the great compostaball
The chalk ball problem:
Single use chalk balls, the type you see sold for £2-3.50 are made with non-recyclable materials. Single use AND non-recyclable means they end up in landfill. Millions of these things… this doesn’t sit well with us. How about you?
The refillable chalk balls available are made with non-recyclable materials and climbers complain of them breaking prematurely and easily. They can cost up to £15 and when they break quickly not only are they as bad for the environment but are you really going to buy another one at that price? So most people resort back to single use and the environmental consequences continue.
Gekco’s solution:
100% plant based, tough, long lasting hemp refillable chalk ball suited to climbers
Once at the end of its life it will biodegrade back to natural and organic components in compost.
An affordable price of ~ £7.50 saving you money with every refill compared with single use (£1.10 using Gekco chalk).
We first started trialing our refillable hemp chalk balls back in June of this year but we’ve kept them relatively low profile until now. Soft launching them into a few of our core stockists, at this point we wanted to make sure they worked for all of our loyal fanbase of climbers, so our main objective was to gather feedback.
We’d rigorously and continuously tested their performance across our team, making sure they released just the right amount. We then got some of the local stronger than the strongest ox youths to try them out and the results were in… we seemed to have landed on an all round winner. You lovely climbers were psyched for an all round better chalk ball, one that was more environmentally friendly and that actually worked pretty well.
But there was one piece of unfinished business that stopped us from being happy announcing these to the world. The toggle.
Such a small and simple element, but one that despite our best efforts, months into searching for eco-friendly versions, the best we could source that would work, was a recyclable plastic toggle with metal spring. This really, really really bugged us. There are some products that at this time we just cannot avoid using plastic for, so for these products we operate reuse policies. But for the ball… it was so close to being fully eco-friendly that we just couldn’t settle for it.
The time came in October when the idea popped into our heads. WOOD. It’s not conventionally used so I expected many challenges; would it hold the ball shut, would it clog up, would it break, would sourcing be an issue, would we need to make them? The answer initially was yes to all of those. But eventually we landed on a style that worked perfectly and stood the test of time. Like many things, we had to make them ourselves but it connects us more to the products and means our quality control is unparalleled.
Finally we were content that we’d crafted these to be the most environmentally friendly chalk ball on the planet. Fully biodegradable and 100% plant based. So here’s our little humble chalk ball, say hello to the world…
Why did we choose hemp you may ask?
Firstly we needed an organic fibre, the materials used for chalk balls at the moment are combinations of polyester, nylon, elastane etc. Hemp is a bit of a wonder plant. It’s been used successfully and chosen over other materials for centuries. Sadly in the past 80 years with tighter regulations on growing and processing and a rise in use of cotton, its use dwindled. Marijuana taxes and stigma of drug use and racism surrounding hemp resulted in a decline in its use, even though hemp obviously has no drug value. We’re finally seeing a bit of a revival in demand as the benefits of hemp are resurfacing and regulation is more manageable. With its comparably light impact on the environment when compared with even organic grown cotton, it’s becoming favoured.
There are many more benefits to hemp than we can list here but the major ones are:
Biodegradable
Antibacterial & antimicrobial
5 x more durable than cotton
Carbon sink
Promotes soil regeneration
5% of the water required for cotton
250% more yield per same unit of land compared with cotton.