This is part of, says Dennis, a bold initiative to be one of the first UK zero waste publications.
After a successful trial period, Science+Nature magazine will shed their polywrap in favour of no packaging at all from July, closely followed by The Week Junior in August. The magazines will be sent ‘naked’ via post to subscribers, making the magazine 100% recyclable for recipients.
Dennis has also announced the rollout of paper wrapping on three other brands: evo, Octane & Cyclist. Dennis says it is continuing to evaluate the options for the rest of their print portfolio.
Stephen Catherall, Head of Production at Dennis said: “Although our whole portfolio currently mails in recyclable polywrap, we appreciate this cannot always be done kerbside. We knew something needed to be done, what has taken some time is exploring all of the options available to us. What we didn't want to do was to jump straight in and make a decision without knowing all of the facts. It had to be the right long term sustainable solution for the brand.”
“After successful trials I am delighted that we are in a position to mail both Science+Nature and The Week Junior naked with no wrap whatsoever - unbeatable in its recyclability. We are also pleased to be rolling out Cyclist, Octane and evo to a paper wrapped solution. Dennis are committed to ensuring all of our paper is sustainably sourced from wood raw materials from responsibly managed forests and controlled sources, so we feel this is another great solution.”
Anna Bassi, Editor-in-chief of The Week Junior and Science+Nature said: “Our readers are passionate about protecting the environment and we are determined to help create a cleaner, more sustainable future for them. We devote a lot of editorial space to the problems created by plastic pollution so it is only right that we do our bit towards saving the planet. Ditching our wrapper and going ‘naked’ is a brilliantly simple solution, and having trialled the initiative on a sample of several thousand subscribers we know that our readers are overwhelmingly in favour of this decision. I hope we will blaze a trail for other children’s magazine publishers to adopt smart sustainable delivery solutions too.”
Dennis has published the following timetable:
- Science + Nature, go naked, on 19th July, issue 12
- The Week Junior, go naked, on 10th August, issue 191
- Evo, move to paper wrap, on 19th October, issue 267
- Cyclist, move to paper wrap, on 9th October, issue 93
- Octane, move to paper wrap, on 23rd October, issue 198
