By incorporating sustainable wedding stationery into your wedding plans, you can reduce your impact on the planet. And there’s good reason to start taking responsibility. You might be shocked to hear that the average wedding produces 180 kg of garbage and around 63 tonnes of CO2. But planning a sustainable wedding doesn’t have to be difficult. In, fact it can be a fun and very rewarding feat. In this article we focus specifically on sustainable wedding stationery.
How sustainable are weddings?
You’ve got big plans for your wedding - and so you should! Your once in a lifetime opportunity to bring together family and friends for a grand celebration should be totally special. Bring on the beautiful decorations, the artfully chosen invites and the venue of dreams - we are here for it!
However, as they begin dreaming up plans for a big celebration, it is common that some couples begin wondering whether the environmental footprint of their event is simply too high. This often leads to the question, ‘what can we do to reduce the environmental footprint of our wedding?’.
Wedding waste
If this sounds like you, your worries are totally legitimate. In fact, Green Bride Guide by Kate L. Harrison calculated that the average wedding produces more than 180 kg of garbage. Approximately 20 kg of this is plastic waste, that which takes many many year to break down and ends up in landfill. When you begin to consider that there are approximately 2.5 million weddings per year, this equates to a whole lot of rubbish.
Celebrations and CO2
In fact, in total it is thought that approximately 63 tonnes of CO2 are produced at a wedding as a result of the products, food, travel clothing and much more that is present on the day. That’s the amount of CO2 produced by approximately 4 people in a year, but in just one single day!
Making weddings more sustainable
The good news is that the environmental impacts of weddings can be lessened. And the even better news is, it can be fun, empowering and totally rewarding to do just that.
Those concerned about the environment can work to significantly decrease their impacts by consciously considering each aspect of their wedding and making adjustments based on what they believe in. By doing things such as purchasing from sustainable suppliers, saying no to balloons, opting for a zero-plastic policy and requesting that guests travel by train, couples can drastically reduce their waste and CO2 pumped out of their big days.
Besides benefiting the planet, adopting sustainable behaviours can also convey an eco-friendly message to your guests. You never know, this could potentially inspire them to practice sustainability at their own future events!
Choosing eco-conscious wedding stationery
There are a thousand little things you can do to be more environmentally responsible at your wedding. However, in this article we narrow down on wedding stationery specifically, helping eco-conscious couples to learn more about how to pick their wedding stationery supplier.
Relatively, your wedding stationery is only a little part of your event; it’s something that offers you as a couple the finishing touches, attention to detail and dash of personality that you need to complete your wedding and your venue. But it’s only a bit of card, right?
Unfortunately, this is only part of the truth. In many cases - specifically in the case of factory-made products - wedding invitations and wedding stationery are made in a somewhat destructive way. Often using unsustainable virgin trees which are cut down (destroying landscapes and habitats), invitations are made using dangerous chemicals and toxic inks before being shipped across the world.
Plus, considering that your stationery order includes, engagement invitations, wedding invitations, seating charts, menus, table numbers, name place cards, signage and thank you cards, the truth is that your wedding’s impact alone (sourced irresponsibly) could have a significant negative impact.
By no means is your wedding stationery the biggest part of your wedding day. Nevertheless, those looking to reduce the environmental impact of their event, can choose a sustainable wedding stationery provider as a great first step towards creating a beautifully eco-conscious event.
So, what is sustainable wedding stationery?
Sustainable wedding stationery is that which is made with responsibility and environmental consciousness in mind. Whilst there is no one size fits all definition, it might involve the sourcing of eco-friendly materials and the responsible use of paper (maybe FSC certified) amongst other things.
Ultimately, if sustainability means “assuming that nature and the environment are not an inexhaustible source of recourses, but subject to protection and rational use”, then sustainable wedding stationery is that which is created consciously, with the planet, its people and animals in mind.
Considering this, deciding whether stationery is sustainable should also take into account the operations of the company which manufactures it. After stationery purchased from a company which produces biodegradable stationery but which also; ships its products across the world, throws away large amounts of plastic and doesn’t recycle, is not environmentally positive.
When purchasing your wedding stationery, you might therefore like to know whether the company:
- recycles its waste and packaging
- works with charities
- uses carbon neutral shipping
- uses sustainable packaging materials
- consciously sources its card
- …and so on!
What makes Peppermint Press a sustainable wedding stationery provider?
At Peppermint Press, we have worked hard to design stationery collections and products which have a low impact on the planet. Although we consider our environmental contributions to be an ongoing endeavour, there are a number of things that we do in order to do our part in protecting the planet.
The following initiatives display the inaitivek we undertake in order to reduce the impact of our work and also give back.
Carbon neutral shipping
We have chosen to ship with Sendle and Australia Post, and this ensures that our postage is completely carbon neutral.
Responsible card and product sourcing
We source our card from sustainably managed forestries. All of our paper products come from FSC sources.
Sustainable packaging and materials
When selecting our materials, we always prioritise sustainable products. On a daily basis we use eco-friendly packaging and void fill, compostable satchels and cellulose biodegradable bags.
One Tree Planted
We are a planting partner of One Tree Planted. Through our donations, we have contributed to the planting of over 3500 trees to date. We go further as well, choosing to plant one tree per item you order, rather than per order placed.
Charitable donations
We believe that our responsibility extends further than environmental protection. That’s why we have also worked with social charities, including Fight MND, Wires and the Australian Red Cross to deliver important work in Australia.
Waste and recycling
We choose to recycle all our waste card stock and plastic materials. We also recycle our soft plastic.
