The most sustainable clothes pegs

*We are not affiliated with any peg brand, we just want less waste going to landfills, so want to tell everyone about the alternatives to plastic and wood.

“A great product. Everyone should ditch their routine of buying plastic pegs over and over, and instead use these. No brainer.”

Hayley Brown, Deeside, on K-Peg metal pegs

Does it pain you to be forever throwing away clothes pegs?

Us too!

That's why, when we were told about life-long lasting clothes pegs, we were jumping for joy!

The life of the clothes peg…

Before metal pegs came along (onto our radar, anyway), we had a mix of wooden and plastic pegs. A real jumble of stragglers that somehow seemed to have survived, singularly or in pairs, from original packs of about 20.

The plastic pegs’ demise usually comes from the sun causing them to go brittle and snap as you attempt to squeeze them to hold up your sheets.

And wooden pegs usually break because the clasp (part of the spring) that holds the structure together, twists as you squeeze it, so the opposite sticks of wood escape and make a leap of faith to the earth below.

It is usually possible to fix these (albeit a fiddly job). But in the rush of family life, and the never-ending list of things to do, who does?

Or they just go green and leave marks on your nice clean clothes.

Even for the most patient of people, cleaning and repairing, won’t make them last forever.

The first we heard about metal pegs…

One weekend, spent with our friends Emily, Jimmy and their then 1-year old Izora, we were introduced to ‘the metal peg’.

They told us that their friends Amy and Stuart had set up a plastic-free shop in Barry, called Awesome Wales (a blog about them is coming soon).

The metal clothes pegs they bought from them were stainless steel, so wouldn’t rust or break. Immediately we realised that what we were being told, was going to change our clothes-peg-life from now on, and it did.

Save the planet, no more broken pegs going to landfill!

This was the-beginning-of-the-end of the broken-peg-landfill saga. Broken plastic and wooden pegs aren’t widely recycled. Because they are mixed material, they often get thrown out.

Now we could rely on the durability of metal pegs to hold onto our clothes tightly and last us forever. 

The most sustainable pegs on the market?

After researching metal pegs, most of my research pointed to a brand called Pincinox.

They were made in France and had a lifetime guarantee. This is what interested me the most, the fact that they must be such good quality to be guaranteed to last us a lifetime.

Before just going ahead and buying them, because metal pegs aren’t cheap, I wanted to dig around a little more to make sure I really was buying the best.

I read lots of positive reviews about Pincinox pegs on Amazon. I also read the lower reviews and one mentioned that Pincinox were really good, but that K Pegs were better.

I also found a random chat forum. The thread was all about clothes pegs which had lots of people’s comments and suggestions. I noticed K Pegs mentioned a few times and was then convinced by their comments to give them a go instead.

K’s K Pegs

I called the man selling the K Pegs, whose name, funnily enough, is K.

His website shows that his day-to-day life is filled with hosting tours around Scotland. K was one of the most friendly, helpful and warm guys I’d spoken to for a while. He can talk for Scotland, that’s for sure, so seems like he has the perfect business.

K gladly told me about how he stumbled across these curious pegs 35 years ago. They were being sold at a market stall in Italy. They worked so well, that he decided to find the person that made them, which took quite a while.

The inventor and his wife

One day the inventor's wife said to him:

You invent things all the time, invent me some clothes pegs that don't break or go rusty.

Sergio (the inventor) used scrap metal he had lying around to forge it. He was working at a precision engineering, manufacturing factory at the time that used very hard-wearing, high-quality metals. This is where the pegs are still made now.

The design you see today hasn’t changed a bit since they were first created by Sergio in 1963 (the same year the Rolling Stones formed). The only difference is that now you can buy them in various colours.

Sergio died in 2018. His daughter now runs the business in Italy.

K is passionate about these pegs and is the only seller of them in the UK, and he has built a global-distributor name for himself.

Pegs all round for Christmas gifts

We were so sold on these pegs, that we bought a bulk load of them for ourselves and as Christmas gifts for our family.

Being in the UK, we waited until Spring / Summer to start using them here in the UK, but we’ve all loved using them since it warmed up. And they look so pretty in a box.

“The metal, pegs are great, they are strong and secure, no more large sheets blowing off the line even on the windiest of days! I’ve also used them to secure heavy polythene to a frame to make a small greenhouse over lockdown. They hold really tightly and don’t rust. I would highly recommend.”

Jayne Brown, Deeside

“I’m so pleased with my metal pegs. It’s such a good idea because plastic and wooden pegs seem to be affected by the sun and rain so quickly and these pegs are still looking and working so well. I’d recommend them to anyone looking for pegs which look good, work well and last.”

Jo Pullinger, Devon

Benefits of K-Pegs

• Strong spring, holds clothes in very strong winds
• Virtually indestructible
• Never rust
• Can be left outside on the line all year round
• Designed to last forever
• Lifetime guarantee
• Heat and frost resistant
• Made in Europe
• Environmentally friendly - no harmful plastics, no trees felled, no landfill

We use the pegs for all sorts of things; pegging plants to poles, mini clamps for woodwork projects, all sorts of foodstuff (including in the freezer).

Others have even used them as battery contacts on boats and holding up photography backdrops.

Cost of the pegs:

These pegs pay for themselves, even though they are a more expensive outlay because you won’t need to replace them. Plus, they can be passed on as heirlooms.

The poor man pays twice. Not just in money but in time wasted.

Proverb

K Pegs: 20 pegs £10.60

Pincinox: 20 pegs £18.09

Our verdict:

We will be buying more. We’ll use the other pegs we have alongside the metal ones until we need to buy more. Then we’ll buy another bulk load to keep and to pass more on as gifts to spread the word to our friends and family.

If we could buy them secondhand, we would, but there are none for sale, which goes to show how good they are and how happy the owners of them must be. Ourselves included.

*Variations of how people write K Pegs; K Pegs, K-Pegs, KPegs. This post is about K Pegs and our move away from plastic pegs and towards a more sustainable solution.