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Our Plastic Free Journey - #4 Unless...

ADAM ROE

Our Plastic Free Journey - Unless…

18th July 2020

I’m on a plastic free journey.  But it’s more than that.  It’s more than just about keeping our craft kits full of awesome quality tools and natural materials that won’t cost the Earth.  This is my way of being the change I want to see in the world.  A change that I’m carrying through my whole life as well as my business. 

A CAUTIONARY TALE

Every Sunday over lockdown I’ve been setting aside time to sit with my brilliant four year old daughter Harriet to watch a film.  Over the last few weeks I’ve been drawn strongly towards films with an environmental message.  You don’t have to look too far!  My personal faves are FernGully, WALL-E and The Lorax. 

It was hard to watch The Lorax last week without feeling a personal connection to it.  It’s the story of a boy who follows his dreams to make his own product, a Thneed,  to sell and build a business he’s proud of.  He’s just using the leaves from a single tree and selling locally.  He’s his own independent business. 

Very quickly though, as his product gets more popular he has to bring in other people to help him, he needs to make things faster, more efficient and needs to support this by making more money fast.  Before he knows it, he’s cut down every last tree and destroyed the planet and, without anything left to make his Thneed, he’s left with nothing.  There’s so much pollution now that fresh air has to be sold in plastic bottles.

Although I’m really pleased that Craft Box Club is starting to attract many happy customers, it’s still way off having the overnight success of the Thneed.  But this cautionary tale got me thinking about what I’m building.  As Craft Box Club grows, as any business grows, I can see how easy it is to go down the route seen in the Lorax.  So I thought I’d better commit to a few things up front so that you know that, if you buy from Craft Box Club, you’re supporting something good for you and the planet.

I promise I will…

  • Remain independent – Without the pressure to act in the interest of external financial demands I can stay true to what I believe in.

  • Keep making my craft kits plastic free and as sustainable and low impact as I possibly can.  More on this in future blogs.

  • Continue to promote environmental issues.

  • Be true to the Craft Box Club values in the whole of my life. Links to some people that help me with this at the bottom.

  • Make sure that Craft Box Club growth and scale makes it more sustainable not less.

The maker movement

I believe that making your own is a kind of environmental activism.  That’s why I’ve made it my business to encourage you to learn how easy it is to make your own household items (food wraps, coasters, candles), jewellery and clothes (avocado tie dye Ts) from simple, natural materials.  As well as crafting being awesome for mental health and self expression, it’s also great for the planet.  You’re way more likely to look after your stuff when you develop an emotional connection with it because you made it.  If you can make from raw materials you can better understand supply chains and take control of them.  For those of you who love making a home cooked meal from beautiful fresh ingredients, why stop at food?  Why not apply that thinking to everything you consume?

Why care about all this stuff?  Well unless we embrace sustainable materialism and react against our world filled with throw away consumer goods and single use plastic, I’m worried about the kind of planet we’ll end up with.  And this is the only one we’ve got. As The Lorax says…

“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better.

It's not.”

JOIN THE MAKER MOVEMENT

If you’d like to learn the skills to start making your own beautiful and useful things, join us today! It won’t cost the Earth!

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