Plastic-Free July

In case you didn’t know, it’s Plastic-Free July.

The intention for this month is to help millions of people across the world be part of the solution to plastic pollution and the effect it has on the planet.

Being plastic-free is a big part of our key messaging here at The Cheeky Panda – whether we’re talking about our plastic-free range of products, our bamboo straws or our microplastic-free wipes. We’re passionate when it comes to reducing our use of plastic.

We’re also passionate about being honest and transparent, especially with our fans and customers (you lovely lot). 

And when it comes to plastic, we’re not perfect.

But we’re trying.

The good, the bad and the plastic

First: The Good. Always start with the good, that’s the rule, right? 

Since switching our 4s and 9s packs of toilet roll, we’ve saved 6.95 tons of plastic. That’s equivalent to around 46 GIANT PANDAS-worth of plastic. 

That’s a lot of plastic.

How did we make the decision to switch from pesky plastic packaging to purely paper?

Well, back in 2020, we decided to Be Brave.

Until then, when we started selling sustainable solutions in 2016, our toilet rolls arrived at your door and in store in plastic. At this point in time, we were selling on Amazon, and we began to get some negative reviews for the amount of plastic in our packaging.

We’re a sustainable company, right? Why are we wrapping eco-friendly, bamboo loo rolls in Earth-damaging plastic?

Well, the plastic we used IS recyclable, but we wanted to do better.

And rather than just accept bad reviews and criticism and continue as we were, we took the feedback from our audience and got to work. 

Paper, please

We forged the fancy paper packaging you now see wrapped lovingly around our bamboo loo rolls to both reduce our plastic usage and to improve our sustainable credentials.

This wasn’t necessarily an easy swap for us. Our old plastic toilet rolls had a lot of positive reviews on Amazon and were a bestseller.

Taking them off to create a new listing with the new paper version meant we’d lose all of those amazing reviews from happy customers and meant we’d have to start from scratch with the new version.

But we did it, because we needed to be brave and make the switch, not just for reviews, but for the planet and for you, too. We believe in sustainability, and we put people and planet above profit.

Now our rolls are lovingly wrapped in paper, which not only helps the Earth, but looks and feels much better, too. Plus, you can reuse it for things like origami or colouring in.

Can’t do that with rubbish old plastic, can you?

THE BAD

Now, the bad. It was inevitable, we tried to avoid it but here we go.

We tell you the bad because we think you deserve to hear it. It’s not something we hide behind, it’s something we’re working on, we can be better, we can be more sustainable. 

Our wipes (facial, baby, antibac) are still in plastic packaging. This is purely because we haven’t yet figured out how to change the packaging to keep the wipes fresh - but we’re working on it.

The issue is keeping the wipes wet, because nobody wants a dry wipe (we have a product already for that, but those are MEANT to be dry).

Yes, our wipes are in recyclable plastic. But that’s not necessarily good enough to help the planet as much as we want to.

As we grow as a business - from humble beginnings to where we are now - we will continue to improve ourselves and find new ways of being better, greener and cleaner. So bare with us and we’ll work hard toward eradicating our plastic use. 

Another good thing!

We couldn’t end on a bad thing. The GOOD thing about our wipes is that they contain no microplastics.  

You know that stuff that’s floating around the ocean? Microplastics end up in our water and in our food supply. It’s even estimated that we eat one credit card of microplastic a week Reuters

Yeah, gross right?

Those can be found in a lot of bog-standard wipes. They’re out there, ruining oceans and destroying forests.

Our wipes, as you may already know, are made purely from that glorious material, bamboo. 

We’re a much greener, more sustainable option than other wipes out there, rest assured. And we’ll continue to improve so it stays that way, too.

So, we’re going to continue to champion our plastic-free credentials, while working on the other elements of our products that can be improved.

If you have any questions about our products, or you just fancy a natter just drop us a message on social media or via email (info@cheekypanda.com) and we’d be happy to have a cheeky chat.

As always, thank you for the support. And happy Plastic-Free July!

Love,
Team Cheeky Panda x