Lyonsleaf waste and environmental impact policy

Lyonsleaf are committed to reducing waste (especially landfill waste) as much as possible and becoming carbon neutral as soon as possible.

Concentrated, multi tasking products for less packaging

Lyonsleaf moisturising products are all water-free. Most high street products contain 80% water which, we feel, is completely superfluous and only serves to water down the active ingredients. Our products only contain the good stuff and need only be used very sparingly. This means we are already saving 80% of the packaging resources and 80% of the energy needed to ship it out to people. A tiny pot will last absolutely ages and because our products are designed to be multi-taskers, you can have one pot that will do lots of jobs, further reducing waste and maximising resources.

Single use plastic

Regarding packaging, we have almost completely eradicated single use plastic from our products. All product packaging is recyclable at the kerbside. The exception to this is the facial oils which have a plastic dispenser pump. On our website you can buy them with recyclable aluminium lids as a refill (the lotion pump can be reused) or you can choose to do without it. We intend to start selling the refills to stockists soon and selling the pumps separately as a reusable optional extra.

Postal packaging

We have also made all of our postal packaging bio-degradable. We use cardboard, paper packing tape, brown paper and corn starch packing chips. However, we have a great concern that bio-degradable waste in landfill can cause methane to be produced (methane is produced when organic material degrades in the absence of oxygen). Some landfill sites harness the methane and burn it for energy (which is great), but we ask our customers to compost the packaging materials where possible and to put the corn starch chips in their brown food-waste bin if they don’t have a compost heap. We often write news-letters to raise awareness about this.

Reducing carbon emissions

We are also very concerned that recycling is not enough. Every thing we use has a carbon footprint. (and a paper bag usually has a bigger carbon footprint than a plastic bag) So we are always looking for ways to maximise resources further. One idea for the future is to shred the cardboard that comes to us (which currently goes to trade waste recycling facility) and use it in place of the corn starch packing chips we buy in. Presently we do not have the space to house the large machinery needed, but we hope this will happen in the future. 

Re-use of product packaging

We often get asked if we can take back jars for re-use. Again, this is not possible for us as a small company as yet, but we hope, as we expand we may be able to install a cleaning facility that can clean returned jars (without using too much energy). We have laid some foundations for this process by switching to low tack glue for our jar labels so they can easily be removed in future and investing in renewable energy at the farm.

Lobbying suppliers

We are always working with suppliers to reduce waste too. We pro-actively ask them to use sustainable packaging and suggest ways to reduce waste. We favour those with an eco conscience. 

Renewable energy

We already have solar panels at the Lyonsleaf farm totalling 22kw. We are committed to installing more renewable energy, battery storage and making all of our building as energy efficient as possible. We aim to be carbon neutral as soon as possible and to be as low impact as possible. This will be possible from our current and future investment and as technology becomes available. Watch this space.