… or secured with paper parcel tape… these are two of my favourite things.
OK, I know it was only the string that appeared in the song, but I was truly delighted when two parcels arrived through the post yesterday that were wrapped without plastic tape.
Spot the plastic… oh, there isn’t any
The first was from the All Natural Soap Company – I’ve mentioned them before, because they work very diligently to avoid the use of plastic and to produce their soap ethically; for example, they don’t use any palm oil. They use cardboard boxes for posting things out and seal them using paper parcel tape. The individual bars of soap come wrapped in paper or in cardboard boxes and they use biodegradable packing peanuts (made of corn starch, I think) to stop everything rattling about – I always put these in the compost, where they disappear as soon as they get wet. I’m always happy to be able to support businesses who make so much effort. It’s also worth remembering that soap/shampoo bars are much better than liquid soap/shampoo or shower gel because soap does not require water to be transported unnecessarily with it.
The second parcel was sent by my friend Lizzie and she had created a beautiful string-wrapped package. Not only was there no plastic tape, but the brown paper and string can be entirely reused for sending something to someone else. And inside was some rather special fabric, some ribbon and a crochet dishcloth (for Mr Snail to use whilst he continues to seek out the perfect eco-washing up brush). I’ve already got an idea what I’m going to do with the fabric… I just need to find the time.
The Snail of Happiness 
Ann Pole
/ April 24, 2019Love the snail fabric. 🙂
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The Snail of Happiness
/ April 24, 2019Me too… she knows me so well!
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tialys
/ April 24, 2019I once tried sending such a package from France and the martinet at La Poste told me it wasn’t allowed because string can get caught up in the sorting machines. Maybe the sorting machines are more fussy over here 🙄
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The Snail of Happiness
/ April 24, 2019I have to say that I was surprised that the Royal Mail didn’t make a fuss, but clearly they were happy with it.
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katechiconi
/ April 24, 2019I can remember my mother emerging from the butcher’s shop with parcels much like that. Inside, the meat was expertly wrapped in a layer of white waxed paper to avoid leakage, and then done up in brown paper and string. And I also remember when brown paper tape was the thing; I had a dispenser with a sponge square in it you dampened, and pulled the paper tape across it to activate the glue. Much nicer to use than that plastic stuff that tangles as soon as you look at it, quite apart from the recycling/biodegradable aspect.
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The Snail of Happiness
/ April 24, 2019One of the places we buy our meat from has re-introduced “butcher’s paper”… no string yet, but I’m hopeful. I have paper parcel tape that doesn’t need to be dampened… yours with the dispenser sounds much more fun!
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katechiconi
/ April 24, 2019Fun, but occasionally a little sticky 🙂
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Joanna
/ April 24, 2019Am going to check out the natural soap link. TQ 👍
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The Snail of Happiness
/ April 24, 2019They are a great company. They are in the UK, but I’m sure there must be equally good folks in Australia. So many small companies are working amazingly hard with their environmental credentials – something that the big multi-nationals would do well to emulate.
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anne54
/ April 24, 2019I was a Guide in my not-so-mispent-youth, and learnt how to tie a parcel with brown paper and string. There was a particular knot to tie that allowed you to regulate the tension. I am sure we were encouraged to use recycled paper and string, collected as part of our Thrift Badge.
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The Snail of Happiness
/ April 25, 2019It took me a while to undo all the knots, but I now have a perfectly re-useable piece of string… I’ll have to try and find the knot to regulate tension… I learned to tie knots for sailing, never anything as useful as parcel-wrapping!
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anne54
/ April 25, 2019I suspect that most people would think yachting knots to be more useful than parcel tying ones! I’ll do a quick search and see what I can find,
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anne54
/ April 25, 2019This looks like your parcel….the shop keeper’s knot
But this one looks good and simple
Enjoy your parcel wrapping!
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The Snail of Happiness
/ April 26, 2019thank you! I shall be having a little practice later
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AJ
/ April 25, 2019Oh getting mail is wonderful, by those are even better:)
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The Snail of Happiness
/ April 25, 2019Yes, two lovely parcels
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Laurie Graves
/ April 25, 2019I must check out that tape. I mail a fair number of books.
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The Snail of Happiness
/ April 25, 2019It seems to be readily available now; we used to have to search for it.
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Laurie Graves
/ April 26, 2019I will be looking for it.
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Dartmoor Yarns
/ April 25, 2019I too am surprised the post office are happy with string. So much better not to use tape and also so much easier to recycle bits of paper without tape all over them – either to use again or to put them in the recycling if to small.
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The Snail of Happiness
/ April 25, 2019I think I might ask about attitudes towards string next time I go to the post office.
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Dartmoor Yarns
/ April 26, 2019Good idea. I seam to remember some parcels were tied with string when I was a child. Or has Julie Andrews just planted a false memory in my head? 🙂
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TammiePainter
/ April 25, 2019Unfortunately, I don’t think the US post office would even accept a string-wrapped package.
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insearchofitall
/ April 27, 2019How nice that someone has been able to mail something with paper and string. I can wrap gifts to hand over like that but not for the mail. Things have a bad habit of disappearing if they can get into the package easily. Love the fabric. We go to the farmers markets and craft fairs to get our bar soaps here. So many are going back to the old way of doing things and it’s nice to buy direct.
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