My impressions of Aberystwyth have been mostly formed by the surreal, rather wonderful writings of Malcolm Pryce creator of Welsh noire. His lonely gum-shoe Louie Knight prowls the greasy, sun-lotion slicked streets crushing discarded rock underfoot. A man caught in a miserable miasma of broken dreams blurred neon and light drizzle. His investigations take him to half abandoned caravan parks, seedy amusements arcades and dreary pubs. In short Aberystwyth sounded like a run down Blackpool. . Thankfully it is nothing like that.

In fact we greatly enjoyed our stay in this friendly and welcoming town not least because of the wide range of plastic free treats on offer.

On Saturday there is a farmers market that sells real cheeses and fresh pasta. We were rather late and had to settle for the beetroot and garlic pasta. It looked like a big plate of bacon when it was cooked which was confusing! Strange but tasty.

We loved the cheese shop and the coffee merchants. Got some ridiculously expensive but wonderfully flavoured nettle Gouda and some reasonably priced Brazilian coffee beans. They also do loose tea.

Next up was the sweet shop for chocolate covered ginger balls. Hot brown orbs of fun!

Had the best fish and chips ever – in a cardboard box. Rather missed tomato ketchup but held firm! Even though we have a bottle in the van it stayed in the cupboard.

There is a little fish shop where we got some uncooked salmon in our own bags of course.

Got a naked cucumber at the health food shop and could have bought brown rice in paper bags if we had needed any. Which we didn’t thanks to Whole Foods Market.

Finally and I don’t know if I should tell you this but I got some loose hand rolling tobacco. £4.75 for 300 grams. Is that expensive. I don’t know.

What Are Refill Stores?

Bulk buy or refill stores are places you can buy food loose.You take as much as you want/need from a larger container and you can usually use your own packaging.

Loose Food A to Z

Find out if a shop near you sells bulk food loose. This is stuff that that normally comes plastic packaged i.e rice, pasta and salt. And yes these shops do exist in the U.K. There’s just not many of them.
Heres alist of towns with shops selling loose food.

Packaging

While these shops provide bags and they are almost always plastic ones. You will need to take your own plastic-free /reusable bags, tubs and bottles.

Tare

The weight of the container may make a difference at checkout. Some shops  subtract the tare weight but other don’t. The tare weight is the weight of the empty container.

More

Find otherloose food stores here

Find A Milk Delivery Service With Glass Bottles Here

Supermarkets

Sometimes supermarkets can surprise you – check out the plastic-free and reduced packaging products here.

Help Me

Please add any shops you know of in the comments below and I will incorporate them into the post.