Plastic Free Tape

Plastic Free Tape ⭐⭐⭐⭐/⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Why Try This Alternative?

Presents are a big part of Christmas, a celebration of love and gratitude to those around you. Part of Christmas that I enjoy is buying and wrapping presents, it always makes me feel very festive. I saw plastic free tape as a way to make this more sustainable. I probably use about 3 or 4 pieces of tape per present, so although it represents a very small amount of plastic, any opportunity to change is a good one.

My Swap

For this trial, I had a whole team of helpers. Three different households, trying two different types of plastic free tape:

• A paper tape from StikkyTape (£3.88 for 50m, 7.8p per meter)
• A plant based tape from Sellotape (£2.50 for 30m, 8.3p per meter)

In comparison, Sellotape charge between 4 and 2.6p per meter for their non biodegradable tape.

Our Findings

For the brown paper tape there was the general consensus that it was very good, but not so pretty. This year my family has been wrapping the majority of our presents in brown wrapping paper which works well with the tape. It blends into the colour of the paper, and is less noticeable than if you use regular tape, however with non-brown wrapping paper it stands out and does not look as good.

However, the brown paper tape is very sticky, more so than I anticipated it would be. Because of this you need less, therefore lasting longer. As I do not have a price comparison for the brown tape, I am not able to say whether this makes it financially viable. Positives aside from the main properties of tape include; not needing scissors to cut it, the end is easy to find, and that you can write on it. Because of this, I used the brown tape to label food containers. These labels have has so far lasted through three cycles of the dishwasher, and counting. This illustrates just how sticky and durable the tape is.

With the plant based Sellotape, I found it is 'prettier' than the brown tape, but not quite as sticky. It is on par with how adhesive regular tape is, just not as sticky as the brown tape. Just like the brown tape, you don't need scissors, and it tears slightly neater than the brown paper tape does. Another benefit is that it doesn't 'flick' in the same way that regular tape does, making it easier to handle and less likely to stick to other things before you have the chance to use it. This is potentially because it is noticeably thicker. It also means that the end is easy to find, saving much time and frustration when wrapping presents.

When I initially looked into buying the plastic free Sellotape, it was a product I was weary may be 'Green Washing'. The packaging does state that it meets the Industry Composting Standards, however these do not outline home composting suitability.

Conclusion

I would recommend both these products highly, however recognise that they do have their downsides depending on what you intend to use them for. If, like us, you are using brown paper to wrap up presents this year, I would recommend the Paper Tape highly, rating it 5 stars. Even my family, who at times I struggle getting on board with products, have been very impressed with the brown tape. One also added that using brown paper and brown tape, gave an added sense of satisfaction to wrapping up presents.

I would say that I prefer the brown tape to the plant based tape, however the plastic free Sellotape is still better than it's plastic based counterpart. It is more diverse for use throughout the year than the brown tape, the only downfall is the higher price.

Overall, both products deserve four stars; this would be five but have some downfalls depending on your use.