At Shake the Tree Art, environmental impact is a huge factor influencing my ordering and processing decisions. I try my best to ensure that my practice leaves the smallest environmental footprint.

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ORDERING SUPPLIES

I order all my supplies from local Australian suppliers where possible, with a sustainable heart - meaning less transit time for the goods, and more care given to the environment from the very start! I also prefer suppliers who use minimal packaging material (although sometimes packaging is unavoidable - but I have a strategy to cope with this below!). 

For example, my 2021 tea towel range was printed and sewn right here in Victoria, by locals with a love for the environment - including staff with disabilities!

On top of this, all of my marketing material is made from recycled starting materials, including paper, cardboard and recycled plastics. 

 

CREATING

My creative process can produce waste products such as left-over resin (essentially small pieces of plastic) and paper/cardboard waste (including synthetic paper which cannot be recycled in your comingled waste). I have developed a number of ways to give these waste-products another life!

Leftover resin

• creating coasters, magnets and other small products

Paper/cardboard waste​

• left-over Yupo paper cannot be 'recycled' as it has a plastic coating, so I use it to create my bookmarks! For smaller pieces, I use a hole punch to make confetti which I use in my packaging!

• any recyclable paper that I can't use for packaging, list-making (I love lists!), or origami goes in the recycling bin

• cardboard is used for packaging (space filling, etc) or is recycled if I cannot find another use for it

Other general waste​

• in our home, we have a Bokashi bin for food scraps, a compost bin for garden waste, and we separate out of recycling waste if we cannot use it elsewhere. Since my studio is in my home, this makes it super easy to recycle as much as possible!

 

PACKAGING

I keep and store everything from bubble wrap and kraft paper to styrofoam peanuts and cardboard boxes (soooo many boxes!) when I do receive them from my suppliers. So when you see these things in my deliveries to you, don't be alarmed - almost 100% of your packaging is getting a second life!

And if you purchase something small and non-fragile from me, it will probably arrive in one of our HeroPackaging mailers. These mailers can be reused once (there's a second sticky strip! see the bag for instructions) and are completely home-compostable (instructions below)!

My stickers are made from recycled paper, and my logo stamp (one of the best things I ever purchased) is 100% reusable (the same stamp has stamped many a package) and uses soy-based inks!

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ECO TEA TOWEL GIFT WRAPPING OPTION

We now offer Eco Tea Towel Gift Wrapping on some of our smaller products! By selecting this option, customers can add-on one of our Tea Towels at over 30% off RRP, in addition to their purchase, and I will wrap the gift in the tea towel to make a perfect tape and gift-wrap free package!

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SHIPPING

I use a number of different carriers depending on where my shipment is headed. However they all have one thing in common - they are all carbon neutral delivery services!

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I encourage all of my customers to please think really hard about how you dispose of waste - especially when it comes to receiving goods in the mail. Recycling is not as hard as it sounds and there are a million ways you can do it!

 

Check out the pictogram below showing how you can dispose of our HeroPackaging  compostable mailers in your home compost bin!

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