100% recycled paper tape with a natural latex adhesive backing, making it 100% biodegradable. Stick that! These paper tapes are fully recyclable and the high tac self-adhesive used means this tape will stick to just about anything, including itself.
Now in two widths!
Wide tape = 5cm wide, 50m length. Perfect for sending parcels in the post.
Narrow tape = 2.5cm wide, 50m length. Best for wrapping presents.
Make your Christmas a little less filled with plastic and increase the joy by using paper tape. An environmentally friendly solution to making sure no one peeks at their presents before Christmas day!
Paper Tape
Sellotape/ plastic sticky tape. I’m calling for open warfare against it. Sellotape is the devil. Hidden evil on every parcel, present and gift you’ve ever received probably. Where does that sticky mess end up? You guessed it, landfill. Imagine Christmas day. Nearly every household in Britain will rip open their presents and promptly discard the wrapping paper, Sellotape clinging to the scattered remnants of joyful surprise like a parasitic worm leeching off its host. All of that plastic tape, thousands upon thousands of meters of the stuff, chucked away with no thought to where it will end up. SELLOTAPE IS EVIL INCARNATE.
…Ok so that was over the top imagery maybe, but once you consider the scale of how much plastic sticky tape will be used in one day, and then consider the regularity it is used over the rest of the year, you can probably start to understand my strong feelings against the stuff.
It’s made from recycled paper, so no trees were cut down in the making of this tape. It uses a natural latex rubber adhesive (this is quite hard to find believe me) so it is the au natural tape you’ve been longing for.* Best of all, it is 100% biodegradable! Sticking things together no longer has to be a sticking point environmentally speaking. Go wild and stick things together to your heart's content with the knowledge that it won’t be stuck forever, perfect for all you commitment-phobes out there.
*Unless you are allergic to latex, which means you’ll be longing to get away from it instead…
It does its job well. I’ve been using it since day 1 here at Anything But Plastic and I loved it so much I wanted to share it with you. 😊
Ok, yes, it is more expensive than plastic sticky tape, but what did you expect? You are here reading this so I would like to think you care more about your impact on the planet than the couple of extra quid you would save buying cheap rolls of sticky plastic evil. Money can be replaced, but once you’ve stuck yourself out there using plastic tape, it’s not going to go away, so put that on your conscience and fold it guiltily away into the back of your brain.
You can save Christmas by not using Sellotape! Even if your gifts are terrible, tell your giftee about the tape you used and all will be forgiven. An environmentally conscious wrapped gift is worth it. Don’t make the kids feel like Santa doesn’t care about the environment, after all, it is his home that is melting. (Way to make kids take interest in green issues, no more presents if Santa’s workshop has fallen into the sea.)
What is it made from?
Materials:
100% trees
Giving paper a second go at life after death, as it is fully made from recycled paper. Recycled paper means less trees cut down, yay! Save those trees.
The adhesive is made from natural latex. Latex is a natural rubber, which is the sap of rubber trees. The tree is tapped and any rubber it produces is collected, leaving the tree intact otherwise.
Packaging:
When I ordered a roll of this to use when I started trading there was no packaging on it. But when I ordered a load of these to sell on my website, to my horror they arrived in packs of 6 wrapped in plastic. *mimes clutching chest and fainting from the shock*
Obviously, I demanded* an answer to this plastic faux pa!
*asked extremely politely
The Green Stationery Company who supplies me with the paper tape expressed regret at the plastic as well, but despite feeding back their displeasure at the packaging, their manufacturers are unwilling to change just yet. They are continuing to bring up the issue with their manufacturer in the hope that they will rethink their packaging.
Unfortunately, this means we have some plastic in the supply chain with this product *Doh* but as each roll is saving 50 meters of plastic tape from being used then that is definitely what I would call progress. Please be assured that this plastic wrap is being properly recycled, (by either us or the Green Stat Co) it is not being thrown away.
Where does it come from?
Manufactured in Italy.
Is it sustainable?
It is made from recycled paper, so the paper part of the tape is sustainable. Unless we cut all the trees down and then recycle all the existing paper the 7 times or so paper can be recycled until it disintegrates and there is no paper left in the world. Then yes, sustainable until that scenario.
The adhesive is natural latex. Rubber trees don’t usually need fertilisers or pesticides to grow, and the sap, which is what the rubber is made from, can be harvested twice a day. This is a manual job, so high demand for natural rubber could lead to shortages due to the time it takes to harvest by hand. Unfortunately, this means the shortage is made up for by synthetic rubber, which is derived from petrochemicals ☹
Rubber farming originally would have been quite environmentally friendly, as it was just a case of finding the rubber trees then harvesting them. This is changing though, and rubber tree plantations are cropping up more often. I have seen this myself in Indonesia. In Southern Java, on the way to a turtle sanctuary, we drove past and stopped to look at how rubber was tapped from the trees. This plantation looked like a monoculture, and it was located just outside a rainforest reserve, which gives me the sneaking suspicion rainforest was chopped down and replaced with rubber trees. Hmm. That is just one part of an island of Indonesia though, so I can’t say that all rubber is farmed like that. High demand for natural rubber coupled with lack of regulations/turning a blind eye to deforesting could mean a problem. As a material, rubber and how it is collected is environmentally friendly, whether it is sustainable within the industry, especially producing it on a larger scale, is another matter. …I’ll need to do more research on this.
How about ethical?
The Green Stationery Co tell me that ‘The tape is made in Italy, so they have to abide by EU ethical standards, working directives etc.’ Good news.
Extra good stuff:
The Green Stationery Co work hard to live up to their name, providing ethical and eco-friendly stationery supplies in the UK. They choose their products because they have a positive environmental aspect compared to the industry used standard. Most of their products include recycled material and many are designed to biodegrade reducing disposable single-use product waste.
They state on their website:
‘Recycling 8.6 mega-tonnes of paper in the UK would save 11 mega-tonnes of carbon emissions each year, equivalent to taking 3.5 million cars off the road. As a significant amount of all landfill waste is paper-based, the act of recycling turns a major waste product into a practical resource.’
Woah. Recycle all paper and choose products made from recycled paper to help combat this environmental disaster!
Conclusion –
Tape that is 100% recycled, recyclable, biodegradable and made out of natural materials? Stick that on your gift and wrap it.
