Plastic is a touchy subject for the packaging world for a few reasons. Plastic is used for packaging due to its strength, and it’s something that’s strong, and good for protecting clothing, shoes, books, and the like, all while being flexible and lightweight. 

It also reduces emissions and costs associated with transport, so it does help the wallet and the world around you. But plastic packaging has become a bit more complex than that.  Only 14% of the packaging is recycled currently, and over 40% of it ends up in a landfill, and another 32% falls into our ecosystems.  The other 14% of this is used for energy recovery and incineration. 

Recycling centers oftentimes don’t just take single-use packaging including grocery bags, bottles, even straws and cutlery, as they can fall between the crevices and will “gum it up” for lack of a better word. so it inevitably falls to marine life, which is why some states and even countries have moved on from single-use plastics. 

Plastic packaging is sustainable when used correctly and recycled correctly. 

Most of this plastic packaging is recycled up to six different times, and by contrast, a corrugated box can be recycled seven times minimally. 

There are some other types of plastic alternatives that people are looking at. 

One of them is poly mailers.  With poly bag operations becoming more and more of the norm, they’re soon the most popular options for packaging due to how strong and customizable they are, providing packaging protection and a flexible that handles different SKUs, shapes, and is lightweight enough that the shipping won’t be affected. 

Poly mailers also are recyclable as well, as there are plastic locations to drop these off. Similar to grocery bags, soft plastics, even bubble wrap. 

You do need to prepare it before you send it. To begin, you must cut out the labels from the poly mailer, throwing them into the trash. Then, take the rest of the poly mailer and put it into the recycling bin. The plastic from this packaging gets further recycled into crates, containers, pipping, tires, even new film and bags. 

You may also just want to reuse this, especially if you ship tour packages on your own. That’s totally fine! The process is the same, and you just throw the item in there, tape the poly mailer together, and then ensure that the label covers the one that the company sent to you originally. Simple enough, right? 

While it does seem a little bit thrifty, like something only relatives might’ve done. However, only 20% of plastic gets used multiple times until the quality suffers, according to a study by science directly.  Why not keep it around, reduce the environmental headaches, and just take advantage of this? best of all, it won’t cost you a thing. 

Using plastic recycling keeps it in a closed-loop, circular type of ecosystem, and far away from the oceans and landfills as well. 

So to answer the question of plastic being sustainable, the simple answer is yes. If you’re willing to make this effort. 

When you use sustainable poly mailers, and actually take advantage of them to build the right proper wellness and lifestyle that you want, then yes, it’s all that sustainable. 

You can contact us today to find out not just about the ply mailers that we have, but about the other packaging that we offer too. You’ll be able to from here, get the sustainable packaging you desire, and really craft the ideal packaging experience for yourself, and for your company to show the world plastic IS sustainable.