ECO Mission Statement

At Sól Visors, we are committed to environmental, sustainable, and ethically-responsible practices. Our mission is to reduce the amount of waste involved in online shopping by repurposing used boxes for all of our shipping! This is not only carbon neutral but carbon negative as we are not only not creating new boxes but also extending the life of an already created box. Our goal is to empower communities to help make a difference, one box at a time.

With the surge of e-commerce, there has never been so many boxes shipped out on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis. E-commerce has about four times as many touch-points as regular retail, and shipments are broken down into individual packages for delivery. According to a report released by Sanford C. Bernstein, Amazon alone ships an estimated average of 389-412 million packages a month, and 1,600,000 packages a day. This equates to 1 billion trees! That's a lot of cardboard waste, not to mention the waste from plastic and styrofoam packing peanuts. 

If you're wondering what can we do to stop this...we're on the same page! 

Currently many use "recycled" or "recyclable" packaging.

And don't get it wrong, recycling is great, but we wanted to do better! Which is why we don't recycle we reuse. 

What is the difference between reusing and recycling? 

Recycling is turning an item into raw materials which can be used again versus going to the trash dump (although many recyclable items end up at the dump anyway due to not being cleaned properly, being mixed with non-recyclable products, or just because they're put in the trash and not the recycle). When you recycle a box it goes through a process that takes a lot o energy, water, and other resources. Once the box is brought to a recycling facility and goes through the following steps to be recycled:

1. The cardboard is re-pulped and the fibers are separated and bleached. This is a chemical process involving hydrogen peroxide, sodium silicate, and sodium hydroxide.
2. The fibers are screened and cleaned to eliminate contaminants.
3. The fibers are washed to remove leftover ink.
4. Fibers are pressed and rolled into paper.
5. The rolls of paper are then converted into boxes or made into new products.

Reusing on the other hand refers to using an object as is without treatment. Reusing creates no new pollution or waste, thus making it a more sustainable process. 

Benefits of Reusing:

• Prevents pollution by reducing the need to harvest new raw materials
• Saves energy
• Reduces greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global climate change
• Helps sustain the environment for future generations
• Saves money
• Reduces the amount of waste that will need to be recycled or sent to landfills and incinerators
• Allows products to live a long fulfilled multi-purposed life! :-) 

Join us in saving the boxes. Visit www.savetheboxes.com for more information.

Beyond the boxes we send your order information through email,  not on printed paper and use eco-friendly packaging tape  that is made from kraft paper, which means the entire box is actually recyclable, unlike most plastic-based packaging tape! 

A wonderful visual of creating paper (boxes) and what "recycling" entails (a lot of energy, water, and other resources):

Photo Credit Designlifehacks