Guide to eco-friendly packing

Being eco-friendly is more important than ever before. Every day we produce and consume more and more stuff. People are using up natural materials at an alarming rate. Furthermore, more and more people have the means to do so. Therefore, the amount of wastage and damage being done to our environment is potentially greater than ever before. Luckily, people are slowly realizing this, we are trying to be more eco-friendly than ever before. From green power sources to electric cars, we are constantly trying to figure out how to decrease our environmental footprint. Therefore, in order to join this movement, we have come up with a guide to eco-friendly packing to help you ours in your next relocation.

Figuring out how to do some eco-friendly packing is a great way to help to save your environment.

Eco-friendly packing materials

Let's start off with the simplest way in which you can make your packing eco-friendly. And that is getting eco-friendly packing materials. The cheapest materials that you can get are rarely going to be eco-friendly. But, luckily, with only a small increase in price, you can achieve that your packing materials are much better for the environment. Here is what you need to know.

Boxes

As you probably know, you can get free moving boxes by simply asking around your neighborhood. Most warehouses and stores will be more than happy to save you some. But, if your goal is to have an eco-friendly packing, this is not the best route. There are many different types of moving boxes, and you need to know which ones are most eco-friendly. While you can look into recycling boxes, there are ways in which you can be eco-friendly even when getting them. You can look up online for places that offer eco-friendly boxes. Those are either recycled or are made from recycled materials. Whatever the case, by getting boxes from these places and later on recycling them, you'll be doing your environment a huge favor.

Plastic containers

On the first look, plastic containers seem like an awful idea for eco-friendly packing. But, think again. When you rent plastic moving boxes NYC you will see that plastic containers are durable, safe, and much more reusable then simple cardboard boxes. There are companies that exclusively use recycled plastic to make plastic containers, so even their production can be green. But, it is not so much what you with your containers during the move. Whether they will be eco-friendly or not is much more dependant on how you will use them afterward. People usually use cardboard boxes for moving. But, plastic containers can be used in every day in many creative ways. Therefore, plastic containers can even be more eco-friendly then cardboard boxes.

Plastic containers can be a surprisingly eco-friendly solution.

Padding and wrapping

You need to consider padding and wrapping materials if you want to have eco-friendly packing. What you need to do is to reuse most and discard little. Do not go out buying expensive packing materials that you will only use once and then throw away. Even though packing in bubble wrap is easy and safe, it is not terribly eco-friendly. Start off by considering which everyday items you can use to pad and wrap your items. Clothes should be your first go to. They are easy to wrap around an object and provide sufficient protection. You can use thicker, woolen clothes for padding and thin, cotton clothes for wrapping. With some careful use, you will keep both your clothes and your items intact.

How to pack in an eco-friendly fashion

Once you have figured out which materials to use for your eco-friendly packing, you need to know how to approach using them. And you should really look into proper packing. As any expert Westchester movers will tell you, packing is the most important part of the move. The reason is that most moving accidents happen because of improper packing. Therefore, not only do you need to pack your items properly, but you need to figure out how to do it in an eco-friendly fashion.

Use old items

The golden rule of being eco-friendly is reusing things. The more new ways you can find to reuse your old items, the better. Reason being that everything that you use, you will not throw away. And the fewer things you throw away, the better of the environment will be. Most countries, including the US, have big problems with taking care of trash. They have to figure out how to dispose of it so that it doesn't pile up. In 2013 the citizens of US produces over 250 million tons of waste. And most of it was paper or plastic. Also, know as packing materials. Therefore, if you want to do some eco-friendly packing, your best bet is to figure out how to reuse any old items you have laying around.

Less is more

Another thing to keep in mind while eco-friendly packing is that less is more. Meaning that the fewer items you use to pack yourself the more you will do make your packing eco-friendly. Carefully consider which items need protection and how much you should protect ones that do. Not everything is fragile and not everything needs to be wrapped or padded. With a little care, you can transport most of your items without any protection. But, you need to be careful and make sure that your movers are careful. If you have not padded your items, the chance of them breaking is greater. Therefore, you need to carefully weight out how to approach packing.

Recycle

You cannot talk about eco-friendly packing without mentioning recycling. Whatever you end up doing, you will probably have certain materials that will be unusable after moving. But, worry not. What you should do is to recycle them. Sort them out according to their materials and save them for a recycling company. Contact the company after you move so that they can describe in detail how you are supposed to recycle your items. After you are done dealing with them, that will be it. You have made your packing eco-friendly.

Recycling is necessary for an eco-friendly move