Sailflags achieve Plastic Free Status

Sailflags have recently achieved Plastic Free Approved Status through The Plastic Free Communities Scheme run by Surfers Against Sewage.

The company have gone to great lengths to reduce single use plastics within the business by embracing a number of initiatives, including:

• Packaging products in cardboard, paper (new and salvaged) and recycled or salvaged plastic
• Using used or salvaged bubble wrap for delicate items
• Sealing packages for dispatch with paper packing tape
• Stopped printing on PVC and use a water-based printed fabric
• Instructed a key German supplier to stop wrapping in plastic bags, saving 4000 bags per year.
• Expanded and discounted plastic free products
• Launched a unique “ECOTEX” range of banners & flags, made from recycled materials
• Trialling a new wooden base for flags

In addition:

8/10 of Sailflags staff cycle or walk to work

Carbon Neutral for over ten years

Most local deliveries are done using an electric vehicle

Peter Williams, Managing Director commented

“We need to reduce the amount of plastic in the environment and we’ve got to start somewhere. It just seems like a completely natural thing to do. Why put more plastic into the environment? There are plenty of other options available.

“It hasn’t been hard at all, in fact it’s been quite easy. Luckily we had already been very conscious of it and we’ve slowly been asking our suppliers to stop sending plastic. If they want to keep our custom they’ve got to do it, so we’ve got slightly the upper hand because we can dictate what we want as a business.

“The only plastic we were generating was goods that came in from other suppliers and it’s down to us to put that pressure on. That pressure is passed to us from our customers, so it works its way back through the chain and eventually the manufacturers will start thinking about how they package things and how to start reducing plastic”