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About Us

Transporting and Packaging

About Us

Transportation

Avoiding unnecessary transportation, getting materials close to the manufacturing site to reduce CO2 emissions and transporting as many goods as possible the most economical and environmentally-friendly way; these are our top priorities.
As soon as the goods have been produced and safely wrapped, they continue their journey like this:
  • Into the container it goes
  • By truck to the next port
  • By ship towards the port of Hamburg
  • A truck brings them directly to our main warehouse in Berlin
But there is more:
Direct shipment minimizes additional distances such as from Asian producers to Australian distribution partners. Air traffic? Only in very urgent cases. Instead, we make use of the new rail route from China to Germany; not only cheaper but also less CO2 emissions.
More than 500 retailers around the world sell Ucon Acrobatics. All the goods are currently manufactured in China and shipped from there.
About Us

Packaging

We want to reduce packaging and make it more sustainable. Currently we use two types of packaging:
1. Transport packaging – cardboard packaging that is stacked in overseas containers and later returned to the recycling process.
2. Product packaging to keep your new favorites shiny and clean.
We keep looking for more sustainable alternatives – especially for the latter – because until now plastic foils have wrapped our products.

What is the problem with plastic?

Plastics take decades or even centuries to decompose in nature and what happens with micro- and nano-plastics is still a mystery. Since we do not want to see landfills or the plastic soup in our oceans growing, we need a solution. For many there is only one: see plastic as a valuable, recyclable resource, support the recycling economy and invest in smarter recycling.
Problem #1: From the approximately 8.3 billion tons of plastic that came into circulation worldwide by 2017, only about nine percent were recycled1. Most of it ended up in waste incinerators, on landfills or even in the environment.
Problem #2: Separating waste cleanly and producing single-variety recycling materials require huge investments that many countries cannot afford.
More developed countries like Germany also face tough challenges. According to the industry association “Plastics Europe” only 16 out of the 46 kilograms of plastic waste produced by every German per year are recycled, i.e. melted down and processed into new products. Two kilos end up on the landfill, the remaining 28 kilos of plastic waste are “thermally recycled” in the waste incineration plant to generate electricity or heat. Yes, this saves coal or other fossil fuels, but the energy used to produce the plastic is wasted.
1 'What a Waste 2.0' Report, World Bank
Are bio-plastics a solution?
Bio in relation to plastics has two meanings:
Plastics from a renewable resource
Besides from crude oil, plastics can also be made from corn, potatoes, sugar cane or wood. But using food as a basis for packaging material? This faces a lot of criticism. Furthermore, the cultivation of the raw materials can damage the environment and bioplastic has the same disposal problem as plastics on a crude oil basis.
Biodegradable plastics
Would compostable bioplastic bags be the solution? Yes and no. This material decomposes in a comparatively short time, true, but only under specific conditions. Spoiler alert: the domestic compost heap rarely offers these conditions. In industrial composting plants we can see two clear problems: the compostable bags are often sorted with non-decomposable bags and they do not produce organic material because the process takes longer than, for example, the decomposition of banana peels.

What would be an alternative?

Recycled paper bags
Paper consists of the renewable raw material wood and is easy to recycle. In Germany around 75 percent of waste paper is used for the production of paper and cardboard. That’s why our smaller bags have been wrapped in recycled paper since the beginning of 2020. This is also used for transport packaging in our online shop. Two birds, one stone.

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The Brand

We established our opening collection in the early summer of 2001 with the vision to develop a lifestyle brand anchored by creativity, quality tailoring, innovative appliqués and ethical production. Read more...

Philosophy & Identity

Life in the city is something we’ve learnt to embrace. Appreciating the variety: a kaleidoscope of cultures all in one place. Read more...

Sustainable Enterpreneurship

We partner with outside associations to help us fulfill our mission to build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm and use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis. Read more...

Manufacturing

To bring our products alive, we work with carefully selected suppliers in China that we are constantly foster to meet our high standards. Read more...

Materials

Great products are built with great materials. To achieve this, the material development considers three principles: designing to last, exclusivity and collaboration. Read more...

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