This month we’ve made a change to our subscription packaging: Your subscription candles will now arrive nestled in a cardboard insert instead of mushroom packaging. Our compostable mushroom candle bases have been a signature of the Keap subscription experience for many years. In fact, we were the first in the world to adopt Ecovative’s mushroom packaging ! We wanted to share the reasons behind this change with you, as well as a little behind-the-scenes view of what went into the new design.

Earlier this year, Ecovative let us know that they needed to discontinue their mushroom packaging production in Troy, NY. While this was certainly sad news for us, it is overall happy news for Ecovative and the movement to replace fossil fuel-based products (like packaging foams) with alternatives that are bio-based and compostable. With growing demand for their other mycelium technologies (such as foam and leather), they need to allocate more their production resources to those products. We are thrilled to know that these other applications of mycelium as a sustainable material are seeing such growth!

Meanwhile, their mushroom packaging processes have a level of maturity that allows them to prioritize licensing their proprietary technology to other manufacturers. Our hope is that as they bring on more licensing partners, mushroom packaging will eventually become more widely available.

In the short-term, we do not have a local provider of mushroom packaging. So for now, we will be shipping our subscription candles in a locally manufactured corrugate insert that is both compostable and recyclable.

While the stars haven’t yet aligned with a new production partner, we are hopeful mushroom packaging will be available to us again in the not-too-distant future.

In the meantime, we sat down with Philip , who led the research and design for these inserts, to discuss the design process and some of our criteria on our journey toward regenerative packaging. Philip, take it away!

Who is our new packaging partner?

Viking! Or if you want to call them by their full name, they’re Viking Packaging.

Why did we choose to partner with them?

Phew, there’s a number of reasons there.

Their cardboard meets the environmental standards we like to see including FSC certification. :).

They’re in the Hudson Valley, local to Keap. We’re just a short drive from their facility, which meant we could visit them in-person and develop a close relationship before creating something together.

They have a great design team. If you have a keen eye, you may have noticed that we’ve actually partnered with them before 🔎. We worked with them to design our 6-Pack Boxes.

How did you go about designing the new insert?

Our design process usually starts with calling John (our Viking rep) and telling him that we have another puzzle to solve. He’s a studio favorite by now, always coming in with a huge smile and a fun story about his grandkids.

What sort of changes were made during the design process?

We ran through more designs than I expected! We started with a fully enclosed insert, but that ended up being a bit of a nightmare to fold. We then tried a shallow format that worked well in single candle packages, but failed once we put multiple candles in a box. Subsequently, we had a taller design that came with a tealight slot! I was excited about that one, but the tealight slot made the cardboard much more likely to tear during shipping.

The main challenge we faced was trying to accommodate for our Jumbo Matchboxes . Not every package includes these, but our insert had to work well whether the package contained a jumbo matchbox or not. We really wanted the matchbox to sit above the insert so that it was prominently displayed when you open your package. It’s such a beautiful matchbox, and we wanted to make sure you saw it!

This is where I hit a roadblock. Having the matchbox on top of the insert seemed to always compromise the integrity of the setup. I decided to bring this conundrum to the team, and we had a lengthy design brainstorm where everyone weighed in. This was one of my favorite Keap moments this year! Harry was feverishly drawing on our whiteboard, Suzanne was cutting out custom designs, and Ashley was evaluating all the physics involved.

As often ends up being the case, the simplest design worked best. The only way to ensure the safety of our candles was to have a tall insert around them. This meant that the matchbox would need to be placed hidden away below the insert. How would subscribers know to look below the cardboard for their matchbox?

Well, Claudia had a clever solution to that. She suggested making some custom stamps that told you where to look. So, the next time we add a jumbo matchbox into your subscription, we’ll stamp a message inside your box that tells you where to find it.

How did you test the insert?

There are a few ways we tested the design. We check to make sure the candle and all subscription materials fit nicely into the package with the insert. That’s the bare minimum haha!

We then performed a drop test. We put together a few sample subscription packages and dropped them from specific heights to see how well they’d survive being shipped. As a self proclaimed shipping nerd, I love that there’s a standardized procedure for that. Throwing packages around is part of my job description!

What is FSC?

It’s the Forest Stewardship Council, which certifies that the timber used to make the cardboard is sourced in an environmentally and socially responsible way. All of our materials from Viking have that certification 🌳.

Are these inserts compostable and/or recyclable?

Most cardboard is compostable unless it has a glossy finish or a lot of ink. In this case, these inserts should compost nicely if you have the right composting setup.

All of our cardboard is recyclable ♻! These inserts will have no problem in the recycling stream, the only caveat is if they get oil or waxy. We’ve much reduced our candle melts this summer , but if oil or wax does get on the cardboard then it’s best to put it in the regular trash.