The Recycled Shipping Box Option

Sometimes we have boxes ready for recycling and sometimes a lucky customer receives their order in a previously-used, "experienced" box. This is the story of their happy meeting.

At Goodbumblebee.com we provide our customers an opportunity to make a difference in the lives of others (whether people or animals) and to contribute to a healthier planet with every visit to our website. One of the ways we do this is by offering a choice for the cardboard box used when shipping products. Our default choice is to ship using a previously used box, if available, thereby extending the usefulness of the shipping box for at least one more trip.

Many of us have been ardent recyclers for decades, but that landscape is changing. In January 2018, China stopped accepting most of our used cardboard imports. Without enough facilities at home in the U.S. to recycle these in a cost-efficient manner, what will we do with all that cardboard? Are used boxes headed for the landfill? Dutifully putting them in a blue recycling bin by the curbside no longer has the same effect it did even last year.

The recycled shipping box option is not a trivial choice. Retailers work hard to ensure a positive customer experience from the store front, to product packaging, to shopping bags, to the boxes used to ship products. The beautiful, glossy shopping bags seen in retail stores and the decoratively-logoed shipping boxes used by online companies serve a purpose – they contribute to a positive customer experience. The problem is that those bags and boxes can be noxious to produce, are primarily single-use, and are difficult, if not impossible, to recycle.

We believe recycling and conservation of natural resources are important and that’s why we offer a choice. We believe our customers choose us because of the positive choices we offer, and the shipping box option is just one element of the Goodbumblebee.com difference. If you choose to use an "experienced" shipping box, have confidence that the box will be clean and sturdy. These boxes are still perfectly viable vessels for getting your product to you. The outside may have old stickers, tape, and permanent markings. But inside? The contents, which we believe is what actually matters, will be beautiful.

That’s our view on one of the ways we can help make a difference – by offering a choice in the shipping box used by our customers. What are your thoughts? Please contribute to the conversation by adding your comments.