Goodbye
plastic sleeves!
Flowers wrapped in paper
Living somewhere as beautiful, but also as fragile, as the Isles of Scilly makes us very aware of local environmental issues, but sometimes it’s easy to forget to look beyond the horizon. back in 2018 we were taken over that horizon and inspired to think by the BBC’s wonderful Blue Planet series. Why were we sending our flowers in plastic sleeves?
This wasn’t really a new question. We'd investigated alternatives a few years previously, but were frustrated by lack of choice and the questionable environmental credentials of biodegradable plastics. This time we took a different approach and after some highly 'Blue Peter-esque' design experiments we came up with a simple, yet stylish, paper wrap that can be folded and adjusted to protect different sized bunches of flowers.
Now wrapped only in paper
We stopped using single use plastic flower sleeves and ribbon making our boxes of scented flowers nearly plastic free and, we think, more stylishly presented. Obviously, the flowers and foliage have always been biodegradable but now all our packaging, apart from a few elastic bands and the sachets of flower food, is paper or card. And because our Scilly flowers are grown outdoors in the UK without additional heat or light we don’t think there are many other gifts that leave a lighter environmental footprint.
Plastic free - really?
Of course, it is all very well and good to proclaim you are, ‘plastic free’ (well nearly) but if you don’t look at your plastic use and environmental impact as a whole business intelligently and thoroughly, ‘plastic free’ can become somewhat of a hollow marketing sham. We don’t believe that all plastic is evil, in some places it is the right material for the job, even in a single use context. For example, we can’t at the moment think of a suitable replacement for our flower food sachets and our pickers certainly wouldn't be without their wellies. As a business we have always tried to farm and operate in an environmentally responsible way, we aren’t perfect, but we will continue to strive to improve.
The plastic conundrum
The whole plastic issue is a very complex conundrum and it is very easy for businesses (and individuals) to be tripped up by poor information and not make the right choice. It was very refreshing to hear Guy Watson, a farmer I greatly admire, talking so openly on BBC Radio 4's Plastic Fantastic series about the difficult decisions around plastics his family business, Riverford Organic, have made. It is a very interesting programme, click here to listen.