Now I would never suggest you don’t take your plastic packed medication. If you need it you take it. But this recycling scheme might be of interest to those who have use inhalers.
Did you know you can recycle your inhaler?
Find your nearest participating pharmacy via this website.
Enter your post code
and its as easy as that to breathe new life into your old inhalers.
There is some scope for home remedies to deal with blocked up noses and the like. strong smelling essentials oils are useful. And it seems you can buy refillable inhalers which makes the whole process a little easier.
You soak the cotton wick in essential oils of your choice, put in the inhaler and sniff away.
If you live in the States you can buy these rather nice ones in glass and aluminium from Amazon.com 3.5 inches x .75 inches, outer shell is aluminum.
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 (read more here) or
“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!”
Bulk buy or refill stores are places you can buy all kinds of food like rice, suet, even soup mix - loose and unpackaged. You take as much as you want/need from a larger container, weigh and pay. You can usually use your own packaging. The advantages for the #plasticfree shopper hardly need stating! These are common in America and Australia, far less so in the U.K. But we do have some. I have put together a list of stores that sell loose products, listed alphabetically by the location / place name. If you know of others please add them, with as many details as possible, in the comments box below and I will incorperperate them.
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.
Latest Loose Food Shop
from Twitter
Popped to the fantastically named @weighahead in Dunblane, a new #zerowaste shop near #Stirling. Highlights were finding packaging-free bar soap and stocking up on staples without any single-use plastic. We’ll be back!
Jarfull Ltd
“Our shop all being well will be open sometime in the first couple of weeks of December. We will announce the confirmed date when we have done a little more decorating so please follow our social media pages to keep informed. “From their website
@jarfulluk
2 Bower Street, Harrogate, North Yorkshire, HG1 5BQ
Heard of one in Chapel Allerton. will be checking that out later.
A to Z of Refill Shops
A Aberdeen Aberdeen has a foodstory shop(/vegan café) which offers a wide variety of unpackaged food and other household items Aberystwith B Barmouth Barnsley Bath “Bath store – NewLeaf HealthFoods, 29 Shaftesbury Road, Bath, BA2 3LJ Happy to preweigh your container with what you are going to fill it with. Bulk bins of nuts, flour, sugar, grains, dried fruit and more. Loose herbs and spices. Ecover refills.”
Berkhamsted Herts Clean Earth Pantry in Berkhamsted Herts. Monthly market stall with whole foods, household liquid refills and reusable items x
Burley in Wharfedale “Waste Not The Grange, Station Road, Burley in Wharfedale, LS29 7ND, UK do shampoo refills as well as lots of other stuff. more details here“
Buxton 18.1 Day Zero in Buxton. A great little family run refill shop. Very friendly and helpful in giving advice on how to make changes. Also responds to the customer to try and source plastic free products should there be a request for it.
C
Camarthen “There’s the ‘green scoop’ in Camarthen http://www.thegreenscoop.com 9 Hall Street, Carmarthen, SA31 1PH”
Cardiff Cardiff- Ripple in Roath. Zero waste shop
Chichester Chichester has Refilled Chichester at Drapers Yard, The Hornets. Drapers Yard also has other plastic free friendly shops including Zest for Taste which does oil and vinegar refills and Bear Boy Fresh with local organic veg and a milk refill station .
Cleethorpes Spill the Beans St Peter’s Avenue #cleethorpes now have paper bags out as an alternative to plastic. If you’ve not been here PLEASE check if out! Loads of fab whole foods plus cereals Baking stuff and more #cleethorpes #discovernel #totallylocallyne
D
Dundee Little Green Larder opened in Dundee today
E
East Wittering Nearby in East Wittering health shop Mind Body Medicalhas a refill section
I, J K Kingsmouth Kingsmouth Devon Free local delivery – spend £7.50 and we will deliver free – within a 7-mile radius of Kingsbridge. Great for bulk buys. Good review here. Kingston
Leicester https://zerowasteleicester.co.uk/ for Leicester
Leigh-on-Sea, Essex “Leigh-on-Sea, Essex has The Refill Room which has been running for 6 months. All the bottles, jars etc are glass in case you forget to bring your own ( or don’t bring enough !). All the usual dry goods plus housecleaning and toiletries are available. They also have a website – link below: The Refill Room 15 Elm Road Leigh-on-Sea Essex SS9 1SW https://www.refillroom.com/ “
Please add Naked Larder in Herne Hill, South London SE24 9QP to your list. http://www.nakedlarder.co.uk Many thanks, Phil
I have just discovered this shop has recently opened…. Get Loose @ Hackney City Farm – 100% Organic Pastas, Grains, Pulses, Cereals, Milk and alternative Mylks (in refillable/returnable glass bottles), Nuts, Cheeses (in compostable wrapping), Chocolates, Dried Fruits and lots more. The shop is a social enterprise and growing its produce selection week on week. Hackney City farm (just inside the gates on the right), 1a Goldsmiths Row, E2 8QA Open; Wed 17:30 – 20:00, Thurs 16:30 – 19:30, Fri 10:00 – 18:00, Sat & Sun 10:00 – 16:30 On Twitter @GetLooseFoods
T Thatcham Can you please add Thatcham Refillable to the list. We are in Thatcham near Newbury in Berkshire. http://www.thatchamrefillable.co.uk We sell refill household cleaning & personal care products daily and we hold a monthly market where we have stall holders selling dried food and other eco products from our shop.
Pain Au Chocolat - home bake Pain Au Raisen - Home Bake Yorkshire Puds Fruits of the forest and other soft fruits Roast veg - peppers to potatoes Uncooked Vegetables ... Read More
Lidles is a chain of budget supermarkets. It offers some plastic free surprises. (Click the links to see a review and other options). Take your own bags Lidl Stiftung & ... Read More
Vegetable oil is difficult to source plastic free. Buy in glass and the metal caps will have a little plasticized disc or plastic liner on inside and maybe a plastic seal ... Read More
Here are some independent Tea & Coffe merchants. You may need to take your own bags Leeds The Teapot has coffee beans and leaf tea from all round the world. Really lovely ... Read More
Loose pet food, home wares and some loose sweets. Being committed to local shopping, I prefer to buy that way whenever possible. I would encourage you to do the same ... Read More
Please add any shops you know of in the comments below and I will incorporate them into the post. Links to reviews particularly welcome.
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
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.” #projectocean 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.
Imagine a world where you returned your empty milk bottles to be refilled and took your washing up liquid bottle back for more of the soapy stuff. Seems such an obvious way to save resources and cut waste doesn’t it? Well thankfully a few far seeing people still offer such great services. You can find them here.
Any we forgot? Please let us know in the comments section below. Together we can make changes!
Here is a one of the worlds finest inventions as radical in its time as the computer has been in ... Read More
Reusables
I don’t think theres enough said about reusing stuff. By which I don’t mean recycling - recycling is great but it usually means the waste product is taken away then processed into something else.
We really don’t need a new bag every time we buy some beans. A cotton reusable bag is more than good enough. Yet we have become such a throwaway society we have almost forgotten about reusables.
Here are some products that dont need to be thrown away after a few uses.
Disposables
Sometime you need a disposable and when you do it has to be compostable. Here are biodegradable bags for the butcher, paper cups for the office party and plastic free tampons. To name but a few. Find them here
Planet Earth offers a range of household cleaning products with a unique refill and reuse system.
It works and has been scientifically tested to be as good as the leading brand.
It’s an eco winner: To make a bottle of eco2life cleaner, fill a spray bottle about half full of ordinary tap water, simply add one ‘small wonder’ refill to the spray bottle and top up with cold tap water. Replace the trigger, give it a quick shake - you’re all set to go.
There is no lugging of ‘water’ back and forth, requiring less production, less energy, less packaging
Our spray trigger is designed for a long life and our spray bottles are reusable.
Vegetarian Society Approved.
It’s made in the UK and of course it’s made from naturally derived readily biodegradable aquatic safe ingredients with fully recyclable packaging.
This post was written by the contributor. It is not a Plastic Is Rubbish review, does not represent my personal opinions and I may not have 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.
ECOVER do all of these products and you can get your plastic bottle refilled. To find where Ecover have a refill station check the postcode search on their site
If you cant get to a refill station try getting a refill by post….
Splosh
This is an online refill service. A new way to buy your home cleaning, laundry and health & beauty essentials.
You buy the starter pack which includes a range of bottles and concentrate product. You water down the product and fill the bottles. Thereafter you buy more concentrate on line and refill your bottles as needed.
Some products come in soluble pods which you drop into water; others in plastic pouches which can be sent back to be refilled or recycled. While the refillable plastic pouches obviously are plastic (duh) the soluble pods sound useful.
They supply a wide range of products. But “currently the surface cleaners and hand washes come in water soluble sachets and the rest come in pouches.”
Splosh also claim that the postal packaging for the starter kit and refills is also plastic free. Though according to some reviews they come with some plastic.
Here’s their mission statement. “Plastic waste is an environmental disaster and we’re committed to reducing it to zero. For each product we’ve designed a refilling system that takes plastic out of the waste stream. For example our pouches can be sent back for refilling and, at the end of their life, we manage their reprocessing into other products”
You can read more about how it works and order products here HERE
If anyone out there has used this product please let me know.
I do have a social life. I occasionally get to go out to dinner and wine is the present of choice. My friends are are gluten-free, minimalist drunks - what else am I going to take? But bottled wine often contains plastic - either a plastic cork or the metal screw top lid is plastic lined.
So I thought I would try to find a wine that was corked with a cork. I climbed out of the bargain booze bins and took myself off to a proper wine merchants. I explained my problem to the proper wine merchant and he recommended the Spanish wines as being more likely to use corks (they want to keep their cork industry alive). Also the better quality wines tend to use corks. Not entirely sure gluten-free drunks deserve such a treat but went ahead and purchased a bottle of quality Spanish wine with a cork sealed in foil.
HA! Peeled off the foil to a cork - sure enough…. BUT the foil, was plastic lined! Damn!
Seems the only way to get really plastic free wine is to use a refill service. Of course our civilised european cousins in Italy and Spain allow you to do just this. Most places will have a shop where you cant take your own bottle and get it filled with a choice of wines. Back in the U.K. your choices are rather more limited.
Borough Wines
When I went to Green Oscars, (did I mention I was in the same room as Colin Firth -hey it’s a start!), they were serving wine from Borough Wines . Borough Wines sell wine on tap and offer a refill service (you can read a Guardian review here). I don’t know if it was the tap wine we were drinking but my white was very nice. Sadly they only have shops in London - there’s a list here .
Whole food Supermarket
Wholefood supermarket also do a wine refill service (They have stores in Glasgow, London and Cheltenham - maybe more now - check the link)
Buying Refills In Cheltenham
Wholefood Market (Cheltenham) offers a wine refill service. You buy a glass liter bottles from them that you then refill, yourself from the large and lovely barrel of wine. But as we wanted rather more than a liter and have no room for glass bottles in the van , (our current home). So we brought our own emergency plastic water bottle. It’s big and it’s plastic. Classy!
Dreadful shock then when we got there. The refill wine barrel I saw last time I was there was no longer in place. Desperate enquiries revealed that this hadn’t worked out and the wine kept going off.
I visibly reeled “But what of my wine refill” I whimpered.
Thankfully they still did refills but now a member of staff fills your bottle from a huge 15 liter wine box. Not quite what I was expecting and stretching the not- in- my- bin rule to it’s limit - but 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. Besides which we desperate.
We proffered the canteen with trembling hands. Arghh!!! Now there was some doubt as to whether we could use a huge plastic water carrier. Once again we waited anxiously and sagged with relief when they agreed that we could.
Buy one of our bottles and fill it with wine from our barrel taps in the Reno Wine shop in Wymondham, Norfolk.
Rinse out your bottle and bring it back to fill with more wine - and by reusing save yourself the cost of the glass bottle!
Speciality ‘Crafted Cask’ Whisky in Refillable Bottles also now available…
Go to 15 Market Street, Wymondham, Norfolk, NR18 0AJ
Open 9.30-5.30, Tues-Sat
Recently our van trip has been milk free. Seems they don’t do milk in bottles in France. But if you are lucky, they do do milk in machines. Check out this milk dispenser outside a huge supermarket chain. Thats us filling our water bottle with fresh, cool milk!
And now some forward thinking folk in the U.K have invested
Happy World Milk Day from Nunton Farm Dairy! Come to our Open Farm Sunday on the 11th June to sample our milk from our brand new vending machine, which will be located outside the Radnor Arms, Nunton, from the 17th July onwards. Yay @nuntonfarm on Facebook for lots more info.
The Milk vending machine is now open!!! Fresh milk is available every day. We are very excited to be have this new facility to enable customers to help themselves to milk from a vending machine, recycling glass bottles and reducing plastic bottle wastage. We would like to thank the many customers who have already been to use the vending machine for their support.
The machine can be found at
Whitegate Farm, Norwich Road, Creeting St Mary, Suffolk, IP6 8PG
01449 710458 / 07787 584386
Can’t get to Suffolk? There are still some milk men who deliver in glass bottles. Check this list. If you know of any others please add to it.
Vegetable oil is difficult to source plastic free. Buy in glass and the metal caps will have a little plasticized disc or plastic liner on inside and maybe a plastic seal. Plus the bottle will almost always have a plastic pouring widget in the bottle top.Like I can’t pour oil out of a bottle??? Buy in cans and they have a plastic lid, perhaps a handle and the can is of course lined with plastic. You can read more here
On Tap
But if you are very lucky you might find a place that sell oils on tap that lets you use your own refillable bottle. Do you need me to explain that? They sell oil from the can and you take your own bottle, which they refill with oil.
Whahey plastic free oil!
That said in 2015 Defra banned ‘On tap’ olive oil. The following is taken form their website….”These oils mustn’t be sold ‘on tap’ in their pure form: extra virgin olive oil, virgin olive oil, olive oil composed of refined olive oils and virgin olive oils, olive pomace oil. Today (2016) seems oil is back on tap. So, for now you can buy olive oil on tap from a variety of store.
Using your own bottle? It would seem that some stores allow you to refill your own bottle. Whole Food Market do and I refilled my glass bottle there. But I cannot vouch for the others listed below! Any information on the subject is much appreciated.
Demijohn – Victoria St, Edinburgh refill oil & vinegar (and spirits at Demijohn).
Olive oil Stoneygate, Leicesterhttp://www.deliflavour.net/may also do refills but not checked
Sheena Hatton Claremont Farm in Wirral (oils and vinegars) and Spar in Llanfyllin.Åsa PamphilonHoland andBarrer in Chelmsford.” I havent yet refilled but it is clearly two different prices for their bottle and oil/vinegar or just a refill so I assume I will have no problems.
More
Or you could try lard. Other greasy options and ways to buy plastic reduced oils and spreads can be found here the edible oil index here.
And everything you need to know about fatty acids 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 (read more here) or
Of course you can get beer in bottles but those metal caps have a plastic liner or small disc to prevent leakage. It’s a tiny amount but it is plastic.
Cans of beer are plastic lined!
The only way to get plastic free booze is to use a refill service. Take your own flagon to the alehouse and get them to fill it. These are the ones I know of
Huddersfield
The Sportsman Huddersfield will sell you your own reusable flagon. Yes its plastic but it will last you a good long time.
The Grove
The Head Of Steam ( also sells plastic flagons)
All sell great real ales and very reasonable priced.
Magic Rock sell metal reusable flagons. Very stylish! Also sells great real ales but they are more expensive.
If anyone else knows of other beer refill options please leave a comment below… many thanks.
If you live in the States you can buy these rather nice ones in
