Adafruit packaging is recycled

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A question from a customer:

I got my order in record time, thanks! I noticed the box had a small sticker that said Digikey, what’s a Digikey??? – Tim

Answer! A long time ago we decided we’d try to save all the incoming packaging and boxes and reuse it for our outgoing packaging, this takes us a bit of extra time but we think it’s worth it. This is why you might have a box with a weird sticker on it or packaging from other electronic’s suppliers like Mouser, Digikey, etc. It’s just one of the small things we try to do to keep our environmental impact as low as possible for the things that we can. When possible we buy recycled goods and when we make kits that come in boxes we use ULINE white boxes that can be written on for storage after you get your kits (many makers do).


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6 Comments

  1. Good for you guys!…recycling is extra work but it is worth it….now my last order had Victoria’s Secret on the packaging…I must have looked at the wrong carton…yup!…

  2. “Digikey, what’s a Digikey??”

    Wow. I didn’t think there was anyone who didn’t know what Digikey was. I’d better go thank my EE dad for having awesome reading material around when I was a kid. (TI 74 series logic handbook, quarterly Digikey, Mouser, and monthly All Electronics catalogs).

  3. Nice one guys, you will save quite a lot of energy and raw materials in doing so, kudos.
    re: Adam Shea – customer most likely abroad like myself – we would use Farnell (Newark) or RS or local distributors instead; only heard about Digikey and Mouser, etc., once started poking about the internet.

  4. I really wish more companies did this- it makes so much sense.

    Speaking of recycling, today I found a working oscilloscope in a trash bin (while I was recycling my cardboard.) I took one look and said “Oh no no no… you are coming home with me.”

    Granted it was an older analog model but for someone like me that dreams of having their own scope it’s the cat’s pajamas as far as I’m concerned.

    Finding a working scope in the trash bin- makes me happy and sad at the same time.

  5. Congratulations on the good work!

    Our company has been doing this for two decades. All incoming boxes are assessed for usability, broken down for recycle if floppy or odd sizes we can’t reuse. Packing material is binned for packing beans, paper and foam and then goes back out the door with necessary supplements of new boxes (where necessary or needed for special size) and dunnage. This allows us to spend a little more on the Hazmat packaging for safe shipping.

    We’re not particularly “green” here, but boxes and beans are expensive, so why throw away what you already have that’s usable! It’s known as resource management.

  6. Oh yeah! Meant to send an appreciative note after my Patch Shield arrived. I was grateful for the all-paper type of padded envelope this shipped in, as it’s entirely recyclable along with regular paper and cardboard scrap. Those laminated paper-and-plastic-bubble type that most vendors use are not. Kudos!

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