Ethics

 

We’ve made some pretty lofty ethical choices in this little business. And whilst we’re not quite perfect yet, every single decision we make, from the packaging tape we buy to the leather hides we use, is made with purpose and is the best environmental and ethical choice we can make at that particular time.

Packaging

We use kraft paper and card which has a high % of recycled paper within. All of our packaging is plastic free allowing you to scrunch it up and place it in your home compost bin or cardboard recycling bag. This includes the paper tape, wrapping paper and/or cardboard box.

Of course, if you can reuse any of this material yourself first, that’s even better!

Shipping labels

At this time the best option for shipping labels we have is to use thermal printed shipping labels. Sadly these are not recyclable or home compostable and must go into general waste.

Please note that the thermal labels we use are BPA and BPS free.

Leather 

All leather hides used are waste from the beef industry*, so no animal is harmed just to produce these products.

As leather eventually decomposes, it will return to the soil unlike ‘vegan’ leathers which are made of plastic and will last indefinitely. 

*If animal skins aren’t turned leather, they would end up in landfill which brings about even more ecological issues.

Veg tanned or chrome tanned?

We only use leather that has been ‘veg’ or ‘vegetable tanned’. This means that the cow hides are turned into leather using the tannins naturally found in some plant material. This process takes months and is more costly than chrome tanned leather.

The other, cheaper, type of leather available is known as ‘chrome tanned’. This hours rather than month to tan an animal skin into a leather hide, and it is done by soaking the skin in a noxious bath of chemicals.

This can result in dangerous ecological waste at the tanning site and nasty side effects for the leather workers. It is however much cheaper to produce.