Here at Little Deer we take protecting our amazing planet very seriously and are constantly reviewing our supply chains and packing and making processes to explore how we can reduce our impact on the environment. 

Packaging

Over the past 2 years we’ve made some significant changes to how we pack your orders, starting by swapping out our plastic packaging tape for paper packing tape. Such an easy and affordable switch – we’ve not looked back!

We’ve also made the switch from bubble wrap to paper hive wrap (a sort of stretchy paper mesh which is layered upon itself) for those smaller products which need a little protection in transit.

When it comes to our larger items, we’ve been exploring alternatives to bubble wrap, but unfortunately the fragility of these products, and the distances these pieces often travel to get to you, means we do need to continue using a secure packaging solution for these items. We do encourage you to re-use your bubble wrap, and we do continue to explore alternatives which will allow us to reduce our bubble wrap usage further in the future.

Reusing and Recycling 

So much of our stock is delivered in sturdy double or triple walled boxes and most of the time, upon delivery to us, the boxes are still in perfectly structurally sound condition with just a couple of visual imperfections, so where we can re-use these boxes, we do! This also goes for padding materials used to pack deliveries of stock arriving to us so we have a large bag of padding paper and wraps in the warehouse which we use as void fill so it doesn’t go to waste.

We recently welcomed an (exciting) new addition to our warehouse – our cardboard shredding machine! Any cardboard boxes or other cardboard packaging that can’t be re-used is now fed through this amazing little machine and turned into a strong cardboard mesh which is a really effective packing material as it’s so shock absorbent and a little goes a long way to fill voids!

Tree Planting 

For every single order placed through our website we’re able to fund the planting of a tree thanks to Ecologi and their tree planting partner Eden Reforestation Project. You can find out more about the work they do and watch our forest grow here. At the time of writing (August 2021) a whopping 10,000 trees have been planted thanks to our amazing customers, and we’re hoping to grow our forest by at least another 8,000 trees by the end of 2021. 

Suppliers 

We’re working through our suppliers to ensure, where not strictly necessary, plastic isn’t used when packing up stock, and have already been able to drastically reduce the plastic our orders are sent in. We’re also beginning to make the swap to more local suppliers to reduce the miles our stock travels to get to us, and seeking out those brands who strive to use as little plastic and other virgin materials as possible when it comes to the manufacture and shipment of their products. 

We know we’re not yet perfect, but we are doing our best to make changes where we can and won’t stop seeking and implementing ways to reduce our impact on the environment any time soon. Check back here to see how we’re getting on!