Plastic Free July 2023

Happy Plastic-Free July to all you lovely readers.

This month is all about communicating to millions of people around the world why we need to end plastic pollution, and fast!

Reducing plastic consumption is a big part of our mission here at The Cheeky Panda and we are always looking for how we can reduce plastic across all our operations.

And when it comes to plastic, we’re still not perfect, but we are trying.

So, what have we achieved? 

We have removed all plastic packaging from our toilet roll, kitchen roll and single pocket tissue range. This wasn’t always the case however, only a couple of years ago we were still selling plastic wrapped toilet roll but we knew this didn’t align with our sustainability goals, so we ditched all the plastic and switched to paper packaging instead. We love it, our customers love it and most importantly, the earth loves it.

Since the start of 2023 we have saved over 17,000kg of plastic through our range of plastic free products, that’s the equivalent of 125 giant pandas!

So, we touched on the good, now for the bad… 

We sell products that still come in plastic. There, we said it, BUT we aren’t ashamed of the bad, and we don’t try to hide it. We are working on it, and we WILL be better.

Today, our range of wipes, nappies and multipack tissues come in plastic packaging. Why? Because we haven’t been able to find a suitable alternative. The team behind The Cheeky Panda are always looking for alternatives and when we find the right one, we will be ditching all this plastic too.

In the meantime, we ensure all our plastic packaging is 100% recyclable and we now incorporate 30% recycled content into our new packaging, oh and we NEVER use micro-plastics in our wipes. In fact, all our wipes are made 100% biodegradable bamboo, so bear with us and we’ll work hard toward eradicating our plastic use in our packaging too.

So what are our plans for the future?

We will continue to champion plastic-free products and work hard on the areas of our business that can be improved. We are product that over half of our products are plastic free, and we are working towards better targets for the future. So, bear with us, we are working on being better – that’s a promise.

Now we have outlined our plans as a business, lets finish on some super easy ways you can get involved this Plastic Free July:

• Get your hands on a reusable coffee cup and water bottle, seems small but it makes a huge difference!
• Remember your reusable bag when you shop, canvas totes or bags for life are a must!
• Reduce the plastic in your beauty routine, try using shampoo bars and toothpaste tabs and check to see if your beauty wipes are plastic free yet (we know a great alternative if not…)
• Wrap your food in alternatives to cling film – beeswax wraps are a great, plastic free alternative or simply pop your leftovers in a reusable container and ditch the wrapping all together.

Have you got any more great tips that we have missed? Let us know in the comments below!

Thanks for reading, we’ll see you next time!