Friday 20 March 2020

Surfdome and Patagonia ride the wave of plastic-free packaging

Online sports retailer Surfdome has announced a partnership with outdoor clothing firm Patagonia to trial the removal of plastic polybags from clothes orders.

The companies aim to tackle plastic pollution and decrease lifecycle carbon emissions associated with their business models.

During the three-month trial, called Plastic Cutback, all Patagonia products sold on the Surfdome retail site will have the polybags removed 'at the very final moment' before the products are shipped to customers.

Figures suggest 80 billion items of clothing are sold a year and almost every one of these items is at some stage wrapped in a polybag - these bags are generally not recycled.

It is estimated a total of 72% of plastic ends up either in landfill or escaping into ecosystems - for poly bags that figure is as high as 90%.