Cutting down on our plastic use
In our ever changing world it is becoming more and more important to be sure we are doing everything we can to become much more “eco-friendly”. Thinking about the environment we live in and caring for it is something we all need to do. Here at Ottena, we are always looking at changes we can make so that our business can be that bit better for our planet.
Something that has always been at the forefront of our thoughts is how we transport our teak garden furniture to our customers. It is very easy to just wrap each individual item in endless rolls of bubble wrap. Of course we have to ensure that each order of teak garden furniture and wooden garden parasols arrives to you, our amazing customers, undamaged but we also need to think about what impact single use plastics are having.
As you can appreciate, this is something that we pay a lot of attention to. Sometimes sending items of teak garden furniture through courier networks can unfortunately lead to damage from time to time. Our couriers are fantastic and enable us to offer a next day delivery service, but as some of our teak garden benches and teak garden tables are very heavy and large, they can be awkward to handle and damage can occur from time to time. Unfortunately, bubble wrap remains the best solution to protect items whilst in transit to our customers from both a cost and quality of protection perspective. We have trialled cardboard bubble wrap but unfortunately this does not offer the protection to our teak garden furniture that is necessary.
Earlier this year we started to send our larger teak garden furniture orders via the pallet track network. This has been a fantastic addition to our business with many benefits, not only to us as a company but also to our customers. One massive advantage of sending our larger items of wooden outdoor furniture such as our teak patio sets, is that we can package the items onto the pallet and considerably cut back on the amount of bubble wrap we use to protect the items. Most of the time we do not use any bubble wrap as the teak garden furniture is contained within the footprint of the pallet where it cannot be be dropped or knocked whilst in transit. This is a major benefit for all involved as it is greatly reducing the amount of bubble wrap we are using but also reducing damages. All of our orders previously would be wrapped in bubble wrap but we are now pleased to say we have almost halved the usage of bubble wrap when it comes to sending out our larger teak garden furniture orders.
We are continuing to look for suitable solutions and alternatives to the use of bubble wrap and other single use plastics so that we can again improve our commitment to become more “eco-friendly”. It is an ongoing process and as you can imagine, there are still many instances where we are left with no other option but to use bubble wrap. When this is the case we would very kindly ask you to ensure that you dispose of the packaging from your teak garden furniture in a responsible manner. If you cannot put the bubble wrap and other packaging to use yourselves at home, then we would kindly request that you make sure to take it to a relevant recycling facility so that it can be recycled. There are many locations that will take plastic, like this, which can be recycled in places like supermarkets and your local recycling centres. If you need help finding where and what can be recycled near you, we find a great website to check is www.recyclenow.com where you will find lots of great advice with regards to your recycling needs.
As we continue to search for the best solution for both you our customer and all of us here at Ottena, we hope you are all starting to do that little bit to make our future, and the future of our planet a much more favourable one. If you have any questions then please email us at hello@ottena.co.uk and we will endeavour to answer your questions.
