Ever since we started making and selling compassion beads we’ve packaged them in little zip-top plastic bags. It made sense: they’re affordable (about 2.5¢ apiece), lightweight, see-through . . . .but they are plastic. Most plastic ends up in the landfill. We thought we could do better.
And we have.
We are transitioning to packing our compassion beads in glassine bags. You can see a sack of them—ready for the #BeGoldenSA launch on April 4 — in the photo above. Glassine is paper that has been rolled under pressure so that the fibers are compressed and all point in the same direction. This makes it greaseproof, which is why it is often used to package food: in a bakery, for example. It is biodegradable and compostable, just like the paper that it is. It costs us a little more — about 4.8¢ per bag, plus another penny for the gold sticker to seal the bag. We think it’s worth it.
