Reusing Amazon Shipping Envelopes

I’m always trying to figure out the best way to ship my work environmentally and financially.

We shop on Amazon a lot because we live so far away from the stores that have the things we need.  With all the packages coming into the house, I started reusing the boxes to ship my quilts and pillows.

But just yesterday, I thought to reuse the padded envelpoes too.

This is where the lint roller tape that I save really works because it covers a lot of space.  I used it along with some stickers to make the packages more recognizable as mine and less as coming from Amazon.

Even though it’s written directly on the  Amazon envelopes that they can be recycled with other #2 plastics, they really can’t be.  So this is a good way for me to reuse them before they go in the trash.

I like the way my brown paper padded envelopes look better, but not as much as I hate throwing away the plastic envelopes from Amazon.  And of course, then I save on shipping too.

My brown padded envelopes cost more to ship because they weigh more.  I’ve read in some places that the extra weight and manufacturing the paper envelopes may offset the environmental benefits of using paper over plastic.

But there’s so much conflicting information, it’s hard to know the truth.

So I’ll keep reusing the boxes and envelopes that I can and continue to try to make the best decisions about how to ship my work in ways that I can afford and are good for the environment.