Etsy: Planet-Friendly Packaging | Packaging FAQ

Read on to learn how they compare and see if one is the right shipping solution for your business.

EcoX Mailer: These flat mailers are great for shipping soft goods - apparel, textiles, and other flat accessories. They are made with 100% recycled 11pt paper. They are also surprisingly water resistant, so they are a great alternative to the poly mailer.

Padded Mailers: These cushioned mailers are great for cosmetics, jewelry, accessories, essential oils and other goods that need a little protection. They are constructed in such a unique way! Each side of the mailer is made with two sheets of recycled Kraft paper that sandwich shreds of recycled newspaper. This padding gives it structure and provides a layer of protection for whatever you are shipping.

Rigid Mailers: These rigid mailers are designed to stay flat and unbent in transit and are a great solution for shipping prints, photos and other art. They are made with 100% recycled, 28pt paperboard and have a self sealing strip.  

We offer three box styles for Etsy sellers. Here we describe what they are and what they are best suited for, in order of our sales volume of each:

• Tab Locking Box (TL): This is the classic presentation style box used by many brand conscious e-commerce businesses. These boxes create a wonderful opening experience for the customer. The locking tabs create a clean seal for the box and gets the sealing tape on the bottom corner of the box (as compared to the across the top of an RSC).
• Regular Slotted Container (RSC): Regular slotted containers are the traditional industrial box that you have seen throughout your life. Think moving boxes and Amazon boxes. Here, we're offering 6" x 6" x 6" RSC boxes, which look great and work beautifully for a variety of small to mid-sized products.
• Full Overlap Box (FOL): Full overlap boxes are designed similarly to RSC boxes, but the end flaps fold over each other, for easier enclosure. This sleep box style is what you often find with courier style boxes offered by FedEx, UPS and USPS.

The dimensions used to describe each offering refer to the interior dimensions of the box. The exterior dimensions are approximately 0.5" larger than the interior.

Our RSC and FOL boxes are offered in 32B flute, meaning they are rated for shipments that are up to 25 lbs. Our TL box is offered in 23B flute, meaning they are rated for shipments up to 15 lbs. In general, given that these are smaller boxes, we typically recommend keeping your shipments in them at or under 15 lbs.

We use the term “void fill” to refer to any cushioning, padding or paper you add to your shipping package in order to protect your goods in transit and/or create a beautiful presentation for recipients. Packing material is more than just shipping box stuffing. While void fill or box filler is largely a solution used in corrugated shipping boxes, it is also becoming more common in mailers, largely to add a little "wow" factor to the presentation.

Consider the following questions.

• Are my products fragile?
• Are my products very heavy?
• Do my products have corners that could be subject to damage (i.e. books, postcards)?
• Does my package have significant excess space in it that could cause my products to move around and get bent, damaged or scuffed while the package is in transit?
• Is it important to me and my brand that my customers receive a package that is unique and enjoyable to open?

If you answered “yes” to any of the above questions, void fill should likely be part of your packaging strategy. Corrugated shipping boxes are the most likely shipping strategy to require void fill of some sort because (regardless of what your product is) they are the most likely to contain excess air. But there are certainly cases where void fill isn’t needed.

Mailers do not typically require void fill, though many companies look to wrap their products for the sake of presentation. If a company is packaging something like essential oils or perfumes in a mailer, they may decide to wrap their products in protective cushioning or void fill before placing those goods in the shipping mailer.

Tissue Paper

Tissue paper is not great for blocking and bracing; however, it is makes for beautiful presentation and offers a layer of dust and scuff protection. It can be a strong addition if your shipper box fits your products snugly, but you want to add one layer of presentation for the recipient. Many companies actually use tissue paper to wrap their products before placing into their boxes or bags.

EcoEnclose tissue paper is made with 100% recycled material is fully recyclable and compostable. Check your local recycler's guidance on how to best dispose of tissue paper in your area.

SpiroPack Eco

Spiral tissue paper void fill is a unique and sustainable alternative to traditional crinkle fill and packing peanuts. SpiroPack’s patented flat design takes up 80% less space on your packing station than crinkle shred. The connected spiral design allows for easy packing during fulfillment and easy cleanup for consumers during unboxing.

Efficient packaging doesn’t need to be boring. Using SpiroPack™ Eco is a quick and easy way to add volume to your package. Simply lift your desired amount of spirals by the tail, lift, shake to add volume, and put the fluffed SpiroPack™ Eco into your eCommerce box.

SpiroPack is a excellent choice for brands considering crinkle paper. Use it as void fill and cushioning for subscription boxes, gift baskets, or anywhere you'd consider using messy springfill or crinkle paper.

Save on storage space in your warehouse or fulfillment center. SpiroPack™ ships flat and expands to create beautiful and fun spirals. Each case weighs 30 lbs and contains three 10 lb inner cartons with approximately 2,200 spirals per carton.

Highly recycled. Brand-focused. SpiroPack™ Eco is made from paper derived from certified sustainably grown trees, highly recycled, and available in 100% recycled kraft and 95% recycled white. Keep your unboxing experience on-brand and exciting without sacrificing sustainability.

Vela™ Glassine Bags are an innovative plastic-free wholesale solution for internal packaging and a curbside recyclable alternative to a clear poly bag. The smooth and toothless paper ensures no fibers transfer onto your goods, yet they are durable enough for your supply chain - from manufacturer to distribution center to customer.

Glassine bags are ideal for shipping artwork, prints, and photography. With their toothless, smooth finish and translucency, glassine bags are a polished way to provide inner protection. The bags are sized more for apparel than art, so you may need to size up rather than find dimensions that fit your prints to their exact size. Additionally, these bags contain a print on both sides and subtle air vents that allow air to be released when packaged at the factory. These design features are fine for most art companies.

The 100% Recycled Stickers for Reusable Packaging are made of a 100% post-consumer waste uncoated paper facestock. Most importantly, they are delivered on EcoEnclose's unique and innovative Zero Waste Release Liner that is made of 100% post-consumer waste paper and is curbside recyclable with paper products.

A release liner is a material that carries a substrate with a pressure-sensitive adhesive until that adhesive is ready for its next step. It is sometimes called a backing or carrier. Silicone-coated supercalendered virgin paper is the material traditionally used for release liners, and these are either not recyclable or extremely difficult to recycle. A handful of manufacturers in the US have the equipment needed to recycle standard silicone-coated liners by separating the silicone from the paper so the paper can be recycled. More often than not, the landfill is where sticker release liners typically end up due to the materials used for most release liners on the market today.

When considering the end-of-life of a sticker, one must ask how stickers will impact the end-of-life of their primary packaging - that is, the item it is stuck to for its entire life.

Etsy 100% Recycled Stickers for Reused Packaging are made of 100% post-consumer waste uncoated paper. When placed on paper packaging, the sticker and the packaging are easily recycled in the paper recycling stream.

In general, as long as the sticker does not represent a significant portion by size and weight of their packaging, it will not change the end of life of that packaging. However, they do introduce some contamination that - if they represent too large of a portion of the packaging by weight - could cause degradation of the reclaimed material. For example, if a plastic mailer is covered end-to-end with paper stickers, reclaimers will find it challenging to re-pelletize that plastic material. On the other hand, if a large plastic mailer contains a single 4x6" shipping label, the shipping label will have a negligible impact on the reclaimer's ability to pelletize the plastic mailer.

Using packaging a second time is one of the most sustainable packaging choices. Etsy 100% Recycled Stickers for Reused Packaging are intended to be placed on paper packaging being used for a second time. Help your reused packaging stand out with an Etsy-branded recycled paper sticker.

Kraft Flatback Tape features a cross-linked (natural & synthetic rubber) adhesive & backing. This pressure-sensitive tape tears easily by hand and is a great eco-friendly option for lower volume applications.

The uniqueness of EcoEnclose kraft flatback tape is accredited to the construction blend of kraft paper backing topped with a blend of rubber adhesives. Most suitable for lower-volume applications and tears easily by hand.

Carton-sealing tape is not always 100% recyclable, but it does not inhibit the substrate it is stuck to from being recycled. Our kraft flatback tape has a paper-based facestock. However, the adhesive does not separate from the facestock or the corrugated box as easily as water-activated tape during the repulping process.

Algae Ink a revolutionary ink developed by Living Ink Technologies that uses algae cells for pigments, making it safer and cleaner to work with, and more compatible with the recycling and composting process. Algae Ink is a net negative carbon technology, with each bucket of ink sequestering the same carbon as two trees.

Black Algae Ink is available to use on Planet-Friendly Packaging custom mailers, and is available in a 1 oz bottle to use on a stamp pad.

Algae Ink is a carbon-negative ink, sequestering more carbon in a stable and long-lasting form than is used in its production. Every 45 pounds of Algae Ink we produce keeps 22.5 pounds of petroleum (crude oil) from being used. That means that 22.5 pounds of oil can't negatively impact our environment or air. Additionally, because our ink is carbon negative, using a 45-pound bucket of Algae Ink can remove -59 kg of carbon dioxide or like planting four trees!

Algae Ink has more biorenewable content than any other ink on the market. Algae Ink for offset printing is 86% biorenewable content, and Algae Ink for flexographic printing is 90% biorenewable content.

Post consumer waste refers to recycled content that is generated from items (often packaging) that has already been used. Post industrial waste, on the other hand, refers to waste scraps generated from a manufacturing line.

While all recycled content is ecologically preferred over virgin material, post-consumer waste should be prioritized over post industrial waste. Your demand for post-consumer waste triggers demand, investment, and innovation across the recycling supply chain, making it easier for manufacturers to work with post-consumer waste, enabling them to pay more for these recycled inputs, encouraging recyclers to get more of these good from consumers, which leads to an increase in our overall recycling rates. All in all, this helps us achieve our collective vision for a circular economy.

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