Compostable Jewelry Packaging - reducing our need for plastic bit by bit

On the Search for Plastic-Free Jewelry Packaging

As a member of the jewelry industry I reserve the right to critique it and be annoyed by it even when I’m participating in it.

That annoyance drives me to seek out more ethical and sustainable solutions to all of our issues.

And there are a few things more frustrating AND easily fixable than the unsustainable use of plastics. It’s why I started the hashtag #WatchingMyWasteLine - to demonstrate how much plastic invades all of the corners of the industry. And also to publicly pressure my jewelry suppliers into changing their packaging methods (looking at you Rio Grande and Stuller) so that they stop outsourcing their plastic waste to their customers.

Scroll to the bottom to see the update on these baggies.

So when I found a new packaging company that offered small, compostable baggies and other shipping supplies, I was intrigued. 

Baggies are a necessity - they store your finished inventory without scratching, they protect silver pieces from tarnishing and they make it easy to see your inventory at a glance, or maintain labels. Up until now, most of our options have been limited - plastic, a so-called biodegradable plastic* or glassine.

We don’t need more plastic

Plastic baggies have one advantage in that they can be reused an infinite number of times, but still - the earth doesn’t need more plastic. Compostable bags won’t be as likely to last long, but they will decompose in home compost systems. 

Some possible resources

In the interest of not letting the perfect be the enemy of the good, I decided to order some compostable bags from betterpackaging.com - they are, to the best of my knowledge, the only compostable baggies that come in small enough sizes to be useful to jewelry makers (if you know of other sources, please drop them in the comments). According to their description, these are compostable in your own home composter. I only have municipal compost collection, but I am likely to continue to use and reuse until they fall apart. 

Close up of a shipping envelope - “I’m here for a good time, not a long time” lol

My main need in baggies is protection from tarnish, so I’ll be testing these over the next few months to see if they really do suit my needs. **

My assumption is that compostable baggies might be more porous than plastic and therefore less adept at keeping my silver jewelry tarnish-free, but I’m going to test this out by packaging some of my silver pieces half in the compostable bags and half outside of them to see if it makes any difference in slowing the tarnishing. I’ll let you know in a few months if it makes any difference.

My Large Silver Cage Hoops sitting on their compostable baggies

In the meantime, what questions do you have about improving your packaging to be more sustainable? Drop your questions and resources in the comments below!

*FYI - Biodegradable plastic just breaks down into smaller plastic—that’s it. Not really a great choice as it just adds more plastic but in different forms.

**UPDATE: I tested the baggies by storing a half pair of earrings in the baggie and a half pair outside of the baggie. After a couple of months, the one in the baggie had less tarnish than the one outside of the baggies, so it does, at least for the short term, prevent tarnish.

My only beef with these baggies is that the zipper on them is so tight that I have torn most of them while trying to open them. This makes them harder to use and reuse, but I will likely stick with them until a better solution comes along.

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