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U.K. water bottle refill schemes

Bristol Water Refill

"Refill Bristol is a practical campaign to make Bristol a city in which refilling your water bottle becomes a cultural ...
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Selfridges Water Refill

Selfridges are setting out to tackle plastic pollution in the ocean by "removing all single-use plastic water bottles from our ...
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Bath, Love Tap Water Refill Scheme

A new water refill scheme based in Bath. The following has been taken from their website... Two local women want to ...
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Water Abroad

We sterilize our own water using a Steripen …. but when a bottle refill service is offered we will use that instead. Find refill places here…

Of course water in many countries the water is actually safe to drink – you can find out where here.

And here are a list of places you can refill your bottle abroad

Water Bottles

Check out which water bottle here

Water Bottle Bans

Links to interesting projects that are tackling the problems of bottled water

Bristol Water Refill

“Refill Bristol is a practical campaign to make Bristol a city in which refilling your water bottle becomes a cultural norm.”

But how you ask?

“Participating cafes, bars, restaurants, banks, galleries, museums and other businesses will simply put a sticker in their window – alerting passers-by to the fact they’re welcome to come on in and fill up their bottle – for free!”

By the end of the year they hope to have signed up 100 businesses and have an app telling you where they are. For now you can to find them on this map.

Another great water refill scheme to look out for is Give Me Tap

And lets not forget Selfridges who have banned the sale of bottled water in their shops and installed a water refill bar.

 

 

Sing a song of plastic….

A sea bird full of Bics…

Our plastic trash is often eaten by animals by mistake. This can lead to distressing injuries and in the saddest instances  a long, drawn out and painful death. Natalie Fee ( also featured in the Plastic Free U.K. Directory)  is working hard to raise awareness of this issue. Here is here her moving song and thoughtful video.

Official video for BURDEN, the new UK single, out now.

You can watch the music video for Burden here: www.tinyurl.com/BurdenVideo

And you can download Natalie’s song, Burden, from iTunes here www.tinyurl.com/songfortheocean (15% to Surfers Against Sewage Marine Litter Team) or pay what you want from www.nataliefee.bandcamp.com (100% to Surfers Against Sewage Marine Litter Team)

Download on iTunes http://apple.co/1dgAcuf 15% of downloads go to Surfers Against Sewage (Marine Litter Team). More info + links below.

City to Sea: Addressing Marine Litter, Bristol Fashion

Last month we were pleased to feature Natlie Fee in the Plastic Free U.K. Directory. Here is some more of her work

A recent report by Dr Jenna Jambeck, one of the researchers from the University of Georgia in the US claims that 8 million tonnes of litter is dumped in the oceans each year. So Natalie Fee, Singer-Songwriter, TV presenter, and plastics campaigner used 8th June, World Oceans Day to ask a panel of experts and a live audience, “How do we address this plastic marine litter problem, City to Sea: Bristol Fashion?”

World Oceans Day is a significant date for Natalie Fee as it was this day last year that started her on a journey, which was initially about crowdfunding a music video but has culminated in bringing together experts in the field to ask serious questions and look for practical actions at a city-level to make changes.

Having had a fear of the sea, Natalie admits she was out of touch with the growing problem of plastic pollution. But after seeing the the film ‘Midway’, where young Albatross living in the middle of the Pacific are dying on a diet of plastic bottle tops, she was moved to do something more. During the course of the crowdfunding campaign, Natalie learnt to surf, met a great number of people working on this issue in their respective fields, all within the Bristol area and identified an opportunity to bring everyone together.

“It also seemed timely as it was Green Capital year. Bristol is such a can-do, forward-thinking City and I was curious to see what solutions or initiatives could materialise if people collaborated.”

Each year numerous volunteer groups conduct litterpicks along the banks of the Avon, Frome and Severn, the regular offending articles are plastic bottles, plastic bottle tops, polystyrene takeaway containers and earbuds (which are flushed down the toilet). And it was the devastating scenes on the riverbanks of the Avon after this Spring’s high tides that spurred Natalie into action.

Natalie Fee shows the downside of the high tide in Bristol today. Swells of plastic heading out to sea.

So just over a month ago over 30 people living in Bristol and working in fields relating to marine and river health attended the first City to Sea meeting, hosted by Natalie and her newly formed ‘City to Sea’ volunteer team. Following break-out groups a number of initiatives were identified and further discussed on 8th June, with the premise of stemming the flow of plastic litter heading into the Bristol Channel.

Bristol residents, businesses and organisations are joined the panel of experts: Chris Sherrington (Eunomia), Thomas Bell (Director, Changes Us) and Jo Ruxton (Plastic Oceans) in a lively debate which will form the basis of a Bristol Plastic Charter.

“If San Francisco can ban the plastic bottle and New York the polystyrene takeaway carton, just imagine what Bristol can do during its year as Green Capital! I’d like us to become an example to the rest of Europe, of how we stopped so much plastic litter flowing out of the Avon!”

Natalie Fee conducts a two minute beach clean on the banks of the River Avon in Bristol, one week after she witnessed the high Spring tides carrying thousands of pieces of plastic litter out to sea.

The night, which started as a launch of a music video, was broadcast by Made in Bristol TV as an hour-long current affairs debate, and was concluded with a lighter look at the issue through four adult, comedy poems that reflect the experience of the marine animals who are the victims of the plastic problem.

 

Press Enquiries: Livvy Drake 07973 369847

Interviews: Natalie Fee 07871 397868

All Enquiries: citytoseabristol@gmail.com

Website: www.citytosea.org.uk

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Selfridges Water Refill

Selfridges are setting out to tackle plastic pollution in the ocean by “removing all single-use plastic water bottles from our Foodhalls and restaurants, amounting to approximately 400,000 bottles a year.”  Selfridges website.

I was a little confused by the wording. Single use? Surely all plastic bottles when used as packaging  are single use.  I wondered if perhaps they meant single serving water bottle. I have been caught out like this before. Got all giddy about a water bottle ban only to find that it was restricted to those tiny bottles that contain a small glassful each. Yes a start, but hardly a ban.

So I tweeted them

love that you are removing single use water bottles. Does this mean the single serving small water bottles or all bottled water?

and they replied

disposable water bottles have been replaced with access to water fountains within our store.

Way to go Selfridges.

This  is part of its Project Ocean initiative, a collaborative effort with the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) and the Marine Reserves Coalition (MRC).

“Professor Jonathan Baillie, director of conservation programmes at ZSL, said the amount of plastic in the oceans was “staggering” and having a “devastating effect” on marine wildlife.

“No matter where plastic litter originates, once it reaches the ocean it becomes a planetary problem as it is carried by ocean currents,” he said.  Business Green

There is also an exhibition curated by Jane Withers in the Ultralounge on G at Selfridges London featuring work by Studio Swine (one of our favourites – check out their great project here) Andrew Friend, Nick Wood and Alice Dunseath, “which shed light on the plastic problem and propose alternative futures.”  There is also an in store water fountain and water bar to refill your own bottle from.

There is lots more on the website including ways you can cut your plastic footprint.

Needless to say the British Plastics Federation (BPF)  “expressed its “dismay” at Selfridges’ move. Philip Law, the BPF’s director general said: “The availability of water in portable, lightweight bottles promotes good health and can be critical in emergency situations. Plastic products do not litter themselves onto our streets or into our oceans, people do.” Taken from Plastic News.

Does shopping in Selfridges  really count as an emergency situation? When might critical hydration be called for? If you can’t fit into a size 12? They don’t have it in the colour you want?  Situations when only water in a light weight bottle will do.

And of course people shouldn’t litter.  They shouldn’t rob houses either but I am not going to leave my  front door open. There are some anti-social elements who don’t behave as we would like. The challenge is how limit their negative impacts. Plastic litter  doesn’t biodegrade. Once out there it lasts for ever. It only takes few meanies to drop their bottles and you have an expensive case of plastic pollution. The answer is  not to say people should stop dropping trash but to stop making everlasting litter.

Some more info

Why plastic doesn’t biodegrade

now wash your hands

Perhaps not a completely plasticless project but a plastic reduced because you get more for your rubbish. Any way I just love it and deserves publicising.

Hand washing cuts decease and saves lives in third world countries. The Global Soap Project Process recycles hotel soaps. The following is taken from their website

Handwashing with soap is the most effective way to prevent the leading causes of death for children globally — illnesses that claim more than 2.4 million lives each year.

It all begins with the hotels! Hotel representatives can use the registration form or contact our hotel engagement manager to get started.

Collection Soap is collected from hotels and shipped to our warehouse in Las Vegas.

Sorting Because every brand is distinct, we do not mix soap. Each is sorted into containers for each hotel and brand.
Processing The soap is softened by heat and filtered through an extremely fine-mesh screen to remove dirt and other particulates. It is then molded into finished bars, hand cut, cured, inspected and packaged. Much of this work is performed by volunteers.
Verification GSP commissions third-party laboratory tests to screen for traces of pathogens on a sample from each batch of soap it produces before it ships.
Distribution We work with distribution partners and NGOs to ship, distribute soap and educate recipients on the best way to use it for health and sanitation purposes

Plastic free Northumberland wildlife trust…

This month 3 employees will try to live without plastic…..

In January 2015 we are attempting to go plastic free to help highlight the problems of plastics in our environment.  While this plastic free status is only for the month it should also help us to reduce our use of plastic in the long-term.  Here we hope to highlight some of the problems, the solutions and ways that all of us can help reduce plastics in our environment.

It should be emphasised that we are particularly keen to avoid single use plastic items as it is almost impossible to avoid the use of plastic items that occur everywhere (phones, computers, cars etc.).  By single use we include bottles that claim to be recyclable as opposed to re reuseable.

Follow their progress here on the blog

Water from Hotels

I do a lot of travelling and I love a hotel that offers me a water bottle refill or tap water with my dinner. Here are a few interesting schemes…

CELEBRATE SAFE WATER FOR TOURISM

Being a DrinkWater partner means that your organization has committed to being part of the global network focused on reducing plastic water bottles through the implementation of drinkable water technologies.  It represents being green, and environmentally aware of your global impact.  Through the use of our products we measure your impact and help you attract more customers who are environmentally focused.

DrinkWater is the global network promoting safe water for tourism. We monitor reductions in single use plastic water bottles and help you measure your environmental and sustainability benefits for a clear competitive advantage.

WHOLE WORLD Water

Their scheme is very practical….

Are you in the hospitality trade? Do you want to reduce your plastic footprint? Would you like to help those without access to clean drinking water while you do it?

Have a look at this project……

IS A HOSPITALITY AND TOURISM CAMPAIGN THAT ADDRESSES THE FACT THAT NEARLY 1 BILLION PEOPLE DO NOT HAVE ACCESS TO CLEAN AND SAFE DRINKING WATER.
We estimate that with scale we, as an industry, can contribute $1 billion dollars per year to alleviate this global issue. But, this is much more than a fund raising initiative. It is a revolutionary, creative way of thinking, a new way to do business and a replicable
model designed to combat environmental, health and economic issues. It will deliver huge, radical, positive change while driving a more robust bottom line. It’s simple, easy to implement, measurable and bankable.
Most importantly, it will be the first time that a single industry has united on a non-competitive platform, taken action and eradicated a major global issue.
1 Become a member of WHOLE WORLD Water
2 Replace commercially branded bottled water with filtered water – filtration systems run around $400 per month, and the reusable glass bottles cost $4-$7 each.
3 Sell the bottled water for $ (whatever price point you are comfortable with) and contribute 10% of the proceeds to the WHOLE WORLD Water Fund. 100% of the monies raised will be invested in clean & safe drinking water projects and innovations locally, and globally.

The filtration system and bottles pay for themselves usually over a period of 3 months, and our members have realized an income increase up to 25%, proving that environmental and economic progress are not mutually exclusive. You will witness a more robust bottom line, and become part of a global marketing campaign built on solutions, transparency and action with the potential to raise more than $1 billion annually in the fight for clean and safe water for everyone. This is a truly sustainable solution!
wholeworldwater.co

For more visit the website

More

If you are not in the hospitality business but want to do all that any way, check out the fantastic Give Me Tap scheme

 

boat powered by rubbish

Ocean Ambassadors Mr Midwood and Take Three, Tim Silverwood sailed into town in a boat powered by trash.

“We put solid plastics in one side and use heat to gasify them, turning them back into liquid – their oil-based form,” Mr Midwood said. “It’s a great way to turn plastics into a positive product. We can use the diesel we produce to power the ship and then sell leftover fuel.”

They are using Japanese-designed Blest technology which turns plastic into oil

Ocean Ambassadors  advocate and educate on this technology as a solution to island nations as it provides a real-time solution to effectively processing these “waste materials” locally and providing an end product that has a high demand in all locations.

As it is a low-sulfur burning content fuel and recorded as environmentally friendlier than standard diesel, we feel this technology offers us an option for the time being before we phase into plastic alternatives that are bio-based.

 

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Water Bottle Bans

It shows how divergent our culture has become when many are trying so hard to cut foolish and polluting consumption habits, others make money selling fresh air. Please support the former and let’s hope the latter is an elaborate joke – perhaps done by performance artists.

San Francisco

San Francisco has just become the first city in America to ban the sale of plastic water bottles. Over the next four years, the ban will phase out the sales of plastic water bottles that hold 21 ounces or less in public places. So not all water bottles only the small single servings but a start. You can read a full article about it here

Eaton Hotel suspends bottled water

This is great news, a hotel suspending bottled water in favour of refills

Eaton Hotel, Hong Kong has invested on the installation of an eco-friendly drinking water purification system that allows glass bottles to be re-used and suspended the use of plastic bottled water.This is a great initiative and should save 350,000 plastic bottles each year from landfill, a positive result for our environment. Copied from aquafil

Concordia University banning bottled water

if only more colleges would do this……Vending machines to be bottled-water-free – NOW – Concordia University.

In the Hospitality Trade?

1 Become a member of WHOLE WORLD Water
2 Replace commercially branded bottled water with filtered water – filtration systems run around $400 per month, and the reusable glass bottles cost $4-$7 each.
3 Sell the bottled water for $ (whatever price point you are comfortable with) and contribute 10% of the proceeds to the WHOLE WORLD Water Fund. 100% of the monies raised will be invested in clean & safe drinking water projects and innovations locally, and globally.

Great Ozzy Campaign

Watch it and laugh….kinda like buying bottled water

Bottled Air??? 

And while that was meant to be a joke, these loons in have taken to selling heavily packaged fresh air

“Two entrepreneurs are capitalizing on air pollution problems abroad by selling people bottled fresh air from the Canadian Rockies.

“Essentially we’re selling air,” Troy Paquette, one of Vitality Air’s Canadian co-founders, told CBC’s The Current. “Clean, beautiful, fresh Banff mountain air.”

They are in talks with China. FFS, really hope I’m being hoaxed here!

bottled-air

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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.

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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

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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.