One huge headache that we knew was coming towards us was packaging. Every finished textile product lands in a plastic polybag. The only „reason“ for that immensely high use of plastic is the ensured stain and liquid protection of said final products, plus it is the cheapest option. The reason might be simple, but all the advantages you give up in not using those bags are big. We felt it’s our responsibility to not support one of fashion’s worst contributions to global (micro)plastic pollution.
Sometimes when you dig deep, you tend to lose sight of the wood for the trees and the missing piece of the packaging puzzle hides in plain sight. We really dangled in the ropes, looking for all kinds of complicated logistic solutions, frustrated and exhausted. We talked to some great companies for biodegradable, alternative-sourced and recycled plastics, but for us there were too many con’s. It sounds all great, but not real workable in daily consumer’s lives and the end-of-life of those plastics is not guaranteed. We really wanted to avoid plastics and we were really glad that Valerius supported our process.
Then it struck us like a lightning, made of pure obviousness. Why don’t we just use the shipping packaging as the first and only packaging for the product? This way our portuguese partners will pack our garments not in typical polybags as the last step. They pack them right into our shipping carton. We will receive it, are able to check quality and then it goes directly to you. All steps, one packaging.
We went with recycled FSC paper in the beginning. We are already working on using an alternative material, which we will introduce soon!
