Sustainable Gifts For Outdoorsy People, Honestly

Most sustainable gift guides are a bit of a con, and I say that as somebody who would benefit from you not noticing.

A thing is not green because it has a leaf on the label. It is not green because the box is brown. And a brand new object made from scratch out of new material, shipped from the other side of the world, does not stop being that because 20% of it is recycled.

So here is the honest version, including the bits that do not flatter me.

Recycling is the third best option

The order that actually matters is: do not buy it, buy it second hand, keep the material working as it is, and only then break it down and remake it.

Recycling sits near the bottom because breaking a material down costs energy and usually gives you something worse than you started with. Rope is a good example. It is nylon core, nylon sheath, often different grades, full of chalk and grit. Nobody has built a plant to properly separate that for the small amount of rope the climbing world produces.

So with rope, reuse wins every time. Do not break it down. Use it as it is.

The numbers behind one rope

One climbing rope costs about 46.6 kg of CO2 to make, roughly half of that the nylon itself. It gets retired after five to ten years because the core wears where you cannot see it, which is the right call and not negotiable.

Then it goes in a bin, because there is no UK collection scheme. Mammut ran one in Switzerland and got 748 kg back in three months across 50 drop-off points, which tells you people will do it if somebody organises it. Nobody has here.

All that carbon is already spent. The genuinely sustainable move is not making more nylon. It is making the nylon that exists do another twenty years of work.

Gifts that stand up to the question

Rope belt, £28 or £33. One 50 metre rope makes three or four. Cut to exact waist, 22 to 50 inches. Recycled climbing rope belts.

Dog lead, £30. About one per rope. Climbing rope dog leads.

Rope bracelet, £10, and earrings, £18. Made from the lengths too short for a belt. Bracelets here.

Keychains, £3 to £15. Made from the offcuts of the offcuts. This is the bit I am proudest of, because it means nothing is wasted. Keychains.

Recycled plastic hexagon coaster, £8. Melted from milk bottle caps. The first batch came out genuinely ugly and I put it on the internet anyway.

Rope bowl, £55. Hours of coiling and stitching. Three left.

The bit that does not flatter me

Buying nothing is greener than buying from me. If the person you are shopping for does not need anything, that is the right answer and I will not pretend otherwise.

But if you are buying something regardless, buy the thing that keeps a material working, comes from a person you can email, and travels from Aberdeen rather than a container port.

Better still, do the free version: if you have a retired rope in a cupboard, send it to me. That keeps material out of the ground and costs you the price of a jiffy bag.

Less waste. More miles.

Stay classy and remember,
Make Waste Useful.

George