Reducing Plastic In A Framing Business.

[Justintime]

We'd be interested to hear people's thoughts on use of plastics in our industry.
We're putting together an Environmental Policy for our business. Looking at ways to cut down our use of bubble wrap especially.
Thoughts are brown paper and corrugated cardboard (reused from moulding deliveries where possible), fine for prefinished and polished woods, but I'm concerned about it on hand painted frames for fear of it damaging the paint.
Waste is clearly an issue worldwide, how do we do our bit?
I have received 2 chops last week from different suppliers. One in a tube with bubble wrap that I can reuse. Only the tube to recycle. The other (a repeat offender) in a huge box filled with what is clearly their packing waste, half a bin bag of packaging too small to reuse. I am saving it all and once I have a very full box, will be posting it back to their warehouse with a copy of our new policy.
I understand that change doesn't happen overnight, but that every small step is a step closer.
"If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem" also comes to mind.
Thoughts?

[JonathanB]

Just starting to get some kick back from customers about bubble wrap, although I've yet to find a suitable alternative. I find corrugated paper too abrasive, so am planning to go for the green recycled bubble wrap once current stocks are gone. Because I run a home visit service, I have a responsibility to make sure that orders arrive in one piece, so use bubble wrap secured with handywrap. On the face of it this seems wrong, but having done a bit of a study, found that' since nearly all my customers ask me to take wrapping away and reuse it, I can use bubble wrap time and time again, with the only regular plastic waste being the handywrap. Previously when the bubble wrap was secured with tape, it was ruined straight away. As a result my bubble wrap bill has dropped dramatically in the last few years.

I take your point about the wrapping around chop service and moulding parcels, but I do have a certain amount of sympathy with our suppliers here. Most of the parcels I receive look like they've been kicked down the street and back, so I assume it's a delicate balance between having an order arrive over packaged but in one piece, or having to replace it with all the additional material and staff costs, not to mention the environmental cost of having to deliver again.

I'd love to hear from anyone who's found some packaging that's as soft and practical as bubble wrap, but that's environmentally friendly.

[Richard Photofusion]

Funny this should come up -am in exactly the same sort of position.

On a monthly basis, we print, mount, and install images in frames for a London gallery. The frames come in via a lovely team of art shippers, wrapped in a corrugated / craft paper amalgam. The frames are 40x60", with optically coated glass, that doen't seem to be affected by the packaging, equally, the finish of the frames doesn't seem to suffer. I've been packaging the existing peices in a cocoon of tissue, cling, blue foam, double laminated bubble wrap. minimal tape, to preserves the bubble wrap (assuming it is less good, by volume, than cling, but a lot of bubble to cover 40x60" pieces safely.

The paper based wrapping is far wider than any bubble rolls that I've been able to and, and doesn't develop a static charge, and attract dust!)
I'll ask them about it when they come to collect the next show, next week. In the mean time, I'll continue with recycling packaging (particulary the outers of 8x4 sheet material, and the excellent complex corugated card in which Kapamount is packaged, as well as using the off strips of Kappa as edge material.
Does anyone have knowledge of which adhesive packing tapes are most effectively recycled?

[Justintime]

This product is on my list to try, maybe they'll send a sample.
https://www.kitepackaging.co.uk/scp/bub ... bble-wrap/
There is a cellulose plant based cling wrap out there, but its only available atm in giant rolls for pallet wrapping.
Best recyclable packing tape would be brown gummed tape I guess. That's what the majority of it is designed for.

[prospero]

I often get stuff wrapped in large lengths of perfectly re-usable bubble wrap which is rendered useless by
sticking it up with what looks like Sellotape. It simply takes to long to pull it off without making holes.
I have always stuck bubble wrap with masking tape. Pulls away easily and cleanly so it can be reused.

Corrugated? I tried it one and it's true, it is abrasive on delicate surfaces. Also you can't see though it.

Mine all goes on the compost heap and you can't get greener than that. When it's rotted down it's not too much
of a prob to winnow out the plastic tape.

[cleaver]

Hats off to you, JT....great initiative.

Instead of bubble wrap, how about good old fashioned tissue paper – which can also be scrunched up, to give cushioning?

Of course, there are card corner protectors instead of foam.

Where bubble wrap etc is unavoidable, how about an incentive for customers to return packaging? Could be a discount off next order (also encouraging repeat business) / donation to charity (of their choice?) etc?

Or how about those foam-lined boxes places like Lion do? I know they are NOT cheap, but again there could be an incentive to return them. Perhaps knock up your own (branded?) foam-lined boxes?

Or.....if you can possibly deliver, you can take away & re-use the packing. When you deliver, you might even pick up some extra work. I realise delivery is time out of your day, but the chance of extra work might help offset it.

Maybe you know someone (retired?) who would fancy a little job doing deliveries & collecting your packaging?

Good luck with it, fella.

[Steve N]

I'm Looking into this as we do mailorder mounts, I've had only one customer complain about the amount of plastic we use in packing, we normally tissue wrap the mounts, then put them in a plastic bag, then this is sandwich between two bit of corrugated card, which are handy wrapped, then this is put in a grey mailing bag. My plan is (when I have used up my supply of plastic bags) is tissue wrap, then the corrugated card sandwich, fixed with parcel tape , then either cutting down and re-using the plastic mountcard bags or the paper ones from Colourmount (inside out) as it's seems to be waxy, taped up with parcel tape. We already use the plastic mountcard bags for larger orders and we use mountcard boxes, we even get our local framing supplier to let us have some empty mountcard boxes for packing mounts to ship out

So how many are going to stop using Polcore and Emafyl mouldings

As for doing 'Home deliveries' why not just use blankets to wrap the pictures, unwrap at the customers house and bring back with you.

i don't know what to do with completed customers work, waiting for them to pick it up, might still have to use bubble wrap, no good just using handywrap, as that offers no protection what so ever to the frames

[cleaver]

Tissue? I had you down more as crepe paper man, Steve.......whereas I'm just a crepe framer.

[Steve N]

cleaver wrote
"Tissue? I had you down more as crepe paper man, Steve.......whereas I'm just a crepe framer. "

[Rainbow]

The use of bubble wrap has been bothering me for some time but at present I haven't found an ideal alternative. I might try something like corrugated paper or the Kite product for frames which haven't got a delicate finish, but bubble wrap is still the least abrasive material. I quite often deliver pictures back to the customer, and I usually transport large pictures wrapped in a blanket as well as bubble wrap. I'm not sure a blanket on its own would give enough protection, and it might look a bit unprofessional as well

I've only ever had one experience of green bubble wrap and it was quite hard and rigid. I'm not sure if all green bubble wrap is like that but if it is, I would view it as less suitable for the purpose than "normal" bubble wrap.

[Not your average framer]

I'm not a big fan of plastics in general. Not that I'm an eco warrior, or anything like that. I just prefer to use natural materials, in preference to all this synthetic rubbish. Recycling is just a joke anyway, spending money putting all this rubbish back into circulation again, begs the question why we are using this stuff in the first place..

I have a nice big roll of brown kraft paper, paper bags, cardboard corners and rolls of handy wrap. I would not mind getting rid of the handy wrap, but at least I don't use much of it. It just stops the cardboard corners from falling off from the frame corners. In the past, I've been using the random pattern paper bags, but I'm more likely to buy brown kraft paper bags in future.

I suspect that much of the natural packaging materials are probably better value for money than the synthetic stuff anyway, so why are so many people buying so much plastic rubbish. You don't need to be an eco warrior to see that this stuff is so stupid. I like the brown paper as well, because it fits my old style traditional image.

[Rainbow]

Does anyone use these Smart Bags if delivering pictures? : https://www.wessexpictures.com/Self_Sea ... -Copy.html

[poliopete]

If on the rare occasions I deliver a large framed picture I wrap in a blanket. I don't think that makes me look unprofessional in any way.

I realize, that these days, I do not frame the volume of items as some members but I still wrap completed items in kraft paper as I did when we had our busy frame shop.

All completed items are loosely wrapped until the customer collects and is shown the work. It is only then will I use a small piece of bubble wrap around the corners recycled from deliveries and finish off the wrapping. I do not like those manufactured corner protectors and would only use them if selling online.

Some completed pictures I have displayed on an easel before the customer arrives. This is to generate interest from other customers and usually creates a wow factor.

You guys who have an Environmental Policy are to be commended. It is certainly something to proclaim on your websites and I am sure will pay dividends. :clap .

Peter.

[Not your average framer]

I wish it was easier to get my waste recycled properly at an affordable cost, but that's not how it is. There's a company here in Devon, which advertises "zero percent to landfill", but it does not take much to work out that their premises are not far from a huge incinerator in Exter. That not recycling, all those plastic particular in the smoke from that huge chimmney are falling out of the air onto the fields that grow our food, or else we are breathing that stuff.

It so wasteful, corroated cardboard can so easily be shreaded and used for loose fill packaging. Plastic bottles can be sliced up into plastic hoops to be mixed with concrete and used to reinforce the foundations of new buildings and roads, instead of burning it and creating poisonous and toxic fumes. We need to take this stuff out ofcirculation and at minimum cost. I used to give people the packaging used to package materials I needed to order, I don't know why, but nobody collects my waste packaging anymore. It all goes in the dumpster and then up the chimmney.

When I was growing up, there was much less waste than now.

[Rainbow]

This product is on my list to try, maybe they'll send a sample.
https://www.kitepackaging.co.uk/scp/bub ... bble-wrap/

Perhaps somebody with more clout than me could get Wessex to add it to their inventory.

[Justintime]

Kite have just sent me a sample of this paper bubble wrap, looks ideal. Still think I'll have to protect the edges of hand finished frames, but that's still a massive reduction in bubble wrap.
They also sent me a whole roll of gummed tape as a "sample" to try in place of plastic packing tape. Now that I have a gummed tape dispenser, thanks to Próspero or poliopete, I'm going to use this as my go to packing tape.

[Not your average framer]

What's stopping you from buying direct from Kite? I buy all sorts of supplies that I can't get from framing suppliers. A lot of suppliers have cheap ways of getting stuff to you. Why not ask Kite the question, the answer might be better than you think!

I only have very small business premises and can't stock much, when it comes to bulky items, so I have to limit the volume of some things, but who said that it's a problem? Add another twenty pence per frame on to your prices and you'll soon realise that it's not a significant cost at all. I cover most of my costs of wrapping up frames for customers to take away, for a broadly similar figure although I mostly use cardboard corners and handy wrap. I don't currently have space for storing corrogated cardboard, but when I finished fitting out my workshop, I'll have a little more space.

I don't have a problem with corrogated cardboard being a bit rouugh on frame fininshes, but before using the corrogated cardboard, I can go once round the frame with some handy wrap, so that the corrogated cardboard cannot touch the frame finish. I'll admit that handy wrap is plastic, but I did at one time use bubble wrap and switched to handy wrap as the lesser of two evils. Another alternative might be to use a cheap roll of toilet tissue in place of the handy wrap and stick the end in place with some cheap masking tape.

My local hardware shop sells two types of masking tape, one is good, the other is cheap. The cheap one is 4 rolls for £1, but at least it's not made of plastic. I won't be using this paper bubble wrap, because I'll be more concerned about price. One of my framing suppliers sells quite reasonably priced corrogated cardboard and if I include it with an existing order, I can avoid any extra carriage costs.

[Framerpicture]

This product is on my list to try, maybe they'll send a sample.
https://www.kitepackaging.co.uk/scp/bub ... bble-wrap/

We've been using this product for a little while now. It's a little more expensive than bubble wrap ,maybe not quite as protective on it's own and on some painted frames we use the paper from between sheets of glass as an additional layer before the cardboard wrap but it's very well received by our customers, who can either re- use it or put it straight into the recycling without adding to the
un-recyclable plastic mountain!

Still looking for a product to replace 'Handy Wrap' but I believe there's an environmentally safe product being developed .

It would also be good if framers could apply pressure to moulding manufacturers to ensure mouldings are wrapped in paper and not plastic, on busy days we get a worrying amount of plastic waste that is impossible to recycle.

[Not your average framer]

I did not think all that much about this thread earlier, but much against my expectations, this thread has really been making me think about whether I can do better without involving to much unnecessary expense. Like many others, I like handy wrap, because that's the way I've been doing things for so long.

Is there a nice easy and cheap alternative, that's already available? Why does it need to be handy wrap? Perhaps handy wrap is not as handy as we think and there's something else that people used to use before handy wrap came along. Handy wrap is the only plastic packaging product that I use at all and I'm not adverse to changing to something else, if I can find it. It's not important that it's stretchy, so I'm not bothered about that.

Any suggestions?

[pramsay13]

I noticed Centrado are doing a biodegradable bubble wrap.

More details here https://centrado.co/newsletters/centrad ... june-2019/