Last Christmas, my parents gave me a vermicompost system. My interest in household waste and decomposition has continued to grow, and I was excited to learn about noissue, a company that makes home compostable packaging.

Who is noissue

noissue was founded in 2017, by Josh Bowden and Auguste Gaur. They’d been looking for sustainable and unique packaging but couldn’t find any.  Instead, they created their own. noissue make customisable, eco-friendly and compostable tissue paper, tape, stickers, and mailers.  They use FSC certified paper products, acid-free paper, and soy-based inks.

noissue mailers

In the UK and US, the majority of recycling sites don’t accept “jiffy bag” packaging mailers because they’re mixed media (plastic bubble wrap and paper).  It’s difficult to separate the two materials from each other and so I was very interested to learn more about noissue’s mailers because they look like plastic, but break down in a home compost system within six months.  noissue use a combination of PBAT and PLA (bioplastic derived from renewable biomass), made from fermented corn plant starch (or cassava, sugarcane or sugar beet pulp).  The PLA comes from Europe or the US and the corn is grown to be used for a bunch of different bioplastics.

Composting vs. landfill

The reason I was so interested in the mailers is because of the various greenhouse gases produced when items breakdown in different situations.  When there’s oxygen present, (like in a compost system) items break down aerobically and emit carbon dioxide.  When there’s no oxygen present, (like in a landfill) items break down anaerobically and methane is emitted.  The numbers vary, but all sources agree that methane traps a lot more heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide (some say 30 times more, others 100).  According to the Guardian, if a quarter of us switched from dumping organic waste in landfill sites to composting it, we’d save the equivalent of 2.5m tonnes of CO2 from reaching the atmosphere each year. Composting also becomes a supply of nutrient-rich soil you can feed your plants with.

My home compost experiment

I’ve added one of the noissue mailers to my compost and will update this post with the bag’s progress over the next six months.

Eco-packaging alliance

For every order placed with noissue, they plant a tree in areas of need to help contribute to global reforestation. So far, they’ve helped plant 6,733 trees. As a customer, you can add an “eco-packaging alliance” sticker to your store assets so others learn about it.

Whether you work in supply-chain, flip second-hand clothing online, or just send a lot of packages, it’s worth checking out noissue. They’ve created a simple interface for placing and personalizing eco-friendly packaging orders.

I’d like to say thank you to noissue for sponsoring this post and as always, all opinions are my own.