PLASTIC....STILL NOT SO FANTASTIC

It’s been pretty much year to the day since we returned from our plastic ridden trip to the west coast of Scotland. After a long weekend bouldering and biking around the most westerly point on the British mainland, we came back with a fierce conviction to reduce our plastic usage and minimize our carbon footprint. We there and then made a public commitment to start making changes and to develop a much more planet friendly company.

So here we are, we’ve just returned from this year’s trip to the same spot and we thought it about time we give everyone a quick update on the anti CO2, positive plastic action we’ve been taking over the last year.

D2W

You may have noticed that biodegradable delivery packaging is one of the major changes we’ve managed to bring into effect recently. D2W is an additive that can be added to plastic during manufacture. It “accelerates the natural process of oxidation until the product is no longer a plastic, but a material which can be bio-assimilated.” This simply means that if the worst happens, and one of our bags misses the bin or doesn’t get recycled, and ends up floating around in the ocean, or flapping about in the branches of a tree, the bag will end up as food for fungi or bacteria, rather than ending up in the mouth of a turtle.

PAPER PACKAGING

Biodegradable mail is a step we’re really proud of making. But for our actual product packaging, we’re trying to go one better with compostable and recyclable brown paper or cardboard. All of our brushes and nut key removers already have this cardboard packaging, so we decided to go further and roll out similar packaging for our newer and most popular products, all replacing plastic. Obviously we do have some current stock with plastic packaging, which we are working through. But we have drawn a line under this. All our new stock of; chalk bags, rope bags, carabiners and loose chalk will be packaged in simple brown paper, which can easily be recycled or composted.

CARBON FOOTPRINT

As well as reducing the amount of plastic we’re responsible for at Psychi. We’re also making a concerted effort to reduce our overall carbon footprint. Over the last year, we have dramatically reduced the amount of air freight shipments we use and consolidated our container shipments. This means we’re cutting down the CO2 with less trips between us and our suppliers. In tandem with this, we are looking to turn away from long haul shipments coming in from abroad. By turning to more local suppliers we can both support UK business and further minimize the amount of CO2 our shipments are responsible for. It’s a win, win for us, and although it’s a long process, we feel it’s a big step towards sustainability and a more eco-friendly way of providing really good equipment without costing the earth.

WORK STILL TO BE DONE

Taking action against our consumption of single-use plastic and reducing our carbon footprint is something we’re keen to continue here at Psychi. But we’re also concerned with the amount of litter that is still out there, finding its way through our river systems and into our oceans. Whenever we take a climbing trip somewhere or go for a wander out into the hills, we always try and take away any litter we see with us, in an attempt to leave the area better than we found it. Which gave us an idea, why not get you lot involved as well! We’ve decided to run a new competition on Instagram where the Psychi community can send us pictures of their litter picking prowess. Be it a beach clean or filling a bag at the crag, we’ll be giving away prizes at random. So don’t be afraid to grab a crisp packet here and there and let us know about it over on Instagram!