How are your sustainability goals progressing? At Prairie Melody™, we are transitioning to a new online delivery package for our popular 12-pound bag that is user friendly and will reduce our cardboard and plastic footprint. Remember our partnership with Macon Resources, Inc.? MRI provides job experience to local people with mental and physical challenges. We are excited to be working with MRI on this initiative! We love providing opportunities for our community through our local growers, MRI and our local USPS post office.
We are excited about our new package! Think of a cereal box which is easy to pour to fill your feeder and stays upright on your shelf. Like a cereal box, open the top and cut a corner of the liner to use the side panel flaps as a spout to fill your feeder. Inside is the same Prairie Melody™ pesticide free black oil sunflower seed that you love. Double cleaned with fewer sticks that clog up your feeder. Our new package utilizes USPS boxes with a Recyclable #4 plastic liner that is BHT/PVC/Chlorine/Latex free. We place a label on the box that contains all the information found on our bag.
Why do we use USPS boxes instead of standard shipping boxes? Cerro Gordo, Illinois, USA is a small town that values our post office. Every few years, the USPS evaluates rural post offices to decide which ones they can consolidate, and we want to keep our post office off that list. There are only a couple of rural route carriers remaining in our post office, and we lost our town mail carrier several years ago. Now everyone in town comes to the post office for their mail. From our office across the street, we see our post office is not only where people get their mail, but the place where they connect with each other. It is a vital part of our small town (as is Judy’s Kitchen, our local diner) and we want to support it. Also, USPS has standard 2 or 3-day delivery anywhere there is a United States post office for an affordable price. While we love our UPS driver, their rates have increased during the COVID crisis and their delivery times have been lengthening.
Also, did you know USPS packaging meets Sustainable Forestry Initiative or Forest Stewardship Council certification standards? They are already delivering your mail, so it cuts down a delivery trip, which saves fuel and reduces your carbon footprint. (https://about.usps.com/what/corporate-social-responsibility/sustainability/what-you-can-do/)
We hope you like our new online delivery package. It supports our mission of positively engaging our environment in our space. We think you will like the cereal box design and the low waste approach. Every back yard makes a difference!