Pela: Your Plastic-free Compostable Phone Case

Well, this was the year. The year to finally upgrade my smartphone. At over 4 years old, it had lived twice the lifespan of its planned obsolescence, and was starting to slow down. 

This may be obvious, but the easiest way to save your wallet and the planet is to keep your smart phone as long as you can past its contract period. Smart phones contain rare earth elements that cause eco-destruction through mining, and by keeping your phone 4 years vs 2, you've reduced your impact by 50%. 

Further, make sure to trade in your previous phone. Verizon was willing to give me $800 credit for my old phone towards my $1200 new phone, and they will refurbish or recycle the old one. 

So now that I had a new phone, I needed a new protective case. (Another pet peeve: companies not making devices the same size so they can sell more accessories...)

Pela phone cases are an interesting option: they are made out of bioplastic and flax, and are 100% compostable. I've been following Pela for a few years, but when I purchased my last phone they didn't offer a lot of options, primarily being available for iPhones. They are now available in quite a variety of colors and designs, and for iPhone, Samsung Galaxy, and Google Pixel phones. 

Check out this beauty I ordered! 

The case arrived in a minimal paper envelope. Even better, you can send your old case back in the same envelope for proper disposal!

The case itself came with no product packaging. And if you follow the link to pela.earth/track, you'll learn all sorts of cool initiatives Pela is involved in (beyond the fact that their case sales to date have saved the equivalent of 63 million plastic bags!).

At $60, these cases are at the high end of the average price range, the same price as OtterBox. You can feel good about free shipping and new visitor discounts. 

Learn more at https://pelacase.com/.