Eco Packaging Ideas for Fragile Items
If you have to send delicate items through the post, you no longer have to wrap everything in plastic bubble wrap. It may be great fun to ‘pop’ it, but it’s terrible for the planet. You can now find companies offering biodegradable cornstarch peanuts that biodegrade instead.
Flexi-Hex (corrugated cardboard packaging)
The best solution is usually corrugated cardboard, which is made from layers of recycled paper, so fits snugly around fragile items to reduce movement, and force from impact.
Flexi-Hex uses a hexagonal design, made with 85% recycled cardboard and water adhesives. Sold both retail and wholesale, it fits bottles to spectacles, there are even versions to send surfboards! This company is DPD-approved.
Eco Mailers for Fragile Items
FSC-certified mailer bags are sold in packs of 1 to 50, the company also sells board back envelopes.
Kiriboard: Recycled Cardboard Plastic-Free Packaging
Kiriboard is an exciting alternative to plastic-free packaging, invented by three New York teenagers! Inspired by the Japanese art of folding paper, they created it, when a box of motors for their robotics hobby arrived damaged.
There’s something wonderful about three nerdy teenage boys inventing something to make their hobby work, which could save the planet! This invention has won the Earth Prize 2025 (there are lots more amazing inventions), and there is hope that the new packaging could be used by Amazon, Home Depot and the postal service, to replace the colossal amount of plastic being used for commercial purposes.
Kiriboard is cut into lattice-like shape (just like an apple pie topping) so it can bend to fill the space between an item, to absorb impact and protect just like bubble wrap but without plastic. Using recycled cardboard is biodegradable, whereas plastic is made from oil (so supports the fossil fuel industry and takes over 500 years to biodegrade, releasing microplastics into seas and rivers).
Where to Recycle Plastic Bubble Wrap
You can recycle bubble wrap (LDPE) at supermarket bag recycling bins. For a big office clear-out, order a Terracycle shipping materials box (costs £100 to £400 depending on size).
Towns and villages can split the cost, to get all plastic supplies out of town for good, never to return. Just order a box, fill up at a drop-off point and send back using the prepaid shipping label. Items are made into things like industrial piping and park benches.
You can use the box to recycle plastic mailers along with bubble/stretch wrap, packing foam, plastic tape dispensers, shipping peanuts and deflated air cushions. You can’t recycle padded envelopes, laminated paper or hazardous waste.
