Scubapro Steps Up

In response to our campaign to eliminate singleuse plastic in packaging dive products, Scubapro contacted Undercurrent to explain what the company is doing about it.

Joe Stella, who runs the Scubapro brand for its owner, Johnson Outdoors, told us that starting next year, the dive gear manufacturer plans for all its snorkels and small dive accessories to be supplied in cartons, cotton shopping bags or recycled polypropylene. Fins will be shipped in either cardboard boxes or reusable bags. BCs will be supplied in boxes. And masks will no longer be packed in plastic bags inside their reusable plastic boxes.

To its credit, Scubapro started putting many of its smaller accessories in eco-minded cardboard boxes in 2017. Boots and gloves are supplied in reusable fabric bags, and regulators in cartons that can be reused or recycled.

Stella pointed out that in 2012, Scubapro was the first to introduce X-Foam, a limestone-based neoprene, for its wetsuits, together with solvent-free glue and dope-dyed yarn. Black carbon from recycled tires is imported into the neoprene to improve quality and aging.

Those moves look promising. Let's now hear from other manufacturers.