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Cosy Owl commits to becoming 98% plastic free as part of new sustainability commitments

Crafts supplies e-tailer Cosy Owl, one of the UK’s top suppliers of candle making products, is announcing a series of company commitments to becoming sustainable.

Alongside this, Cosy Owl has revealed some truths about the sustainability of Paraffin Wax being vegan-friendly, in a bid to help educate consumers about the wax and its properties.

Established in 2017 by co-owners Richard Fewings and Mike Willmer, initially specialising in the sale of candle making supplies, Cosy Owl has since experienced strong levels of revenue growth and has expanded its product offering to a wider range of craft, cosmetic and soap making supplies. Most of the sizable growth has been noticeable within the period of lockdowns ranging from March 2020 to April 2021. However, taking into account the peak period for candle makers being from September through to December, it’s not uncommon for candles to become less popular in the summer months.

Cosy Owl Managing Director, Richard Fewings said:

“We work hard with our suppliers to ensure our materials are sourced locally where possible to avoid unnecessary transportation and work with suppliers who have the same ethos, therefore considering the importance of the environment. Our focus as a business is to deliver high-quality products that are ethically sourced, whilst delivering exceptional levels of customer service.”

Cosy Owl continually reviews its suppliers, selecting those that operate ethically and sustainably whilst producing the high-quality products that their customers have come to expect. Continually reviewing its packaging, Cosy Owl ensures that a balance is struck in ensuring its customers receive orders in one piece but without over-packaging.

“We aim to be 98% plastic-free packaging by the end of 2021 and already only use recyclable packaging for orders. We also select couriers based on both their ability to deliver undamaged orders (the environmental impact from waste caused by courier damage is huge) and that have strong environmental policies.”

To this point, Cosy Owl has sourced biodegradable ‘plastic’ bags and whilst they are not plastic, they look the same. Cosy Owl will replace the last elements of plastic in its packaging by September of this year.

“We have already replaced almost all bubble wrap with either crumbled recycled paper or shredded cardboard. We recently invested in two new machines (paper void filler and cardboard shredder) and the cardboard shredder also recycles our waste cardboard from our operations here, meaning we are directly recycling on site.

We will be transitioning from plastic fragrance bottles to glass and aluminium bottles (glass up to 50ml and then aluminium for 100ml and above). We have already started this transition, essential oils for instance are all in glass bottles and we will continue phasing this in to have the transition complete by the end of the year.”

Richard concludes:

“We will soon be adding a recyclable info icon to all applicable products too. The only plastic products that we currently sell are the clamshell moulds for wax melts but these are recyclable as well as multi-use.

Lastly, internally we carry out environmental impact assessments to reduce our direct impact, we source electricity from green only sources, heat with sustainable energy and have developed working practices to minimise our impact.”


You can learn more about Cosy Owl sustainability commitments here.