New products
As some of you may know, I sell Tenkara accessories online. My latest addition is 100% recycled plastic versions of my Tenkara products.
The plastic isn’t made of old bottles or anything, it’s “post industrial waste.” I order it from a company that blends together scraps leftover from manufacturing. The plastic is still good quality, but the color is unusual due to being a blend. It reminds me of when I would mix every color of paint together as a kid. There’s even some glitter(?) in there.
Check them out here: https://teaandtroutdotcom.etsy.com/listing/4505234864/magnetic-tenkara-line-spools-2-pack-made
Recycled winders and rod mounts (not pictured) are also available. If this is popular, I may keep it around long-term, but for now this is just a limited scale experiment.
Sustainability
To me, the “environment” isn’t some far-off place, it’s where the fish live. Knee deep in the creek, I see it for myself.
As an angler, I feel responsibility for the environment, and this applies to my small Tenkara business too. I try to pick the eco option, even when it costs a bit more. After all, my customers are anglers too. However, it’s hard to get around the fact that my products are made of plastic.
A few months back I started seriously looking for environmentally friendly plastic. There’s plastic made of just about everything these days: plants, bacteria, you name it. Each option comes with different tradeoffs. After a lot of looking, I settled on this one: plastic made of plastic.
In my search for sustainable plastics, I came across an interesting concept called green washing. With how trendy environmental options are these days, companies have started spinning everything as eco, even when it isn’t. It can be hard to spot it at a distance, but the devil is in the details. That plant-based plastic I mentioned earlier, you probably assumed its biodegradable. It’s not. I guess all this to say, while my recycled plastic products are better for the planet, they still have an environmental impact.
