A Win-Win:
More Environmentally-friendly packaging for sustainable products
- Mar 02, 2024
- Environmental
- ESG Updates
Shipping our products and supplies safely and securely is paramount at Mint; it's a big part of what we do. Two employees have introduced a way to make this important part of the Mint’s business more environmentally-friendly and sustainable.
Mint employees Sureyya Firat Karaaslan and René Guitard, worked with suppliers to adopt cotton cloth—reusable, sustainable, and biodegradable—as an alternative packaging to protect the plastic CD lenses used for coin sets.
Mint employees Sureyya Firat Karaaslan and René Guitard, worked with suppliers to adopt cotton cloth—reusable, sustainable, and biodegradable—as an alternative packaging to protect the plastic CD lenses used for coin sets.
Shipping our products and supplies safely and securely is paramount at Mint; it's a big part of what we do. Two employees have introduced a way to make this important part of the Mint’s business more environmentally-friendly and sustainable.
Mint employees Sureyya Firat Karaaslan and René Guitard, worked with suppliers to adopt cotton cloth—reusable, sustainable, and biodegradable—as an alternative packaging to protect the plastic CD lenses used for coin sets.
“The Mint purchases thousands of plastic CD lens cases every year to produce proof and specimen sets,” said Sureyya. “The lenses used to come packaged in plastic foam sheets to protect them from transit damage, which made for a lot of waste. We would have to throw out the foam sheets used in shipping as well as any lenses scratched in transit.”
Popular coin sets, like the 2024 Fine Silver Proof Set celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the Royal Canadian Air Force, are protected in plastic CD lenses. These lenses are now shipped in reusable, sustainable cotton cloth instead of plastic foam sheets, reducing waste from the Mint’s packaging materials.
The switch to cloth has proved to be a win-win. The team is able to reuse the cloth when possible or responsibly dispose of the biodegradable material. They've also seen a reduced rate of scratched lenses, resulting in fewer lenses being thrown out due to defects from shipping. These changes come with no increased cost for the new packaging material.
More environmentally-friendly product design and packaging is also front and centre in the Mint’s Boutiques in both Ottawa and Winnipeg. All gift packaging onsite has moved to paper and reusable non-woven bags. In addition to the Mint’s collector coins, shoppers will also find locally-sourced products as well as sustainable wares including cooler bags and water bottles in the Boutiques.