A few years ago, buyers, bloggers, and reviewers within the publishing industry all had a common complaint: we were being sent too much plastic. Publishers were always trying to grab the attention of the person opening the parcel (because when you’re a buyer or reviewer, you can sometimes receive hundreds of books each month).
Sometimes it was using a gold foil bubble envelope to make it stand out in the pile. My favourite was when there was chocolate, which was entirely unnecessary and I’m sure not every buyer appreciated that. But typically there would be a little trinket made of plastic that just happened to go with the book, and those really started to accumulate on every reviewer’s desk (or were going straight in the bin).
The good news is that things have improved since then. Sure, books still go out with little extras, but the industry listened that no one needs extra things to enjoy a good book.
Many book subscriptions will send crafts or toys along with the books, and while we think that can be really beneficial for some families, we also worry that can take away from the real magic of reading together. Plus, we’d like to cut our plastic and carbon footprint as much as possible.
So let’s talk packaging! Our books will be sent in a sturdy cardboard envelope that is 100% recyclable and uses an environmentally friendly adhesive. This is stamped with our logo using a soy ink. Even the address label is compostable. If you don’t want to reuse the envelope, it can go straight in your paper recycling.
The books inside are all printed on FSC paper – that means the paper comes from responsibly managed forests. There is often a thin layer of plastic on the cover of the books, which is the lamination that keeps your books looking good for longer, and occasionally some foil to make the cover shine.
And that’s it! Anything else in the parcel will be made of paper that is 100% recyclable. If you’ve ever cancelled or not wanted a subscription before because of all the extra little things that come with it (and which generally aren’t environmentally friendly), we hope Story Post will be more appealing to you. We're all about great books, so we'll just focus on that without any extra clutter!