We sent you a product without a plastic bag.

The Single Use Plastics Project

Industry-wide problems demand an industry-sized response. For this reason, over 30 brands and retailers from the outdoor industry are working together to take responsibility for single use plastic packaging. One solution we are testing is to remove and properly care for protective plastic bags before they are sent to our customers. Use the link below to submit your feedback now, or continue reading to learn more.

This is the problem we see:

Plastic protects.

The most unsustainable packaging is the one where the product is damaged. We rely on plastic bags to ensure your products are protected from dirt, moisture, and damage when they are en route. Even as new alternatives to plastics are being explored, there is a large quantity of plastic that is being wasted.

Plastic bag waste is a huge problem.

The single use plastics problem is frequently over-simplified. The reality of what happens to a plastic bag is much more complicated.

The current system is linear.

It relies on consumers to be responsible, and municipalities to be capable of caring for plastic bags. Currently, products are placed in protective plastic bags at the manufacturer and stay that way until they are taken out by the consumer after a purchase. The plastic bag is then discarded.

Consumers should be responsible, and municipalities should be capable, but we can help too.

Our goal is to make things a bit more round.

We would like to strip off plastic after it has ensured your product has safely arrived at our facilities. We send you the product, and then make sure the plastic is cared for and recycled. To do this we have joined together in a pan-European collaboration with specific recyclers who we can trust will keep these plastic bags far away from landfills or incinerators.

We can create an industry-sized stream of clean, pre-sorted, homogenous plastics. These could be used for new products or even potentially in future generations of plastic bags.

This only works when we work together

This idea only works at an industry level — when multiple partnerships and organisations are cooperating. We also need your support. Sending you a product without a plastic bag may seem simple, but it actually can be quite complex. We need your feedback to improve the process, and to let us know how important this is to you. Please tell us about your experience by submitting feedback.

The Single Use Plastics Project is an initiative of the European Outdoor Group