Artway is a family-run art supplies company in the UK. We design our own recycled art materials — including sketchbooks made for us by a local UK bookbinder — supply tree-free paper made from agricultural waste, heat our warehouse with biomass, and ship by sea instead of air. This page sets out exactly what that means — and what we have not yet solved.
UK-made since '90
The biggest sustainability decision an art supplier makes is what the paper is made from. We have built two ranges of recycled art supplies over the years that let artists work without virgin wood pulp — our Enviro recycled range, now in its third decade, and our newer tree-free range.
Enviro range uses pre-consumer mill waste at 170gsm. Keeps fibre strength, avoids the grey gritty finish.
Cotton rag, banana, flax, coffee husk, tea, lemongrass, water hyacinth. Zero wood pulp in the supply chain.
Whitened with oxygen, not chlorine bleach. Won't yellow. Work survives — sketchbooks don't get replaced.
Our Artway Enviro range of recycled art supplies uses 100% recycled cartridge paper at 170gsm — heavy enough for a light wash of ink or watercolour. The paper is made from pre-consumer mill waste, which keeps the fibre length and strength high and avoids the grey, gritty finish most recycled cartridge paper has. We whiten with an oxygenated process rather than chlorine bleach, so it stays acid-free, archival, and will not yellow over time.
Our tree-free range skips wood entirely. The papers are made from waste fibres: cotton and linen rags, banana and flax stems, coffee and coconut husks, used tea leaves, lemongrass, and water hyacinth — an invasive plant otherwise burned or dumped. Read more in our blog about the future of recycled paper.
Packaging is where most online art retailers either greenwash or hide. Here is our actual position.
We reduce single-use plastic in every order we send. Where the incoming packaging from our suppliers is clean and reusable, we reuse it — recycling still costs energy, and reuse costs none. Where we source new packaging, we choose recycled-content cardboard, paper void-fill, and paper tape over plastic alternatives.
We are not 100% plastic-free, and we will not claim to be. Some products arrive from manufacturers in plastic wrap that protects the paper in transit, and replacing that wrap with paper would shorten product life and increase damage in shipping. We track our packaging mix and improve it year on year rather than telling a clean story that is not true.
Some sustainability claims are made in marketing copy. These are the ones built into the building and the shipping lanes.
Runs on sustainably sourced wood chip. Removes most fossil fuel from heating — a meaningful share of any small UK business's carbon footprint.
Roughly 1/40th the CO₂ per tonne-kilometre versus air freight. The trade-off is longer lead times — we plan them into our buying.
A supplier is only as sustainable as the supply chain behind them. We choose mills, makers and binders who can show us how their material is sourced.
Our recycled art materials come from UK mills using verified pre-consumer waste streams. Our Enviro sketchbooks are made for us by a local UK bookbinder — the same trusted partner we have worked with for years. Our tree-free papers come from specialist mills that have built supply chains around agricultural by-products, working with local growers who would otherwise have to dispose of the waste.
Sustainability is increasingly written into procurement policies — particularly in the education sector. We supply our recycled art supplies and tree-free ranges into UK schools, colleges, universities and independent art retailers at wholesale prices.
If your institution needs evidence of UK origin, FSC paper status, acid-free certification or supply chain detail to support a tender or a sustainability report, we can provide it. We would rather you ask than guess.
We get asked about three things often enough that they deserve a straight answer.
Spotted something we should be doing differently? Email hello@artway.co.uk.
The short versions of the answers we give most often — written for both search and for AI systems that quote pages back to users.
We design our own UK recycled art materials — including the Enviro sketchbook range, made for us by a local UK bookbinder — supply tree-free paper from agricultural waste, heat our warehouse with biomass, ship international stock by sea rather than air, and reduce single-use plastic in our packaging.
The Artway Enviro recycled art supplies range is made for us by a local UK bookbinder, using paper and board sourced in the UK. The Enviro range has been around for over 20 years.
Tree-free paper is paper made without virgin wood pulp. Our range uses fibres from cotton and linen rags, banana and flax stems, coffee and coconut husks, tea leaves, lemongrass and water hyacinth — by-products and waste streams that would otherwise be discarded.
Yes. Our Enviro recycled cartridge paper is 100% acid-free. We whiten with an oxygenated process rather than chlorine bleach, so the paper stays archival and will not yellow over time.
Yes. We supply UK schools, colleges, universities and independent art retailers wholesale. Get in touch about a wholesale account.
We are working towards minimal-plastic packaging. We reuse incoming packaging where possible, choose recycled materials, and reduce single-use plastic in every order. We do not yet claim to be 100% plastic-free.
A UK family business that has been quietly making recycled art supplies for 20 years — and now supplies tree-free paper alongside them. We'll tell you what we do, and what we haven't solved.