Sustainability
We are a small brand and we are not going to claim we have solved anything. What we can do is be specific about the choices we make, including the ones we have not solved yet.
The most sustainable object is the one you keep
This matters more than packaging, more than carbon labels, more than anything else on this page. A vase that survives thirty years and three house moves has a lower footprint than any number of “eco” pieces bought and discarded in the same period.
Two decisions follow from that. First, we fire to 1300°C so the body is vitrified rather than porous — it will not craze, stain or degrade in a dishwasher. Second, we make white. No seasonal colours, no trend-chasing shapes; a piece bought this year will still sit correctly beside one bought in five.
Designing something you will not want to replace is the only sustainability claim we are fully confident in.
Packaging
- Unbleached recycled kraft outer box. Recyclable kerbside anywhere in the US.
- Die-cut moulded fibre cradle per piece — not polystyrene, not plastic clamshell. It is also the reason breakage in transit is rare.
- Paper tape, so the whole box goes in one recycling stream without disassembly.
- No plastic void fill, no branded tissue, no printed insert card you will throw away within a minute.
- Right-sized boxes. Oversized parcels ship air. We use three box sizes and pick the smallest that works.
The gift note, when you request one, is written by hand on uncoated card — no plastic lamination, no foil.
Making, in Dehua
Local clay, minimal transport
The clay is quarried within the region the kilns sit in. Dehua has been a porcelain town for more than five centuries precisely because the raw material is under it; the supply chain for the body itself is measured in kilometres, not continents.
What a high firing costs, honestly
1300°C is energy-intensive. We are not going to pretend otherwise. The trade is durability: a vitrified piece that lasts decades against a low-fired piece that crazes and is replaced. Modern kilns in Dehua are largely gas-fired and computer-controlled, which is significantly cleaner than the coal kilns the town used historically, but it is still the biggest single input in the whole process.
Waste in the workshop
Trimmings and unfired rejects are reclaimed — wet clay goes back into the pug mill and is thrown again. Once a piece is fired it cannot be reclaimed, which is one more reason forms are checked before the kiln rather than after.
Shipping
Stock moves from Dehua to a US fulfillment partner in consolidated sea freight, not air. Sea freight is dramatically lower-carbon per kilogram, and it is why we hold inventory in the US rather than drop-shipping each order individually from overseas — one container beats a thousand air parcels.
The trade-off is honest: it means occasional gaps when a piece sells out between shipments. We would rather tell you the next restock date than air-freight one vase.
Materials and safety
- Lead-free and cadmium-free, third-party lab tested. The white body carries no colourant at all.
- Underglaze cobalt only on painted pieces — sealed beneath the glaze by the firing, so nothing can leach or wear off.
- No lustre or metallic overglaze, which is where heavy metals usually enter decorative ceramics.
What we have not solved
Being specific here matters more than a badge.
- We do not currently offset the kiln firing. We would rather not buy a cheap certificate and call it neutral.
- Return shipping is single-parcel and unoptimised — too small a volume to consolidate.
- We do not yet have a take-back or repair programme. For a chipped piece, the honest advice today is in our care guide: retire it to flowers rather than bin it.
If any of this changes, we will update this page rather than announce it. Questions or challenges are welcome at support@purekiln.com — if we have got something wrong we would rather know.
More on how pieces are made: From Dehua to Your Home. More on the brand: our story.