We would not make a sustainability guide without diving into the subject of chemical properties. In some ways, chemistry has gotten a bad name. As a natural phenomenon, it is an inescapable fact of life (there would be no life without it). As a field of study, it is crucial to other sciences (physics, biology, geology etc.). But in relation to consumer products, ‘chemistry’ has almost become synonymous with ‘toxic chemistry’.
Indeed, there has been numerous cases throughout history where toxic chemistry and consumer products were linked in unfortunate ways. But nowadays there are many regulations in place to protect consumers.
Still, there seems to be some confusion about which chemical properties are desirable in a product. Sometimes, you hear packaging producers talk about paper or cardboard being acid-free. Other times, you hear companies talk about how their packaging is compostable or biodegradable. Then there is the question of water-based glue and the term non-toxic. In this section, we will tell you exactly what these things imply.
Let us begin by clearing up what acid-free paper means.
Acid-free paper
You would be excused for thinking that paper “back in the good old days” was acid-free; perhaps produced locally by a nice old man in an idyllic papermill, until a big, polluting paper corporation came to town and put him out of business with their much-cheaper, much-whiter paper. Their secret? Evil acid, no doubt.
Well, this narrative is utterly wrong.
In fact, paper is not acid-free to begin with. Wood contains lignin which is quite acidic (it has a pH value of around 2). And because of this, paper that still contains lignin will turn yellow and deteriorate over time. That is partly what makes old paper look yellowish and antique. You know, like a pirate map.
A way to counteract this process is to treat the paper with a mild base so the acid is neutralized. Calcium is a great example of a mild base that can be used for this exact purpose. It has a pH value of 9,91 and is completely harmless to the environment. In fact, it is the most abundant mineral in the human body.
So, in an environmental perspective, there is not much of a difference between normal paper and acid-free paper. In most cases, they are equally eco-friendly. The same is true for normal tissue paper and acid-free tissue paper.
Why, then, do we offer both types of tissue paper in our online shop? Simply because there is a demand for both. Some of our customers prefer tissue paper with a neutral pH value. Perhaps they prefer it because some online packaging sellers claim that acid-free tissue paper will prevent tarnish in silver jewellery. That is an undocumented claim, and not at all our reason for having both types in our product range. We really want to highlight that point: no type of tissue paper is going to cause tarnish in jewellery. And we guarantee that all our products (including our standard tissue paper and our acid-free tissue paper) are 100% tarnish-free.
See our acid-free tissue paper here
See our standard tissue paper here
Read more about tarnish here
Compostable/biodegradable
Luckily, sustainability is something that most people care about these days. But only a couple of generations ago, it was frequently ignored. Say you had a jewellery shop in the 1950s. What selling points would you highlight to sell your jewellery?
Quality, yes. Design, of course.
But imagine how people would react if you began to explain the eco-friendly properties of a jewellery box to them. It would have been a tough crowd! Fortunately, all that has changed, and now composability is a huge selling point. In fact, it is more than probable that some of your customers have a compost pile in their backyard. And perhaps you even get the occasional question about whether your packaging is compostable?
We get that question a lot. And here is a detailed answer!
- All our gift boxes are compostable
- All our postal boxes are compostable
- All our paper carrier bags are compostable
- The following jewellery boxes are compostable:
Amsterdam, Barcelona ECO, Boston, Boston ECO, Frankfurt, Frankfurt ECO, Miami ECO, Santiago, Stockholm ECO
- Our cotton and linen jewellery pouches are compostable
But what exactly is the difference between the two terms ‘Compostable’ and ‘Biodegradable’? The short answer is that composting is a method that uses the natural process of biodegradation in a deliberate way.
Biodegradation is a naturally occurring process, where a material is broken down by microorganisms like bacteria and fungi. No human interaction is needed for the process to happen - it will happen anyways.
Composting occurs when humans “help biodegradation along” by piling waste that lends itself to fast biodegradation – and the process creates nutrient-rich soil without any traces of inorganic/toxic materials. This nutrient-rich soil can then be used to grow food or be used as a fertilizer!
Technically, nearly all materials are biodegradable. Even a plastic bag will biodegrade; it just takes more than 500 years. And it will take 1,000,000 years for a glass bottle to biodegrade, give or take a few thousand years.
Okay, now that we have described the difference between composting and biodegradation, let’s get back to how Westpack’s products can be composted.
The traditional foam inserts, found in many of our jewellery boxes, are not compostable and should be removed from the cardboard box before composting. With that out of the way, the remaining cardboard box is both recyclable and compostable.
Some of our customers occasionally ask us whether the foil we use for logo printing is compostable too. It is not. But it is worth keeping in mind that only a very low quantity of metal foil is used for each logo print. In fact, we did a calculation to find out. And it turns out that only 0.046 grammes of foil is used for each print! To us, that is an insignificant amount. Still, your customers are entitled to have a different opinion. And if you think they would object to even (extremely) low amounts of metal foil on their jewellery boxes, you may be better off ordering the boxes debossed without foil.
See our compostable products here
Water-based glue
We sometimes get questions about what type of glue we use in our jewellery boxes. And the short answer is that our glue is water-based. But what does that mean?
There are four types of water-based glues: vegetable glues, animal/protein glues, resin cements, and latex cements. At Westpack, we use protein glue. We will get back to that in a moment. But first, we will run through the different types of water-based glues to show you the differences between them.
- Vegetable glues are straightforward and cheap to make. Plant starches contain polymer chains of organic molecules, which can be used in adhesives. The starch can be found in both vegetables, plant roots, and seeds – and you probably already know how wheatpaste is used to make papier-mache. Vegetable glues are very compostable and eco-friendly.
- Animal/protein glue is a byproduct of meat production. The animal parts deemed inedible are used to create gelatin, which can be made into a strong and durable glue. It sounds harsh, but it is worth remembering that the animals are killed for meat anyways – the glue production simply uses the parts that would otherwise have gone to waste. Like vegetable glue, animal glue is very compostable. That is one of the reasons why Westpack uses protein glue.
- Resin cement is another type of water-based adhesive. The water acts as a carrier for a mixture of polymers (like PVA and EVA) – and when the cement dries, it becomes clear. This type of adhesive is great for bonding wood. Resin cements are neither compostable nor environmentally friendly.
- Latex cements are made of so-called “emulsified elastomers”. Loosely translated into everyday English, this means a blend of substances with elastic properties. This type of adhesive is almost always white. You probably know latex cements from self-stick envelopes and stamps. The adhesive can also be used to glue pieces of leather together (to make shoes etc.). Latex cements are generally not biodegradable.
If you are wondering why vegetable glues are not used more commonly, we can tell you that it has to do with functionality. Vegetable glue remains soluble in water, even after drying. And that poses a problem in most industries (including the jewellery and packaging industry). Imagine fixing a $1,000 diamond to a ring using a glue type that, almost instantaneously, dissolves in water. That would be a recipe for disaster. The same is true for jewellery boxes. We do not like the idea of your customers walking home in the rain, only to find the jewellery box partly dissolved.
In short: because of the inherent problems of using vegetable glues for jewellery boxes, we continue to use protein glue, which is very sturdy. You would be right to say that it is not the most eco-friendly solution, but it is the most eco-friendly viable solution. And by steering clear of resin cements and latex cements, we can make eco-friendly cardboard boxes that are both recyclable and compostable.
See which of our products are made using eco-friendly protein glue
Non-toxic or skin friendly?
We sometimes scroll through Instagram to see what is going on in the world of jewellery. Occasionally, we come across posts that have the hashtag #nontoxic. And although that sounds great (and is technically true), it is a somewhat imprecise use of the word.
The definition of the word non-toxic is that the ingredients in a product will not cause injury or illness to a human when ingested, inhaled, or absorbed through the skin. That should be everyone’s minimum requirement for a product if you ask us.
So, what is going on here? We are pretty sure that non-toxic is sometimes used as a faulty synonym for skin friendly. In other words, jewelers who make their products without nickel will sometimes say that their jewellery is non-toxic.
Nickel has been used to make jewellery for centuries, and it is estimated that 2,5 million adults in the US suffer from nickel allergy. It is something that should be taken very seriously. But although nickel certainly will cause illness to an allergic person when absorbed through the skin (as in the definition), it is still not toxic, legally speaking, as long as the release of nickel stays below a certain permitted threshold level – which can vary from one country to another. For that reason, we think it would be more precise to use the word skin friendly or similar. And there is another reason.
In other industries, mainly cosmetics, the term non-toxic has become a huge marketing buzzword; sometimes strategically used to make it seem like competing products contain toxic materials. Luckily, most countries have legislations that prevent toxic products from ever reaching the shelves of the local store. So, in many cases, the non-toxic label is abundant information - something that goes without saying, like: “this ice cream is completely meat-free”. That is our opinion on the subject, anyways.
But what about Westpack’s products? Are they skin friendly? Yes, they are. The only exception is our professional jewellery cleaning products, which are not meant to be skin friendly in the first place (you should always wear gloves when you use these products).
See our jewellery cleaning products here