General Business Supplies

• Expectations of General Supplies
• List of Current Viable Suppliers
• Tea Packaging
• Shipping Supplies
• Remaining Areas of Consideration

Expectations of General Supplies

For all products

Work with the financial team to determine how much of what products can be ordered.

For products without specific requirements

We can log in to their website using the corresponding credentials to make the order.

Vendor Prioritization

The Tea Tavern's order of priority for determining which product to purchase for the given purpose:

1. Eco-friendliness
   1. Can it be composted OR recycled (both)?
      
   2. If not, can it be composted?
   3. If not, can it be recyclable and made of recycled materials?
   4. If not, can it be recycled?
   5. Is it clear what is least damaging to the people we serve (including the environment they live in?)
   6. If the above is too unclear to make a determination, take the best, and move on to the next priority item.
2. Price/Effectiveness (Needs to be balanced)
   1. Does it get the product to our customers effectively?
      1. If it gets rained on, will the product be okay?
      2. If it gets crushed, is the product okay?
      3. If it gets hot, will it melt?
   2. Is it the cheapest we can find that fulfills our needs?
   3. To reduce shipping costs, can we get the same or similar things from the same vendor at the same time as other products?
3. Design
   1. Can it be customized?
   2. Does it look nice?
   3. Is the quality of the product higher than the others? (Do not spend too much time on this)
4. If all the above are ordered, and it comes down to more than one option, then take the relevant information and ask leadership to decide further priorities.

List of Current Viable Suppliers

• https://www.kraftpackagingstore.com/
• https://elevatepackaging.com/
• https://purelabels.com/
• https://www.ecoenclose.com/

Possible future options may have

• Some places are developing seaweed-based plastic replacement products.
  They are supposed to be "Restorative" rather than just "recyclable", "compostable", or "carbon-neutral".

Tea Packaging

The Tea Container

Currently, we use Kraft bags with an aluminum laminate inside (small sized), and the compostable pouch from Elevate Packaging (medium sizes). When the small bags are all used and done, they will become the same as Elevate Packagings.
There are many suppliers for what appears to be the exact same bag.
Is there a difference? (needs to be researched)

Based on Elevate Packaging's catalogue, they are compostable. Are they also Recyclable (ideal)?
Based on the Kraft Packaging Store's catalogue, they are aluminum foil (laminate?) within kraft paper.

Labels for Tea Containers

• PureLabels 2" Compastable Square Labels, Blank (also recyclable)
  • Uses the document template attachment in the wiki

Shipping Supplies

Shipping tape

We currently order compostable shipping tape from the following places:

• Elevate Packaging
• Pure Labels
• Arka

Reasoning for the above vendors:

• Elevate Packaging's Standards
• Pure Labels' Standards

Shipping Labels

Elevate packaging and pure labels' products are the same on this one.
Each are entirely compostable.
If something else is being ordered from one of these vendors, try to get these labels into the same order to save on shipping costs.

• Elevate Packaging Labels
• Pure label's Labels

Shipping Boxes

Cardboard boxes are compostable, making most of the work pretty simple. The concern is mostly the ink (toxticity?), and if the cardboard has a covering. 
If price allows (mostly killed by shipping costs), order from Arka.com. They help make sure the Ink is okay and can give a good description of what the price will be for a variety of boxes in bulk, and are the most likely to ship in an ecologically friendly way.

Current options:

• Arka: Blanks are cheapest, but shipping inflates price significantly. Can provide best appearance with custom print boxes
• UPS: Significantly able to reduce price, due to bulk. Cheaper to pick these up than ship from Arka
  
• USPS?
• Home Depot?
• Office Depot?

Stamp Ink 

Algae-based ink from EcoEnclosed.
https://www.ecoenclose.com/algae-stamp-ink/

Reason: non-toxticity for composting. 
For more information: https://www.ecoenclose.com/blog/how-algae-ink-is-changing-the-industry/

Remaining Areas of Consideration

Printer ink for printing tea bag labels

They are currently using general printer's ink. We don't know anything about it, besides that it is used in old HP printers.
Should someone find a solution, please email quests@tea-tavern.com.

There currently exist considerations for prioritizing recyclability over compostability, due to requirements of certain compostable products. The desire is home compostability, but some products require composting facilities to compost within 8 (or more?) months.

 

Packaging Paper for Tea

Grass People Tree use a particular paper to wrap their tea, then stuff into bags, for the purposes of protection of tea and maintaining breathability.
This is something to look into, in the future, as it may be a worthy replacement or addition to box packaging