The frontline of the war against plastic packaging is the weekly shop.
And it’s now getting easier to pick up groceries without creating extra waste through unnecessary packaging, with the rise of refill shops across the country.
The idea is that people bring their own containers to fill up with what they need, from pasta, beans and coffee to cleaning products and bamboo toothbrushes.
It means there’s no need for plastic bags, trays or wrapping that will only end up being thrown away.
One such shop is Zero Waste Market, in Glasgow’s Dennistoun.
Earlier this year, we spoke to owners Lizzie Leman and Graham Sharp as they approached the end of a crowdfunding campaign to secure a permanent unit for their venture, which had already had great success as a market stall.
Now several months in – and with no plastic packaging to be seen – it’s proved to be a hit with the locals.
“It’s been surprising how wide a demographic it’s been, we were worried it would just be certain people,” says Graham.
“People in the community seem to be really on board with it and I was pleasantly surprised that there were people who had been waiting for something like this and immediately came down with bags and tubs and jars.”
The idea of the shop is to be just like a local convenience store except with more focus on caring for the environment and providing healthy options.
Graham says: “We want to cater for the area and be people’s local shop and have a good community spirit where lots of people come.”
Similar independent shops are starting to pop up around the country, taking shoppers back to the days where this was the norm and plastic packaging wasn’t widely used.
And refill seems to be a strategy major retailers are picking up on.
Earlier this week, Waitrose announced that it was to trial similar schemes within its supermarkets in a bid to reduce thousands of tonnes of plastic.
The likes of Tesco, Iceland and Morrisons have also all made efforts to cut down on packaging.
Today is World Environment Day. Find out more about Zero Waste Market at zerowastemarket.org.uk
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