christmas period equated to 227,000 miles of wrapping paper in 2016. Greenpeace recently found that as little as one kilogram of wrapping paper emits up to 3,5 kilograms of CO2  during its production process, taking around one and a half kilograms of coal to power its production. This does not take into account further packaging and transportation.
2. If we were to place all of the Christmas cards sold in one year alongside one another, they would stretch around the Earth 500 times.
3. Consumers get through over 125,000 tonnes of plastic packaging during the Christmas season. Often this plastic ends up in our oceans or in landfills.

Whilst all of these metrics and measurements sound quite daunting, and the impact that this has on the environment quite surmountable; there are a few small changes that you and likeminded business owners can make this Festive Season to start reducing these numbers and creating a cleaner, greener Christmas.

One of the most meaningful changes that any business can make is to switch to product packaging that is recyclable and more environmentally friendly. Gift-giving and receiving is an integral part of the Christmas period, and this means wrapping paper and packaging is, too.

As ecommerce picks up during the gift-giving season, studies show a 30% increase in plastic waste entering landfills. This number drives home the scale of the packaging problem over this period, but it also tells us that a switch from plastic packaging would have an enormous impact. Whether you’re an e-businesses or a restaurant wrapping hot food, if you can cut out plastic from your supply chain in whole or in part, you could be making a hugely positive impact on the environment.

Packaging solutions such as Honeycomb Rolls, Dimple Paper and Eco Bags are a great solution to integrating green initiatives into your business’s product packaging over the Festive Season.

Waste is important and will have an important part to play in our future too, but it doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t enjoy the Festive season, or that our customers should feel guilty about wrapping presents for their friends and family.