I thought it would be a good way to start this blog of by telling you all a little more about Read Wrap Recycle, and why we do what we do.
Read Wrap Recycle started out as a passion project back in 2019, I was wrapping my daughters presents in old newspaper, being a family who try to be as low waste as we can. But in this instance my usually eco super star husband made an off hand comment about how it looked, I mean, gifts covered in Brexit and general unrest isn't the best look for a kids party. I figured we needed a solution.
We had actually been sending our old newspapers up the chimney to Santa, which he would of course then use to wrap our gifts and I absolutely love the nostalgic feel that comes from anything wrapped in newsprint so I decided to start there.
Enter, The Northern Star...
The Northern Star looks just like the type of newspaper Santa Claus himself would read, filled with cute stories and illustrations, there is nothing unhappy on these pages.
It's super satisfying to see a stack of gifts look beautifully co-ordinated, so using the same festive red and green palette as the newsprint side, I created patterns to compliment the paper, a festive holly leaf and a candy stripe that instantly makes me think of candy canes.
I love the way the newspaper looks, but it was always about more than just the way it looked. We live in an era where climate change is happening, so we need to be more aware than ever about what we consume, and how we dispose of it. Much of the wrapping paper sold in shops isn't accepted by local authority recycling schemes, either it has been treated with glitter or foil, or it is so fine that the fibres are no longer viable to create fresh paper pulp. You know what is accepted though? Newspaper. Thanks to it being one of the first materials to be regularly collected for recycling everybody knows it too so there is no confusion.
The other great thing about newspaper? It is made using 100% recycled materials, saving what DEFRA estimates to be 50,000 trees cut down annually just to make gift wrap, a product designed to be thrown away.
It seems a lot of you also liked the idea, so I got my thinking cap on and created the Rainbow Wrap:
The Rainbow Wrap is a birthday paper, which celebrates my love of all things colourful and of course rainbows. It's super fun and family friendly, and of course it includes the puzzle pages on the back which can all be solved, they're my favourite thing to put together.
As the brand developed, I soon realised that this was more than *just* a passion project and needed to principles to underpin this.
Of course the environment is at the heart of what we do, so using recycled materials wherever possible was key. I also wanted to check that our carbon footprint was kept low so we ensure all of the items we sell are produced here in the UK, something that will continue to apply to our products as we continue to evolve.
We also wanted to give back to the environment so earlier this year, we partnered up with Ecologi, who plant a tree every time an order is placed, cool huh?
I feel that we are really at the start of our journey, and I am so excited you are here with us, I'm hoping to get to know more of you as time goes on and will be sharing 'Sustainability Stories', to help open the dialogue about how to live a sustainable lifestyle more simply and build a community of likeminded individuals.
I'll be starting with my own story.
Here's hoping you stick around, and here's to a greener future,
