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Pela Case Review: The World’s First Compostable Phone Case
Reviewed by Valeria L. Palmertree
Last Updated January 2022
If you’re in the market for a new phone case, but also want to decrease your carbon footprint, the Pela Case may be just what you’ve been looking for.
Featured Product: Pela Case Lavender Ridge Clear Case
The Pela Case Lavender Ridge Clear Case is one of the first compostable phone cases in the world. This clear case line features a few different color options, including lavender. The clear case is made up of 100% recyclable bio-based polymers. While the colored ridge is made up of Flaxstic™, which is a combination of flaxseed and bio-based polymers. The case is strong, yet visually pleasing.
Featured In This Review
Lavender Ridge Clear Case
$35.96
It’s time to make a case for our phones and our planet. Pela’s Lavender Ridge Clear Case is a completely recyclable, strong yet flexible protection for any iPhone.
Get 15% OFF, sitewide, with code FASCINATION15
Ratings Breakdown
QUALITY
★★★★★
The Pela Case is an easy fit for all phone options. The cases are soft, durable, flexible, and stylish.
VALUE
★★★★★
Pricing is competitive. The fact that all of their phone cases are compostable just increases the value for the price point.
CUSTOMER
EXPERIENCE
★★★★★
Finding a good pair of computer glasses can be tricky. Luckily, Felix Gray has great blue-blocking technology with stylish prices.
BRAND
★★★★★
The Pela brand has created a waste free product in an environment that hasn’t been able to achieve this yet.
Who Is Pela Case?
Pela was developed out of a desire to create a product that wouldn’t continue to harm the environment. Phone cases are a necessity in today’s society, but that doesn’t mean they have to continue to affect our children and our children’s children for generations to come.
Pela Case was founded by Jeremy Lang. While playing with his young son at the beach, he continually found discarded plastic washed ashore. In that moment, he knew he wanted to make a change to help the environment for generations to come. He settled on redesigning phone cases as the best way he could help. Since these are something most consumers use regularly, they seemed like a good place to start.
Since the average person can keep their phone for 2-3 years, that’s a whole lot of plastic phone case waste just sitting out there in the environment. Pela began creating 100% compostable phone cases to solve this problem. Their goal is to get more and more people to switch to compostable phone cases and other associated products to decrease the amount of plastic in the environment. And they are doing so by making their cases affordable.
They also partner with multiple organizations to give back, including Save the Waves.
Pros
- Eco-friendly and biodegradable
- iPhone and Android options
- Light and stylish
- Tough cases that stand up to many phone drops
- 5% of the profit goes to environmental organizations
- Will recycle your old phone case
Cons
- Designs and engraving options have less color choices
- Screen protection can be a bit tricky to navigate
Pela Case Compostable Phone Case Reviews
We tried 3 different phone cases by Pela, to ensure we had enough diversity to make an educated decision about their phone cases.
Blush Sister Case
The Pela Blush Sister Case was definitely the statement piece of the group. This was due to the fun, yet subtle, designs of different breast shapes engraved in the case. The case itself was an understated blush color, which I actually really liked.
This case was soft and smooth to the touch, pliable and durable. I really like the cases in this line because of how soft they feel and the different engraving options.
Featured In This Review
Blush Sister Case
$35.96
Engraved with a design of women’s breasts, this case is soft yet firm, and fully capable of protecting any phone it envelops.
Get 15% OFF, sitewide, with code FASCINATION15
Green Summit Case
The Green Summit Case was similar to the Blush Sister Case when in terms of the material touch-and-feel. They are from the same line, which means this case was also soft, pliable, and durable. The design and color on this one was a bit different, though. This case was darker green with an engraving of a forested mountain range on the back. I drop tested this case from 20 feet high, and it came back without any scratches or damage to the case or the phone.
Featured In This Review
Green Summit Case
$35.96
Emblazoned with a forest mountain and colored a verdant green, the Summit Case is every bit the perfect representative of Pela’s case for the environment.
Get 15% OFF, sitewide, with code FASCINATION15
Lavender Ridge Clear Case
The Lavender Ridge Clear Case is one of the many, diverse color options for Pela’s ridge case model. The case fit snugly to my phone and was both lightweight and easy to handle. It also, didn’t add excess bulk (like some phone cases do), which made it easy to slide into my pockets, and even easier to grip.
I performed phone drop tests with this case for over a week (all on purpose, thanks to the texture of the lavender ridge material), and didn’t experience any damage to the case or to my phone.
Featured In This Review
Lavender Ridge Clear Case
$35.96
It’s time to make a case for our phones and our planet. Pela’s Lavender Ridge Clear Case is a completely recyclable, strong yet flexible protection for any iPhone.
Get 15% OFF, sitewide, with code FASCINATION15
How Well Does Pela Case Perform?
The Pela cases perform exceedingly well compared to other phone cases. The fit is nice and snug for all phone models they support. Upon many drop tests executed, these cases performed the same and/or better than other cases we have.
Pela cases are also the only phone cases that are 100% compostable. There are other phone cases that claim to be biodegradable, but Pela cases perform exponentially better than those. Why? Well, it comes down to a crucial difference between being biodegradable, like other eco-friendly phone cases, and compostable, like Pela Case. Pela Case puts it like this:
Biodegradable
“While it truly depends on who is defining the term, biodegradable typically means natural organisms (fungi, bacteria, algae, and bugs) must be able to reduce that product to natural elements within a year’s time. If the product is destined for the landfill, it doesn’t matter what it’s made of. It won’t breakdown there, so the biodegradable claim falls apart.”
Compostable
“If something is compostable, it is by definition biodegradable—all compostable materials can be broken down by living organisms within a year. However, compostable materials surpass biodegradable materials in two crucial ways: They must be non-toxic, and They must be capable of transforming from waste to food.”
So, simply put, Pela leads the pack when it comes to environmentally-conscious cases because they hold themselves to a higher standard of product quality, production, and performance. Also, according to independent testing by the brand, we can see just how much faster a Pela phone case returns to the environment.
Is Pela Case Good Quality?
Finding good quality phone cases can be a difficult task these days. Since everything is made faster and cheaper, the quality tends to suffer. However, Pela is different in this genre also. They use a combination of biopolymers and Flaxstic™. These two products together are what makes the case so strong, yet flexible and also compostable.
The technology that Pela uses is made in Canada. According to the brand, manufacturing of these products helps to reduce greenhouse gases and non-renewable energy use also.
The main ingredient in Flaxstic™ is flax husk, which is typically seen as waste and burned. However, the flax husk is extremely light, flexible and strong. So, it makes a great quality phone case that can withstand regular, every day abuse, and then some.
Pela Case Coupons & Discounts
Pela Case offers an immediate 10% off coupon just by signing up for their email list. They claim that this 10% coupon never expires. So, if you’re thinking about getting a Pela Case at any point in time, it may be beneficial to go ahead and sign up. They also offer free shipping on any orders over $20, which is pretty much everything.
Sometimes you can find a few one off discounts in other places, but they can be hit or miss. Luckily, we just happen to have a Pela Case discount code to share with you. Get 15% off sitewide with code FASCINATION15.
FAQs
Every phone case and phone case company have slightly different ways of doing things. Naturally, with Pela Case’s one-of-a-kind compostable materials, there are some facts that pertain specifically to them.
Pela Case Summary
Overall, Pela Case has been doing a great job of bringing compostable phone cases to the world. Since we all switch phones so often, this helps to reduce how many phone cases end up in landfills every year. Which also helps reduce our individual carbon footprints.
Plus, they have quite a few unique and beautiful styles to choose from. So, if you have one of the phones they currently support, it may be worth it to give their compostable phone cases a try.