When considering sustainable packaging materials, honeycomb mailers stand out. According to Shippied, honeycomb mailers offer a brilliant blend of durability and eco-friendliness, making them a go-to option for businesses aiming to cut down on their environmental impact and secure their products simultaneously.
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Climate change has been a significant issue for quite some time but only recently became conspicuous enough to attract widespread public attention. Many have taken the initiative to fight against this impending crisis by adopting a sustainable approach. The packaging industry, in particular, has seen significant improvements in eco-friendly packaging materials. Honeycomb paper mailer has garnered widespread attention from many people in various industries. Much of that is because despite being fully recyclable and eco-friendly, it is cheap and has impressive performance compared to other long-term industry standard materials.
What is a Honeycomb Mailer?
Honeycomb mailers are somewhat similar to corrugated mailers in terms of material. Both are made using kraft paper. The honeycomb mailers have honeycomb-shaped lining on the inside of the wrap. The hexagonal formation offers immense durability to the mailer and very high cushioning properties.
The honeycomb paper structure creates a multi-layered protection pocket for fragile goods. The honeycomb structure is further sealed between two layers of durable kraft paper. Such an arrangement offers a smooth surface that won't get tangled during shipping.
The honeycomb patterned padding offers higher structural strength than other kraft paper mailer options. The material is fully reusable and recyclable, so it leaves much less carbon footprint than traditional packaging options such as metal mailers and bubble wrap. Most honeycomb mailers also come with self-sealing adhesives, so the user doesn't need to add additional glue.
Features of a Honeycomb Mailer
Honeycomb mailers gained popularity in the shipping industry due to their versatility. They are easy to use and easy to dispose of. The structural design of the honeycomb mailer also offers some very desirable characteristics.
Durable
Honeycomb mailers are highly durable and offer excellent protection for most types of fragile goods. Much of their strength comes from the hexagonal cell pattern, which highly resists blunt force impacts. Despite their exceptional rigidity, honeycomb mailers are also very flexible and easy to work with.
The build structure and the combination of flexibility and rigidity make honeycomb mailers much longer lasting than cardboard and other similar packaging materials. Such an increased lifecycle makes it more reusable than other packaging materials.
Recyclable
One of the best features of the honeycomb mailers is their recyclability. Honeycomb mailers have a very low carbon footprint compared to conventional packaging materials. Natural Kraft paper has long fibers and is easy to manufacture from natural sources.
High-quality kraft paper is often made from sawmill by-products and by-products from forest maintenance. So, one does not need to cut down trees to produce these things. Natural kraft paper is very compatible with conventional recycling methods. So you can recycle it multiple times without affecting the quality of the end product.
The durability of the honeycomb mailer makes it survive longer than other similar products, making it easier to reuse. Reusing is a much better option for the environment and is a superior option to recycling.
Honeycomb Design
Beehives are the primary inspirations behind the honeycomb patterns of these mailers. Such design allows them to spread any impact evenly, limiting the overall damage to the cover. The interior receives very little force in general. As such, honeycomb mailers are highly resistant to wear and tear.
Kraft paper is also an opaque material, a quality that honeycomb mailers share. The outer layer of the honeycomb is also thick enough to prevent impressions from forming. So it's tough to guess what's placed inside the package.
Advantages of Using Honeycomb Mailers
Naturally, there are plenty of advantages to using honeycomb mailers instead of other conventional packaging materials. Here's a list of reasons:
Eco-friendly: Honeycomb mailers are 100% recyclable. The raw material for making honeycomb mailers comes from by-products of other industries. Natural kraft paper honeycomb mailers are also biodegradable in most cases. As such, you can reduce your carbon footprint significantly by using these.
Space Saving: Honeycomb mailers store flat and easily stackable. So they require very little storage space. These also come with sealable openings, so you don't need additional packaging materials like tape and glue.
Weather-proof: High-quality honeycomb mailers have additional coatings for waterproofing. Such moisture-resistant layer also protects them from other weather conditions.
Easy to source: Honeycomb mailer is always available for bulk purchase in most places. It's a sustainable packaging material that rarely runs out of supply, so it's easier to source. They are lightweight, too, so it's easy to transport bulk shipments.
Affordable: Honeycomb mailers are one the most economical packaging supplies on the market. Such shipping envelopes are much cheaper than shipping boxes, which require additional packing material such as bubble wrap, foam beads, and other materials. Honeycomb mailer is a neat little package compared to all that hassle.
Versatile application: You can use honeycomb mailers for shipping a wide range of items. The most common are books, photo frames, and other similar objects. But you can also ship small electronics and other such things in them.
When to Choose a Honeycomb Mailer
Honeycomb mailers are much more cost-effective than traditional shipping packages like cardboard boxes and much easier to handle. They take up less space, so it helps reduce some of the shipping costs, too. And you also won't need glue or tape to secure the packaging. As such, you can use it in a variety of situations.
You can use honeycomb mailers for shipping CDs, DVDs, and even jewelry. Honeycomb mailers offer enough cushioning to keep such items safe. Other things you can ship in them are small clothing articles. Pretty much anything works as long as they fit in the envelope.
Many people use honeycomb mailers for shipping kitchen utensils like spoons. Some people also use it for glass and chinaware, but it's usually best to pack those in boxes. Fragile glassware requires a bit more safety than what most honeycomb mailers offer.
You may also want to take additional protective measures while shipping hypersensitive items. While it is true that honeycomb mailers have a protective coating, they do not offer full protection against water. They may also lose their structural integrity when exposed to water for extended periods.
Comparing Honeycomb Mailers to Traditional Mailers
Despite the popularity of honeycomb mailers, we must compare them to other packaging options to understand their pros and cons comprehensively. While such mailers are great, they aren't usable in some specific cases. The comparative analysis below should give you a better understanding of this subject:
Honeycomb paper mailer vs. Bubble wrap
Honeycomb mailers are lightweight in their own right, but bubble wrap is slightly better in this area. The advantage of honeycomb mailers is that they are easier to handle than bubble wrap. Bubble wrap almost always requires additional tape to secure the product. The honeycomb mailer does not have such requirements.
Honeycomb mailers and bubble wrap offer excellent cushioning, but bubble wrap also comes ahead in this area. Regular honeycomb mailer isn't very suitable for extreme humidity, whereas bubble wrap handles moisture well. But you can mitigate the issue by getting waterproof mailers.
Honeycomb mailer and bubble wrap are both "technically" recyclable. But honeycomb is a better choice since you can recycle almost 100% of it. Bubble wrap requires special refinement and recycling facilities; even then, it's not fully recyclable.
Plant-based mailer
Since eco-friendliness is a big thing right now, it's probably best to mention the plant-based composite mailers. These are somewhat similar to kraft paper honeycomb mailers in terms of recyclability. But there are definite drawbacks to the plant-based ones.
Plant-based mailers are slightly less shock absorbent than honeycomb mailers and have a limited shelf life. While it's great that you can turn them into compost, they aren't a reliable solution when sending a package overseas. The limited shelf life also limits how easily and reliably you can source the composite mailers. In that regard, honeycomb paper mailers are much better.
Corrugated boxes
Choosing between corrugated boxes or honeycombed mailers is highly situational. For smaller items, the mailers are largely superior to cardboard boxes. They require less packing material and storage space. But that only applies to small items. Honeycombed mailers can't accommodate large items, so going with the box is the default solution.
Using boxes is more expensive, as you need more storage space and packing materials like tape. And you'll also need to put bubble wrap or foam beads for cushioning in the box. So, for small things, at least, a honeycomb mailer is the superior choice.
Conclusion
Hopefully, this article has cleared up some confusion you might have had about honeycomb mailers. As a packing material, it stands as one of the most affordable and reliable options by far. But it certainly has a big drawback in terms of item size.
If you want a reliable supplier for industry-standard high-quality honeycomb mailers or bubble mailing envelopes, then feel free to contact us at ULINEpak. We offer an extensive collection of packaging materials of all kinds.
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