Sustainability

Reuse isn't a program here. It's the product.

 

The box your order arrives in

It is highly likely not new. But it is guaranteed not to be a cereal box.

That is not a random turn of phrase. Before I started selling items myself, I once had a Blu-ray arrive in a cut-up cereal box. Another time, a CD arrived in the bag that frozen peas had been in. None of it was broken. But ever since then, I have known exactly how I don't want to do things.

My boxes come from local shops before they head to the compactor, plus the ones from my own orders. I check every single one. Anything that is sturdy, has clean edges, and hasn't absorbed any moisture goes on the shelf. Outside labels are removed or covered over. Anything that is no longer load-bearing goes to the paper recycling.

If no suitable used box is available, I use a new one. This happens more often than I'd like with unusual formats. A 1.5-meter tall lamp is rarely found in my inventory.

What I use for filler

Here I mix new and used, depending on what is available and what the item requires.

The base material is packing peanuts made of cornstarch. Lightweight, anti-static, biodegradable and compostable according to the manufacturer. A declaration of conformity according to the EU Packaging Regulation is available.

A note, just so you aren't surprised: The chips have a slight popcorn smell. That is the cornstarch and is completely normal. With the first bag, Ernst checked thoroughly to see if it was food. His verdict is still pending, but he does happen to walk by them quite often.

In addition, I use bubble wrap and foam wrap where an item needs it. Anything still usable from incoming shipments I continue to use, rather than opening new materials.

What I do not use: Styrofoam chips made of polystyrene. They never come out cleanly, they create dust, and they are exactly the kind of stuff that will still be lying around somewhere in fifty years.

Why I don't skimp on tape

When it comes to tape, the penny-pinching ends, and that is intentional.

A parcel that opens in transit means damaged goods, a return, a replacement shipment, and two additional trips. That is ecologically and economically worse than every meter of tape I used extra.

That is why it holds. That is why reviews regularly state that the most difficult part of the purchase was getting the box open. I take that as a compliment. My wife sees it differently, but then again, my wife doesn't have to open the parcels.

The actual point

None of this is as effective as what lies inside the box.

A used record is one that didn't have to be pressed new. A used game is one that wasn't produced, packaged, and shipped halfway around the world. Before industrialization, passing things on was simply the way things worked. Historically, that is the norm, not the exception.

The box is the bonus. The item is the point.

Packaging Act: Registration and system participation

Because transparency is part of it and because people rightly ask:

Registered in the LUCID packaging register

Registration number: DE1682582550116

System participation

My shipping packaging is licensed through the dual system Eko-Punkt. I report the quantities regularly to the Central Agency Packaging Register and to Eko-Punkt.

This also applies to reused boxes. That sounds counterintuitive at first, as the packaging was already in circulation once. But as soon as I fill it with my goods and send it to you, it becomes my shipping packaging, and the licensing is my responsibility, as long as I cannot prove for an individual box that it was already registered.

With a box that has come to me through several stations, I cannot do that. So I report it. The box has therefore gone through more paperwork than some new cars.

What I do not claim

I send out parcels. Parcels travel around the place. There is nothing climate-neutral about that, and I won't call it that either.

I don't compensate for anything; I have no seal and no certification. What I have is a business model based on the fact that things are reused instead of being produced anew. Plus a workshop habit from my childhood: check if it still works first.

Usually, it still works.