ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY

Bridge End Images Ltd was founded because of our love of nature:- to share the beauty and wonder of the creatures, landscapes and peoples from around the world and to make a positive difference when sharing gifts, greetings and enjoying art. Living within a balanced and sustainable global eco-system is our ideal and we strive to act within this in both our business and personal lives.

We believe that ‘green’ choices have to be made with a mature attitude as we recognise that most modern-day activities are disruptive in some way and no solution is perfect. All consequences have to be considered and we must select a 'best approach' for any given situation. This is the attitude we take in developing and evolving our products along with striving to achieve the best possible quality. We always use raw materials which demand the least from nature and that can be disposed of in a positive way (i.e. recycling or composting) and we consider the benefits of using materials which encourage recycling of items not normally considered recyclable. Along with using the most environmentally responsible materials possible we use the most environmentally responsible processes currently available in the manufacture and assembly of our products. We also work with companies as local as possible to keep our carbon footprint to a minimum. This is of course an ongoing policy and we are always looking for better ways of doing things and of reducing our environmental impact further.

We like to work with companies with similar ethics to our own so our policy is to only work with other environmentally responsible businesses and those that have, or are working towards, the ISO14001 environmental management accreditation, or similar, wherever possible. Our ethics are carried through our day-to-day activities (we use recycled office stationery and recycle used materials for example) and we will continually improve our green performance where we can. Where and when appropriate we will undertake independent third-party assessment of our practices as we grow to compliment our FSC Certified group scheme membership.

Reco - So What Makes Us Environmentally Friendly?
Our brand name is derived from  REcycled and ECO-friendly. Our cards, gift-wraps and gift-tags are manufactured from recycled content, eco-friendly materials using eco-friendly processes. We believe that our products are the most eco-friendly currently in their markets.

We use;
1. FSC Certified, Recycled Content, Papers & Boards:
The Forest Stewardship Council sets and monitors international standards for responsible forest management encompassing environmental, social and economic factors. Covering 90 million hectares of forest they are the most recognised organisation of their kind within the UK.

FSC operate a “chain of custody” system where each company or organisation purchasing certified materials must be FSC accredited themselves in order to use the FSC logo and claim FSC certification. This means that an FSC certified product you have just purchased can be traced back down "the chain" to the forest in which the wood was grown. Also accounted for are ‘other controlled sources’ of input materials such as recycled waste which did not come from and FSC certified forest.

We chose to use paper and board with a high percentage of recycled material as this requires less virgin fibre so puts less demand on resources and encourages recycling thus diverting waste from landfill. Some virgin fibre is required though for paper strength and quality as fibre breaks down during the recycling process. Our cards, wraps and tags can either be recycled or composted when finished with.

2. Vegetable Inks, Water Based Coatings & IPA-Free Printing:
Traditional printer’s inks use mineral oil as a carrier for the pigment (colour). These oils keep the ink ‘fluid’ until it is laid on paper and then ‘dry’ by evaporation. During the drying process the inks give off toxins known as Volatile Organic Compounds (or VOC’s for short) which are a major source of ozone pollution as well as a health hazard.
Alternatively, inks can use vegetable derived oils as a carrier (ours use linseed oil). These work the same way as traditional inks but do not emit VOC’s when drying so are much safer to use (especially for the printers!!) and are much better for the environment.
- Water Based Coatings: Our printers only use inert water soluble coatings to seal print because these are more eco-friendly than polymer based coatings and plastic laminates.  Papers can still be recycled or composted with a water soluble coating and vegetable inks.
- Isopropyl-Alcohol Free Printing: Isopropyl-alcohol (IPA) is used in print cleaning and also emits VOC’s. Its removal almost eliminates VOC emissions from the printing process altogether.

3. UK Printers and Suppliers:
The obvious environmental benefit of working with UK based suppliers is that the ‘carbon footprint’ of our products is very small (though we have not had this assessed yet).

4. Recycled Envelopes:
We use two types of envelope;
- 60% Recycled Juice Carton Envelopes:
Which promotes recycling of juice cartons which is perceived as impossible or difficult and so is not widespread.
- 100% Recycled Coloured Envelopes:
Used where coloured envelopes are more appropriate to the product.

5. Compostable Wrappers:
Most clear wrappers are made from mineral oil derived films and are not recyclable or biodegradable so, like plastic carrier bags, they hang around in landfill for a long time. Compostable wrappers carrying the compostable logo are manufactured from 'polylactic acid' (PLA) which is better known as cornstarch (though the starch can be derived from other crops too) which is an ‘annual renewable resource’. These are truly biodegradable and will break down to carbon dioxide and water.

(See our Green Product Spec's Table for detailed information)

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