Waste Management

Preventing waste is central to conserving natural resources and protecting our environment. That’s why we maintain a keen focus on waste prevention, reusage and recycling. We look for ways to remove waste from every stage of our cards’ journey to stores – from the forests that provide our wood pulp to manufacture and distribution. Our aim is to reduce operational waste by good design and review of our processes. We are zero waste to landfill through our work with waste partners.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Reusing packaging – from products delivered from external suppliers, we reused every single box, and in fact they are used several times until end of life; at which point they are recycled.  All purchased cartons are from FSC® materials.

Sustainable returns and old stock – We take a strategic approach to preventing returned products and obsolete stock (products that are no longer saleable to our customers) from becoming waste. Our business analyst teams tap into consumer trends, use sophisticated sales forecasting models and work closely with our retail partners to anticipate demand and minimise waste.  Currently over 95% of product waste is recycled, which is testimony to our sustainable product design guidelines.

Waste separation and recycling – We separate all the different types of waste we produce in our operations – from plastic to paper to cardboard – enabling us to reduce the frequency of non-recyclable vendor waste collections. See Environmental Impact for more information.