If your small business needs its first shipment of boxes, their presentation and appearance will be of great importance. However, you will also need to make environmentally friendly choices and provide a variety of boxes to choose from. Unfortunately, it is not always easy to reconcile all of your needs, especially when you further allow for the use of packing materials. As a result, asking the three following questions is a good idea when you need to make eco-friendly choices about your company's use of boxes, especially since you may be using those boxes for quite some time.

#1-How Environmentally Friendly Are Your Boxes And Packing Accessories?

It is a good idea to note that even if your clients do not work for an environmental company and have never made any statements one way or the other about environmentally responsible choices, someone at that company is likely to be aware of how important it is to be eco-friendly today. By choosing recycled cardboard and other eco-friendly materials with which to pack the boxes, you are taking a stance that could easily result in additional patronage of your organization in the future.

For example, since Styrofoam is thought to take a million years or more to recycle, you can use tissue paper or a similar material in its place as a more appropriate option. When there are so many environmentally responsible choices when choosing shipping boxes and associated materials, there is very little reason not to use them.

#2-How Is The Weight Capacity Of The Boxes Marked Or Identified?

When making eco-friendly shipping choices, it is easy to forget that part of doing so includes the ability to re-use as many materials as possible. Since the goal is to keep unwanted materials from filling landfills, providing your customers with the ability to re-use boxes is as important as choosing ones that can later be recycled.

One easy way of doing so is to choose a box that visibly indicates the maximum weight that can be contained within it. If companies or people re-use those boxes, you will then have additional free advertising provided on the outside of those boxes.

#3-Is All Of The Paper, Including The Cardboard, Responsibly Sourced?

An ideal life cycle for almost any paper item includes originating from a tree that was responsibly sourced and then being re-used until it can no longer serve its purpose. Eventually, it should be recycled, as mentioned previously. Therefore, you should be aware of where the paper came from and whether it originated from a sustainable forest.

A sustainable forest can be defined as a forest that carefully replaces felled tress with new trees that will take their place. The goal is to minimize the negative impact of missing trees, and paper items that comes from the felled trees are often referred to as responsibly sourced. Paper and paper products should come from a responsibly sourced forest whenever possible.

In conclusion, the use of appropriate, eco-friendly shipping boxes and packing materials can have a significant impact on how your company is perceived by both your customers and anyone who sees those boxes in the future. Since choosing the right type of moving boxes and shipping materials is so important, you should be aware of the questions listed above.