Back in the beginning in 2015 we started by shipping t-shirts in plastic bags because it was the only viable option. We didn't actually know if anyone would buy a tee, so we took a punt on a box of bags to see what would happen (gulp!).

Turns out people love tees so as soon as we could, we moved to shipping in cardboard boxes. We also moved to tissue paper for packing inside the boxes too – no more polystyrene peanuts and no more crumpled tees!

And so it began...

As we started selling more tees, we became aware of a growing number of 'earth friendly' tee shirt and hoodie makers. We now use two suppliers who specialise in offering sustainable clothing.

What does this actually mean?

It means 100% ceritified organic and recycled products. It means verified ethical manufacture audited annually in accordance with International Labour Organisation’s conventions. It means manufacturing powered by green renewable energy to reduce carbon footprint. And it means state-of-the-art effulent treatment plants to remove toxic elements from the water used in the making process, making it safe to reuse.

Plastisol. The most commonly used ink for printing designs onto garments, and as the name suggests its a polymer/plastic-based material.

This type of ink is great for getting bright colours when screen printing onto t-shirts. However, after digging into it a bit more we discovered that we could actually move towards printing with water-based, organic inks instead. In fact one of our suppliers will only use organic, water-based inks. So we started the switch on all new printing since mid-2020.

It's pretty bloomin' awesome that the That Pedal Show community fill their wardrobes and washing lines with TPS tees and hoodies. For which we thank you!

This has enabled us to consider not only how they're made but WHERE they're printed. So these days we get all our tees and hoodies printed locally in Somerset... No more than 10.6 miles away to be exact.

This makes us happy for two reasons: firstly, it's local which minimises the environmental transport impact. Secondly it helps support superb independent businesses in our area of the UK.

Having used an old-fashioned hand-held tape gun to stick literally thousands of boxes together we'd had enough. There had to be a better way...so in 2021 we made the move to gummed paper tape and we LOVE it. Goodbye sticky parcel tape, hello biodegradable, bespoke paper tape, and a groovy water-activation machine which Mick loves almost as much as That Pedal Dog Rosie!

We've always manually checked, folded and then poly-bagged TPS tees. This keeps 'em fresh and protects them until they find their new homes. However, the only real solution for bagging was a 'knitwear' bag made from clear polypropylene. They worked well for a few years but we wanted something better. Who knew how hard it would be to find good quality paper bags (not us!). We even looked at getting them made but we couldn't make the minimum quantities. So, we kept on searching and FINALLY we found our awesome orange tee-bags. So, we're working hard on phasing out the poly bags and upping the orange in all our lives!

You'll see that we are donating to planting trees when we get an order at the TPS Store. Well actually YOU are!

We've been looking at this for a long while and in June 2022 we finally took the plunge. We're working with Eden Reforestation Projects who are trying to make a difference globally, both with trees and people.

We're starting small target of 150 trees a month to get us going. It's got to be worth a try.

From small acorns...🌳🌳🌳

Germany enacted the Packaging Act (VerpackG) in an effort to bring about a significant increase in recycling rates for waste packaging materials.

The Act affects not only German companies, it's also for all international retailers and manufacturers that ship goods to customers in Germany. The aim is that all companies have to contribute to the costs of collecting, sorting and recycling the packaging waste that is created in Germany by paying a ‘licence fee’. All kinds of packaging that ultimately end up with and have to be disposed of by German end-users must be licensed.

So, That Pedal Show has registered with Central Agency Packaging Register (ZSVR), pays it's licence fees and monitors the amount of packaging we send to Germany on a regular basis.