bloom cares. While being a planner company makes it hard to be 100% green, we are always looking for ways to be more sustainable. Here is a guide on how to responsibly recycle your planner when you're done with it (if you don't hoard them all, like us! 😅) Learn more about our additional sustainability initiatives below.
HOW TO RECYCLE YOUR PLANNER
Disassemble the planner (AKA remove the binding) to allow the safe recycling of most individual elements. To do this, you can use wire cutters OR simply unbend the binding edges and unwind/work out the spiral binding by hand.
Interior Paper: All interior paper pages without stickers or tabs can immediately be recycled. You can cut off the small laminated tab section and/or peel off stickers to make any remaining inside pages recycle-friendly, too!
Binding: Both our plastic and metal bindings can be recycled with other metal/plastic items as long as they are seperated from the cover and interior pages.
Covers: While the plastic protective sheets over covers on items like Teacher Planners are recyclable, most base covers (especially ones with foil) are not currently recyclable at most locations. Check with your local center for exceptions based on your location and planner cover type.
These are general guidelines for recycling bloom items based on the majority of standard US recycling guidelines, but those may vary by location. Please check with your local recycling center(s) for any specific questions, guidelines, and best practices.
ADDITIONAL SUSTAINABILITY INITIATIVES
Digital Planning Expansion
We are rapidly growing our digital planners and digital stickers options. We're proud to now offer our full physical line (and more!) in digital, zero-waste formats.
Switch to Metal Binding
While both plastic and metal binding are recyclable when seperated from the planner, metal is in higher demand, easier to recycle, and can be recycled an infinite amount of times. We have upgraded all planners (except our Daisy Student Line) to metal binding as a sturdier, more Earth-friendly choice.
Proactive Product Donations
Because we produce dated products and we hate waste, we are obsessive about proactively donating any excess items to organizations in need if we think we may have excess. We are committed to making sure any items we produce are always utilized and well-loved!
"Cleaning up our Corner"
Something we always say at bloom is, "We may not be able to change the world, but we can always clean up our corner." We know change starts small. We have in-office initiatives in place to make sure we are producing less waste, responsibly recycling anything and everything we can, and keeping our eyes towards future progress.
We love the quote: "We don't need a handful of people doing things perfectly. We need millions of people doing it imperfectly." We know we're not perfect, but we're always trying to improve, and will continue to look for ways to do so 🙂 Have ideas? Contact us!