Every piece of plastic ever produced still exists in some form on Earth today!

The environment and sustainable practices are really important to us at On the Grind and while our boxes and labels can currently be recycled, we felt that the extra packaging was not 100% practical or reusable, not to mention you have to put a knife through the amazing artwork on the front! This is why we have been busy behind the scenes creating a new look for our On the Grind Packages, to reduce our packaging and achieve a more eco-friendly product. We are so excited to share what we have come up with!

First up, our courier satchels! It became apparent quite early on in our operation that for longer journeys across NZ a protective layer was required to prevent significant damage to our box and the beautiful design on top. Most of the courier satchels we have used in the past have been the standard courier company bags, which are not made from sustainable materials. We looked into it and discovered we are not obligated to use these satchels, which is great news and means we can introduce an eco-friendly option. We came across a lot of biodegradable satchels which are somewhat better, however often require sunlight to break the bags down. This is not so great if the bag ends up in our oceans or buried in landfill where light can’t reach it and it proceeds to harm or kill wildlife.

Let us introduce the new Dirt bags we’ll be using from Better Packaging Co. This was by far the best option we could find as each bag is compostable and made from cornstarch!

If you can believe it, it gets better!

Normally when a product says ‘compostable’ it doesn’t mean you can put it in your home compost, as domestic compost heaps won’t generate enough heat to break the material down, unlike an industrial compost. For our Dirt Bags however, you can chuck these in with your food scraps and deposit it into a home compost or a worm farm if you’re so inclined! How bloody fab is that? If you want to read even more about this incredible product or the company behind this genius check it out here!

Guys we’re getting rid of the box! Well, for the most part. As mentioned before, it was heart-breaking to tear through the artist design each month and then just throw the box away! So, we got thinking about how we could still incorporate the Artist element without the box and landed on custom designed tissue paper from Noissue. Being environmentally conscious is one of Noissue’s core values and we are all about it! Their products are printed with soy-ink made from soy-beans, unlike the usual petroleum-based ink, their tissue is also acid-free and FSC certified, which stands for Forest Stewardship Council - an organisation that Noissue works closely with to ensure they are being socially responsible and supporting sustainable forestry. Noissue also go the extra mile by running an eco-packaging program alongside businesses who use their products, where they plant a tree for every order made!

For your tissue paper, we encourage you to do your bit by reusing and recycling, it is a limited edition artist print after all, so may as well share the love and make the most of it.

No need to worry though, if you are ordering a gift subscription, we will still package the first delivery up in a gift box, add a personalised note, gift wrap it and send a beautiful parcel out to your giftee.

Like all new things it does take a little bit of time to even out all the kinks and we are absolutely open to feedback. Let us know what you think of your new parcels by emailing us at store@onthegrind.coffee and we will review any suggestions you make.

We hope you can join us in making this change, so we can avoid any more whales being found washed up with thousands of pieces of plastic found inside them!