Blog

Our thoughts on packaging

At Ultralight Outdoor Gear, we want to minimise our impact on the planet. That means we have a duty to look at our packaging and its impact on the environment.

The most important part of the process is what happens to these materials once they have fulfilled their purpose of safely transporting your order to your door. These materials become waste and what happens to that waste will depend on the person who receives the parcel. It may get recycled or it may not. Therefore, we must take responsibility and account for all outcomes when we decide on what packaging to use. We want to ensure that our packaging has minimal impact on the environment no matter where it ends up. We’re in the process of transforming the packaging we use to remove all plastic in order to ensure that everything is 100% bio-degradable. We’re 90% of the way there and we’re always looking for efficient ways into how to achieve 100% plastic-free packaging.

We aim to source our packaging from suppliers who are situated as close as possible to our location in order to minimise the carbon footprint of the journey the packaging will take to get to our warehouse. We also aim to select packaging that contains as close to 100% recycled content as possible.

Paper and carboard packaging often have a reportedly higher carbon footprint from the manufacturing processes and extra space it takes up in transit over polyurethane bags. This has been taken into account in our decision making and we believe that the long-term effect that plastic waste has on the environment is too great to continue to use it. Vehicles and manufacturing processes are becoming more & more efficient as well as the increased share of the energy mix that comes from renewable sources. We hope that these trends continue and significantly offset the impact of paper and cardboard packaging materials on the environment.

There are plenty of amazing positives about the use of paper and cardboard, not solely the 100% bio-degradable nature of the material. According to statistics collated by the Confederation of Paper Industries, whilst the paper industry drives growth in Europe’s forests, which are increasing in size, over 70% of the fibres used to make paper in the UK come from paper collected for recycling. Corrugated packaging is one of the most recycled materials with over 80% of all corrugated packaging being collected for recycling. Find out more from this interesting link: https://paper.org.uk/CPI/Content/Information/Myths-and-Facts.aspx

The products that we send may still be packaged in plastic packaging, this is direct from the brand and we have no control over the methods in which a brand packages their goods. A lot of our brands are striving to reduce their use of plastics and reduce the effects of their manufacturing processes on the environment and we will endeavour to provide feedback to the brands, where possible, to encourage them to reduce their use of plastics and harmful chemicals.

We naturally encourage our customers to recycle any waste packaging once you receive a delivery from us. You can find your local recycling points online here https://www.recyclenow.com/local-recycling

We will continue to monitor the packaging marketplace and will review our offering in an ongoing manner. If you would like to voice your opinion on this subject or if you have any further insight please email us with your thoughts, please title your message "UOG Packaging".