Is Paper Shoot Camera An Eco-Friendly Company?
Eco-friendliness and sustainability are quickly becoming exponentially important to consumers. In a movement that's absolutely necessary to ensure our resources and protect our earth and its communities, it's not enough to just sell a product anymore. There's a dialogue that must follow in regard to a company's contributions to a growing market of sustainable and ethical products. We want to be open and honest in that dialogue as we don't believe in making sustainability claims to turn a profit without backing them up.
To begin with, we want to state that Paper Shoot Cameras are not a sustainable replacement for your phone cameras. We will never claim this and never have! They are, however, eco-friendly alternatives to disposables and film cameras, which have been growing in popularity in recent years specifically because people want breaks from their phones. The impact of phones and social media on our mental health is a WHOLE other blog post!
For a business to be considered green, sustainable, or eco-friendly, they generally need to show innovation and progress in the categories of environmentalism, community, and ethics. We have and continue to make strides in each level of our supply chain and plan to do so much more in the future!
Let's break down our efforts by category.
Our Environmentalism Mission
Our founder, George Lin, created the Paper Shoot camera in 2013 as an avid admirer of analog photography for his entire life, though he could never afford it when he was younger. He wanted to create a camera that was simple enough to be accessible to everyone, more cost-effective than analog photography, and gentler on our earth. That's when he came up with the Paper Shoot!
Paper Shoot Materials
Every part of the Paper Shoot Camera is made from recycled, repurposed, or biodegradable materials. When someone is done with their Paper Shoot, or it reaches the end of its life, we take back the camera and recycle it into a new one as opposed to letting it waste away in a landfill. Many of our parts are repurposed parts from larger tech companies that were on their way to landfills. We developed what would've been trash into these incredible little cameras!
The Paper Shoot is also digital. It is more cost-effective and eco-friendly as it eliminates the need for printing and developing, a process that relies on harsh chemicals and creates unnecessary waste!
Our Cameras
The Paper Shoot is an eco-friendly digital camera that aspires to promote forward-thinking and creativity. If you love disposable cameras for their simplicity, aesthetic, and the lack of screen or controls which allows you to live fully in the moment, but don't love the developing or added costs, you'll love the Paper Shoot.
Each Camera board on the website is the exact same - 16MP, automatic exposure adjustment, four filters (colour, black and white, sepia, and cool tone), and the ability to take video and timelapse. Paper Shoot's unique cases are water-resistant, highly durable, and interchangeable! The Paper Shoot Camera is the perfect travel companion, concert buddy, and everyday lifestyle camera that allows us to fully live in and appreciate the special moments of our lives as they happen in front of us.
60,000L de agua y 20 árboles salvados
Por cada tonelada de papel de piedra producido para crear las carcasas de Paper Shoot, se salvan 20 árboles y 60,000 litros de agua en comparación con la recuperación de papel a partir de pulpa o pulpa de madera.
16 millones de BTUs ahorrados
Por cada tonelada de papel de piedra producido para crear las carcasas de Paper Shoot, se ahorran 16 millones de BTUs en comparación con la recuperación de papel a partir de pulpa o pulpa de madera.
900 kg de CO2 evitados
Por cada tonelada de papel de piedra producido para crear las carcasas de Paper Shoot, se evitan 900 kg de emisiones de CO2 en comparación con la recuperación de papel a partir de pulpa o pulpa de madera.
Our Technology
Beginning with our camera boards, we manufacture them ourselves through a small team in Taiwan, where George lives. Our team makes each camera to order - this process, while not the most time-efficient or cost-effective means of production, eliminates mass factory production, mass chemical run-off, and the exploitation of labor. Paper Shoot also has its ROHS compliance, meaning that we've eliminated a laundry list of toxic and environmentally damaging chemicals from every level of our supply chain.
What Are Paper Shoot Camera Cases Made From?
When it comes to our cases, each material is 100% vegan and recycled. Our most popular style, the Paper Camera, is made from a material called Stone Paper, which is pressed inorganic limestone that is water-resistant and drop-proof. It uses no trees and no water to create, and the resin which binds it together is biodegradable. If you ever get tired of your Paper Shoot case, it will dissolve after a year of constant exposure to the elements, similar to eggshells. Some of our B2B models can even include plant seeds, so your case will turn into a plant once discarded! Aside from our Paper Camera model, our wooden cases are recycled, and our clear cases are composed of recycled fiberglass material. Our brass frames and screws are made from recycled brass, which also happens to be an infinitely recyclable material.
Paper Shoot's packaging is also recycled, and some parts are biodegradable.
Longevity
En su propósito fundamental, Paper Shoot fue creado para reemplazar productos desechables de un solo uso. Tanto los productos desechables como el filme requieren la generación casi constante de residuos para funcionar. ¡Debido a que Paper Shoot es digital, no hay residuos asociados con el uso de la cámara! La misma cámara se puede usar y recargar una y otra vez.
Las cámaras Paper Shoot también están diseñadas para durar. Muchos cuestionan la sinceridad de nuestra sostenibilidad ya que nuestras baterías son extraíbles, ¡pero Paper Shoot requiere baterías recargables para funcionar! Al permitir que se puedan quitar, mejoramos la vida útil de la cámara; la mayoría de las empresas tienen baterías patentadas incorporadas que requieren dinero adicional y un proceso completamente patentado para solucionar cualquier problema asociado con la batería. Hemos eliminado tanto la fuente de energía como el componente de almacenamiento de la cámara para que cualquier problema causado por la batería o el almacenamiento se pueda resolver simplemente reemplazando la batería o la tarjeta SD.
Para obtener más información sobre la resolución de problemas, consulte nuestra página de resolución de problemas.
Community
Paper Shoot quiere retribuir y se preocupa profundamente por sus comunidades. Al crecer en Taiwán, la familia de George nunca pudo permitirse cámaras y tiene muy pocas fotos de sus abuelos y su hermano, quienes han fallecido. Cuando se convirtió en un innovador y desarrolló una pasión por el medio ambiente, quiso crear una cámara lo suficientemente simple como para ser accesible para todos, incluso aquellos que viven en pequeñas aldeas sin electricidad. Esta es otra razón por la que Paper Shoot utiliza baterías en lugar de tener un cargador incorporado. Incluso aquellos que no tienen acceso a la electricidad pueden disfrutar de las cámaras y capturar recuerdos.
Cada venta de Paper Shoot se destina a donar una cámara a un niño que de otro modo no podría permitírsela. Hasta ahora, hemos donado más de 10,000 cámaras. También hemos comenzado nuestra línea de cámaras benéficas, donde cada venta de la colección va a nuestras organizaciones benéficas asociadas.
Ethics & Work Standards
Paper Shoot believes in fairly compensating our workers, and we want to assure them of their immense value to our company. By opting to keep workers in the supply chain instead of replacing our production lines with mass factory production robots, we can provide jobs and stability for the Taiwanese community. At every level of the company, all workers make living wages, and each employee is treated with the gratitude, respect, and kindness that they deserve. Our warehouses meet global standards for ethical production in regard to our wages, safety, cleanliness, discrimination, working hours, and child labor: we do not employ any person under 18 years of age at any level of our company worldwide.
So, Is Paper Shoot Camera Eco-Friendly?
Paper Shoot is an incredible eco-friendly and ethically produced alternative to disposable, digital, and film cameras that can help you focus more on your life, get off your phone, and live in the moment! If you are happy with your phone or another camera, then by all means - keep it! Whatever you already have is the most sustainable. We aren't interested in tricking or manipulating our customers and followers into believing that our cameras are the last man standing between environmental destruction and salvation. But, if you struggle with phone addiction/anxiety, are a film photographer or someone interested in film who's looking to cut their costs and reduce their waste emissions, or sometimes take a disposable with you on a night out, the Paper Shoot is a great eco-friendly choice!
No company is perfect. We will never claim to be, and given the nature of the world that we live in, we can't be. We will, however, always promise to try and will continue to develop policies and means of production and distribution that will further protect our planet and its communities.
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