Environmental Policy

We feel incredibly privileged to live where we do; by the sea, surrounded by beautiful wild landscapes.  

Our pressings capture one small element of nature’s beauty that inspires us every day. We hope they inspire you too, to appreciate your landscapes, wherever they may be, and look for the beauty that resides in the smallest of detail.

Our impact on the environment at both a local and global level is something we consider and care deeply about. 

In all aspects of our business, we strive to ensure that we are as environmentally respectful and as carbon neutral as possible.  Here is a breakdown of how we aim to achieve this:

Collecting Seaweed:

First and foremost, seaweed is an important habitat and food source for marine life.

With this in mind, we are careful not to disturb marine life. We never harvest ‘live’ seaweed.  Instead we take pieces that are floating freely in the sea (usually broken off by storm damage), or washed up on the beach. Proportionally, this is a very small amount.

Any seaweeds that are not suitable to press end up serving as an excellent fertiliser for the garden and compost heap.  Nothing is wasted.

Whenever we visit the sea, on principle we leave the beach cleaner than when we arrived. Sadly, litter and plastic pollution are a very real problem and clearing some of this each time we enjoy a visit or collect seaweed, is one small way we can ‘give back’. 

The pressing process:
We use recycled newspapers and natural compostable non-stick baking paper.  
Our papers are acid free and made using pulp from responsible sources (FSC) and made in the UK.

Making the prints:

Our printers have a strong environmental policy and are members of ‘Woodland Carbon’. This enables their business to participate in actively removing carbon emissions from the atmosphere through UK tree planting.

We use digital printing which is cleaner than traditional forms of printing. Digital presses emit little or no Volatile Organic Chemicals (VOC’s)

They avoid using plastic for packaging so our stock arrives to us bound in paper strip bands.

Materials:

We use high quality ‘Bio-film’ and ‘True Cellulose’ food-grade bags for greetings cards and to present your prints. Both materials are biodegradable and compostable, made from annually renewable corn/ potato starch or cellulose. These are a greener alternative to polypropylene and other plastic packaging which are fossil-fuel derived and non-renewable.

Boards to present and protect the prints are made from recycled cardboard and are recyclable.

Fabrics are organic where possible, using natural base colours to avoid the harmful bleaching process.

All our products are made in the UK.

Packaging:

We avoid using any plastic, unless absolutely necessary.
Occasionally we use bubble wrap to protect glass or enamel which are both exceptionally vulnerable.  Our bubble wrap is made using recycled plastics, and we hope will be re-used by the recipient. 

We use eco paper parcel tape, which is made from renewable kraft paper and not from plastic. It is water and solvent resistant, acid free and suitable for picture framing use. The tape can be left on the cardboard carton when it is recycled.

We always re-use packaging wherever possible from our suppliers, including boxes and fillers.

Charity Membership

We are proud to be a Company Member of the Marine Conservation Society.  This is a UK based charity with a goal to  " Recover the health of the ocean; for the sake of our wildlife, our climate and our own wellbeing. "

www.mcsuk.org