Packaging
Jenny Thornhill
I see plastic everywhere I look these days, not because there’s more of it but because I’m more aware of ‘it’. But I’ve also become very aware of all packaging and how unnecessary much of it is.
During the recent fuel crisis, I heard an interview with one of the biggest paper packaging manufacturers about how much they rely on energy in its production, which of course is pretty obvious, but it highlighted again for me that plastic is not the only packaging we should target but all unnecessary packaging.
In the shop we still rely on plastic bags to keep our greens fresh; without it the greens wilt and spoil and we then have food waste in addition to the waste of time and care put into growing the produce. Whilst we are searching for solutions for this, I’d love to see these plastic bags being brought back by customers and used time and time again for their vegetables rather than using a paper bag. Most fruit and vegetables don’t need a bag at all, and we love to see a basket full of loose produce.
The large plastic bags that come in our boxes of bought in veg we use as bin liners and I use them at home too, admittedly they take up more space than a tidy roll of bin liners but at least they get used again.
Many of you will be aware that our aim is to get our yoghurts and cream out of plastic and into returnable reusable glass. This is going to be a costly project as it requires a redevelopment of the dairy space and any saving on our annual paper bag bill of about £4000 will go towards this project.
It will be very hard to eliminate plastic in our lives completely, but I believe we can cut it down hugely.
Read more about our Out of Plastic Project
