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a fine choice ltd.

reusable environmentally friendly products that substitute disposable plastic products

I offer people an alternative to disposable products e.g. they can order a reusable glass straw to substitute disposable plastic straws or they can buy a BPA free stainless steel bottle instead of using disposable plastic bottles

I love all things natural, eco & healthy -Daniela Schaffri

Links: www.afinechoice.co.uk

FB a fine choice Twitter @afinechoice

Store www.afinechoice.co.uk

Please note

This post was written by the contributor. It is not a Plastic Is Rubbish review, does not represent my personal opinions and I have not used this product or service. Instead it is a PfU.K. Directory submission.

The Pf U.K. Directory is…?

…a directory of UK-based groups, organisations businesses and individuals who are responding to the problems presented by the misuse of plastic. That does not mean anti-plastic necessarily but certainly plastic-problem aware.

The DIRECTORY is to promote their work not mine. Read more here…

Got a project?
It is very easy to get a project featured. Each contributor submits a short synopsis of their project, focussing on the plastic aware element and I post it. You can read the submission guidelines here.

Follow us on facebook here

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Local Shops

I try to buy all that I can from independents by which I mean small businesses managed by their owners, that have a real shop, on a real high street. Local shops for local people. Here’s why…

A Tale Of Two Cities
In Huddersfield (yes, I know it’s a town and not a city), there are many local shops ranging from traditional grocers to Polish Delis by way of Asian, and Caribbean food stores. And, being as it is close to the countryside, farm shops and pick your own places. Add to that a covered market in the center, at least two local breweries, and our very own fair-trade coffee importers, Huddersfield is well supplied. Plus it is so small they are all within walking distance.

How different it is in Manchester that great sprawling conurbation and powerhouse of the North. In this huge and increasingly prosperous city there are whole areas with no shops at all. And lots more have only one “convenience store” selling mostly pre-prepared, processed, long-life food. There are surprisingly few high streets that still have shops where you can buy all you need to cook a balanced meal. Fast-food outlets, scented candles cafes and hairdressers yes! Butchers and bakers? Not so many left.
There are some of course. In the more affluent areas there are urban villages where you can get artisan bread and very expensive cheese and, (more useful and affordable), some frantically busy immigrant communities with numerous shops selling everything from yams to basmati.

But the rest is large housing estates studded with big supermarkets, chainstores and chain pubs. But so what? After all….

Supermarkets Are So Convenient
And they are much cheaper than local shops.
You can get all you need in one go, do your shopping all at once.
You can drive there… and park.
There is more choice
They are are open all hours so you can go after work.

All of which is true but consider what is being lost along the way. Supermarkets are killing the high street. Local shops are closing in their thousands because they cannot compete on the above terms. And all of those conveniences come at a price. It might not be apparent but it still costs you. There really is no such thing as a free lunch especially when its being brought to you by supermarkets.

Cheaper

Lets talk money first. As many people point out local shops cost more than supermarkets which is true but shop locally and you get that money back in other ways. Shopping locally is investing in your community. According to the Guardian, research by local authorities shows that for every £1 spent with a small or medium-sized business 63p stayed in the local economy, compared to 40p with a larger business. And the American Express High Streets Ahead study found that houses near high streets full of prospering small traders increased in price more rapidly than those else where. It is in your self interest to shop locally. Source -Guardian Newspaper. Source –Guardian Newspaper.

Over Purchasing
It seems that bulk-buy convenience, supermarket shopping makes you buy too much. Once in those huge malls of food, the desire to get the weekly shop done all at once is irresistible. After all that’s what you drove all this way for. And judging by the huge trollies filled to overflowing at the checkout, it leads to a kind of stockpiling frenzy.
Research shows that people are buying more food than they need, lots of which gets thrown away. Of course they might have bought this at local shops but as we do most of our shopping at supermarkets I don’t think so. Supermarkets encourage this overspending with a range of sophisticated techniques.
Read this report on how supermarkets entice you into spending more  or this 

Food Waste
Too much food leads to food being wasted which costs millions.

You can get all you need in one go and do all your shopping all at once. Which it seems may not be such a great way to shop after all.

I can drive there
And the point of local shops is that you can walk there. If you only want a loaf of bread and your centralised supermarket is is some distance away, you have get the car out, negotiate the traffic, avoid the rush hour, circle round looking for a parking space and walk through miles of aisles to find what you want. Is that really so convenient, labour or time saving?

And you have to have a car which is another cost in itself. More importantly you are dependant on the car. And that can be a problem if the car is at the garage or you can’t afford the petrol. But worst of all this dependance on transport results in food deserts.

Food Deserts
The lack of local shops and centralizing the shopping experience into a few widely spaced super stores leads to the development of what is now termed food deserts.
J BAINES writing in 1973 (The Environment) first applied the term desert to the urban environment to describe a culturally sterile area so lacking in certain facilities that normal social interaction no longer took place “The large suburban estates that are a recent feature of the townscape are epitomized by the regular rows of similarly styled houses that have earned for themselves the title of suburban deserts.  They often lack the shops, churches, public houses, and social centers that allow a community life to develop”.
Food desert was first quoted, by S CUMMINS (British Medical Journal, 2002, Vol.325, p.436) when researching into life on Scottish housing estates. It is now used to refer to areas where people cannot access sources fresh and varied food.Food is imported into such places to be sold from large centralised trading places or supermarkets as we know them. They can then benefit from the economies of scale that make them so cheap. Competition forces most of the local shops to close leaving the community with perhaps one convenience store selling alchohol and a limited range of long life processed food. If you can’t get to the supermarket you are in trouble.

Reports indicate that food deserts are boring places to live but more importantly often socially exclusive and in poorer communities bad for your health! Some places people simply cannot access fresh reasonable priced food because they have no transport or cannot afford to travel.
And people in more affluent areas who can afford to travel are now dependent on the car to provide them with basic food stuffs. For the less mobile, the sick, the elderly and any one who cannot drive, life becomes more difficult.
All suffer from the lack of a community hub that a local, accessible high streets provide.

The Valley Centre shopping precinct. Most businesses are now boarded up. What a sad place right in the heart of Rawtenstall’s commercial area. Two twenty-four hour supermarkets have opened nearby.  Wikimedia

Choice
Or the illusion of choice? Supermarkets look like that they are giving you a huge amount of choice. Racks of crisps, rows of different shampoos even a whole range of cocoa. But is there really that much difference in the shampoos on offer apart from colour? And of course packaging. Packaging helps to sell products. How would you know that one kind of crisps was was different from the other if it wasn’t packed differently?
Because sometimes there really isn’t any other difference. Generic painkillers are just as effective as branded. They are the same product but packaged differently. Yet so effective is the branding that cheap painkillers sold in a cheap pack are considered less effective then the same tablets sold in a flashy box. I’ll just say that again the same product is considered, in consumer tests, to be less effective at dealing with pain. That is down to packaging and advertising. So much of that “choice” is illusion.

The Waste Of Choice

And so much choice means a lot of waste. Of course supermarkets do stock a wide range of products but again that comes with an environmental cost. All those exotic, out of season or organic fruits and veg are carefully packed in plastic for a reason. Plastic packing helps maintain product life. Shrink wrapped cucumbers do last longer.

The longer food will keep, the longer there is to sell it and the further they can transport it. Green beans out of season will be plastic packed to prolong not just shelf life but enable an increased travel time. All of which means more choice, with the high. environmental cost of plastic waste and product miles as a result. Eating locally and seasonally generally means less choice but tastier (many argue more nutritious), and more often unpackaged food.

But a huge reason to plastic-wrap food is to enable self service, the raison d’être of the Supermarket. Obviously you cannot have piles of unpacked steaks for consumers to rummage through, so shrink wrapped onto polystyrene trays they go and now the consumer can help themselves so cutting down on labour costs. Which makes your food cheaper.
Not surprisingly however heavily packaged supermarket food results in huge amounts of plastic waste. Which ultimately you pay for to dispose of. To have it taken away to landfill, burnt or in a very small number of cases recycled. All that costs you a lot in waste disposal costs. You are paying a high but hidden cost for all this convenience and choice.

And of course pre packaging determines the amount you buy. You may only want 10 biscuits but they come in packs of 20. Packaging food like this is also said to contribute to food waste. More money down the drain.

While independent shops are not guilt free in this respect they are less likely to sell plastic packed produce because they are serving you themselves. You go in and ask for 2 steaks and they pick them up and pack them for you. In which case you can supply your own plastic free packaging. And it is also far easier to ask a butcher you have a relationship with to use your own compostable bag in lieu of their plastic one. You can then go on to explain to shop keeper your objections to plastic packaging and he is more likely to listen.

Power To The Local People

Increasing our dependency on a few big suppliers of food we are putting the most important choice ever, how we take nourish ourself, into the hands of a few multi million dollar business. They help dictate how farmers farm, what price food should be, what is sold and when. If they stop feeding us we don’t eat. and while they may not ever threaten to starve us into submission, there can be doubt these huge businesses wield a massive amounts of power.Giving these unaccountable organisation  so much control over the very basics could easily become extremely inconvenient.
Shopping locally is using your consumer power to create a range of independent businesses who depend on you. They are answerable to you.
And you are supporting local business further down the supply chain. There is no doubt that supermarkets use their dominance in the market to bully suppliers.


Dairy farmers have faced an ongoing struggle, but things reached a crisis point this year following falling prices, with supermarkets selling milk cheaper than water and dairy processors cutting prices paid to farmers. It costs farmers around 30p–32p/litre to produce milk, but many have been earning little more than 20p/litre. Sustainable Food Trust

Dairy farmers have faced an ongoing struggle, but things reached a crisis point this year following falling prices, with supermarkets selling milk cheaper than water and dairy processors cutting prices paid to farmers. It costs farmers around 30p–32p/litre to produce milk, but many have been earning little more than 20p/litre. Sustainable Food Trust

After Hours Shopping

Back to time; I guess there are few who would deny that out of hours shopping is a boon. They might go on to say that taking time out of a Saturday morning to shop locally is a chore. Perhaps – but again there are benefits too. If we value where we live, want to see property hold its value, encourage community hubs and want there to be local shops – and most people say they do want all of the above – then obviously we have to invest some time and money in maintaining these resources. Is it really such hard work? More a matter of timetabling.

Slow Shopping

And rather than call it a chore we could try and learn to enjoy slow shopping. To relish a leisurely stroll round the shops. Believe me, this is not trying to find silver linings; shopping locally really is far more pleasant and satisfying than charging round the aisles, fuming at the wonky trolly and scanning your own basket on the way out.
As for waiting for a bus or driving and parking, if you have local shops you don’t need to do this. You can walk there. Which save you money, keeps you fit, makes your city
roads less congested and your planet greener.
Shopping locally is a healthier option in other ways. If you think you haven’t got time to shop properly than chances are you probably think you haven’t got time to cook properly either! And supermarkets cater to that belief by tempting you with a wide array of ready made, convenience foods from the humble tin of baked beans to puddings to pre-prepared salads. Masses of mass produced foods many of them laden with extra salt, sugar and chemicals, unpronounceable flavorings and additives. I used to smoke so I cant be be giving health advice to anyone but speaking from experience I know a damaging lifestyle choice when they see one. Eating ready made or even ready prepared is not a good idea. These meals are expensive and bad for you. Independent shops on the other hand tend to sell ingredients rather than meals. They sell meat and veg, cheese and bread. You buy and then you cook what you buy.

Shopping Locally On a Budget
I have a minuscule income. So I feel that every penny I spend needs to be spent wisely, it needs to be valued. I value my cash not just by what I can buy with it but the good it can do. If I pay a bit more to keep a local business in business it feels good. Consider this. If every adult in a town with a population of 10,000 adults spent £5.00 a week in a local shop that would be £2.6 million pounds more being spent with independent businesses in the town.”
And it needn’t cost more. Changing how you shop and eat, cuts bills and comes with added advantages. Local markets are always good value and a great community asset.
These three are well worth a visit Leed, Todmorden and Huddersfield.
Seasonal, local food tends to be cheaper and is certainly a greener option. You can even pick your own. Find a farm near you here. Cutting back on meat saves money and the environment. But if you do buy, buy from a local butcher. Cheese as a treat is healthier than cheese as a staple. And so on.

Valuing Time
Time is even more important and should always be spent as pleasantly as possible. The high street is slower shopping and I may even get wet walking to the market – but it is so much more pleasant. I like knowing the people who I buy my food from and that I can talk to them about my plastic free shopping needs. I like the greengrocers corny (!) jokes and that the butcher discusses sustainable farming with a passion.

Conclusion
Personally I feel it is worth making some time for and spending some money in local shops. I’m not saying I never use supermarkets but don’t only ever use supemarkets. Investing locally will pays dividends. They might not be immediately obvious as the pounds saved on the weekly shop but there are other savings and they are advantageous.

Loosing your Local Shops?
These guys can help Totally Locally is all about creating strong, vibrant towns and sustainable local economies. We use clever marketing tools, and unique ways of working that engage communities and get people talking and working together both locally and across the globe.”

Visit the website.

More

Bags & Packaging
Shopping plastic free means taking your OWN PACKAGING.Check out the plastic-free shopping kit here.
Which Shop

Buy British and cut those air miles. Some ideas HERE

Food Here is a list of food types category with purchase details

Loose Food
Find out if a shop near you sells bulk food loose. This is stuff that that normally comes plastic packaged. A list of towns with shops selling loose food.

Supermarkets & Chainstores  because sometimes you have to and Yes you can get plastic free and zero waste stuff. Read up HERE.</a


Milk 
Delivered in glass bottles but double check before you order

Boots

About

?

Latest Plastic News

?

They have a range of plastic free products.

Other Products

From Louises database

BecoThings Potty and Step stool, reusable – Biodegradable and cardboard packaging
Boltanics Toiletry Range – Organic, midrange – Some items in glass with plastic tops
Bath Salts – Cardboard
Burt’s Bees – Some products in Glass with metal lids and tins
Double Edge Razor Blades 10’s– Cardboard and small plastic cover
Essential Oils – Glass – Various tops
Lip Tins – Metal
Mooncup – Cardboard
Nivea Creme – Tin
Naty by Nature Nappies – Biodegradable
Origins Toiletry Range, plant based and free from lots of nasties – A few glass items – Pricey
Reusable nappies and supplies
Wooden Handled Brushes with FSC mark, Boltanics and Ecotool range for Make-up and hair – Packaging unknown

Louises Data Base?
Louise Bayfields   “POSTIVE PRODUCTS LIST (UK) a list of High Street and Supermar-ket products that have no packaging or in some way help reduce packaging.”

The List
The original PDF will be updated as  Louise shops around so do check back there for updates. 
Remember not all stores stock all products. It might be wise to check ahead if you are making a special visit.
Once again thank you  Louise for such a fantastic resource!

Shopping Tips

If you want to buy loose, you will need to take your own reusable packaging – produce bags, tupperware even compostable disposables. You can find them here.

Sneaky Plastics

The plastic free freak should remember that
metal lids to glass jars are of course plastic lined .
Tin and cans including those for cosmetics are also plastic lined
Paper and foil wraps will be plastic lined.
Find other sneaky plastics here….

Choose Well
If you really can’t do without it and you have a choice a plastic wrapped products, choose to buy the one in simple plastics that can easily be recycled

More

Read our guide on how and where to shop, here

see all our supermarket info HERE.
Find out more about the individual products here via the food index
Other places to buy unpackaged food are listed here

N.B.

lines changes, products get removed. For more information why not ask the Plastic Is Rubbish FB group for updates. They are a great source of tidbits, personal experience and the latest news. Why not join them and share the plastic free love x

And before you go…

If you have found the #plasticfree information useful, please consider supporting us. It all goes to financing the project.

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

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Leeds

There is a wide range of plastic free and refill options in and around Leeds.

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.


Packaging

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

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.

Kirkgate Market

Covered market hall and out door market. A wonderful fantasy of Victorian architecture. Loads of stalls
Open Monday – Saturday,  from 8am until 5.30pm
Some Quick Facts
Built 1857,
host to Jamie’s Ministry of Food
has a Shop & Drop scheme
home to the original Marks & Spencer stall where it all began
fantastic architecture

There is also an outdoor market
Monday: Second Hand Clothing
Tuesday: Friday & Saturday: General Market
Wednesday: Asian Bazaar
Thursday Flea Market
For more information visit the website

Buy

Food & Drink

The Teapot sells coffee beans and tea leaves loose.

The NUT SHOP cake related stuff to candied peel to spices & nuts all sold LOOOSE. Plus decorative things and sprinkles. See more here

The Jar Tree

you can take your own packaging and buy just about everything you might ever need, plastic free.
You can see a picture diary here of all the products stocked including NOODLES!!!!
Or visit the website for more. They are continually updating the product list here:
http://www.thejartree.co.uk/store-product-list.html
And they welcome all suggestions in store too!
Address: Leeds Kirkgate Market, Unit BS1, Leeds LS2 7HY
Phone: 07470 033404 https://www.facebook.com/thejartree/

And there are other shops now selling loose nuts elsewhere on the market.You have to take your own plastic free bags.

It is fantastic for unpackaged food, meat and veg,

Plenty of stalls selling loose sweets

Personal Care

Soap & Solid Shampoo

“Home to the very best 5* reviewed, natural & handmade soap bars & bath soap gift sets for every skin type. From Shampoo Bars to Foot Soap Bars we have a soap bar & bath soap gift set suit you, & all are SLS & Paraben free. Plus natural liquid soap, handmade bath bombs, eco accessories, gifts & more!” Visit the website here.
Many of them come #plasticfree
They do my favourite Friendly Soap from Todmorden who make a soap and a shampoo bar that is as effective but far cheaper than Lush. Read all about them, here.

Maya’s

for
Cocoa butter
Shea butter

Yes they come in plastic but they can be used  to make home made creams and lotions. Thereby saving you loads of other plastic. #plastictocutplastic. Read more here.

Sells

Fabric Stalls
A good range including Jacks,that sell end of line remnants of Yorkshire made wooden fabric. Read more here.
Plus sewing supplies stalls that sell bobbins and other stuff loose!

See a pictorial guide over at the Fb Page Plastic Is rubbish group

Supermarkets & Chainstores

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

Don’t Live In Leeds

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 a list of towns with shops selling loose food.

N.B.

lines changes, products get removed. For more information why not ask the Plastic Is Rubbish FB group for updates. They are a great source of tidbits, personal experience and the latest news. Why not join them and share the plastic free love x

And before you go…

If you have found the #plasticfree information useful, please consider supporting us. It all goes to financing the project.

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

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Earth Conscious

Eco friendly business run by two mums, specialising in reusable over disposable products. We stock stainless steel straws to replace plastic throwaways. We also offer luxurious washable sanitary pads, aiming to reduce the huge 200,00 tonnes of landfill caused by sanitary products each year.

Our products are high quality and have a life span of many years, further reducing waste.

Links

Website: www.earthconscious.co.uk
Blog: www.earthconscious.uk
Facebook: www.facebook.com/earthconsciousuk

Please note

This post was written by the contributor. It is not a Plastic Is Rubbish review, does not represent my personal opinions and I have not used this product or service. Instead it is  a PfU.K. Directory submission.

The Pf U.K. Directory is…?

…a directory of UK-based groups, organisations businesses and individuals who are responding to the problems presented by the misuse of plastic. That does not mean anti-plastic necessarily but certainly plastic-problem aware.

In 2014 I hope to feature 12 UK-based initiatives featuring refuseniks, trash slashers, businesses and the rest.

The DIRECTORY is to promote their work not mine. Read more here…

Got a project?
It is very easy to get a project featured. Each contributor submits a short synopsis of their project, focussing on the plastic aware element and I post it. You can read the submission guidelines here.

Follow us on facebook here

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Shops, Business & Social Enterprises

U.K. based enterprises that provide plastic free/reduced products and services. These people state plastic/packaging reduction as part of their business ethos.

More plastic free products can be found here
Where To Buy #plasticfree
How To Cut Plastic

If you have a service you want featured, do this.

a fine choice ltd.

reusable environmentally friendly products that substitute disposable plastic products I ...
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A to Z of Plastic Free

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Branded Cups

Reusable plastic souvenir Cups for any event. Premier solution to ...
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Cleaning products – refill system

Planet Earth offers a range of household cleaning products with ...
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Do Your Bit Produce bags

DoYourBit is an organic cotton reusable bag company locally run ...
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Earth Conscious

Eco friendly business run by two mums, specialising in reusable ...
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Ecoforce -recycled cleaning products

Increasing the use of recycled plastic products EcoForce's mission is ...
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Fabric Offset Warehouse

Offset Warehouse is a social enterprise which brings together a ...
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Greencane Tissues/ Paper Productsd

A while ago a company called Greencane sent me some tissues through ...
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Jerry Bottles

Jerry sell sustainable steel water bottles to raise funds for ...
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Kedel Recycled Plastics

The Problems Presented By Plastic Misuse & How To Combat ...
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Milk & Milkmen

British consumers got through nine billion pints of milk last ...
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Natracare Menstrual and Personal Care Products

Are you aware that most sanitary pads are made from ...
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Produce Bags Cotton From Spain

Co/Fo sell produce bags made from 100% organic cotton bags ...
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Refill/Bulk/Zerowaste Stores

Bulk buy or refill stores are places you can buy ...
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Vegware – compostable fast-food disposables

Vegware is the UK's first and only completely compostable packaging ...
Read More

Whole Food Market U.K. Chain

Rushing through the Cheltenham suburbs, had to buy wine so ...
Read More

Ullapool

Dropped down out of the mountains into the pleasant town of Ullapool where we found the following fantastic plastic free finds

Out on what looks like a mini industrial estate is the smoke house where they smoke fish. They do two types of smoked salmon. We got there just in time just before this big boy was plastic packed for the counter. We proffered our reusable plastic tub and got it filled with fish.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Ullapool Smokehouse 
4 Morefield Quarry, Ullapool, Ross-Shire IV26 2SR

Next door there was a bakery where we bought bread which we took away in our reusable cloth bag.
Unit 6 3 Morefield Industrial Estate, Morefield, Ullapool, Ross-Shire IV26 2SR

Off we went to the butchers and got bangers and mince in yet more plastic tubs.

Food For Thought (Highland) Ltd West Shore Street Ullapool Ross-Shire IV26 2UR

Got some loose criossants from Tescos in our own cloth bags.

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U.K. Made Fabric

This year I wanted to source some locally made fabrics. In the U.K. the locally made fabric is wool.
It is especially relavent to me as I live in Yorkshire a place once famous for its woolen fabric. There used to be hundreds of mills churning out meters of the stuff but those days are long gone. Indeed you may be surprised to hear that there are any working mills left. I was. But my research revealed that Yorkshire cloth is still being made by a handful of mills. What they turn out now is a luxury product. If you thought organic fair-trade was expensive check out these prices. £ 50.00 a meter is the cheap end of the market and way out of my price range. BUT……

Jacks, a stall in Leeds Kirkgate Market, sell end of line remnants of Yorkshire made wooden fabric.  For very reasonable amounts. Anything from £5.00 to £12.00 a meter.

Leons sell British wool

Ebay

Working Mills

Made in the U.K.

  • Dugdale (only merchant still in the centre of Huddersfield) Owns Thomas Fisher and Duffin & Peace names
    Huddersfield Fine Worsteds (Owned by US distributors HMS) Owns Minnis, John G Hardy, Hunt & Winterbotham

And the major merchants with operations in the UK are:

  • Holland & Sherry (owned by the US Tom James group)
    LBD Harrison’s (owned by the Dunsford family in Exeter) LBD bought Harrison’s a while ago, and also now owns the Lesser’s name and Porter & Harding
    Smith’s (only English merchant based in London) Owns W Bill
    Brook Taverner
    Bateman & Ogden
    Scabal
    Dormeuil

And then there is the Woolsack Website

Ackroyd and Dawson Trade only all British wool “Ackroyd & Dawson has the distinct pleasure of welcoming you to the revival of a great tradition, to a revitalization of the legacy of the world’s finest woollen and worsted cloth — 100% British.”

Anta  The tweed fabrics are 100% Wool, sourced from the British Isles and woven in Scotland

Bespoke Fabrics  Although not listed on website they were selling wool cloth at an event, so contact them.

Dashing Tweeds Collection of 100% British wool tweed – original designs woven in UK.  Also including the fine wool Romney collection

Harris Tweed (available in small quantities if required)

Harris Tweed Hebrides  Along with supplying some of the World’s biggest brands, Harris Tweed Hebrides cloth is available direct from our mill to the individual.

Hebridean Woolhouse  There are four tweeds in the Hebridean Woolhouse range; the ‘Hebridean’, the ‘Dunay’, the ‘Auchnahyle’ and the ‘Islay’.  They are made purely from the natural undyed Hebridean wool with the addition of coloured Shetland wool to make the subtle pattern.

Laura’s Loom  Online shop. Also small pieces of woven fabric which could be used for making into cushions. It is undyed Bluefaced Leicester wool which could be dyed, stitched into, quilted, etc. The price is £10 per piece, incl. p&p and is large enough to make one cushion.

London Cloth Company  Our British Wool all comes from small flocks of sheep within the British Isles. We have been working with ecologist Heather Webb from Nude Ewe and shearer Michael Churchhouse to source wool from conservation flocks, which is then spun into yarn for us in Halifax. The resulting yarn is 100% natural, un-dyed British wool. We never dye it and rarely blend colours, so we design the cloth by breed of sheep. Despite this, there is a huge spectrum of shades to choose from.  Store

Melin Teifi  Welsh Flannel fabrics are available from Melin Teifi, Dre-fach Felindre, Llandysul, Dyfed, SA44 5UP

Middle Campscott Farm  Wool from the flock of Friesland/Dorsets is woven into cloth, in three different weights and weaves, suitable for curtains or soft furnishing.

Original Cumbrian Wool Upholstery fabric in different shades woven from undyed natural wool from Lakeland sheep

Shawbost Weavers  Harris Tweed cloth

The Harris Tweed Authority – Find Tweed  Information about Harris Tweed and links to suppliers

British Wool Felt

Olwen Veevers  I have a felting machine which will produce sheets of felt up to 1200mm x 600mm. Fleece from Corriedale sheep is ideally suited for this purpose. I can supply these sheets to customers

More Fabric
on line suppliers
Local fabric shops.

Regenerated Fibres & fabrics  a very basic introduction
Kinds Of fabric – my ongoing experiences with natural fabrics.

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The Hut

Polish deli on Wood street, Huddersfield. Sells  cheese, salami, bacon, gherkins, bread and cakes and sweets sold  #unpackaged

N.B. The cheese is in large blocks wrapped in plastic. The piece they cut off is plastic free. – You can find more cheese here

The gherkins are  in a bucket and you help yourself. Was absolutely thrilled to find the latter. I love gherkins and I sometimes I buy them in glass jars. The jars have metal lids which are of course plastic lined so I have to count it as one of my guilty pleasures. I thought I had found a solution. Sadly I didn’t like the taste of them. Sigh.

The sweets are loose but wrapped in plastic or foil.

The butter looks like it is wrapped in paper. It is not! It is wrapped in plastic.

You have to take your own plastic free packaging. I took biobags. 

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08 Other bags - 2

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Aberystwyth with love….

louie knightMy 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.

 

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If we have to have supermarkets …… Whole foods – a case study

On our way back up the country, we decided to revisit Whole Foods Market, Cheltenham. This American company have recently opened some flagship stores in the UK of which Cheltenham is one. It is funky, good looking and challenging.We stumbled across this supermarket a few weeks ago quite by chance but didn’t have time for a proper look round.  I wanted to know more and this time I emailed ahead asking if it would be OK for me to take photos. Not only did they say yes, but Renata Rees, Marketing Team Leader, offered to meet me. An offer I eagerly accepted.

Loose Unpacked Food Wholefood featured

Do I sound excited? By a supermarket? Well yes I am. And the reason? This supermarket sells food loose and unpacked. I don’t just mean meat or vegetables (though that too) but nuts, spices and other dried commodities. The kind of stuff that usually comes swathed in plastic! They do a good range of rice, dried beans and pulses and more unusual stuff like blue popcorn, dried cherries and unroasted peanuts. You measure out what you need into the paper bags provided, weigh it, label it and job is done. Better still you can use your own reusable cotton bags,container or glass bottle (they do oil refills too! and even peanut butter!)

They call this the cook section because, as Renata explained, they want for people to be able to try out new stuff without making a huge cash commitment or ending up with a pile of food they just don’t like.You can purchase just enough for one meal and see if it works out. No more half full packets of cous cous sitting unused at the back of the cupboard.

It also means you can buy fresh, when you need it, for meals you don’t do that often. It can’t be just me that has an array of dusty spices gently going off in the deepest recesses of the rack. Spices I use – but only occasionally.

Being able to buy in small amounts and only what you need is great for people like us with limited space. It allows us to have a wider selection of food stuffs in our very tiny cupboards. We can have variety while still being able to move. We can also buy luxury ingredients like red rice in amounts we can afford, great for our reduced van life budget.

But surely it costs more to buy this way? After all they are a supermarket not a charity. As any plastic free person knows, the financial choices of being plastic free are at times bewildering and unfair. Why is it cheaper to buy 3 plastic packed peppers than one loose unpacked pepper? It is as though the supermarkets are forcing us to buy pre packaged, portion-controlled, more-than-we-want produce! What a ridiculous thought!

But not here, Renata pointed out that here buying loose costs the same as buying pre-packed – even if you buy a just a few grams. Great news for the small amount purchaser – another unfairly abused and penalised customer. Also good for helping fight food waste. Because it is so much cheaper to buy the big packet, shoppers are often persuaded into buying more than they really want or need.

Well then surely it costs more generally. No, the prices for loose produce are extremely competitive.

And if you don’t know your bulgar from your cous cous, the store has healthy eating info and cooking demos aimed at stripping the mystery from these strange grains and seeds.

Would like to see….

My only quibble was that though the range was eclectic, it suffered from some strange omissions. I would have loved to have seen some wholemeal pasta up there. What am I talking about I would have loved to have seen any sort of pasta up there.

Other loose foods include lettuce featured

A lot of unwrapped veg including naked cucumbers and lettuces.
Meat butchered in store by proper butchers
Cheese – real cheese
Eggs – yes eggs – you can buy them loose
A bakery to die at least go up a dress size for. And everything is baked in store by proper bakers not brought in and finished in store.

Loose olives
Tea and coffee – I can recommend the Breakfast Tea.
Bath salts

And they serve cooked food in the cafe and for take out that is also made in store by chefs

They also offer a wine refill service. You buy a glass litre bottles from them that you then refill, yourself from the large and lovely barrel of wine. At least that was how it used to be but the wine kept going off. Now a member of staff fills your bottle from a huge 15 litre wine box. Not quite plastic free abut still a refill is a refill and the plastic wasn’t in my bin. And there is still some green kudos to be gained it – was organic and cost considerably less to transport it this way.

Would like to see….

I do think that a couple of opportunities have been missed. An Ecover (or similar) refill stand for cleaning products would be nice. But what I would really love to see is a refill milk machine! One of these. They say no customer has ever asked for one! If you are in the area….

Packaging

They provide paper bags for the dry products and the cutlery used in the deli is compostable. However the packaging for the meat and fish is plastic so you will have to take your own compostable and reusable bags.

Would like to see….

How fantastic if they were to offer compostable packaging for meat and fish.

And wouldn’t it be great if they were to sell reusable cotton bags in the loose food section.

For the rest of the store there was an awful lot of stuff packed in disposable plastic ….but lets not be too picky.

Waste disposal

Talking of rubbish, there comes a time in every plastic boycotter life when they look beyond their own bin and start to worry about packaging in the supply chain. This store is trying to manage all its trash in a sustainable way. Only 20 to 30 percent of their waste goes to landfill the rest is recycled and to a lesser extent but when ever possible reused. For example the cardboard boxes the eggs come in are returned to be refilled!

They run waste days to raise awareness days in store for the benefit of both the staff and customers.

Because they have in store chefs, produce that is getting near its sell by date can be used in the kitchens. Surplus food is given to charity. 6 mornings a week Trinity church use it to help feed the vulnerable.

They will also give you the coffee grounds from the cafe to use as compost.

Policies  cow featured

Now of course your average plastic-refusing hipster, in a store with whole foods in the title, tends to care about a whole range of issues so you will be pleased to know that there are shop policies on everything including

To name a few. Check out the website for the full list.

BPA

Again, from a plastic perspective, they acknowledge the potential risk of BPA (considered by many to be a hormone disruptor) found in certain types of plastic. They are developing a fairly stringent response which is well documented on their website to quote To date, we have done more than any other U.S. retailer to inform our customers and take action on the issue. We continue to closely examine the packaging materials used in our stores, and we will continue to search for the safest and most functional packaging materials for our stores. You can find out more from their website.

Local Produce

They are also committed to local producers and recently had a food festival featuring 30 different farmers. They not only label their produce by country of origin but whether it was actually grown locally. Nice touch.

Conclusion

I could write a lot more on this subject and I really am not doing justice to Renatas wonderfully informative tour but I don’t want to go too far off subject or make you think I am in receipt of payment. But I am genuinely impressed with this store and their attempts to tackle some of the issues surrounding food production, packaging and marketing. Because whatever you think of supermarkets, they have a hugely important role to play in our society so it is important that they play it well.

Locations

They have stores in London, Cheltenham and Glasgow

I have visited and reviewed these stores 

Would like to see…. one in Huddersfield.

Other supermarkets take some of these ideas on board.

 

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T towns for loose food

Find refill stores in
Tiverton
Todmorden
Totnes

Find towns beginning with w different letterhere …

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.

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.

Tiverton

Reaper @ReapersTiverton
18 Bampton Street, Tiverton, Devon, EX16 6AA 01884 255310

Totnes

The Uk’s only Zero Waste, organic, bulk-buy, plant-based, wholefoods shop. Visit our family-run shop in Totnes, Devon.
http://thezerowasteshop.co.uk/

Todmorden

The Market
Local markets are a great place to find plastic free food and I love Todmorden Market. There is an indoor covered  hall and outdoor stalls. You can get everything you need and some fantastic treats including loose
peppercorns
Coffee beans and tea
Tobacco for pipes.
There is a great hardware stall that sells loose screws, grass seed by weight and cotton boot laces

Biscuits The same as those in Huddersfield Market. You can read more here.
Meat

  • Hooks
  • Olives
  • CHEESE!!!!
    Opening Times
    Indoor Market
    Monday to Saturday (half day closing Tuesday)
    9.00am to 5.30pm
    Open Air Market
    Wednesday, Friday, Saturday – General retail.
    Thursday – Second hand.
    Sunday – General retail and second-hand.
    9.00am to 4.00pm
    You can even shop online for selected goods from the market and get them delivered direct to your door.
    Address: Todmorden Market, Burnley Road, Todmorden OL14 5DJ
    Telephone: 01706 819731
    Todmorden Market WebsiteYou can see a some of the stalls listed here

    Todmorden Shops

    The Bear Co-op

    Does olive oil refills

    The Wholefood Shop 

    Cover refills – read more about this washing up liquid and other refills here. And find a refill point near you 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.
    Links to reviews particularly welcome.
    Dont have a blog? Love guest posts…

    More

    You can find a list of all other plastic free products over at the A to Z

    You can find other loose food outlets here …