Green Retail Therapy

Feb 24, 2015

Have you ever gone shopping because it made you feel better or improved your mood?  At U-Haul we have our own version of retail therapy. You can shop happily knowing that our products strive to relieve stress…on the environment and your pocketbook of course!

moving boxes green retail

U-Haul Moving and Storage Boxes

U-Haul boxes are made sturdy to protect all of your possessions while moving or storing. As an added benefit, this sturdiness means U-Haul boxes may be used again and again. Once the boxes have served their primary use, consider reusing your boxes for other jobs or even crafts. After you no longer have need, we suggest dropping the boxes off at one of our Take a Box, Leave a Box displays at your local U-Haul Center. This program enables other customers to pick-up the free used boxes for reuse. You can also share your boxes with neighbors, or consider selling and trading them using our online U-Haul Box Exchange program. No matter how you re-use them they are built to withstand many uses. Once a box has finally reached the end of its lifeline it is 100% recyclable.

furniture pads green retail

100% Recycled-Content Furniture Pads

Furniture pads are a moving essential and our customers use a lot of them! For this reason, we realized that collaboration would cut cost and reduce waste. From 1977 until today, U-Haul furniture pads have been manufactured using a blend of textiles including Lee Jeans Co. denim scraps. Our recycled material blend allows our pads to be thick, colorfast, soft, durable, and cushiony! By utilizing the pre-consumer textile waste of denim makers, we are annually saving 2.4 million pounds of manufacturing waste from decaying in a landfill. Making our furniture pads from recycled materials also means no additional pesticides, dyes or water are needed to grow or treat the cotton for our moving pads.

Biodegradable Packing Peanuts

Packing peanut litter won’t last long, because our non-toxic packing peanuts are 100% biodegradable and will dissolve completely in water. A special blend of corn and potato starch is used to create the dissolvable peanuts in lieu of non-degradable and non-recyclable Styrofoam. Customers who have used our biodegradable packing peanuts have helped keep more than 7,750,762 cubic feet of Styrofoam out of landfills.

 

Cheaper Is Not Better

These eco-friendly retail items cost U-Haul more in upfront costs than their cheaper, more common alternatives. U-Haul willingly absorbed those added costs knowing that these products are good for our customers and good for our Earth. U-Haul is proud to offer these and all your do-it-yourself moving supplies at an affordable price.  So go ahead and splurge on moving supplies you really need. Our sustainable retail products promise to relieve stress on the environment and your wallet.

This is a publication of U-Haul Corporate Sustainability

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