Scotch & Soda adds compostable packaging in major eco drive

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Dec 3, 2021

Given the rapid growth of e-commerce, packaging is one of the big bugbears for consumers trying to live more sustainable lives and brands and retailers are responding to this. Now Scotch & Soda has announced a partnership with TIPA, a company that creates compostable and biodegradable packaging solutions. 

It’s using bioplastic TIPA bags is part of the brand’s “aim to step away from conventional plastic polybags for all product categories by 2025, supporting the brand’s sustainability mission to contribute to environmental protection”.

The initiative also includes a facility for consumers to drop off their used bags at the brand’s stores for composting, starting with its two London stores, followed by key locations in Amsterdam, Paris and New York in 2022.

The move was announced on Friday ahead of (and in honour of) Sunday’s World Soil Day and it said that next year, a minimum of one million of Scotch & Soda’s garments will be packed in the new bags. 

For spring and summer 2022, the bags will represent 21% of total product packaging and will be used for high-volume items, such as T-shirts, jeans, sweatshirts, sweaters and shirts, throughout menswear, womenswear and kidswear. 

The company said that to protect garments in transit and ensure orders arrive in good condition, packaging is unavoidable. Polybags made of Polyethylene (PE) – a polymer derived from fossil fuels – were traditionally the best packaging option, as they offer maximum protection. “However, an average of 58% of global non-fibre plastic consumption ends up in landfill and natural ecosystems, taking hundreds of years to break down and leaking potentially toxic substances into water and soil”, it added.

TIPA’s “innovative” packaging solutions are claimed to “offer the same level of protection as conventional polybags but are less dependent on fossil fuels and allow for composting at end of life, as opposed to landfill and incineration only”. 

The bio-based plastics are made either wholly or partially from renewable biological resources, such as sugar cane or corn starch. Even with a fossil fuel element in them, the new bags are designed to fully disintegrate over a three-to-six-month period. 

TIPA co-founder and CEO Daphna Nissenbaum said: “Consumers are more educated than ever about the impact of plastic packaging waste, and numerous studies we have conducted across Europe show that they have come to expect compostable packaging from the companies they purchase from.”

And Scotch & Soda’s Sustainability Director Jelle de Jong added: “We believe there is room for improvement when it comes to the implementation, collection and composting of bioplastic packaging in the fashion industry. By working together with TIPA and local waste processors, we hope a product traditionally considered as waste will through the composting process return nutrients to the soil.”