Sustainability
It’s not easy in business to be sustainable or eco-friendly as consumerism is mainly driven by price, but one of our missions is to use our business to try to raise awareness of environmental issues, this has lead us to ask the question of ourselves and our suppliers – Can we do better? If we keep asking the question it helps us to change our environmental impact for the better. We are not perfect but we are moving in the right direction.
Eco-friendly and Recycled Tow Floats.
In 2018 Puffin Swim was the first company to launch an Eco-friendly tow float in the UK – the Puffin Billy Eco15 ( and now the Eco25) are made with bio-degradable TPU a material that is much better for the environment than the more often used PVC.
PVC is toxic in its manufacture and disposal so the compact Billy Eco15 and larger Eco25 use a PVC-free material called TPU this helps us to reduce our use of PVC. TPU is a quality material suited to inflatable floats and arguably better than the PVC it replaces.
The Billy Eco range of floats continues to be popular and in Summer 2021 we improved the eco-credentials of these floats further by replacing the nylon in them with recycled PET plastic. PET plastic is plastic bottles and food trays recycled into RPET.
In April 2021 Puffin Swim had another first with the launch of our recycled range; a fabulous family of swim tow floats and drybags made with recycled plastic and PVC, the Billy R20 Recycled Drybag and the Billy R28 Recycled drybag and the Bubble Eco tow float all use recycled PET plastic in their construction. Using recycled materials helps reduce the amount of plastic going to landfill and is much more sustainable.
Packaging
Where possible we have chosen to reduce our product packaging and remove unnecessary plastic packaging, examples include the Waterproof Waist Pouches, Waterproof Phone Pouches, swim caps, and safety whistles where we have rejected the plastic packaging, and some of these items come wrapped in tissue paper.
We haven’t been able to remove all packaging from the floats as these need something for protection and to hold everything together on their shipping journey. Currently, our floats are packed in polythene bags which can be recycled time and time again, we hope you can re-purpose or recycle the plastic pouch in which your float comes. We are looking at suitable eco-friendly alternatives.
Our postal packaging is mainly made from party recycled contents or is recyclable.
We have listened to our customers and also redesigned elements of our products that we needed to make more durable. We make quality floats designed to give you great service.
We know we can do better and we will continue to challenge our suppliers and ourselves, and with the help of our customers, we will do better.
Thank you for choosing Puffin Swim, a small family business based in the Lake District.
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