Eco Journey

Here at Felfira Moon Designs we are committed to being honest with our customers. We wanted to share in detail what we are doing to help offset some of our manufacturing.

Let's start with the truth of the matter: enamel pins are not great for the environment. With them being made in factories in China, there is no way to fully confirm how eco minded our manufacturers are without physically visiting each and every factory. As a 1 person business this is not something I can realistically do right now. Enamel pins are what keep my business afloat but in the future I would like to phase them out for products that are less harmful for the environment.

So what are we doing to be more eco friendly?

1. We will never use “recyclable plastic mailers” (yes, it’s good that some plastic is able to be remade into something new, but not a lot of places, including where we live, can recycle much plastic at all!) Some of our items may be sent out in a clear sleeve, this is NOT made of plastic. It is made with corn & potato starch so will biodegrade in a non harmful way. It is even safe for composting (and will biodegrade even faster that way!) These are sourced from a UK company who recycles waste from within the UK to make these, keeping their carbon footprint low.

2. Not all tissue paper is created equally! Did you know that due to the nature of how some tissue paper is made, it cannot be recycled? This applies especially to some coloured tissue paper as the dyes in the thin paper mean that it cannot be pulped properly and can mess up a whole batch of recycling! The tissue paper we have used/sometimes still use, is sourced from the same supplier as our clear sleeves. It is an acid free and dye free tissue paper, made from recycled products from within the UK. Our suppliers website states that their tissue paper is safe to recycle but please check with your local area collections to check they can take it. We advise reusing any tissue paper you receive as this will lessen the impact on our environment. (Fiona keeps every bit of tissue paper she gets, coloured or not, as emergency back up for shop orders or in packages to friends, where she knows the person on the receiving end will reuse the tissue paper again) In 2022, we have moved over to using printed paper, which has been made and printed here in the UK with a FMD exclusive design. This paper is super easy to recycle and even to use again!

3. We reuse packaging supplies we receive. If you order something a bit larger than what fits in a larger letter box, or buy wholesale, you might get packaging that is not always recyclable. This is because we have used that packaging from an item we receive (we never buy any bubble wrap or plastic packaging etc) to stop it going to landfill. We kindly ask that if you are able to, to use the packaging again. We will usually include a little note to let you know we have reused packaging! We have recently switched our manufacturer from using tiny plastic bags for pins to tissue paper, which we will be reusing in our packages!

4. Our boxes are recyclable and if opened carefully, easy to reuse! We source our boxes from a supplier that is in the UK. We use paper tape on our boxes which we source from 2 different small UK businesses. It is a plastic free, super strong paper tape. The sticky side is made using natural materials so will naturally biodegrade without causing harm to the environment.

5. We are working on making our packaging more reusable, not just recyclable! We are slowly making changes, such as turning our thank you notes into a free special print that you can keep, rather than just a bit of paper that goes straight in the bin (and we always make sure our paper items, like backing cards, thank you cards and other printed items etc, come from a company that uses FSC certified paper).

6. We will be looking at moving away from using recycled paper for some of our products. There are more and more studies coming out to say that the chemicals needed and used for the recycling of paper might actually be worse than what is used to make regular FSC certified paper. What is more important currently is how the paper you use is sourced. This is a situation we are going to keep monitoring and makes changes when able to and when more concrete evidence is made available. Items designed for you to keep (such as bookmarks and prints) may continued to be made with recycled paper but items less likely to be kept (notepad sheets and backing cards etc) are more likely to be made with new FSC certified paper going forward.

7. We will keep trying our best for our customers and the environment. It is very difficult to not generate any kind of waste when you run a small business (or even work for any kind of business) Trying to be eco friendly and run a small business is also much more expensive than buying plastic bubble mailers in bulk so please keep this in mind when shopping with any business. Everyone is trying their best!

As always if you have an questions or comments, you can use the contact us form or email us direct at felfiramoondesigns@gmail.com