In this world of fast-living and disposable gifts, we aim to bring you well-made items, chosen with love. We try really hard to not stock anything made of plastic, and place an emphasis on felt, wool, ceramic, glass, wood and metal; this is particularly true of our fabulous Nordic Christmas decorations, which we would love you to bring out year after year! We are very proud to say we have been presented with a Silver Award from the Surfer’s Against Sewage plastic-free campaign too 🙂
- Our jewellery and textiles are manufactured to stringent ethical and environmental standards; the jewellery is nickel free.
- We use local artists where possible to support local businesses and lower our carbon footprint
- We use the Royal Mail as they have the lowest carbon footprint of any courier
- Our Norska aromatherapy products have now swapped to glass bottles. The wax is sustainably sourced and the packaging compostable
- We use biodegradable paper void fill where possible (and we are constantly trawling local supermarkets and blagging their bubble wrap to recycle! Lidl apples are good for this!)
- We are constantly asking our suppliers to reduce packaging. We also use paper ribbon (we swapped from the plastic kind), reusable cardboard gift boxes (we leave them unbranded so people can re-gift them or use them for storage) and shredded compostable tissue for all our gift wrapping
- We have just released our own range of sustainable craft kits, using natural and upcycled materials. There is a plastic element in some kits (a little glue container) as we couldn’t find another way of packaging the glue, but rather than using it as a single use pot, notes are included in the kit on how to re-use it, eg as a salt and pepper pot for picnics or as a container for make-up and cosmetics on a weekend away perhaps!)
- We are just creating our own range of jewellery made from recycled silver
- We make our own greetings cards here and they are compostable (no gloss) and made of recycled or FSC certified card.
- We have just started stocking a wider range of willow shopping baskets as willow is an excellent method for carbon capture and is ultimately biodegradable; we encourage people to use these rather than bags for life as ultimately they end up in landfill too, even though they might be used more than once.
- We have to use bubble lined bags for some of our products as they are fragile, but we use Priory Direct as they are known for planet-friendly packaging (their words!), and we have swapped to the type of bags where the bubble wrap can just be pulled out and re-used by the customer, rather than thrown away.
- Bex teaches craft clubs and foraging to local youth clubs and adults, the crafts are always plastic free. She also writes craft books about upcycling and recycling which are plastic free, helping people to find alternatives to the plastic materials found in craft shops (for example instead of the polystyrene wreaths sold at big craft chains, we help people to make reusable bases from twigs, sustainable willow etc). Her next book, Sustainable Crafts and Gifts For All Seasons will be released in November and re-uses everything from old jumpers to coathangers. Plastic yoghurt pots are made into tiny little lampshade fairylights!
- We swim year round in the sea and we always collect litter (and interesting driftwood when we find it!). In addition we lobby the local MP and the Secretary of State asking them to take action regarding the sewer outflows on the south coast and in the River Arun.
We aim to recycle packaging and reduce waste where possible. As part of this we subscribe to the WEEE regulations, offering to recycle electrical or battery operated items on a like for like basis. For example, if you purchase a pocket torch from us, you are welcome to send us your old torch at your own cost and we will recycle it for you. Please return the WEEE item to Hyggestyle, New Pound Common, Wisborough Green, West Sussex, RH14 0EJ clearly stating that you enclose a WEEE product along with a copy of your sales order. All like for like WEEE must be received by us at the returns address above within 28 days of receipt of your new products, which will be taken as 2 days from us shipping the new item to you. Hyggestyle are not responsible for any WEEE sent to us and not received by us.
Much of the UKs WEEE ends up in landfill, where the lead and other toxins it contains can cause soil and water contamination. This can have a harmful effect on natural habitat, wildlife and also human health. Goods are marked with the crossed out wheeled bin symbol to show that they were produced after 13th August 2005, and should be disposed of separately from normal household waste so that they can be recycled.
