Are you all about making eco-friendly swaps in your daily life? Maybe you’ve ditched plastic straws for metal ones, paper towels for cloth towels, and you take your own bags to the grocery store. High five!
Making easy eco-friendly swaps is a great way to lower your carbon footprint and preserve the planet. However, some swaps aren’t that obvious. When it comes to puzzles, how can you be more sustainable? Read our guide to sustainable puzzles below!
When you’re shopping for a new puzzle, one thing you can look for is a recycled puzzle board. A ton of brands have started using recycled materials for their puzzles, so they aren’t hard to find anymore. Some companies go the extra mile and also use recycled paper for their puzzle boxes.
Recycled materials are a great sustainable puzzle option because it cuts down on the number of virgin materials used to manufacture your puzzle. You don’t have to give up your love for puzzles to be kind to the planet!
Did you know that most conventional ink is made from petroleum? You can make an easy sustainable swap by buying puzzles that are made with soy-based ink instead.
Unlike soybeans, petroleum is not a renewable natural resource, and paper printed with petroleum-based ink is hard to recycle and reuse. Soy-based ink, on the other hand, is eco-friendly and easy to recycle. It also prints in more vibrant colors, so sustainable puzzles made with soy-based ink are not just better for the planet, but they’re also more beautiful to look at.
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If you live in the United States, then shopping for puzzles that are made in the USA is a great way to lower your carbon footprint. Since it’s produced close to home, your puzzle has to travel fewer miles to get to you, which reduces carbon emissions. Plus, you support American makers and workers, which benefits the US economy.
Most puzzle boxes are shrink-wrapped in soft plastic, which is harder to recycle than other types of plastic. Then, once you open the box, the puzzle pieces are usually contained in a plastic bag.
If you buy puzzles regularly, these little bits of plastic can add up. The good news is that some sustainable puzzle brands are switching how they do things. Some have completely changed their packaging with out-of-the-box solutions (literally), using glass jars or cloth bags instead of the traditional boxes and inner plastic bags.
Buying puzzles made with recycled materials is a great step, but you can go even further by looking for puzzles that are FSC certified. The Forest Stewardship Council certification ensures that the paper used to produce puzzles is sourced responsibly instead of using harmful deforestation practices. It’s also a great certification to look for if you buy wood puzzles.
Brands have to go to significant lengths to guarantee that their puzzles are FSC certified, so when you see that sticker on a sustainable puzzle, you know the brand really cares about the planet.
A great way to be more planet-friendly is to shop brands that give a portion of their proceeds to worthy causes. A ton of our favorite brands, like Art & Fable Puzzle Company and New York Puzzle Company do this today. You can feel great about using your money wisely and investing in a brand that cares! Plus, you get a great sustainable puzzle out of it, so it’s a win-win for you.
The major factor that can make puzzles not-so-eco-friendly is the fact that they’re usually completed once and then thrown into a closet for years. Puzzles that are only put together once do not get much value out of their production and labor costs.
The most sustainable puzzle is the one that’s shared with friends. That’s why we launched Completing the Puzzle, a puzzle rental subscription service.
Here’s how it works:
Completing the Puzzle is a circular program that keeps puzzles in use. Plus, we use other planet-friendly practices, such as:
We wanted to make puzzling more sustainable while also providing a hassle-free experience for our members. Protecting the planet is embedded into our entire process, and we save you time by shipping your puzzles straight to your doorstep!
Ready to join the most sustainable puzzle company? When you sign up for a Completing the Puzzle membership, you can select your difficulty level and build a wishlist of your favorite puzzles from our huge catalog. Sign up for a Completing the Puzzle membership today and get 20% off your first month when you use code SPECIAL20.
