The way in which we package our products is as important to us as the products themselves. We have gone to great lengths to find packaging that is eco-friendly and sustainable. With that in mind we found in our search a local company, from Seattle, that produces paper that has been embedded with seeds. Please read below for the amazing paper process that we lovingly wrap our soap in.
Excerpt from Of The Earth:
We chose to use paper that they sell made in the highlands of Nepal by rural craftspeople in an environmentally friendly process with 50% recycled content. The raw material for our paper is the Daphne bush. It is farmed and harvested from 3-4 year old plants that are cut down and stripped of their bark. The plant is not destroyed when cut down, it regenerates from the root. The cane-like stick, once its bark is removed, is dried and used to heat the villager’s homes, to provide fuel for cooking and also for the production of paper. All of the water used in the paper production is reclaimed and reused. The bark is beaten by hand and boiled to break it down to a pulp (where it is mixed in with recycled pulp and paper scrap collected from the card and envelope manufacturing process) that is then poured into screens to form the sheets. These sheets are dried in the sun. The whole process is not only earth friendly but also provides a large community with a healthy enterprise.
We have embedded these sheets with tiny US origin seeds that will grow in North America. The seeds found in our paper include 10 annual and perennial species which tolerate partial shade, need 4 hours a day of direct sunlight and grow to about 3’. Seeds include Snapdragon, Petunia, Beardtongue, Daisy, Thyme, Poppy, Catchfly, Maiden Pinks, Primrose and Chamomile. If you plant this paper in a pot, or in your garden please cover with just ⅛” of soil and keep moist until established as germinating seeds and seedlings cannot survive even a brief drought.
Please go to their website for many sustainable paper products at Oftheearth.org