The Art File's 2022 Sustainability Update
STRIDES IN SUSTAINABILITY WITH THE ART FILE
We wanted to update you on our sustainability efforts, as we continue to focus on this important strategy. We’re proud to let you know that we intend to bring sustainability to the heart of The Art File. James, our Sales & Marketing Manager, recently said in a Progressive Greetings feature “It’s not just exciting - it’s vital for all companies to do this in order to protect our planet.” We hope that by striving to improve the sustainability of all our products, we can give other publishers and indeed everyone in the greetings industry the confidence to make the right changes too.
In 2019, we started out by offering our single cards ‘naked’ to suppliers - that is, without a plastic cello wrap. Rightfully so, the likes of single-use plastic packaging are becoming less common in stores across the country and we’re proud to have been one of the first publishers to take this step.
After this, we announced a complete re-design of our Christmas product packaging, which took place throughout 2020 and 2021. This redesign consisted of offering single Christmas cards unwrapped, removing acetate from our boxed products so that now all our new boxed products are fully recyclable.
This change included our popular 3D Form pop-up cards, which are now in packaging that’s 100% recyclable. After implementing these changes, we pledged to continue to work closely with our suppliers and customers to further develop our environmental strategy, and that’s exactly what we’ve done.
Our newest update comes in the form of our gift wrap and gift bags, which have proven more of a challenge than our cards in terms of improving sustainability. James says “on the gift packaging side, our new bags will all be laminate-free, meaning the product will be able to be recycled fully alongside other paper products. One of the largest challenges during our continued sustainability campaign has been the cello that surrounds our popular roll wraps, but we’re absolutely delighted to announce that, after much testing and trialling with key retailers, the roll wrap is now cello free!” This has been a huge breakthrough for us, and we’re happy to have been able to provide the balance between keeping customers and the planet happy.
Despite the huge strides we made with our Christmas products in 2020 and 2021, we knew there was more to do. That’s why, this year, a fully recyclable Glassine band has been added to our Christmas charity packs. It goes around the pack of six cards and envelopes to keep the product together, with the Charities logo featured on the glassine to ensure the worthy cause in question remains central to the product. The revamp of our charity pack packaging means that now, all of The Art File’s Christmas boxed and packaged product will be plastic-free and, therefore, sustainable and environmentally-friendly. If you have any questions about how to recycle our cards and wrap, you can head to this blog post.
We want to say a huge thank you to all of our suppliers and customers who have worked alongside us with understanding and encouragement as we have been making these changes. There are a number of benefits to the new packaging innovations. Not only are our solutions kinder to the planet, but excessive packaging is also becoming increasingly unpopular with trade customers and most importantly, the public. Many of our solutions also come with the benefit of saving space in store, such as our new 3D Form pop-up packaging. But lastly, and most importantly, it will reduce the amount of single-use plastic and general waste polluting Planet Earth.
Keep up to date via our social media platforms through these links - Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and TikTok – or just search The Art File! Everyone at Team Art File is here to help, so if you have any questions about our new products or anything else please send an email to sales@theartfile.com and we’ll be happy to help.
