A Book Found In An Urban Outfitters About Reducing Plastic Waste Seems To Be Packaged In Plastic

“We and our vendors have a lot of work to do ending old habits and being better in all we do,” the company told BuzzFeed News in response to the ironic shipping package for the book.

really enjoying the fact that urban outfitters decided to wrap this book in plastic

A viral tweet from user @sarahlostctrl holding a book supplied by Urban Outfitters about limiting plastic waste is being called out...because it appears to be wrapped in plastic. The optics have caused a lot of confusion and discussion online.

The book, published by Seven Dials, a nonfiction subsector of Orion Publishing Group based in the UK, is called F**k Plastic: 101 Ways to Free Yourself From Plastic and Save the World.

Sarah, the Twitter user, told BuzzFeed News she spotted it in an Urban Outfitters in London, and "thought that the obvious hypocrisy was funny, but also sad," she said.

"It always saddens me to see brands 'greenwashing' and utilizing sustainability not as a necessary important movement but a bandwagon they can jump on and profit from without actually impacting positive change," Sarah added.

In response to people tagging and calling on Urban Outfitters to address the issue, the company told BuzzFeed News it is aiming to “remove the use of unnecessary plastic” in its distribution channels.

“As a brand we are moving as quickly as possible to remove the use of unnecessary plastic in our shipping and distribution processes, while also protecting products from being damaged in transit,” a representative wrote in a statement Tuesday.

BuzzFeed News reached back out to Urban Outfitters asking if it’s taking any direct action about the book in question. It has not yet responded.

However, the issue seems to have been consistently brought up over the past few years that the book has been in circulation — before it got to Urban Outfitters.

went to @UrbanOutfitters yesterday and they’re selling a book called ‘F**K PLASTIC’ and it’s, well, wrapped in plastic? #whatisthis

Specifically, on Amazon, where customers have hilariously complained about the irony.

BuzzFeed News has reached out to the publishing company Orion and Seven Dials for comment.

For now, Urban Outfitters said it’s implementing a “recycling program” for its plastic shipping waste.

“We are also setting a recycling program in place for shipping plastic,” the spokesperson said.

“We and our vendors have a lot of work to do ending old habits and being better in all we do.”

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