Grace Hunt/Conscious Crackers
Emily Gilford talks to Grace Hunt, founder of Conscious Crackers, a sustainable business lovingly producing zero-waste christmas crackers to help reduce waste around the Christmas holidays.
Conscious Crackers Zero-Waste Christmas Crackers.
Every year, 40 million Christmas crackers are thrown away. The wonders inside the holiday treats are often single-use plastic toys, other plastic items or things coated in glitter, rendering them un-recyclable and destined for landfill.
“Families across Britain could give a huge present to the environment by dumping shop-bought Christmas crackers this year” – Business Waste
In 2019, University of Exeter graduate Grace Hunt, who was inspired by her studies in Conservation Biology, founded Conscious Crackers. The brand, which aims to reduce the waste produced around the holidays whilst inspiring customers to live a more sustainable lifestyle. The crackers, available in packs of 6, are made of recycled card and paper, which can be recycled and reused again. The crackers are a handmade, zero-waste alternative to the shop-bought crackers that we’re used to. The only materials that aren’t recyclable in Conscious Crackers are the tissue paper hats, which are biodegradable so can be composted, the twine, which the company encourages the reuse of in your garden, and a small part of the cracker snap. If every component of Conscious Crackers is disposed of appropriately, minimal waste has to go to landfill.
Grace Hunt founded Conscious Crackers in 2019. Pictured here holding a box of 6 Conscious Crackers.
Grace writes about what inspired her to set up the sustainable business;
“I have always been interested in the natural world and passionate about protecting it. During my time studying Conservation Biology in Cornwall, I gained a more in depth understanding of the challenges facing the natural world and saw that plastic pollution was increasingly in the spotlight. Living in the coastal location of Falmouth, meant I got to see first-hand the impact of plastic pollution on our beaches and marine wildlife. At the same time, living in such an environmentally minded community, gave me hope as there were so many individuals and businesses making positive change to reduce their impact of the planet.
From my degree my experience living in Falmouth, I was increasingly aware of the plastic pollution problem and felt inspired to do something to make a difference. I was really frustrated at all the waste produced at Christmas, especially the amount of pointless plastic and waste produced from traditional Christmas crackers. As a result, I wanted to create a Christmas cracker that not only remove the wasteful aspects but helps to bring awareness to other issues and provide small ways of making positive change. So, after my final year at university, I spent the next few months researching, developing, and refining the idea to create my first batch of Conscious Crackers. Zero-Waste Christmas Crackers handmade from recycled, recyclable, and biodegradable which aim to help you to reduce your waste this Christmas and inspire you and your loved ones to live more sustainably.”
Living by the sea inspired Conscious Crackers founder, Grace, to do something to make a difference.
Even the boxes that most commercially available Christmas crackers are sold in present a problem, as they are often adorned in glitter with plastic viewing windows. A survey conducted by Business Waste found that 99% of families noted that they just threw away the gifts from shop-bought crackers at the end of the day. To keep the business circular, this year Conscious Crackers are inviting customers to return boxes for use again next year.
In their launch year, 2019, Conscious Crackers were a sell-out and extremely well received by customers.
“I received so many kind words from friends, family, and strangers that I was completely overwhelmed. They sold out in around 2 weeks which was amazing, and I was not expecting to receive orders from so many different places in the UK.
The feedback I have received from my 2019 customers has been really positive and it’s great to see many of them ordering again this year! Several customers have reported that they liked that the gifts inside were useful as well as fun and that they still had all the best bits of the traditional cracker like the hats and cheesy jokes! The positive changes which the crackers have inspired in my customers encourages me to improve the crackers each year!”
The gifts included in Conscious Crackers are all carefully thought out, locally sourced, and designed to make you think more about your ecological footprint. This year, the pack of 6 includes sunflower seeds, tomato seeds, a reusable cotton pad, shampoo kubes, lavender soap, and the promise that one mangrove tree is planted with every box of conscious crackers purchased with C Free.
The gifts included in 2020 Conscious Crackers. Sunflower seeds, a reusable cotton pad, tomato seeds, natural lavender soap, shampoo kubes and a card tree decoration to signify the tree planted with every box of Conscious Crackers sold.
“I want each gift to act as a talking point for environmental issues and importantly I want it to be used rather than thrown away, so I try to make sure that each gift could be used by the majority of people in their daily lives. The gifts must be plastic-free and sustainably made, so it can be challenging to find 6 gifts that are the right fit for the crackers. I have swapped and tweaked a few gifts this year so that there are some new items and different topics for returning customers, which I hope they find interesting!
I source my materials from sustainable businesses in the UK. I usually find these businesses online but I have found some of my suppliers at local markets or found their products in zero-waste shops.”
As well as purchasing sustainable crackers, Conscious Crackers founder Grace has lots of other advice on staying sustainable through the holiday season.
“When it comes to presents there are several things you can do that are good for you and the planet like buying second-hand, re-gifting or giving something homemade. Giving eco-friendly, reusable gifts is a great way of encouraging sustainability all year round. Or instead of giving something material you could give the gift of an experience or donate to a charity on someone’s behalf.
There are loads of great alternatives to wrapping paper, a lot of which usually ends up in landfill due to its glossy plastic coating which means it can’t be recycled. Re-using wrapping paper and gift bags is a great place to start. Using brown paper or old newspapers is another easy way to reduce waste, as they can both be recycled. You can also use fabric as a reusable wrapping alternative! Swapping plastic tape for a recyclable, plastic-free tape is another simple way of avoiding plastic and helping to ensure the wrapping paper isn’t contaminated so that it can be recycled.
Food waste is another big issue at Christmas so planning your Christmas food shop carefully can help to avoid buying more than what you need. Other things like allowing people to pick their own portion sizes and freezing Christmas leftovers are other easy ways to avoiding food wastage.
If everyone tries to do some things more sustainably rather than a few having a perfect zero-waste Christmas, it could make a really big difference!”
Conscious Crackers are available to pre-order now for this Christmas.
Grace mentions that she’d love to expand her range of crackers in future “I have a few other festive ideas in the works, but you’ll have to see what happens next Christmas!”.
Conscious Crackers logo.
You can find out more, keep an eye on upcoming products and order your crackers by visiting the Conscious Crackers website. The last date to order to get your crackers in time for Christmas is the 16th December.
You can find our more about Conscious Crackers on their website, Instagram and Facebook.
EMILY GILFORD
Emily is a Zoology BSc (Hons) and Ecology MSc graduate from the University of Exeter, currently based in Cornwall. Her interests lie in animal behaviour and blue health. Over the past few years, Emily has managed The Beach Clean Project in Cornwall, connecting people over a mutual love of keeping our coastlines clean. Emily enjoys being out with her camera spotting wildlife and learning as much as she can. Emily is an online article editor and contributor here at Bloom in Doom. Find her on Instagram @emilygilford