Kitting out the Bulkmobile

Once we had brought the Bulkmobile home it was time to turn her into our zero waste shop. We wanted to kit out the van in the most responsible way, taking environmental and business concerns into consideration.

We started by looking into shelving and opted for a custom made shelving system in hardwood plywood. Although a new resource that requires industrial processing, plywood is considered a greener, sustainable hardwood option. Making plywood means being able to utilise more from felled logs as it's mostly made with thin sheets of wood sliced from logs that wouldn’t make very good solid lumber, therefore utilising something that may otherwise be wasted. The shelves were CNC machined and designed in a way to limit waste from a single plywood sheet. Additional shelves needed were made by us (Gemma's dad to be more accurate!) from available off-cuts. 

Earthborn paint was our paint of choice for our shelving as they offer a range of environmentally friendly paint; free from acrylics, oils and vinyl. We went for a grey called Kissing Gate in their Eggshell that's washable (good for food hygiene), virtually VOC free and carries the EU Ecolabel. 

Choosing secondhand where available we found shop baskets to use to display our lifestyle products and our weighing station at the back of the van is made from an Ikea shelf bought from a friend of Gemma's who relocated abroad. We then topped it with a worktop made from recycled yogurt pots, this came with an added bonus of also being a leftover off-cut! We also used this to create our serving shelf. 

We needed to have a sink on-board for hygiene and went for one made from plastic, we chose this over a stainless steel option due to its space-saving design and we are happy that we can utilise a used plastic bottle to hold the waste drainage.

For the containers holding our products we had to opt for plastic. Glass was just too heavy and also a health and safety risk due to potential breakages while driving along. We decided to partner with Addis as their container range is made from food-safe, BPA free, polypropylene which is easy to recycle come the end of the products life-cycle. They are a reputable UK based company, with sound Environmental and Packaging Policies in place. Their products are designed and manufactured to last, with a 10 year guarantee so we hope we'll be using them for many years.   

Outside branding was our final decision for the van. We researched to find the greenest vinyl available and came across 3M Envision wrap. This vinyl film is non-PVC being made from a bio-based material. Its phthalate-free, contains no added chlorine or halogens and uses 58% less solvents than conventional films, eliminating potential hazards to the environment at the end of use. 

So there you have it, a little tour inside our van, if you haven't seen it for yourself yet check out our locations and come and see our little mobile zero waste shop! 

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Why package free?

As you may have seen in the news, TV and social media, levels of plastic waste polluting both land and sea has now become a critical environmental issue. The National Geographic has recently published its June 2018 Plastics issue with some startling facts and figures on plastics which highlight exactly why we want to start offering everyday products package free to the people of Cornwall.

Below are our highlights (or lowlights really) from the issue: 

Single-use, disposable packaging, accounted for over a third of the 448 million tons of plastic produced in 2015, making it the largest market for plastic production. 

Plastic packaging now accounts for nearly half of all plastic waste generated globally with most of it not getting recycled or incinerated. 

Scientists writing in Nature magazine back in 2013 declared that disposable plastic should be classified as a hazardous material.

The growth of plastic production has outgrown our current waste management abilities, which is why our environment is overflowing with plastic pollution.

Globally roughly 8.8 million tons of plastic waste ends up in our oceans annually.

Microplastics have been found everywhere in the ocean that people have looked, from sediments on the deepest seafloor to ice floating in the Arctic. With nearly 700 species, including endangered ones, affected by ocean plastics. 

We don't know how long it takes for plastics to biodegrade: estimates range from 450 years to never. 

There's no denying that these are some scary statistics and its hard to get your head around how we let it get this bad, but the good news is that this is something we can affect. As consumers we have great power; if we all spend wisely and think about what we are buying and avoid single-use plastic packaging where we can then we can make a difference to plastic waste. We don't think plastic is the enemy but our disposable attitude to it is not sustainable, which is why we are looking to offer an alternative way to shop, one that will help reduce the amount of disposable plastic packaging needed.

*Statistics and facts from National Geographic June 2018, Plastic by Laura Parker p40-69

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Fuelling the Incredible Bulk

After deciding that we would be making our zero waste shop mobile, our discussions quickly turned to the topic of fuel. As an environmentally conscious business we knew that our fuel choice would be an important one and so we took the time to research all the options available.

Of course, our initial thoughts were of a zero-emission, electrically-powered van (that or a cool old-school Citroen!). However, the electric vans available at the time of our research either did not have the capacity to hold all of the bulk products we planned to provide, or were unavailable to us due to the costs involved (even when considering the Government grants). We also had concerns around the battery ranges when considering the distances that we would be travelling across Cornwall, the weight of product going into the van, and also available charging points. Bearing all this in mind it became apparent that a zero emissions van would sadly not be a viable option for us.

Our attention then moved to alternative fuels such as CNG (compressed natural gas) and hydrogen, both offering environmental benefits when compared to diesel. However, availability was proving to be an issue. We struggled to find a supply of bio-methane CNG or hydrogen available in Cornwall. We also considered LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) where availability was less of an issue but our research told us that while it offers a CO2 saving when compared to petrol, the CO2 per km emissions are similar to diesel.

These findings finally lead us to consider petrol vs diesel. In spite of the recent negative publicity around diesel, our research showed that whilst petrol vans have come along way, they are more suited to city-based businesses with lower mileage, with diesel vans being more fuel efficient than petrol when covering larger distances and with heavier loads.  We ruled out older, emission-heavy diesel vans (no cool old-school Citroen for us) and instead looked into newer vans that had the Euro 6 engine, with Euro 6 legislation helping to reduce harmful gases in the air and combat climate change.

Having considered all of the fuel options in detail whilst also factoring in the requirements to run a reliable mobile shop we finally decided on a Peugeot Boxer 2.0 BlueHDi. Peugeot's latest generation of fuel and environmentally efficient Diesel engines include a three stage cleansing process specifically targeting the pollutants of diesel combustion, removing hydrocarbons and carbon monoxide, reducing nitrogen oxides by up to 90% and eliminating 99.95% of particulates.  

Although a zero-emission vehicle proved not to be a viable option for our business, we believe our final choice continues to reflect our commitment to the environment. Our engine emits 163g CO2 per km driven currently but we are looking into a Bio-diesel that will help reduce this by 28% (tailpipe emissions are unaffected but as a renewable fuel made from used cooking oil the saving comes from looking at the fuel life cycle). At present there is not a supply in Cornwall but we are continuing to look into this and will keep you posted.

And finally...we are following up with local Cornwall initiatives to plant native trees to help off-set our CO2 output - lookout for updates and more information in future Incredible Blog posts!      

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