Sustainability

At Sew Essential we take our responsibility to the environment seriously.

Reusing and repurposing

We have always reused and repurposed packaging wherever we can. 

You may find you receive your goods padded out with sewing pattern paper, which is a clever way we reuse the discontinued, surplus sewing patterns we have in the warehouse. 

You may find the box you receive your goods in looks a little worn. This is because we reuse the boxes we receive our goods in to send your orders out wherever possible.

Minimising packaging

We use a range of ten different sized envelopes and bags plus a wide range of boxes to ensure we use the minimum amount of packaging necessary for each parcel.

The clear bags we use are made using a minimum of 30% recycled plastic and are 100% recyclable. This range of bags is being discontinued and replaced by the more environmentally friendly grey bags detailed below.

The grey bags we use are made using 85% recycled plastic and are 100% recyclable.

The padded envelopes we use are made with at least 60% recycled content, are designed for recycling and are made from FSC certified materials. 

The parcelforce bags we use are made from 84% recycled household plastics and are 100% recyclable.

Product packaging

In terms of our products we have always worked to improve the sustainability of the packaging wherever possible via feedback to manufacturers. 

For example, we gave feedback to one of our key suppliers about using plastic packaging for buttons and the packaging has been updated to recyclable cardboard as a result, which not only improves our sustainability, but also their entire portfolio of retail customers having a big impact overall.

100% of our waste is recycled or reused in some way and none of our waste goes to landfill.

All of our waste is taken to a local waste transfer station less than 3 miles away and is manually sorted. Any recyclable waste is removed and sent directly for recycling.

Any wood is shredded and used in the waste company’s on site biomass boiler which produces heat for the waste company and their neighbouring businesses on the same industrial estate.

Any waste that can’t be directly recycled is sent to an ‘energy from waste’ facility where it is used to produce electricity.

The company that manages our waste has had a zero waste to landfill policy in place for 8 years.

Our investment in updated technology has enabled us to reduce our paper usage by over 50% since 2022.

We use Royal Mail for the vast majority of our deliveries. 

Royal Mail use a ‘feet on the street’ delivery model, which significantly contributes to keeping their emissions low compared to competitors. 

21% of their delivery routes are now zero emission and they are working hard to increase the numbers of electric vehicles in their fleet to reach net zero by 2040. 

They also use 100% renewable electricity in most of their buildings.

Our courier parcels are sent by Parcelforce who are working towards a 100% zero emissions delivery fleet by 2035 and employee company cars 100% electric by 2030. These dates are reviewed annually in an effort to achieve these goals earlier than planned.

Sewing patterns

Our sewing patterns from the Simplicity McCalls group (Simplicity, McCalls, Vogue, Butterick, Burda, KnowMe and New Look) are produced at accredited paper mills:

• The tissue paper comes from a FSC certified mill.
• The guide sheet paper comes from a FSC & SFI certified mill.
• The envelope paper comes from a FSC, SFI and PEFC certified mill.

In addition to this:

• The mineral oil based ink used has a very low % VOC of 0.5%
• The glue used in the envelopes has 0% VOCs
• Paper is acid free/alkaline paper
• Predominantly unbleached paper stock is used.

We also stock sewing patterns from brands who focus on sustainable and ethical ways of working:

Named Patterns donate 1% of their annual turnover to 1% for the planet and the Friday Pattern Company give 5% of their proceeds to a rotating collection of the top ranked charities in the world. You can find specific details on their respective websites.

Fabrics

We work to source deadstock fabrics wherever possible and check with suppliers that these are fabrics that would otherwise go to landfill. Although this doesn’t solve the problem of fast fashion, it reduces waste.

We source GOTS and Okeo Tex 100 certified fabrics wherever possible. 

For fabrics to be GOTS certified 95% of the fibres must be organic, no harmful chemicals can be used and working conditions in the production of the fabric must be safe and clean. 

Okeo Tex 100 certified fabrics fave been tested and proven not to include any harmful substances.

Other products

We are always working to source products that can help you to make your sewing more environmentally friendly and sustainable. For example we stock the full range of Gutermann recycled thread on our site.

We realise we are not perfect and we are always working towards improving our sustainability wherever we can. If you have any information you think could be helpful to us in this quest we’d love to hear from you.