Plastic end caps. These single use pieces of PVC have been bothering us at Firewood prints for the last few years, especially when our products and packaging are made of paper and cardboard, which is widely recycled. We have been searching for alternative methods to using plastic end caps. There is a balance between protecting our posters through transit and the environmental impact these single use plastics have. Other implications we have to consider is cost as we sell affordable to prints to our customers, we don't have a huge budget to spend on R&D, but we are so happy to announce we have finally found a solution!
Thankfully, our friends at Essex Tubes have come up with a great alternative that not only does away with the requirement of plastic end caps, but also provides a safer solution for the prints due to the shape of the tube ends. The tube itself is slightly longer than a standard tube and the ends are rolled in from opposite sides, forming a pringle shape at both ends. Once the print is inside, the rolled prints sit against this curve in an almost cushioned fashion, providing safety to the edge of the paper during transport. After testing the new packaging design thoroughly, we were pleased to roll out these tubes across all our rolled prints such as our studio prints, animal prints or world maps and will be pleased say good riddance to those single use plastic end caps, leading the way to making a more sustainable company. Proving that if we can do it, why can't larger companies follow suit and get rid of more land fill products that take 100's of years to decay.