Sustainability in Action

A Close the Loop Case Study – Paperlust

Q. Tell us a bit about Paperlust

Paperlust is a wedding and event stationery company that is committed to finding better ways to deliver the world’s best wedding invitations whilst improving environmental sustainability.

Q. Why did you choose close the loop

As a company that is continuously looking for ways to reduce our environmental footprint, one of the trickiest issues we have come across is how to dispose of our print toners and waste without them ending in landfill. Paperlust is a small production company with an average toner waste of 14kgs per month, we were worried that no waste recycling programme would take on a small amount of toner cartridges.

We found and joined the Close the Loop program in 2018 and we have been given the peace of mind knowing that all our used products, no matter how little, are being recycled and reused without any impact on the environment. On top of that, the process of making a booking and pick up request online, with the option of supplying new waste bags and cable ties, has never been simpler and extremely time saving.

Q. What do you know about close the loop

Close the loop is a recycling and resource recovery business that has many patents and awards related to the circular economy. They collect end-of-life products and make new materials and products from them, helping divert them from going into landfill. TonerPlas™ is one of the products that CTL turns its waste into, it is a specialty polymer made from waste printer toner powder and waste soft plastic collected via the Redcycle program.  It is designed to improve the performance of asphalt roads, increasing the fatigue life and rut resistance simultaneously, meaning longer lasting, better performing roads. About 300,000 tonnes of soft plastics are landfilled in Australia every year and TonerPlas is a living example of the circular economy in action, reducing that loss of resource to landfill.

Q. What else are you doing to help the environment

Besides recycling all our toners and cartridge waste, we also try our best to make all our packaging biodegradable and recyclable. All our invitations are produced on a made-to-order basis which means minimal stock, minimal offcuts which means as little waste as possible. We’ve also partnered with One Tree planted a non-profit who pools its donation for each project and sends the funds to its reforestation partners.