Sustainability Promise
OUR COMPANY
PacaPod is designed by a working mum, based in beautiful North Devon. We are lucky enough to be a stone’s throw from beaches, wild moorland and a designated UNESCO biosphere reserve. Having this much nature around us serves as a permanent reminder of why we accept responsibility for the impact of our business. All our staff are encouraged to either cycle or take public transport to get to work each day, we provide each of them with refillable water bottles on day one and have banned no single use plastics.
PRODUCTS
At the core of our values are our environmental protection policy and sustainable moral decisions in quality and choices. This is important to us and important for the planet. We want to show you the life cycle of a PacaPod changing bag to show our current efforts towards sustainability. We refuse to be led by trends that will make your bag look old before its time – Instead, we work with a classic colour palette that means your unique changing bag will be just as stylish for baby number 4 as it was for your first born, beyond the baby years. The ability to purchase new or additonal pods from us also meas that you can revamp your bag to revive it for baby no.2.
FABRICS AND TRIMS
We ensure that we work hard to only use fabrics and trims of excellent quality and with the least impactful impression on the environment, whilst meeting the rigorous testing standards for abrasion, colour fastness and chemical composition. This is a journey we are dedicated to, every time we make an improvement we ensure this is filtered through to any new products we develop. We have introduced recycled polyester in the outer pod fabric is made from RPET, which is recycled eco polyester fabric that has been created by recycling plastic bottles.
Polyester fabrics are both durable and high performance. What makes them even better is utilising plastic bottles (otherwise destined for landfill) in their manufacture. Clear plastic bottles are broken down and processed into polyester yarn which is then closely woven to produce the fabric for our standard pods.
Not only are we recycling plastic bottles reducing landfill and therefore pollution, the actual manufacturing process uses up to 53% less energy and is far less harmful to the environment than producing virgin polyester too. Added to this, recycled polyesters can be repeatedly recycled in the future with no reduction in quality.
Most of our fabrics are treated with a DWR (durable water repellent) finish making it easier to wipe clean whilst also protecting the contents from the elements. You can trust that all treatments used are free of any unpleasant chemicals.
The protective packaging on our bags is recycled and recyclable, the hangtags are paper or cardboard and we've removed unnecessary packaging, replaced by QR codes should you wish to get more information on your purchase, all the products.
OUR SUPPLY CHAIN
Whilst the design work is done at head office, we have partnered with some world-class partners to make the finished product and have over 13 years of relationships that we have built. We have a brilliant local team who visit them regularly and see the same faces every time – the high staff turnover a lot of the industry faces isn’t evident with our suppliers, as the staff are paid fairly and treated with respect.
TRANSPORTING
When it comes to getting the finished luxury changing bags back to the UK, it’s important to us that we tread lightly. Our bags are always shipped and never flown to ensure as small a carbon footprint as possible. We make sure to fill each container until it’s fit to burst to ensure the journey is justified.
To get the products from us to you, we’ve picked courier partners who are also trying to limit their impact. Our couriers are carbon neutral and are always looking at new ways to improve their efficiency.
PACKAGING
We use biodegradable shipping bags – within 18 months of you receiving your order, the mailing bag will be gone and also cornstarch bags that are compostable on slower moving items.
HIGH QUALITY
We’re proud of the high standard of our products that gives them a long life span. You fell in love with your PacaPod while preparing for baby 1 – you aren’t going to want to give that up when it comes to your next baby. Our popular changing bags are built to last, and the beauty of our 3-in-1 system is that you can upcycle parts of your PacaPod for each baby. Say your changer pod was extremely well-used the first time around and no longer a hygienic space – we sell replacement parts to freshen up your bag.
"The greenest product is one that already exists"
REUSE
We know that occasionally something might go wrong with a bag. We think even slightly imperfect bags deserve a chance to shine as your number 1 accessory which is why we have our own eBay store. This is an opportunity for us to sell samples, seconds and refurbished bags that otherwise wouldn’t get a lot of love.
RECYCLE
When your baby bag has had one too many squishy bananas rubbed into the lining and it’s time to reluctantly give it up, we offer a recycling scheme. It’s really important to us that none of our 3-in-1 unique bags end up as landfill when they’re made of such precious resource. We’re more than happy to have your bag sent back to us. We collect pre-loved bags until we have enough to fill a lorry (again, we want to justify our space on the road here) and then send them to our recycling partners. The changing bags are hand-sorted into those definitely at the end of their life and those with a bit more to give. If they really are unusable, they are stripped into component parts and turned into things like car upholstery. Those not quite at the end are sent to Africa for refurbishment and a brand new life with a brand new family.
