A packed birdtable, ready for dispatch -
Top: main box
Bottom: stone base
Cardboard tube: birdtable post (much bigger diameter tube for Zen & Oiseaux)
We now use clean, fresh straw instead of polystyrene to cushion the parts which are carefully wrapped in tissue and clean newspaper. This means the customer will have more mess to clear up I'm afraid - the straw goes everywhere as you unpack! - but it can be easily swept up and put on the compost heap. The polystyrene would have been un-recyclable and remain for ever in the environment. For our stone bases, we use a small amount of polystyrene, re-using wherever possible, and we use recycled double walled cardboard cartons. We laboriously dismantle and cut up them to the right sized strips and carefully pack the stone bases, padding them with foam and strapping them tight. We have some poly bags in stock which we are using up - no point binning them. We are intending to move to tissue paper and recycled cardboard when they run out. We appreciate our birdtables, as the customer unpacks them, will not look as smart as when encased in plastic and custom cut polystyrene, but they will be just as pristine. We spend much longer packing now, but are getting quicker as the new methods become familiar.
We are very happy to no longer be burdening the environment with more un-recyclable packaging materials.