Saltrock fighting coastline destruction

Mary Youlden
Authored by Mary Youlden
Posted Friday, January 30, 2015 - 4:18pm

Saltrock now charges 5p for every carrier bag given out in all stores across the country, and every penny collected is donated directly to coastal charity Surfers Against Sewage.

Saltrock hopes that by taking this company wide decision it can raise both awareness and funds for the charity to fight the causes of coastal damage.

“Surfers Against Sewage is a cause close to our hearts here at Saltrock,” says Saltrock spokesperson Katie Goodfellow.

“SAS are a fantastic team who are passionate about what they do and fight hard to protect something vitally important to all of us – our coastline. We’re proud to be in a position to help them and to do our bit to care for our beaches, our seas and the plants and animals that rely on it for survival.”

“We’re aware that as a retailer we have a responsibility to take our role in this seriously, and so have taken the decision to charge 5p for every Saltrock bag used across all stores. We hope that this will help to encourage people to remember their reusable bags and also raise money for the charity that works hard to reduce the damage we all inflict on our environment.”

“We don’t want to profit from this initiative but see it as a chance to raise money for a worthy cause, and we hope that our customers will join us in the journey.”

Head of Retail Sean Burch explains, “We trialed the initiative in two stores and received an overwhelmingly positive reaction from our customers. People realised the significance of what we were doing and were happy to pay 5p for a bag as the money goes straight to SAS.”

“More recently all our new stores have opened with the bag charging already in place, and bringing in the plan to our remaining existing stores is the final step in creating a company wide pledge to reducing the harm we do to our environment.”

SAS will use the money raised to fund vital work around the UK’s coastline and the team at Saltrock are excited that this small charge per bag will add up to make a significant difference to our UK environment.

“SAS is delighted to be extending its partnership with Saltrock, a brand that has been supporting SAS for 25 years,” says Hugo Tagholm, SAS Chief Executive. 

“It’s fantastic that one of the UK’s leading surf brands is making this commitment to the environment and the money raised will play a vital part in helping us to keep the UK’s oceans, waves and beaches clean. We’d like to thank the team at Saltrock for their support and look forward to working with them for man.y more years.”

Saltrock MD Angus Thomson is proud that the company he founded with his brother back in 1988 is taking this important step. 

“Our commitment to the SAS is one step in a large evolution for Saltrock,” says Angus.

“We are a company of water users and nature lovers and we’ve always been aware of the impact we have on our environment. We’ve always tried to minimise our impact, and as we expand we want to do this in a responsible way. We are working towards a carbon neutral pledge and are also developing several further charitable initiatives to protect the people and places our business impacts.”

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