Online sports specialist Surfdome has teamed up with outdoor clothing company Patagonia to trial the removal of plastic polybags from clothes orders in a way that doesn’t impact product quality or generate an increase in lifecycle carbon emissions.
The two companies worked together on a three-month trial, from March to June, to remove the plastic polybags from clothing orders. Research suggests that an estimated 180 billion polybags are produced each year globally, but due to the materials low value, the bags aren’t usually collected for recycling and often end up as waste. 72% of plastic still winds up either in landfill or escaping into ecosystems. For poly bags that figure is as high as 90%.
Under the trial, called Plastic Cutback, all Patagonia (@patagonia) products sold on the Surfdome (@Surfdome) retail site had the polybags removed “at the very final moment” before the products are shipped to customers.
In a statement, Surfdome said: “In 2019 our own packaging was 99.81% plastic-free; 99.44% was made up of recycled natural fibres. But that’s just ‘outbound’ packaging, the packaging on top of the packaging. There’s still the ‘inbound’ packaging to worry about – products arrive at our warehouse in poly bags, which are passed on to customers, who inevitably struggle to reach one of the few collection points where poly bags are accepted for recycling.”
“So, for every Patagonia product purchased during the Plastic Cutback trial, we’ll do that bit for you: remove the poly bag for the last and least intensive leg of its journey. It’s easier for us, as we can recycle in bulk via a trusted third party. Your Better Sweater still gets to you safe and sound, and we’ll make sure the poly bag is recycled properly.”
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