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Packaging Recycling Program

REDUCE LANDFILL WITH THE DERIVAN CLAM RECYCLING PROGRAM. 

Send your Derivan/Matisse "tube clams" back to us via Reply Paid Post and help save the world! ...less landfill is a beautiful thing!!

Although we Australians love our sun burnt country, we are still highly dependent on landfill as a way to dispose off our waste. Over time, this landfill produces gases that contribute to global warming and toxic chemicals that can leech into the surrounding soil, and can affect the quality of our vegetation and water systems. Clearly, this isn’t an ideal situation.

At Derivan we take the environment and its long-term sustainability very seriously - we have implemented several programs to lighten our company’s environmental footprint already, with official commendations for our efforts. We have long believed in that the creation of art products shouldn’t come at any cost to the environment. 

We’ve already implemented a number of programs in our packaging selection criteria and production stages that help to minimize any wastage. The next stage in our program gives you the opportunity to help the environment with us by contributing to our Clam Recycling initiative.

The first step in recycling is RE-USE. At Derivan we believe we have some of the best packaging (from an environmental stand point) around; recyclable PET containers where possible and recycled cartons. However, one thing better than recycling is using packaging again without having to transform it and re-manufacture.

In order to ship our products to you safely and without damage, we use plastic shells that are referred to as “clams”. They are used to protect our plastic and aluminium tubes of the various Derivan and Matisse paint ranges. While these clams are fully recyclable PET (Category 1) plastic, we have been running a program for a number of years, asking all of our clients to participate in our efforts to reduce our environmental footprint by being part of this most effective form of recycling; re-using packaging already in use.

This initiative is not an exercise in cost cutting. Shipping long distances via air or sea freight, one of the major users of energy, creates significant amounts of Carbon Dioxide adding to our environmental footprint. Also most of the carbon dioxide emissions in the manufacturing process come from the energy needed in the industrial plants to convert raw materials to plastic pellets.

So, in environmental and financial terms there is a zero sum gain in the purchasing and manufacturing of new clam packaging when there are other, more ecologically sound, alternatives available (reusing for example), however the real gain is in yet another reduction of our ecological footprint.

Taking part in this long-term initiative is simple and it will not cost you anything. All you have to do is collect and pack a minimum of 50 Derivan/Matisse tube clams (please do not send other companies’ clam packaging and containers to us) and return them to us by Australia Post reply paid.

You're helping save thousands of packages like these

Please be assured this is not an exercise in cost cutting as the freight will outweigh the price of buying the clams new. So in financial terms there is a zero sum gain, however the real gain is in yet another reduction of our environmental footprint.

How do I return the clams to Derivan?

There are two easy ways to do this:

  1. Give them to your Derivan Sales Representative. All of our sales representatives accept clean clams and will return them to Derivan.

    By Post for Free. Pack your clams into a box and address to the following: 

    Reply Paid 84430

    Derivan Pty Ltd Unit 4/23 Leeds St

    Rhodes NSW 2138

Take the box your local post office (only from within Australia) and it will returned to us with no cost to you.

If either of these options is not convenient, our clams have a recycling classification of Category 1, meaning that many domestic and commercial recycling programs accept them. Check with your local council for verification


We encourage you to find opportunities like this initiative to reduce our carbon footprint and contribute to minimise our ecological and climate change impact.

REMEMBER... , IF IT ISN'T RECYCLED, IT'S LANDFILL!!

RETHINK; REDUCE; REUSE; RECYCLE