Whether you're a long-term Printful user, just signed up,
or you're still looking for the best print-on-demand company to partner with,
you probably have a lot of questions about the ins and outs of Printful.
In today's video, I want to focus on your sustainability questions.
So I'm taking you to meet Alise, our Corporate Social Responsibility project manager.
And I've heard she has an exciting new update coming up.
Let's go!
Let's first establish what we mean when we talk about
sustainability and why it matters to Printful?
At Printful our main goal is to make on-demand manufacturing the norm.
Products are fulfilled only when someone's placed an order.
While conventional manufacturing produces more than can be sold.
And that leads to overproduction.
Unfortunately, these unsold items are usually disposed of or burned without ever being used.
So we don't make things in advance?
Exactly. There's no extra stock. We don't produce more than people would actually buy.
In our journey towards sustainability,
what are the biggest milestones and biggest achievements for us?
Transparency is one of our core values.
Things we've done include adding supplier certificates to our product catalog that prove
material content, for example, if the product's made of organic cotton or recycled polyester.
We've also added a Source tab to our product catalog.
This is a place where you can find information about the country of origin for every product.
We've done that to increase the transparency of our supply chain.
We've also defined what an eco-friendly product means to us, what's the actual definition.
It explains what's the minimal content of biodegradable, organic, or recycled
materials in a product.
Last year we managed to double the size of our eco-friendly product collection.
We focused a lot on minimizing fabric waste for our all-over print production.
We've improved the print layouts and launched new, small products
that can be printed on fabric that would otherwise go to waste.
Imagine a layout of a t-shirt.
There are small areas of fabric left blank around the t-shirt print.
And in these blank spaces, we can print a scrunchie or a headband.
And of course, we're also focusing on packaging.
We're trying to improve the quality of materials
we use and eliminate layers of packaging whenever possible.
When it comes to the layers we've eliminated, can you elaborate on that?
Because in my mind everything comes in a bag.
What else is there?
Of course, we can't ship a product without packaging at all.
Previously
all apparel items were packed in a transparent plastic bag, before the regular shipping bag.
Now, if we have a single-product shipment,
it will be packed only in the regular shipping bag, without the transparent layer.
The new changes are that we're switching to 90%-100%
post-consumer recycled plastic packaging in North America for apparel products.
Post-consumer recycled plastic is recycled from
everyday items that we all use like plastic bottles or food containers.
So the majority, 90%-100% of this packaging is made of this material.
It's not a completely new material for Printful.
We're already using post-consumer recycled plastic packaging in our in-house facilities.
Just the content of this PCR material in packaging is different for each facility.
For example, in the US until now the PCR content for packaging was as low as 30%.
So now we're increasing it to 90%-100%.
In Europe, we're already using packaging with PCR content in the range of 70% to 100%.
I've got the packaging here.
Do you want to tell me more about it?
It looks like there's a fun QR code feature.
With plastic film, this flexible type of plastic, you can't always
drop it in the regular recycling bin.
Recycling guidelines might vary.
Usually, you can drop off this type of packaging at your nearest grocery store.
But you don't have to know all the drop-off points by heart.
You can scan the QR code, it opens a website where you can enter your
address or zip code, and it'll show you the nearest drop-off point locations.
These guidelines work for customers based in The US and Canada.
But if you're selling to other regions, you don't need to worry.
Your customers can simply follow the local recycling guidelines.
The best thing they can do is to check in with their local waste management service provider.
They'll definitely know the answer.
So we've picked PCR packaging, but were there any other options we considered?
And if yes, why did we not choose them?
We considered bioplastic, compostable plastic, and kraft or paper materials.
Usually, kraft and biodegradable
materials sound like the obvious choice because they're made from plant-based materials.
But guidelines for recycling these materials are very different globally.
There are materials you can compost at home, some materials you have to recycle industrially,
and some you can drop in your regular recycling bin.
Which gets confusing for the customers and also for the recyclers.
Because, when the recyclers are sorting a batch,
by the look of the packaging, they can't tell if it's a compostable material or if it's plastic.
I would have thought if it's compostable you could simply compost it.
That's not always the case.
But then the question is - why are we not using kraft packaging for apparel products?
We're already using paper and kraft packaging for our products like phone cases and posters.
We're planning to increase the share of paper packaging
over time but this material is not suitable for all our products.
For example, for larger products, we would have to use larger mailers.
And the bigger the kraft mailer, the more fragile it becomes.
If you're sending a really big product, the packaging would simply break during shipping.
We're also using an automatic packing machine to make our fulfillment more efficient.
And these machines don't support paper packaging.
They require a flexible type of material.
We also can't ignore the fact that
recycled paper is up to 10 times more expensive than recycled plastic.
So if we would try to implement paper packaging on such a scale,
it would affect the price point for our customers.
So why have we gone for this exact type of PCR packaging?
First of all, this type of material won't increase our price point.
Also, global recycling systems exist for this type of material so customers can find
out what to do with the packaging when they have to get rid of it.
What's more important—the production of recycled
materials requires less energy and doesn't waste any raw resources.
PCR plastic, recycled material is the first step towards making our packaging more sustainable.
Thank you Alise for coming on and teaching us a little bit more about sustainability
and responsibility at Printful and introducing our new packaging.
I hope you had fun.
I had a good time and thanks for having me.
I'm also very grateful for the work that you and your
team are doing to make Printful more sustainable.
And to make sure we're reaching your goals responsibly.
I also hope you guys had fun and you learned more
about sustainability at Printful and about our new packaging.
And hope to see you in the next video.