Plastic wipes are being wiped out!

It finally happened this week – wet wipes containing plastic are being banned from sale in the UK, with legislation announced by the Environment Secretary this week.

When we launched Pura in 2020, 90% of wipes sold in the UK contained plastic. Through our Angry Babies Campaign, discussions with MPs, retailers and parents, we’ve worked tirelessly to wipe out plastic wipes - educating people about the problem and offering parents a viable alternative. Here’s a quick snapshot of our journey.  

Born to wipe out plastic wipes

When our founders Guy and Abi Fennell were preparing to have their first baby, they were amazed by the ridiculous amount of baby waste everywhere. Looking into it, they found that 90% of the wipes sold in the UK contain plastic, but nobody really knew about this. 

Pura was born to educate parents – providing you and your babies with a better option – our 100% plastic-free baby wipes. Convenient, planet-friendly and skin friendly.  

Hey big people 

Our award-winning Angry Babies campaign, including our television commercial used humour to let people know that there was hidden plastic in wipes – and babies everywhere were not going to stand for it!  

Plastic is not fantastic

As well as our advert and our social media channels, our founder Guy continued to strive for a ban talking to MPs and retailers about plastic in wipes and urging people to join our plastic-free revolution.  

Wherever we could, we supported other calls to ban plastic wipes – such as the campaign by Labour MP Fleur Anderson.  

We were delighted when many retailers moved to ban wet wipes containing plastics from their stores. 

The ban 

The government ban, which was announced this week, follows a consultation late last year, which showed overwhelming public support for the move. A previous consultation, in 2021, also found more than 90% of people were in favour of a ban. 

Although it’s has taken longer than we hoped, we are delighted that the government is finally taking action. 

As a parent buying Pura wipes, you have been part of the plastic revolution – doing your best for your baby and your planet. Great job!  

We all have a collective responsibility to protect the world our children will grow up in and rest assured that it will always be Pura’s mission will always be to put babies and the planet first. If you want to find out how we’re campaigning to educate people on the benefits of nappy recycling head here.