For years, CooksonGold have dominated the market of handmade jewellery supplies in the UK. For most jewellers here in the UK, it is the only place we can buy certain basic materials without paying huge import fees. Their service is usually very good, but their plastic use is not. It appears to be CooksonGold's policy to package every single individual item in a small ziplock plastic bag, which is then double bagged, and often bagged again. Some orders will have as many as TWENTY plastic bags, if not more.

I, a full-time self-employed jeweller, place about 20 (if not more) orders with CG every year. If I receive 20 plastic bags per order, that is 400 PER YEAR. In 5 years I would have amassed 2,000 plastic bags. TWO THOUSAND. Larger companies and busier jewellers will place more orders and are likely to be amassing thousands upon thousands of plastic bags year after year.

And where do they go? More often than not, straight in the bin, and straight into our oceans and landfills. Even if a bag is reused, it will still end up in the same place eventually.

They have recently introduced even more plastic to their packaging and have began sending saw blades wrapped in tiny plastic tubes, and thin metals in large plastic tubes. Most products do not need such protection, and if they do, perhaps this petition will open up a dialogue amongst the jewellery community of more sustainable options - one already put forward is a possible "opt out" of plastic bags option at checkout.

Even with new biodegradable packaging apparently being trialled, the issue of HOW MANY small plastic bags they use still remains. 

I cannot emphasise enough how unnecessary and wasteful this gross use of plastic is, not to mention how harmful it is for our planet. 

I propose that if CG committed to reduce it's plastic use and only use bags actually needed to package or identify items, it could prevent thousands of tiny plastic bags from polluting our oceans and planet every year. At the very least, I believe that every company should be mindful in their plastic use, and the triple-bagging of most items is not mindful. 

I represent a group of jewellers who have created this petition in the hope that being heard by the larger jewellery community will spark a small but much-needed change in the packaging of our orders and therefore our own plastic footprint as well.