Something we’re super proud of here at Garthenor is how we package our orders. It's one thing to say we don’t use plastic packaging but it's quite another to have considered every tiny detail of how our products are packed up and sent home to you in the most eco-friendly way possible. We simply won’t compromise when it comes to the environment. Today we’re going to explain just how each and every part of our packaging process is sustainable. Keep reading to find out how we do what we do…

Firstly, our labels are printed using rice bran oil ink. It's the world’s first recycled ink which is applicable to digital printing and significantly reduces waste during the process. Rice bran is normally a by-product of rice-milling but can be used as an ink because it's a raw material with no volatile organic compounds (VOCs). This means that the oil is not wasted, and the leftover rice bran can even be used as a fertilizer or in animal feed too!

This ink is used to print onto paper labels which identify our yarns. The paper is made out of 100% post consumer recycled content (PCW), meaning that it comes from other paper which has been discarded. This happens by mashing waste paper up in a recycling facility and then shaping it into new sheets. It's like a rebirth for everyone’s junk mail! In the industry this process is often referred to as ‘closing the loop’ because it diverts paper from landfill and returns it directly to the paper manufacturing stream - PCW is like the phoenix of the paper industry!

Finally, we package your skeins up in recycled tissue paper, finish it with a scrap of wool, and pop it into a recycled brown paper envelope ready for the post office! The wool is just waste yarn from here at the Mill - it's either left over from the end of a cone or a piece which somehow went wrong meaning that it can’t be used for our skeins.

We also plant a tree and offset 3kg of CO2 for every skein we sell so that your purchases are completely climate positive. We love that we managed to make our packaging just as sustainable as our products. We will always strive to do better for the environment but we think we’ve hit the nail on the head here!