Emma: My plastic free journey

Meeting our customers is one of the best parts of our jobs! We are always inspired by their efforts to go plastic free and love hearing their journeys of how they came to start shopping plastic free and we thought you might do too! It is always inspiring to hear from others and in this brave new world of zero waste and plastic free its great to pick up hints and tips from each other and feel part of a wider community that together will make great change!

Emma used to visit us at the van to refill in Mount Hawke but since our service changed to home delivery during the pandemic she switched with us, here’s her story:

The starting point of my plastic-free journey was a mix of things.

First was a feeling of embarrassment as I put out 4 (or it might have even been 5) black bin bags one morning for our fortnightly refuse collection, only to watch my neighbour saunter out with one small black bag for a family of 4. I was embarrassed to be putting out so much rubbish.

The second thing was watching the 3 part BBC documentary War On Plastic with Hugh & Anita on catch up. This series really opened my eyes to reality and I was shocked by some of the things it revealed.

The third thing was inspiring friends who had already started a journey to reduce plastic. They didn’t say much, they just lived it, and they told me about you guys and your business, Incredible Bulk.

So the fourth thing was meeting you two, Gemma and Jack. Seeing the van. Chatting to you. Asking you how to start to make lifestyle changes, to make a difference. And I have learnt huge amounts from you over the last 18months. Never once did I feel judged for the way I had been doing things, and never did I feel bombarded with information. Just encouraged and helped along my journey.

The fifth things were two books I read. They were ‘Detrash your life in 90 days’ by Katie Patrick, and ‘Zero Waste Home’ by Bea Johnson. Both got me thinking about changes that could be made.

So all of that was what came together over a relatively short space of time to inspire me to start making changes. And we have made lots of changes over the last 18 months. There are still more changes to be made. But it is a great journey to be on!

My favourite items to buy package free has changed over time.

At first it was Bombay Mix. I had previously loved crisps, but didn’t want to purchase crisps anymore due to their packaging. So the Bombay Mix from Incredible Bulk was my swap for crisps.

Then it was the vegan organic dark chocolate buttons. Yummy. And they make a great present in a nice jar.

Then it was loose leaf tea and then the sundried tomatoes.

Then, when I discovered they stocked toothpaste tablets that contained the recommended level of fluoride they became my favourite. Admittedly toothpaste tablets take a bit of getting used to, but I’m just glad they had an option with fluoride!

For anyone starting their journey, changing your lifestyle is achievable!

Find someone who inspires you and learn from them how to make changes towards a lifestyle with less plastic. Then just start! One change at a time.

There is so much information available to read online or watch on youtube about how to make changes. I have enjoyed watching some of the talks by Bea Johnson on YouTube, and would recommend listening to her or reading her book Zero Waste Home.

Incredible Bulk is great for dry goods, toiletries, and advice too! And they have gift ideas too.

You could also consider getting a veg box delivery from someone local to you, or even start growing some of your own veg. We started growing veg last year for the first time, and I found the book ‘veg in one bed’ by Huw Richards invaluable.

Just try package free where you can. Small changes build up over time and can make a big difference.

Susheela: My plastic free journey

Meeting our customers is one of the best parts of our jobs! We are always inspired by their efforts to go plastic free and love hearing their journeys of how they came to start shopping plastic free and we thought you might do too! It is always inspiring to hear from others and in this brave new world of zero waste and plastic free its great to pick up hints and tips from each other and feel part of a wider community that together will make great change!

Susheela uses our delivery service to the Perranarworthal area, here’s her story:

My inspiration for starting to shop plastic-free was concern about single use plastic and plastic waste as well as using up valuable resources from the plant.

When I started shopping with Incredible Bulk I was impressed by the good range of products and also loved the convenience of their home delivery service. My favourite item from the van are the dried figs that I put in my morning breakfast!

My top tip for anyone looking to start shopping package free is to start saving jars and tubs so you have plenty of storage containers available, having different sizes is really handy too! Another thing we have started doing is to make our own ice lollies for our children (seen in this picture!) to avoid buying icepops with single use plastic from the local shop. We use an ice lollie set from Aldi!

Plastic Free July Guide : Be Part of the Solution

The Plastic Free July campaign started in 2011 and has gained ground ever since. Over the last 5 years participants have avoided 10 billion kilograms of waste. In 2023 89 million people participated globally, reducing their household plastic consumption by 240 million kilograms.

The vision is simple: to see a world free of plastic waste. Plastic Free July provides resources and ideas to help you reduce single-use plastic waste everyday at home, work, school, and even at your local café.

We know that it can still seem daunting thinking about reducing your plastic waste and committing to Plastic Free July so we wanted to put together this guide for everyone thinking of getting involved this year.

First things first, committing to Plastic Free July doesn’t mean you have to completely avoid plastic for the month. As the wonderful Zero Waste Chef, Anne-Marie Bonneau reminds us, there are plastics that are unavoidable, the main 3 being:

• Prescriptions/Medication: Most prescriptions come in pre-packed plastic packaging that is unavoidable, this isn’t worth worrying over and no one is asking you to avoid this. If you want to see change in the industry maybe look to write to the pharmaceutical company asking them to research into new packaging types or refill services as part of your Plastic Free July challenge.

• Plastic you already own: There is no need to completely rid your home of plastic that’s still in good working order. Throwing out perfectly good items goes against zero waste principles and isn’t what Plastic Free July is about. Plastic lasts, so make sure you get good use out of your plastic items, reusing them for as long as possible. To preserve plastics and help them last longer keep them out of bright light which can make plastic brittle and break.

• Plastic you didn’t ask for: Sometimes, no matter how good our intentions, plastic turns up in our life! Whether it be through a delivery you thought would be plastic free or a takeaway meal that was automatically put in a plastic container before you could use your reusable, these things happen! But throughout July we can continue to voice our concerns about plastics and ask businesses, friends and family to think about their actions and let them know why you’d prefer them to use a different option.

The key thing to remember is that we don’t need to be perfectly plastic free. Every piece of single use plastic we manage to refuse this July is one less in the waste stream and that’s creating an impact! Plastic Free July is about being accessible to all, you can start out small, or really challenge yourself! For inspiration check out this Ted Talk with Plastic Free July founder Rebecca Prince-Ruiz to find out how she started the movement after thinking about her plastic recycling and where it went.

Feeling ready to get involved? Its time to start thinking about how!

You can take Plastic Free Julys Pesky Plastics Quiz or you can do your own waste audit, maybe for the first week of July to see what plastic sneaks into your home and decide which ones you will look to avoid for the remainder of the month.

Take the time to think about what will have the most impact for you, as Erin Rhoads, Author 'Waste Not' writes : ‘Plastic Free July isn't just about buying a reusable cup or bag, it's giving people the tools to change their habits, to pause and think how we as individuals can make an impact for the better and reduce our reliance on plastic.’ Start slowly and focus on a few areas where you know you can avoid single-use plastic and build from there. From our own experience this process is pretty contagious! Once you start you won’t want to go back and you’ll be looking at how else you can reduce your waste and avoid single use plastic!

Formally signing up can help with commitment for the month, it also means you will receive helpful emails from Plastic Free July with hints and tips for the month and also encouraging stories from participants around the globe!

Good luck for Plastic Free July!

Ways to reduce your plastic waste with Incredible Bulk

Building Habits

Plastic Free July Ways to Get Involved

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biodiversity for healthy food systems

Biodiversity is a topic that has been brought to our attention in various forms in the last few months and each year the UN holds an International Day for Biological Diversity, held on the 22nd May, so we thought it would be the perfect time for us to share our recent learnings on the topic and how it concerns us as a food retailer but also as consumers of food.

Sadly, human activity has altered almost 75% of the earth’s surface, squeezing wildlife and nature into an ever-smaller corner of the planet. Today’s dominant industrial agricultural model, focused on large scale, uniform crops and livestock with limited genetic diversity has been found to be the primary cause of land conversion and biodiversity loss. Of the 30,000 edible species available we’ve come to rely on just 12 plant and animal species for approximately 75% of our food needs, at the expense of many traditional crops and livestock, local varieties and breeds, and associated indigenous and ancestral knowledge.

When you picture the great expansive aisles of the supermarkets its hard to understand that we’re actually only being offered a very narrow, limited range of plants and animals for our diet and that this is damaging not only the health of our planet but also our own health. Over 80% of the human diet is provided by plants and of the thousands of plant species cultivated for food, fewer than 200 contribute substantially to global food output, with just four crops globally accounting for around 60% of our calories - wheat, rice, potatoes and maize.

With fewer plant varieties being cultivated and fewer breeds raised, the large scale global food system is producing less diverse, less healthy diets causing escalating public health and nutrition problems as well as environmental and climate change impacts.

The theme for this years 2021 International Day for Biodiversity is “We’re part of the solution” and this got us thinking as to how we are involved in the food system that is causing so much damage to the biodiversity of the planet. We’ve recently been following the work of The Chefs Manifesto, a group of chefs looking to make a positive impact on the food and agricultural industries as key players between farm and plate. And we think its not only chefs that can play their part. Food retailers can do their bit by investing in biodiverse agricultural practices and then of course as consumers we can also help dictate the market by demanding better variety and better agricultural practices. We are all stakeholders of the food system. As waste leader Tristram Stuart said in a Chefs Manifesto talk ‘we eat the solution or the problem everyday’.

So, how as a business are we doing with regards to supporting biodiversity and a healthy food system?

When checking our product list we became aware that of the 27 beans, grains and cereals offered, half fell into the rice, wheat or maize category, so while we do offer some choice by offering varieties that support biodiverse agricultural practices and diets such as quinoa, buckwheat and lentils, we could probably do a little more to provide our customers with more diverse food choices to empower positive change. Looking to swap or include different species or varieties will not only mean giving our customers products with better nutritional value but it will also contribute to a demand for agrobiodiversity, making our food system more resilient.

In our research we came across the Future 50 Foods project that has been supported by The Chefs Manifesto. Experts in food sustainability, agriculture and nutrition collaborated to identify 50 foods for a resilient future food system. The guiding principles when selecting the 50 chosen foods where that they promoted agrobiodiversity and dietary diversity, stimulated a shift towards plant-based foods, considered environmental impacts of farming practices, focused on nutrient content of raw, unprocessed foods and optimised nutrient balance across food groups.

We were pleased to see some familiar items on there as well as some new ones which may well end up in the van in the future!

Would you like to join us on our biodiverse journey?! By diversifying what we put on our plates (and what we offer as a retailer) we will send a clear market signal that crop diversity is in demand. Here are some top tips for an earth supporting biodiverse plate:

• Add nuts and seeds to dishes. They serve as plant-based sources of protein and fatty acids which can support a transition away from meat-based diets while ensuring optimum nutrition. They can be added to a wide variety of dishes for extra crunch and a nutrient boost. Great added to cereals, stir fries, curries, puddings and baking. Try a nut or seed milk, cream or yoghurt instead of dairy. Check out linseed (a well rounded nutritious food source, that has been widely cultivated from early civilisation), sesame (highly resilient crop, considered an excellent source of copper and magnesium) and walnuts (possibly the oldest tree food known to humans with records dating back 10,000 years! Often claimed one of the most nutritious nuts containing protein, omega 3 fatty acids and vitamin E).

• Mix up your grains and cereals. They have been a principle component of our diet for thousands of years and have played a vital role in shaping human civilisation. For both the health of the planet and ourselves there is a need to vary the types of grains grown and eaten. Try quinoa (a hardy crop that can grow in diverse climates and terrains. Nutritionally provides a good balance of protein, fat, minerals and vitamins) or buckwheat (short season crop that grows well in both acidic and under-fertilised soils and can be used as cover crop. A gluten free healthy versatile grain). Both great in salads or used instead of rice. If new to alternative grains you can slowly introduce by doing a mix of grains - they all taste delicious together! If you’re a pasta fan try alternative grains such as spelt (An ancient form of wheat with higher concentrations of minerals. It has a thicker husk that makes it easier to grow without the need for fertilisers or pesticides).

• Add lentils and beans to your favourite meals. They convert nitrogen from the air for plants to use, enrich the soil they are grown in and support recovery of land as part of crop rotation. As well as being environmental superheroes they offer a rich source of fibre, protein and B vitamins. Great addition to pasta dishes and soups or great on their own as dahls, chilli’s or plant based burgers. Try our bean mix, red split lentils, dark speckled lentils or moong dal.

• Add soya beans to your diet. Although soya beans are one of the 12 main crops that dominate current agriculture they were included in the future 50 foods list due to their high nutritional value and versatility. Soy is not without its negative press but its an ancient bean with a history spanning well over 9000 years, being cultivated by the ancient Chinese and regarded as a necessity for life! It was eaten as a source of protein and crushed for its oil. It provides more protein per hectare than any other crop and also contains a host of vitamins and minerals. 3/4 of all soy produced currently is not for human consumption but rather for animal feed which is where the problems lie. In its dried form it can be used to make soya milk and tofu.

• Try a plant based meat alternative. Intensive animal farming is incredibly damaging to the environment and crops grown for food add to the damage. Lentil burgers, bean chilli and sunflower mince bolognaise are just a few of our favourites.

• Sprout grains, beans and seeds and add to salads and soups. Sprouting dates back 5000 years when Chinese physicians used sprouts medicinally because of their extremely high nutrient content. The sprouting process doubles, and in some cases triples the nutritional value of the plant.

• Use alternative or ancient wheat grain flours when baking and cooking, a few of our favourites include Doves Farm Ancient Grain , Shipton Mill Heritage and Hodmedods Flours. We’re always mixing various flours for our baking!

• Shop at your local farmers market or farmers shop to pick up more unusual, locally grown produce. Globally small holders account for approximately 30% of food but up to 80% of micronutrients. The global food system, with its many harmful subsidies and structural barriers to diversification, largely prioritizes cheap, unhealthy food with a huge environmental footprint. By supporting small holders you are supporting more diverse and planet friendly farming techniques. As well as local you can also look into alternative ways to buy less local fruit and veg such as Crowd Farming that allows you to buy direct from farmers who grow responsibly. If you grow your own research into heritage varieties that you can grow instead of the usual suspects you’d find in a supermarket.

• Forage for local wild foods rich in micronutrients (see our foraging guide) or support local businesses that use ancient foraging wisdom, such as some of our favourite Cornish preserve brands like Gathered Botanicals, Esti Byhan and Wild Pesto.

We hope you’ve found this useful and hopefully introduced you to a few new ideas for your shopping basket and meal plans. We’ll certainly be looking to improve our range so that it can further nourish people and planet, so keep checking back for new products! Lets collectively make a conscious impact with our plates, menus and ingredients!

Information gathered from:

International Day for Biological Diversity

UN Sustainable Development Goals: Biodiversity

Chefs' Manifesto London Action Hub Spring Gathering Video and Blog

Nourishing people, nurturing the environment, Danny Hunter, Eliot Gee and Teresa Borelli

Future 50 Foods

“Diversified diets not only improve human health but benefit the environment through diversified production systems that encourage wildlife and more sustainable use of resources.”

Peter Gregory

Head to our products page for our full product list and order form

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Plastic Free Tea

We thought we would celebrate National Tea Day by getting to know our teas a little better! We’ve worked with Martyn and Martina from Westcountry Tea Co since we started Incredible Bulk. We love how they are committed to being plastic free and we enjoy working with a local company as it means we can use reusable containers for all of our deliveries so we completely avoid any single use packaging! We asked them a few questions which we thought we would share with you:

In 2018 you became one of Britain’s first 100% plastic free tea companies, how did you do this?

We started Westcountry Tea Co offering loose leaf tea, however the market demanded tea bags. When we looked at the quantity of tea that is packed in tea bags drunk in the UK, we were shocked by the quality which prompted us to want to develop a great quality tea bag product. In 2017 we started trialling the world’s first 100% plastic free heat sealable tea bag material. The tea bags are made from corn starch, which is a 100% natural fibre, so they do not contain any petroleum based synthetic fabrics, making them 100% biodegradable / compostable. Ideally, they would like to be put into an industrial compost “Council food waste collection”, however if you do compost at home, it is possible but it can take up to 3 years and only on a well-maintained compost heap. If they end up going to landfill or being burned, at least there is no plastic going into the ground or atmosphere.

At the same time as developing our tea bags there was another innovation, where we could change from clear plastic bags used to keep our teas fresh to a 100% natural clear bag, made from Eucalyptus cellulose. We had been looking into other forms of clear bags for many years, however most of it was either plastic with added chemicals, to make it break down into micro plastic or the other alternative had a shelf life of around 12 months before it would break down, which is no use to us!

We're trying to be more aware of where our food comes from and the processes involved in getting it to us, could you share with us a bit of history about your teas before it arrives on the shelves for customers to buy?

Teas are moved around the world on container ships, rather than air freight. We order our teas in bulk from tea merchants, who deliver the teas to us on pallets via road transport.

Rooibos only grows in South Africa and cannot grow anywhere else in the world. This tea is dried naturally under the sun (solar).

Our Earl Grey is a Blend of Chinese tea, which can only grow in China and is mainly dried naturally with the last 25% finished off with gas heat to preserve its taste. It is flavoured with Bergamot oil, which comes from the Bergamot orange, which mainly grows in Italy and some parts of France.

Peppermint leaves are solar and wind dried and depending on the quality we source from farms in the UK, Germany or Egypt, depending on their season and what the quality is at the time. Taste is crucial for us so quality is key.

Our English Breakfast loose leaf and the Every Day tea bag is a blend of Kenyan (from Kenya), Assam (from India) and Ceylon (from Sri Lanka), which we then blend & pack here in Cornwall. The difference between the loose leaf and tea bag is the size of the cut leaf, loose leaf being larger. These 3 teas are mainly dried naturally (as they have much hotter weather than here!) with the last 25% finished off with gas heat to preserve its taste. The reason they finish it off with heat is, that if they would let it dry naturally 100%, it would loose over 50% of its taste.

There are issues with the tea industry with regards to its trading and workers rights, how do you ensure your tea is traded fairly and that workers aren’t being exploited?

The teas and herbs we use for our blends are sourced from all over the world. Our tea merchants are some of the largest fair trade supporters within the tea industry. Not all of our teas are certified fair trade however all producers have been vetted to ensure the farms/plantations all comply with national and international laws, meaning no forced or under age labour and workers are paid a correct wage.

How about environmental practices within the tea industry?

Some if not most of our teas are organic, however we are unable to advertise or sell them as such, as we are not organic certified ourselves. As we process the ingredients in blending we would need to be certified and unfortunately this is a very expensive route to take and not an option for us at the moment. We work with a variety of tea farms, from small scale to large and currently we are in discussions with a small farm in Cornwall to produce various herbs for our blends. As a company we are dedicated to producing quality teas at affordable prices that don’t cost the earth. All of our packaging from our tea bags to our packing tape and everything in-between is 100% plastic free!

We hope you have enjoyed finding out a little more about the teas available from Incredible Bulk, you can check out our full plastic free tea offering in our products page and find out more about Westcountry Tea Co and National Tea Day.

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Earth Day 2021: Plastic Free Tips to Restore Our Earth

This years focus for Earth Day is Restore Our Earth. We dived into their website and discovered lots of top tips around single use plastic and plastic pollution which we thought we would share. We know if you’re reading this you’re already on the journey of reducing your plastic footprint but there’s always more we can do, both in our own lives and also inspiring others to do the same.

We all know that plastic pollution is one of the most important environmental problems that we face today, impacting both people and planet. The first step to reducing your plastic use is to measure it. Earth Day have a great little tool where you can calculate your personal plastic consumption. Once you know what you are consuming you’ll then know where you may be able to make some changes. Following the many R’s of zero waste, reducing and refusing are great places to start! Everyday actions can make a difference. It may seem small but when we are all collectively making positive changes it can add up to big results!

With restaurants and local attractions opening back up we can finally dust off those reusables and start taking them out with us again! It can take some time to get into the habit of packing your reusable cup or cutlery but saying no to single use items while out and about can make a big impact on your plastic consumption.

And as we can get out and about more and start to meet up with friends organising your own mini clean up is a really positive way to help the environment. Individual and small group clean ups can have a major positive impact on your community. For us to make global change, we must have local action! You can support the Great Global Cleanup and pick up litter while out and about enjoying outdoor activities or during an organised clean. And this year you can even take photos of plastic waste near you so scientists can track plastic to its source and understand the distribution of plastics around the world with the Global Earth Challenge app. Through this mobile app, Earth Day Org are hoping to monitor and mitigate threats to environmental and human health.

If you feel like you have already taken action within your home and local community, getting involved with supporting petitions that are calling for action against single use plastic is another fantastic way to get involved. Ideas from Earth Day Org include sending a letter or calling your local elected leaders, urging them to support bans against single-use plastic items or convincing your school or office building to choose reusable utensils, trays, and dishes in the cafeteria. Another option is to support wider communities affected by plastic pollution, often marginalised communities whose voices go unheard.

There are plenty of ways to get involved this Earth Day and every action makes a difference to combat plastic pollution! Decided on your action for the day? You can register your pledge for the day, when we last checked there were 2,688,645,733 pledges registered already! Our pledge for the day will be doing our own mini local clean up which we haven’t done for a while.

Information from Earth Day Org

Check out our locations page to see where you can find us for refills or plastic free home delivery to avoid single use plastics.

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Global Recycling Day: Interesting Recycling Schemes

Although recycling ranks low on the 5 Rs of zero waste it is still an important part of promoting a circular economy and protecting the Earths resources. Called the 7th resource by the Bureau of International Recycling, recycling offers us the chance to reuse materials. At the end of last year Nature declared that global human-made mass now exceeds all living biomass on Earth, so it seems there has never been a more important time to ensure we are utilising and making the most of our human made creations. Today marks Global Recycling Day 2021, with Recycling Heroes as this years theme. With this in mind we thought we would share some recycling schemes we have used and also a few that have caught our eye:

Check out Terracycle, a global leader in recycling typically hard-to-recycle waste, they offer a number of free recycling programs across the UK. (You can also read about how we use Terracycle to make sure Incredible Bulk is zero waste as a business and also the recycling we offer while you refill thanks to Terracycle).

We also use Packshare sometimes that allows you to share unwanted packaging with people who are looking for packaging. (More of a reuse than recycle but its a helpful service!)

For printer ink cartridges we often use The Recycling Factory to send off our used ink cartridges to get recycled.

Recycle Box offer free recycling of plastic spray triggers and soap pumps, typically not recycled in curbside recycling, this scheme is looking to clean and reuse items sent. They also offer free wellington boot recycling.

Stay Wild Swim have their own Circularity Project where you can send them any broken and unwearable swimwear to be recycled and repurposed into eco-industrial products.

Rerun Clothing are looking to extend the life of running clothes and equipment (again less recycle and more repair/upcycle), there’s a donation base in Truro if you would like to donate any unwanted items.

Cloud 9 offer a free recycling scheme for unwanted hair styling tools.

WeeeCharity recycle new, used, non working and broken electrical items.

Read more about Global Recycling Day

Read more from Nature: Global human-made mass exceeds all living biomass

More from our blog on recycling:

Global Recycling Day 2019

Recycling Facilities in Cornwall

Recycling with Incredible Bulk

Why Refuse, Reduce and Reuse come before Recycling

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Love Food Hate Waste

Each year, two prominent events draw attention to the critical issue of food waste. The first is Food Waste Action Week, held in early March and organized by Love Food Hate Waste, which emphasizes the magnitude of food waste and explores actionable solutions. The second is Stop Food Waste Day, occurring at the end of April and initiated by Compass Group US, aimed at educating the public and inspiring meaningful change.

Both events serve as valuable reminders to reflect on our personal waste habits. They provide a wealth of information on the food waste crisis and practical strategies for reducing waste at home. Drawing from our experiences, we've compiled our top tips for minimizing food waste at home.

Before we come to what we can do, here’s a few stats about food waste from Love Food Hate Waste:

70% of the food that is wasted (post farm gate) is from our homes. The power is in our hands.

UK households waste 6.5 million tonnes of food every year, 4.5 million of which is edible.

If everyone in the UK stopped throwing away food for just one day, it would do the same for climate change as taking 14,000 cars off the road for a whole year.

Now that we’re feeling motivated to do something about it here are some tips for reducing food waste at home:

1) Buy only what you need. Love Food Hate Waste advise planning your shopping in advance as their number 1 tip however we’re not huge meal planners pre-shopping. We find it doesn’t really work with the way we like buying food. We like to have a cupboard full of long life dried foods (obviously!) and then we’ll get our weekly fresh fruit and veg from our allotment, farmers markets and local farm shops. Shopping this way means we can have a rough idea of what we’ll find given the season but its not always a-given so we’ll plan our meals once we have bought our fresh produce. But our number 1 rule when shopping is to not over buy! (Which obviously is what meal and shop planning helps to avoid!) So whether you’re a planner or not, the first thing to be aware of is how much fresh produce you need for a week (or however often you plan to shop). This may take a bit of trial and error but luckily there’s things you can do if you do over buy!

2) Get great at storage. This has been the one thing we have spent time learning about. In the past we haven’t been very good at this! Dried foods - easy - make sure your jars are dry and airtight but we often fall down with the storage of our fresh food; letting carrots go soft on the counter top, mushrooms in the fridge, you name it, we were storing it all wrong! Our remedy was to invest in a gorgeous print from Eco With Em, a beautiful illustration highlighting how best to store food without plastic, which we’re going to stick on our fridge as a daily reminder! We’ve then got everything sorted ready to use - cloths to wrap leafy greens in, a sack to put our potatoes in to stop them going green, jars of water in the fridge for carrots, and 2 labelled containers in the fridge, one without a lid and one with so the fruit and veg end up in the right environment! Love Food Hate Waste also have a guide for storage too that you can check out.

3) Keep an eye on the back of the fridge! Now that you’ve bought your food and stored it well, a good habit to get into is to do a quick check in the morning to see how your fresh produce is getting on. This way you’ll know when your fresh produce needs eating or its storage switching and stop it from going bad before its had a chance to be used. This way you can switch up your meal plans or throw in an extra ingredient to a recipe and ensure nothing is left at the back of the fridge and ends up wasted.

4) Value your food. When cooking your food look to utilise as much of it as possible. There are now loads of chefs and recipes out there encouraging us to eat our broccoli stalks, carrot tops, use scraps to make stocks, bean water to make meringue and lots more! When preparing your meal keep an eye on your scraps - is there anything of use there? Investigate before getting rid of it. If in doubt pop it in the fridge or freezer until you have time to do your research. Our favourite zero waste chefs for brilliant inspiration are Tom Hunt, Anne-Marie Bonneau, Max La Manna and the Zero Waste Cooking School from Douglas McMaster. And on the flip side, take note of portion sizes for dried foods such as rice and pasta. These are easily over-portioned (definitely in our house!) so take note of correct portion amounts (check out LFHW Portion Planner for guide) or you can:

5) Love your leftovers. You can even plan for leftovers - batch cooking is such a winner! No matter how small, keep hold of leftovers. Small portions can be added to future meals, used as a breakfast, lunch or snack or brought together to create a whole new meal! It took us a ridiculously long time to realise we could make a delicious vegetable fried rice from leftover rice (something we always over portion!). LFHW have a leftover recipe guide you can check out for ideas.

6) Don’t forget stocks, soups and smoothies. These are saviours of food waste. Great to utilise scraps, leftovers and fresh fruit and veg that is on the turn (or even gone past the turn!) and super easy to freeze and store for future meals, which leads us to:

7) Your freezer is your friend! Utilise your freezer to prolong the life of fresh produce. There are lots of fresh fruit and veg you can freeze, either as is or par-boiled or cooked (the Love Food Hate Waste Food Storage webpage is a good reference point if you’re unsure). And of course its also good to store leftovers if you don’t want to eat immediately.

8) Share! If you don’t think you’re going to use your food in time and don’t have the time to make a soup etc you can look to share with a neighbour or friend or use Olio to list food to those in your neighbourhood.

9) Get composting. The final resting place for food waste. Composting is a great final resting place for the food waste that you can’t utilise. Turning food back into food and not wasting it in landfill where it won’t breakdown properly and instead produce methane. There are composting systems available for most household circumstances, from large scale compost systems, mid-sized wormeries to work top sized bokashi bins. If you don’t fancy an at home compost, Cornwall Council are now rolling out food composting which will be up and running by 2025! (If you’d like to read more about composting at home check out our blog post on our wormery adventure!).

We think that covers it and will hopefully help you reduce food wastage in your home. What do you think? Which area do you excel at and which needs a little more work?

Don’t forget to also take a look at our recipes page for some of our favourite tried and tested minimal waste recipes.

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Foraging

Since moving to Cornwall we have been getting more and more into foraging for food. We’re still learning and in no way experts but we think you can’t beat a foraging walk followed by a delicious meal made from your foraged goodies! Its a wonderful way to be connected to the natural environment around you and the seasons, plus it has to be the best zero waste food out there; no packaging, grown naturally and you take only what you need (making sure you leave enough behind for nature!). We thought we’d share our favourite resources and guides that have helped us on our foraging journey as well as some of the recipes we’ve been giving a go. If you’re a seasoned forager and think we’ve missed a key source please do get in touch and let us know - we’re always up for learning more!

Books we’ve found helpful

Wild Food Foraging in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, Rachel Lambert : a great little guide that’s easy to follow and a handy size to take out on walks.

Plants for the People : Erin Lovell Verinder : a lovely guide on plant medicine, great for teas and other medicinal uses for plants.

Courses / Walks / Guides we can’t wait to do!

Wild Walks South West

The Fat Hen

People we’re following on Instagram

Based in Cornwall:

@woodmanswildale : Beer made with foraged finds in Cornwall!

@7thrise : Wilderness Retreat in Cornwall that occasionally hold foraging days!

@fat.hen.forager : Caroline shares some great recipes and tips

@rachellambertwildfoodforager : Rachel shares some great recipes and tips

@westapothecary : Beautiful herbal infused products, some foraging insight and workshops

Outside of Cornwall

@poppyokotcha : A great person to follow for all things green and growing!

@blackforager : Alexis shares awesome interesting recipes via brilliant videos!

@fergustheforager : Amazing wild food insight!

Recipes we’ve tried

Happy foraging!

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Zero waste motivation behind choosing Veganism – food for thought

We’ve been on our zero waste journey for nearly 7 years now and have been slowly moving to a more plant based diet in that time too, mainly due to coincidence. At the same time as discovering Colin Beavan, No Impact Man and Lauren Singer of Trash is for Tossers we also discovered Ella Mills of Deliciously Ella and enjoyed her easy to follow plant based recipes. For us the move to plant based has been more focused on diet and nutrition but there was also the fact that it was much easier to find vegetables and plant based foods plastic free or in bulk than animal products, mainly meat or dairy that often came pre-wrapped in plastic, so the move to plant-based supported our move to zero waste and avoiding single use plastic. This Veganuary we thought we would look into the two movements a little more to see what the connections are between veganism and zero waste and if pursuing a zero waste lifestyle naturally leads to veganism.

We started exploring waste generated by agriculture. A survey carried out in England, 2003, showed us that 93% of all agricultural waste, 43 million tonnes, was manure and slurries waste, a result of animal farming. And on further digging it seems that the world is facing a poo issue. David Cox reported in the Guardian that ‘recent research has estimated that by 2030, the planet will be generating at least 5bn tonnes of poo each year, with the vast majority being deposited by livestock. … scientists say this is a major environment and health challenge. …With the UK’s cows already producing 36m tonnes in waste every year – enough to fill the Shard 78 times over – and many dairy farmers feeling the pinch from tumbling milk prices, safely disposing of these mounds of toxic mess is a serious and expensive conundrum. …Because most first world farming systems are highly concentrated, industrial operations, this produces very concentrated streams of waste. Unless these are dealt with rapidly, they can pollute the air with large amounts of harmful gases such as ammonia, nitrous oxide and hydrogen sulphide. …Unless more effective ways are found to deal with the increasing amounts of animal manure, some scientists predict that by 2050, large swathes of the country’s rivers will see a 100%-200% increase in phosphorus and nitrate pollution. …In 2006, the UN published a landmark report, titled Livestock’s Long Shadow, highlighting the serious environmental and health problems posed by the growing amounts of animal waste, and calling for urgent action. However, little progress is being made. …Small-scale projects are under way, such as the efforts of a team of scientists from the University of Vienna who are partnering with various farms across Europe and helping them convert animal poo into paper. But while the potential of new revenue streams could spur more farmers worldwide into taking action to deal with waste, there remains a dire need for new policies, initiatives and conferences to discuss how to deal with the impending problem on a large scale. …In 2016, the Environmental Journal castigated “governmental apathy” surrounding the problem. Three years on, little has changed.’

Unfortunately, intensive farming is on the rise in the UK. An article by The Bureau Investigates shows that the number of intensive poultry and pig farms licensed by the Environmental Agency has increased by a quarter in the last six years (report in 2017). There are nearly 1700 intensive farms currently licensed and many of them, nearly 800, are giant US-style mega farms, the biggest housing more than a million chickens, 20,000 pigs or 2,000 diary cows.

And as Charles Gerba writes in his paper ‘Wastewater Treatment and Biosolids Reuse’ ‘This shift in production methods has changed the age-old method of reincorporation of animal wastes as manure on the farm where it was produced. Specialization has largely divorced animal production from the production of crops: a concentrated animal facility may be located far from crop production, and the same family (or the same corporation) may not pursue the two types of production. The production of large numbers of animals on a small land base has resulted in the stockpiling of wastes at specific locations, the construction of large waste-storage ponds, and oftentimes, waste applications to land in excess of agronomic crop needs.’

These large storage facilities of manure and slurry often cause pollution, The Bureau Investigates writes that the Environment Agency warned in a recent report that the long term trend shows an increase in serious pollution incidents from agriculture, often caused by the storage, handling and spreading of waste, due to "lack of investment in infrastructure" or "inadequate planning and management of these substances".

If we’re being totally honest prior to doing this little bit of research we hadn’t really thought about the impacts of animal manure and it seems such a shame that a natural waste source has become too big for it to naturally be returned to its natural cycle of returning to the soil. From the information it seems that large scale farming is the root cause of this, its simply creating too much waste. A Foodprint article recommends making sure you buy your meat and diary from pasture-based farms, who do not have the same problems with waste management as they raise an appropriate number of animals that can be supported by the land; with the amount of manure proportional to the amount of soil and is an effective fertilizer, not a contaminant.

However, we came across an interesting article by George Monbiot for The Guardian who exposed some issues with pasture based farming that we hadn’t considered. Up to now this has been our little get out if we fancied meat or diary, we would make sure it came from small scale farms operating on a pasture fed basis. He writes that ‘grazing is not just slightly inefficient; it is stupendously wasteful. Roughly twice as much of the world’s surface is used for grazing as for growing crops, yet animals fed entirely on pasture produce just one gram out of the 81g of protein consumed per person per day. …Replacing the meat in our diets with soya spectacularly reduces the land area required per kilo of protein: by 70% in the case of chicken, 89% in the case of pork and 97% in the case of beef. One study suggests that if we were all to switch to a plant-based diet, 15m hectares of land in Britain currently used for farming could be returned to nature. Alternatively, this country could feed 200 million people. An end to animal farming would be the salvation of the world’s wildlife, our natural wonders and magnificent habitats.’

Definitely a strong argument for veganism and zero waste.

Another Guardian article points us in the same direction, Damian Carrington in 2018 writes that ‘new analysis shows that while meat and dairy provide just 18% of calories and 37% of protein, it uses the vast majority – 83% – of farmland and produces 60% of agriculture’s greenhouse gas emissions. Other recent research shows 86% of all land mammals are now livestock or humans. The scientists also found that even the very lowest impact meat and dairy products still cause much more environmental harm than the least sustainable vegetable and cereal growing.’

One Green Planet gave us some more stats on how a plant based diet is more efficient (and therefore less wasteful) than an animal based one:

The production of one calorie of animal protein requires more than ten times the fossil fuel input as a calorie of plant protein. (The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition)

It takes more than 2,400 gallons of water to produce 1 pound of meat and only 25 gallons to produce one pound of wheat (“Water Inputs in California Food Production” by Marcia Kreith)

To produce a day’s food for one meat-eater takes over 4,000 gallons; for a lacto-ovo vegetarian, only 1200 gallons; for a vegan, only 300 gallons (The Vegetarian Times Complete Cookbook)

The world’s cattle alone consume a quantity of food equal to the caloric needs of 8.7 billion people—more than the entire human population on Earth (“The Global Benefits of Eating Less Meat” by Mark Gold and Jonathon Porritt)

So it definitely looks as though moving away from meat and dairy and adopting a plant based vegan diet supports a zero waste lifestyle, but what about fish, any issues there?

Our first thought when thinking about fishing and zero waste, is plastic pollution, one of the main motivations behind choosing a zero waste lifestyle.

A report by Greenpeace tells us that lost and abandoned fishing gear makes up the majority of large plastic pollution in the oceans, ‘more than 640,000 tonnes of nets, lines, pots and traps used in commercial fishing are dumped and discarded in the sea every year, the same weight as 55,000 double-decker buses. Ghost gear is estimated to make up 10% of ocean plastic pollution but forms the majority of large plastic littering the waters. One study found that as much as 70% (by weight) of macroplastics (in excess of 20cm) found floating on the surface of the ocean was fishing related. A recent study of the “great Pacific garbage patch”, an area of plastic accumulation in the north Pacific, estimated that it contained 42,000 tonnes of megaplastics, of which 86% was fishing nets.’

So it seems that removing fish from your diet could have a big positive impact on ocean plastic pollution and therefore be a key motivator behind a lifestyle that is looking to avoid adding to plastic pollution.

Even before doing this little bit of research it felt as though veganism supported a zero waste lifestyle and having found out this information it has given us even more motivation to be even more plant focused with our diets. The one area that is an issue that we have found comes down to packaging. Lots of vegan alternatives are often packaged in plastic but we have found that most of these are easy to make for yourself at home from scratch, enabling you to avoid single use plastic packaging.

We’ll finish with some inspiring words from Andrew Krosofsky written for Greenmatters ‘It seems that the act of going vegan is, in and of itself, in line with the core values of zero-waste living. While both lifestyles may present a few challenges, neither is about being perfect, but about doing your best. You can choose to do what works for you, as even small actions can make a big difference across a human lifetime. So do your part, however you can.’ We wholeheartedly agree with this statement. We are big fans of starting from where you are and doing what you can in any given moment.

For the meat fans out there, it looks as though technology could be looking to help in the form of lab grown meat. Founders of companies such as Memphis Meats and Finless Foods are looking to replace intensive farms with lab grown meat. The technology still has some way to go and is not without its environmental impacts but it certainly sounds interesting to us!

We hope that this has given some food for thought on your zero waste journey, it certainly has for us!

Resources:

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/may/31/avoiding-meat-and-dairy-is-single-biggest-way-to-reduce-your-impact-on-earth

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/nov/06/dumped-fishing-gear-is-biggest-plastic-polluter-in-ocean-finds-report

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/oct/04/factory-farming-destructive-wasteful-cruel-says-philip-lymbery-farmageddon-author

https://foodprint.org/issues/what-happens-to-animal-waste/

https://www.onegreenplanet.org/animalsandnature/facts-on-animal-farming-and-the-environment/

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2019/mar/25/animal-waste-excrement-four-billion-tonnes-dung-poo-faecebook

https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2017-08-21/farming-pollution-fish-uk

https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2017-07-17/megafarms-uk-intensive-farming-meat

https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/animal-waste

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/291600/geho0003bieo-e-e.pdf

https://www.ciwm.co.uk/ciwm/knowledge/agricultural-waste.aspx

https://www.greenmatters.com/p/veganism-zero-waste-eating

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/dec/04/animal-agriculture-choking-earth-making-sick-climate-food-environmental-impact-james-cameron-suzy-amis-cameron

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/oct/04/livestock-farming-artificial-meat-industry-animals

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/sep/20/lab-grown-meat-fish-feed-the-world-frankenmeat-startups

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Green Kode Podcast

At the end of last year we spoke to Green Kode for their podcast. Green Kode are working to reduce food waste in the hospitality sector and are committed to make a better sustainable future for all of us by making less food waste. Their podcast focuses on aiming for zero-waste and they chat to environmental organisations, new tech, and green start-ups to share their stories, so we were very happy when they approached us for a chat! We talk about starting up Incredible Bulk, how we offset our miles, how zero waste we are and our top tips if you’re looking to start a zero waste journey yourself.

You can listen via the below links, episode 16, our chat starts 20mins in.

SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/show/4hEHVKmQjSc7oHhedVFuzs

RADIOPUBLIC: https://radiopublic.com/zero-waste-kode-trailer-GMekgj

POCKET CASTS : https://pca.st/rgnvudr8

GOOGLE PODCASTS: https://www.google.com/podcasts?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy8xZjliZjVjYy9wb2RjYXN0L3Jzc

BREAKER : https://www.breaker.audio/zero-waste-kode-trailer

ANCHOR: https://anchor.fm/greenkode

OVERCAST: https://overcast.fm/itunes1516682909/zero-waste-kode-all-episodes

APPLE: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/zero-waste-kode-trailer/id1516682909

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DIY: Wheat Glue

This was a little blast from the past. Often used for childhood craft afternoons we had completely forgotten about wheat glue until we were reminded by the brilliant Zero Waste Chef, Anne-Marie Bonneau, when she posted about making your own paper tape. Keen to give it a go we used it to decorate a Christmas box for the Cornwall Christmas Box appeal. Can be used to mount posters, make paper tape, cover textbooks, papier-mâché and other arts and craft projects!

Ingredients to make glue:

Around 200ml of water

3 tablespoons of plain flour (we haven’t tried but on the original post from Zero Waste Chef lots of people were asking about gluten free versions and tapioca and rice flour were recommended).

Method:

In a saucepan heat water over medium-high heat and slowly add your flour 1 spoonful at a time, whisking the mixture well in between. Once all flour added keep whisking continuously, the mixture will start to bubble, keep whisking and it will start to thicken. Remove from heat when the paste has reached the consistency you are looking for.

You can store unused wheat glue in the fridge.

Source: Zero Waste Chef

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advent countdown: good news about plastics 2020

We think its fair to say that this year has had its fair share of tough news so to celebrate the countdown to Christmas we thought we would do a good news advent focusing on plastics. With this year seeing an unplanned high demand for PPE and what feels like a rise in the use of single-use plastics we dug deep into the news archives to find 24 pieces of good news about plastics that happened this year which may have gone unnoticed or simply lost in amongst the tide of Covid-19 news, we hope you enjoy!

1. The demand for plastics is decreasing ahead of proposed plans by the fossil fuel industry.

We thought for our first piece of good news we would go big! A report by The Future’s Not in Plastics finds that mounting worldwide pressure to reduce the use of plastics could slash virgin plastic demand growth from 4% a year to under 1%, with demand peaking in 2027. While this may not seem all that positive we’re thrilled to see demand is decreasing and think this is a major step in the right direction, surely this decrease will only grow year on year as concern and pressure to rethink plastic grows?! Below2c writes that ‘Policymakers in Europe and China are implementing much more stringent regulatory regimes using the five key tools of taxation, design rules, bans, targets, and infrastructure. Moreover, the COVID shock is likely to reduce plastic demand by around 4% this year and give policymakers more room to act.’ Good news to build on in 2021!

Below2C: The Future of the Oil Industry is Not in Plastics

2. In February of this year Senator Tom Udall in Washington DC introduced the Break Free from Plastic Pollution Act – the first comprehensive bill in Congress to address the plastic pollution crisis.

Drawing on stakeholder input from over 200 individuals, environmental groups, businesses, trade associations, aquariums, academics, grassroots organizations, and state and local governments, the Break Free From Plastic Pollution Act reduces unnecessary plastic and reforms the broken waste management system in the US. With the US being found as the number 1 polluter of plastic its great to see US state and local governments implementing policies to reduce unnecessary plastic products and shift the huge financial responsibility to producers for managing consumers waste.

Break Free From Plastic: Ground-Breaking Federal Legislation Tackles the Root of the Plastic Pollution Crisis

3. The UK banned single use plastic straws, stirrers and ear buds in October, and its not alone as various bans come into play around the globe.

Since October of this year cafes, bars and restaurants in the UK must not supply or sell single use plastic or they risk a fine from council inspectors. The ban is aimed at reducing the estimated 4.7 billion plastic straws, 316 million stirrers and 1.8 billion plastic stemmed cotton buds used in England every year. Commenting on the new law ASDA reported it removed a massive 110 million straws from sale! The UK wasn’t the only country banning single use plastic items this year. Kenya prohibited visitors from taking single use plastics into national parks, forests, beaches and conservation areas. China banned single use straws in its restaurant industry (and with a population of 1.4 billion people that will have a massive impact). Thailand banned single use plastic bags at major stores and Indonesia announced that single use plastics are banned from street markets and shopping malls in its capital Jakarta. Major plastic bans happening all around the world, with more on the horizon for 2021 with disposable plastic plates, cups, straws and other products banned in France coming into effect in the New Year and Canada banning plastic grocery bags, straws, stir sticks, six-pack rings, cutlery and food take-out containers that are hard to recycle.

The Telegraph: Plastic straws banned

ASDA: Creating change for better

We Forum: Canada Bans Single Use Plastics

rfi: France single use plastic ban

Sky News: Thailand begins 2020 with plastic bag ban

Metro: Indonesia becomes latest country to ban plastic bags

4. Britain to stop exporting its plastic waste to developing countries under new environment legislation.

Over the past couple of years the UKs terrible recycling habits have been exposed so its fantastic to see the The Environment Bill has been reintroduced to Parliament with new powers to stop plastic waste being shipped out of sight to less developed countries and to boost the UKs domestic recycling system. With plans for a more consistent approach to recycling across England and powers to create deposit return schemes and levy’s on single-use plastics. A new watchdog, the Office of Environmental Protection, will scrutinise laws, investigate complaints and take enforcement action against public authorities to uphold standards. A much needed development in the fight against plastic waste and pollution.

Telegraph: Britain to stop exporting plastic waste to developing countries

5. Millions of plastic bottles will be offset as remote town in the Philippines gets renewable drinking water created from sunlight!

SOURCE Global together with Conservation International are delivering sustainable, clean drinking water to the Indigenous people of Palawan in the Philippines thanks to sunlight powered SOURCE hydropanels that create more than 40,000 litres of renewable safe drinking water each year that will offset more than two million plastic water bottles. Its reading news stories like this that provides hope for a renewable and sustainable future!

Good News Network: Plastic Bottles Offset as Remote Town Gets Renewable Drinking Water

6. One of the UKs largest housing providers, Your Housing Group, has partnered with Changing Streams in a project to reduce the amount of plastic from its building practices.

Almost a quarter of all plastic made in the UK is created by the construction industry and the sector is the second largest producer of plastic waste in the UK, after packaging. It is estimated the building trade produces 50,000 tonnes of plastic waste each year, 40% of which is sent to landfill. With bad plastics stats like this its exciting to see a major housing group commit to reducing plastics from their buildings. Your Housing Group aims to swap plastic materials for biodegradable alternatives. Measures will include simple swap-outs, such as changing fixtures and fittings; reducing the use of plastic wrapping for building materials; as well as more complex long-term strategies to phase out materials containing plastic. The Changing Streams Research Centre is actively pursuing research and innovation into the development and use of sustainable alternatives which represent a significant reduction in plastic.

Your Housing Group has pledged to embed these practices and changes across its ambitious programme of new housing developments and all new contractors will be obliged to adhere to its plastic reduction pledge before being appointed, helping to drive change at every level of the construction process.

Having large companies take on the plastics issue is essential for any real progress and to have a major player in one of the worst performing sectors looking to make real change is great to see, we’re looking forward to hearing more about this project next year.

Changing Streams: Your Housing Group joins Changing Streams

Telegraph: Major Housebuilders Ditch Plastic

The Guardian: Builder aims to help UK construction industry to kick its plastic habit

7. Scientists have made plastic waste more valuable by turning it into hydrogen and high-value carbons.

A team of scientists and research groups have developed a simple method for retrieving valuable chemicals from plastic waste, so that recyclers may have a means of making more money from collecting plastic waste and produce clean fuel in the process. Oxford University writes that ‘This rapid one-step process for converting plastic to hydrogen and solid carbon significantly simplifies the usual processes of dealing with plastic waste and demonstrates that over 97% of hydrogen in plastic can be extracted in a very short time, in a low-cost method with no CO2 burden. The new method represents an attractive potential solution for the problem of plastic waste; instead of polluting our land and oceans, plastics could be used as a valuable feedstock for producing clean hydrogen fuel and value-added carbon products.’ Sounds good to us! The team used only a small sample set of plastic waste in their studies, however, they believe the process can scale meaningfully to an industrial level. We hope so!

Oxford University: Turning plastic waste into hydrogen and high-value carbons

Good News Network: Scientists make plastic more valuable

8. ASDA becomes latest supermarket to trial refill station in Leeds and Tesco partners with Loop.

This year has seen two more supermarkets get in on the refill act. ASDA are trialling a refill section in their Leeds branch. The chain said its move had been triggered by customers' changing shopping habits, and will decide whether to take the initiative nationwide depending on how successful it is. Tesco have decided to team up with Loop, a company set up by Terracycles Tom Szaky, offering customers the chance to refill certain branded goods in branded reusable containers. We’re firm believers in the more that refill is out there the better. The more people see it, the more it will become the normal way of shopping!

Telegraph: ASDA trials refills

Tesco: In partnership with Loop

9. College students invent device that curbs microplastics emitted from tires!

Microplastics emitted from vehicle tires as they wear down is a growing pollution problem, currently they are the second largest microplastic pollutant in our oceans. Luckily four students have come up with a solution. Designing a device that is fitted to the wheel of a vehicle it uses electrostatics to collect charged particles as they fly off the tire. Based on the results from their test rig, the group believes their prototype can collect 60% of all airborne particles from tires. Once collected the fragments can be reused in new tires or even in other materials such as ink. It inventions like these that remind you how great humans can be! The students are from Imperial College London and founded the Tyre Collective study during their course Innovation Design Engineering. The design was the winner in the prestigious James Dyson Awards.

Good News Network: College students invent device that curbs microplastics

Imperial College London: Students tackle harmful tire emissions

10. Ocean Voyages Institute sets record for largest haul of plastic removal from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch

During a 48 day expedition earlier this year the team successfully removed 103 tons of fishing nets and consumer plastics from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, using GPS satellite trackers to find ghost nets and other ocean pollution, a fantastic effort! The team is committed to 0% ending in any landfill and is sending the sorted debris to recycling companies to be turned into insulation, energy and used in other projects.

Good News Projects: Hawaii group sets record

11. First of its kind carbon-free journey to raise awareness of recycling

Closer to home, Cornwall based Clean Ocean Sailing delivered 1 ton of beach plastic to Ocean Recovery Project in a carbon free journey from Cornwall to Exeter powered by sail. The beach plastic pollution will be recycled into kayaks by Odyssey Innovation! The south west at its finest! A super effort by all involved!

Clean Ocean Sailing: Instagram

East Devon News: Ocean Recovery Project

12. Start up in Uganda recycles plastic bottles into PPE face shields for hospitals.

We were very pleased to read a piece of good news surrounding PPE in light of plastic use. Two Ugandan entrepreneurs working to upcycle plastic waste into building materials altered their production to tackle the shortages of personal protective medical equipment. After the government ordered all non-essential businesses to close, Peter Okwoko and Paige Balcom, co-founders of Takataka Plastics, continued working in their plastic recycling facility recycling the plastic waste into face shields for medical workers. Its a 2 day process to make the face shields, workers sort, clean, shred, melt and mould the waste plastic and then they attach an adjustable strap, sometimes made from slices of old bicycle innertubes. They have made about 1,200 of the recycled plastic face shields, about 500 have been sold at low cost to NGOs and private health facilities and an additional 700 donated to public hospitals.

Good News Network: Start up in Uganda

Reuters: Ugandans melt plastic waste into protective shields

Takataka Plastics: Response to Covid-19

13. Supermarkets shun single use plastics in their Christmas ranges.

British retailers Morrisons, Waitrose and John Lewis removed glitter from their Christmas ranges this year to cut down on microplastics. Morrisons said they would be removing 50 tonnes of plastic from shelves this festive season, including no longer using plastic toys in crackers and reducing single-use plastic packaging on cards and decorations. Tesco has made a similar announcement removing over 20 million pieces of plastic from their Christmas range. Crackers, lights, cards and puddings have all been produced using less single use plastic. Awesome commitments from these major supermarkets.

We Forum: UK retailers ban glitter

Tesco: Tesco cuts plastic

14. New solar pavement driveways made from plastic bottles can power the average household and other great innovators fighting plastic pollution.

Hearing of great, useful recycling projects is really encouraging and this one sounds very exciting. For the last five years, Patio Solar has been developing new ways of implementing solar technology into urban spaces and one of their latest developments is a residential solar panelled driveway made out of recycled plastic bottles. Each ‘Patio Solar Paver’ is made from 400 PET bottles, one of the most common forms of consumer plastic. Compressed into pavers, the material becomes more durable than concrete while still being non-slip and sustainable. The system is the first to generate power from the pavements of a residential household and can either be used to generate electricity for the house or to power an electric car. According to Patio Solar the driveway system has the capacity to cover the yearly energy consumption of an average household! Plastic bottles put to great use!

Other projects doing great things with plastic waste are Genusee, who are putting the plastic water bottles used by residents in Flint in the US to good use by making spectacle frames as well as bringing much needed employment to the area. Monks in Thailand are creating their iconic orange robes from recycled plastic, recycling 40 tons of plastic they have collected.

Good News Network: Solar driveways made from PET

We Forum: How one US city turned bottle water into eyewear

Good News Network: Monks create orange robes from recycled plastic

15. The Plastic Free July campaign had an estimated 326 million participants worldwide, all choosing to refuse single-use plastics for the month.

The team calculate that this resulted in 7 million tonnes of plastic waste being avoided this year! Great news from a campaign that is now 10 years old and continues to grow year on year.

Plastic Free July

16. There’s 100 accredited Plastic Free Communities!

Plastic Free Coastlines was born in the summer of 2017 with the launch of the Surfers Against Sewage Wasteland campaign. Highlighting ocean plastic pollution as one of the biggest global environmental threats it called for a community response. Communities were asked to take action on single-use plastics and throwaway culture. The target was to have 125 communities working on the plan by 2020, but this target has been smashed! This year SAS has had their 700th sign up to the Plastic Free Communities program and in January they accredited their 100th Plastic Free Community. A fantastic job! Encouraging to know there are 100 communities who have all taken action against single use plastic and a further 700 working on it!

On top of this SAS are providing their accredited communities a brand new toolkit to take the fight against single use plastic and plastic pollution further up the chain with actions that target government and industry, empowering the communities and creating a collective, national voice that can’t be ignored. Amy Slack, SAS Head of Campaigns and Policy says “The Plastic Protest has been an opportunity to ensure that action on the ground turns into action in parliament. And its working. MPs are listening to their constituents, and support for tackling plastic pollution through reduction targets is growing amongst parliamentarians from all parties.”

Surfers Against Sewage: 100 plastic free communities

Surfers Against Sewage: Grassroots community action

17. Scientists create super enzyme that can eat plastic bottles six times faster than previous enzymes.

Enzymes produced in the stomachs of certain bacteria found during several high-profile discoveries have been combined by English scientists to create a super enzyme, reducing the time it takes for these chemicals to depolymerize, or breakdown plastic from weeks into mere hours. By combining two previously discovered enzymes scientists discovered that the enzyme “cocktail” broke down plastics six times as fast, while simultaneously putting the plastic on the next step to being reused with the enzymes converting the disconnected plastic polymers to plastic monomers—a base material ready to be used for recycling. The University of Portsmouth said the breakthrough created an opportunity to recycle plastic infinitely and reduce both plastic pollution and greenhouse gases. The discovery could also be key to recycling tricky mixed materials; it could be possible to combine the plastic-eating enzymes with existing ones that break down natural fibres that would allow mixed materials to be fully recycled.

The discovery is being further developed by the team with them researching how to further quicken the process and also how to scale and take outside of the lab with the hope that the enzymes could be used for recycling within a year or two. While it is often said that we can’t recycle our way out of the plastics crisis, its important that our recycling of material already here is as efficient as possible enabling us to move away from creating new virgin plastic and instead using what has already been created and turning it into something useful!

Good News Network: Scientists create super enzyme

MRW: Enzyme could bring ‘infinitely recyclable’ plastic

Guardian: New super enzyme

18. Ella Daish End Period Plastic campaign is still going strong with 4 major wins this year.

Ella Daish’s campaign to end period plastic started in 2018 and is still going strong and showing no signs of slowing down! This year Aldi removed plastic applicators from its own range, saving 14 tonnes of single-use plastic, Superdrug did the same and launched an own-brand eco friendly range saving 418kg of single-use plastic annually and both Morrisons and Lil-lets launched their own eco-friendly ranges, all because of the campaign, truly demonstrating that we have power as consumers! Go Ella and everyone who has signed the campaign to help make this happen!

Ella Daish

Ella Daish: Aldi

Ella Daish: Lil-lets

Ella Daish: Superdrug

Ella Daish: Morrisons

19. The Indian school where students pay for lessons with plastic waste.

This is such a heart warming story! Every morning, students in Assam’s Pamohi village go to school with a bag of plastic waste, in exchange for their day’s lessons. Akshar School, founded by husband and wife team Mazin Mukhtar and Parmita Sarma, have turned their students into ecowarriors by waiving school fees and helping to stop local people burning used plastic. The village’s toxic bonfires were causing such an environmental hazard, children were coughing and wheezing in their classrooms. “When we asked the parents to send their household plastic with their children on the school bus, almost none of them complied. They preferred to burn their plastic at home. So my wife told them we would start charging fees. Fees which they could pay in cash, or in plastic waste from their homes,” says Mukhtar.

The alternative school fees policy quickly resulted in 100% compliance from parents who also signed a pledge to stop burning plastic. The school now collects around 10,000 pieces of plastic each month, which is transformed into eco-bricks for construction. The clouds of toxic smoke from plastic burning which used to plague the school have decreased significantly.

Mukhtar and Sarma have now signed with the Guwahati authorities to implement the Akshar model in five government schools.

Guardian: The Indian school where students pay for lessons with plastic waste

Bloom in Doom Mag: 7 good news stories

20. India's railways bring back tea in clay cups in bid to banish plastics

At all 7,000 railway stations in the country, the plan is to serve tea in traditional earthen cups known as kulhads. These are made from clay and are biodegradable and environment-friendly, which is why the country’s railways minister, Piyush Goyal, has said they will replace plastic cups as part of the government’s goal of making India free of single-use plastic, in a move to cut down on toxic waste and boost incomes of village potters.

Pre-pandemic, 23 million people travelled on India’s trains every day, so not only does that mean the plan will save a huge amount of single-use plastic waste but also an astronomical number of kulhads will be needed. This, politician and handicrafts expert Jaya Jaitly said, could generate income for 2 million potters. The plan is not without its issues and has already been tried by a past rail minister so needs to be implemented correctly to succeed, we’ll keep our fingers and toes crossed for this project as would be great to see tradition triumph over plastic!

Guardian: India's railways bring back tea in clay cups in bid to banish plastics

21. Innovative packaging awards to reduce the use of single-use plastics

BeyondPlastic.Net is a global initiative dedicated to reducing the use of single-use plastic products in order to decrease plastic pollution. Open to students, designers, engineers, makers, creators, inventors, and artists. Anyone who has an idea, concept, project, prototype, or solution already in market to support less plastic use is welcome to take part. There are 4 categories; most practical impact to reduce single-use plastics, most innovative design, most beautiful design and best initiative in education, journalism or campaigning. All celebrating fantastic ideas that will help us move away from single-use plastics.

Winning the gold award for most practical impact to reduce single-use plastics was Unpack Less, Peel More from Brazil. A packaging system created for handmade personal care products that are manufactured locally with natural ingredients. Following circular design guidelines. The packaging system is fully compostable, made from renewable sources, and has a fast growth rate. Silver was awarded to Coolpaste, a sustainable packaging design for toothpaste and Bronze to Waxy by Ecosoc, an innovative recycling technology creating environmentally friendly building materials.

In the most innovative category gold was won by Wastebased, The Item Bag 2.0 from the UK. Upgrading the humble plastic polybag used by fashion retailers by creating a biodegradable, non-toxic, carbon-negative storage bag that dissolves harmlessly in water, if you’ve bought from Cornish brand Finisterre you would have seen these bags in use! Silver went to Shellworks, again from the UK who create packaging for the cosmetic, beauty, fashion, and retail industries from food waste. And bronze went to another UK based company PLANT plASTIC! Packaging that at the end of its use takes on a new life form by growing into a house plant.

Gold in the most beautiful category was awarded to German company Shell Homage. A biodegradable composite material that’s made from egg and nut shells, it can be used in several industries such as product design, interior design, 3D filament consumable goods, and jewellery design. Silver went to Aqua Faba Foam, a material innovation from German designer Paula Nerlich who is developing a bioplastic based on aquafaba from chickpeas as part of her research into circular, compostable biomaterials. Winning bronze was Desintegra.me, designed by Chilean industrial designer Margarita Talep, who intends to replace single-use plastics with a new material extracted from algae.

The final category is best initiative in education, journalism or campaigning. Gold was awarded to two projects. U-RETAIN based in Zambia, an environmental initiative that seeks to use plastics as purchasing power for educational basics like books, pencils, and school bags. The collected plastics are sold to recycling companies at a reasonable monetary amount. Bulgarian community initiative Choose the Reusable Cup, was the other gold winner, who are looking to replace single-use plastics used in kindergarten with reusable options. Silver was awarded to an experimental biomaterials lab located in the south of Chile. LABVA aims to bring science closer to the community, focusing especially on new materials or open biomaterials and creating a culture around these new materials. And bronze was awarded to Dopper, a Dutch Social Enterprise who organise competitions for children encouraging them to come up with solutions for plastic pollution.

All fantastic ideas that we hope will see a reduction in single-use plastic dependence in future years.

BeyondPlastic.net: awards

Luxiders: 2020 beyond plastics awards

22. Derry and Strabane commits to becoming the first Zero Waste City in the UK and Ireland.

The Derry City and Strabane District Council area has officially become the first Zero Waste Municipality in the UK and Ireland to join Zero Waste Cities. Zero Waste Cities is a program set up by Zero Waste Europe, who are dedicated to help cities and communities transition towards zero waste. It brings together a European-wide collective of expert knowledge, as well as providing mentoring and recognition for municipalities wishing to implement zero waste strategies. They join a group of 400 European municipalities committed to the vision of a zero waste circular economy.

Mayor of Derry City and Strabane District Council, Councillor Brian Tierney, said “This is a significant milestone in our work towards a Circular Economy Zero Waste District and I am proud that we are the first Council area in these islands to achieve this designation. Everyone can play their part in that journey and we have been working closely with local businesses to increase awareness of waste reduction and to make them aware of how they can use and recycle their waste more economically.”

Working towards zero waste is the key to ridding ourselves of single-use plastic so this is fantastic to hear about and we hope the program gains further momentum and more Councils within the UK look to join! Anyone reading from Cornwall Council?!

Zero Waste Cities: This is the story

Zero Waste Cities: 2020 report

Zero Waste Cities: A local economic revolution

23. UK support plans for new global treaty to 'turn tide' on plastic pollution

Looking ahead to next year we were pleased to hear that after initially staying silent on the plans for a new global agreement to tackle the plastics crisis that the UK Government has now come forward to show their support.

Speaking via Zoom at a virtual World Trade Organization event, hosted by the UK in collaboration with the Global Plastic Action Partnership, Lord Goldsmith, minister for the Pacific and the Environment, said: “Plastic in the ocean is set to treble by 2025. The challenge we face is immense and urgent. We believe its time to negotiate a new global agreement to coordinate action on marine plastic litter and microplastic, one that goes far beyond the existing frameworks. With two-thirds of UN member states already on board we have a chance now to create an unstoppable momentum to tackle plastic pollution in a way that the Paris agreement has done for climate change and the Montreal protocol has done for ozone depletion. I hope many, many other nations will join us as well.”

The UK will be hosting the G7 and the Cop26 in 2021 and Lord Goldsmith has said that the UK “is committed to doing all it can for nature and to “turn the tide” on plastic waste.” We hope so, here’s looking forward to positive action in 2021 to build on all the great efforts we’ve seen this year!

Guardian: UK support plans for new global treaty to 'turn tide' on plastic pollution

24. Refill shoppers avoid 24,479 pieces of plastic in one year!

We couldn’t leave you folks out of our good news advent calendar! We wanted to let you know, by our very approximate calculations, that this year you have avoided 24,479 pieces of single-use plastic packaging by refill shopping! You have also avoided at least a further 2874 pieces of plastic by switching to plastic-free and reusable items. And through buying those lovely 1tree cards and wrapping paper have helped plant 200 trees! You folks are amazing!

And with that comes the end of our advent of good news, we want to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a healthy, happy and plastic free New Year! Thank you so much for your support and joining us on this plastic-free journey.

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Our tip for removing pesky sticky labels from jars!

We often get asked this and its taken us a while to sit and write it down but here is our top method for removing labels from your jars so you can reuse without having that sticky residue left on them!

Firstly gather all your jars, fill your sink with hot soapy water (our washing up liquid works well for this!) and place all your jars and lids into the sink and allow to soak for around 15 minutes.

The first job is to remove the labels, its normally easiest to do this while the jar is still submerged and you’ll probably find that plastic stickers will peel off in one and that paper stickers are a little trickier and will dissolve off. For the paper ones it may be helpful to carefully use a kitchen knife to help scrape off the label.

Once the label is off you may notice a sticky residue left behind, to tackle this, first take a scourer and add a little more washing up liquid and scrub away at the jar or lid, rinsing off in the bubbly water as you go (our Eco Coconut Scourers do a great job!). This will be enough to remove some glue used but you may come across some that is a little more stubborn! Go through and scrub all of your jars first and place them to dry either with or without sticky residue.

For the ones that are still sticky, pat dry with tea towel and place to one side. Next comes the magic ingredient! Find a small bowl and mix together an equal quantity of oil and bi carbonate of soda, around 2-3 tablespoons of both does quite a few jars. We use our rapeseed oil but any oil should do the job. Next you want to cover the sticky sections with the oil mix, its easiest if you just scoop up some of the oil mixture with your fingers and rub onto the jar evenly covering around the sticky label section. Cover all your jars/lids and leave on the side for around 10 minutes for the oil mixture to work its magic!

Fill your sink with some new hot soapy water, dunk your scourer in the water, shake off excess water and scrub the oil mixture around the jar, you should start to notice the sticky residue disappearing. Once you have given it a good scrub you can start to rinse off in the soapy water to help remove the last of the glue as well as the oil mixture. This normally works first try but if you have particularly stubborn glue you could do two rounds with the oil mixture but we very rarely have to do that.

Once all glue is removed, rinse in clean water and leave to dry either on the side or pop in the oven to sterilise.

Go refill shopping and fill up those clean, non-sticky jars!

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plastic free and diy advent calendars!

Christmas advent calendars, definitely high up there on the single-use plastic use but luckily over the past couple of years plastic free options have started to become available.

This year we have chosen to stock a vegan friendly, plastic free calendar from H!P Chocolate (Send us an email if you would like to order one!)

If you’re looking for something a bit different we thought we would share some others that we came across during our research as well as some of our favourite diy options!

Play In Choc Advent Calendar : an adorable plastic free calendar that includes 24 Christmas themed cardboard toys to make.

Advent of Change: this is a wonderful range of advent products, supporting 24 different charities, products are recyclable and manufactured in the UK using FSC-certified paper, vegetable oil based inks and wrapped in a compostable potato starch-film.

Love Cocoa Advent Calendar : plastic free, recyclable packaging and 3 trees are planted for each purchase.

Kindred Fires Advent Candle: plastic free advent candle, plus you’ll have a gorgeous jar to reuse and refill after!

The Little Trees, Bees and Seeds Company Gardening Advent Calendar: perfect for those with green fingers or looking to start growing at home. Each window contains premium UK heirloom seeds, easy to sow and easy to grow!

DIY Matchbox Advent Calendar : we love this little matchbox calendar, what a great idea!

7 Ideas for DIY Toilet Paper Rolls Advent Calendar : Always fun to upcycle a loo roll tube!

DIY Recycle Bin Advent Calendar : We love how this Advent Calendar took form out of stuff destined for recycling.

DIY Reusable Fabric Advent Calendar: this is a super simple sew or glue fabric advent calendar.

Wishing you a happy plastic free countdown to Christmas!

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Christmas Present Ideas

We never add too much to our year round range at Christmas, being a retailer that advocates buying only what you need we can feel a little uncomfortable shouting about Christmas! But that said we have some wonderful products available in the van that make perfect Christmas presents, whether they’re for people already on their zero waste no plastic journey or those yet to begin!

This year we thought we would showcase our everyday products presented in gift boxes, these are our ideas to get the creative juices flowing. Buy items singularly as fab presents or pair together creating little gift boxes or bags, you can make them as big or small as you like! Start keeping your eyes peeled for spare boxes you can upcycle, fabric you can make into gift bags or use to wrap up presents. We also like to keep a look out for interesting bottles and jars to upcycle and fill up with goodies!

Our first gift box ideas are filled with goodies from our bathroom and personal grooming products:

Take a look at all of our bathroom and personal grooming products for ideas!

Next up we have gifting ideas from our household cleaning / kitchen items, here you can get creative filling jars with herbs and spices for budding chefs or maybe upcycling a fancy bottle for washing up liquid refills:

Take a look at all our household items for ideas and pricing!

Our zero waste lifestyle items are also perfect for Christmas gifting:

Take a look at all of our zero waste lifestyle items for ideas and pricing!

Check out our Christmas list for reusable fabric wrap, Christmas cards, reusable Christmas crackers (and cracker snaps for those who bought them last year or want to make your own!) and a few Christmas themed goodies! See below for some plastic free cracker present ideas!

If you’re feeling super creative check out our DIY ideas for presents such as Body Oil, Room Diffuser, Coffee Liqueur, Festive Snack Jars and Infused Olive Oil.

And don’t forget our dog accessories, perfect presents for your pooch or dog mad friend!

Happy shopping!

“Some gifts are big. Others are small. But the ones that come from the heart are the best gifts of all.”
Tinku Razoria

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plastic free periods

While we may not currently stock plastic free period products at the moment we wanted to share info on Gemma’s favourite plastic free brands.

Why do plastic free and reusable period products matter?

City to Sea found that menstrual products are currently the 5th most common item found on European beaches, making them more widespread than single-use coffee cups, cutlery or straws. You may also be surprised to learn that a big-brand pack of 14 menstrual pads contains the same amount of plastic as 5 carrier bags and that 200,000 tonnes of menstrual waste is landfilled each year in the UK. To learn more check out their short film Turning Tides and their Plastic Free Periods Campaign. With 4.3 billion menstrual products, including liners, pads, and tampons, being used every year in the UK, and the average womxn using between 14,000 and 18,000 disposable pads, tampons and pantyliners during their lifetime, making the switch to plastic free and reusable period products is a giant step on our journey to zero waste living.

Gemmas favourite products:

Reusable period pants: These are pretty incredible and massively reduce the amount of single use period products you need to use (WUKA claim with one pair of WUKA you are saving 100 tampons from going to landfill, Flux Undies tell us you’re reducing your waste by 99%). Gemma hasn’t had any problems when using them and has found them a great alternative to reusable menstrual cups which she didn’t get on with. She first tried WUKA, they lasted well for a year but then did need replacing, they’ve now been down-graded to bedtime use only. For her second set she bought from FLUX Undies and has been really impressed with the design and quality, they also donate a reusable cloth pad to a girl in need for every purchase you make. Made My Wardrobe has recently launched a make your own kit for any crafty readers out there and Gemma has also got her eye on a Modibody swimsuit for her cold water swims! One piece of advice would be that these are not for the queasy, to clean properly they need to be rinsed first and then washed, Gemmas top tip is to rinse when you have a shower, simply place at the bottom of the shower and they’ll rinse through while you shower.

Tampons and pads: While the period pants are great and get used most days there are some occasions (currently swimming until that investment is made!) where tampons and pads do come in useful. Gemma has been on the search for a 100% plastic free tampon for a while now and was excited when Grace & Green announced they had removed all plastic packaging from their range opting for paper instead. Their products are well made, 100% organic and plastic free. Remember don’t flush pads, tampons, backing strips, packaging, or pantyliners down the toilet, the best ways to dispose of an organic period product is to throw it into the bin, recycle the wrapper, or add the tampon to the compost.

Other reusable options available:

Reusable pads: Gemma preferred the pants due to the improved fit over the pads, she found most of the reusable pads a bit bulky and a little uncomfortable to wear but definitely worth a try if you haven’t tried them yet! There are quite a few independent makers in Cornwall selling them or you could also look to make your own!

Reusable menstrual cups: One of the first reusable period products on the market, widely available from various brands and now in some different designs too. Sea + Flo are a Cornish based brand!

Other than looking to switch up your period products there are other ways to get involved with spreading the word on plastic free periods:

#endperiodplastic by signing campaigner Ella Daish petition to Make all Menstrual Products Plastic Free.

Become a period detective for City to Sea and share what period products you find in your local supermarket.

Campaign with WUKA to get period pants recognised under the 0% period tax.

Get your schools and colleges involved, did you know that schools and colleges in England can now order FREE period products for their students, as part of a government scheme which was launched in January 2020 to help end period poverty. But only 41% of schools to date have taken up the scheme. Look to get your school or college involved or write to your MP asking for them to ensure schools in their area are taking up the offer as schools need to take up the scheme by December 2020.

Donate to end period poverty. Bloody Good Period share products to those who can’t afford them, and provide menstrual education to those less likely to access it. You can donate money or if you are keen to share plastic free products donations of unopened packets of pads can be sent directly to Bloody Good Period, SafeStore, Alexandra Palace Way, London N8 7HP. Action Aid who work with women and girls living in poverty are looking to end period poverty and are running workshops to teach girls how to make their own reusable pads.

Spread the word, check out Environmenstrual Week from Women’s Environmental Network and Menstrual Hygiene Day for further information.

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plastic free ideas for your pooch!

This is all new to us having recently become proud doggy owners of Fonda, a beautiful little dog we rescued from Romania. In our month prep before receiving her we did a little bit of research as we are keen to be as waste and plastic free as possible, below are some ideas we discovered, if you have any other hints or tips please let us know!

Food and treats

There are now a few brands out there catering for owners who are looking to be plastic free while also making sure your dog is receiving healthy, nutritious food. You could also look into making your own, buying package free and if raw meat isn’t an issue for you, you could go direct to a butcher to ask for offcuts and bones etc, see guide here.

Run: Cold pressed grain free dry dog food made in the UK packaged in paper sacks

Paleo Ridge : Raw food packaged with woolcool

Bug Bakes : Cold pressed food using insects for protein packaged 100% plastic free, for each founding member a tree is planted too!

Benevo : Vegetarian wet food packaged in recyclable cans

Lily’s Kitchen : Has a range available in tins and also offers a Terracycle recycling option for their pouch range

The Rainforester : While not currently plastic free this is a great little brand for dog treats funding conservation projects, they are hoping to move to bamboo packaging when demand picks up and they can start buying packaging in bulk.

Green & Wilds : Antler dog chew naturally shed from free ranging deer

Baileys Country Store, Penryn : Has a range of package free chews and treats available

Doggies & Moggies Store, Goonhaven and Penryn : Has a range of package free chews and treats available

Paws For Cake : Loose treats found at markets around Cornwall

Make your own treat ideas:

DIY Vegan Dog Treats

DIY Peanut Butter Treats

DIY Zero Waste Treats

Toys

We looked into toys made from natural materials and also think searching secondhand shops for options before buying new is a great idea too.

Beco Pets : Has a lovely range of natural rubber, hemp and recycled plastic toys

Bug Bakes : Small range of jute toys

Green & Wilds : Jute and cotton toys

Bed

Again look out for secondhand options or look to up/downcycle, we treated ourselves and Fonda to a beautiful Wovenology basket and made the inner bed out of an old duvet and duvet cover.

Wovenology : Beautiful fairly traded woven baskets from Ghana

Anemone Cornwall : Cute crochet beds for small dogs

Project Blu : Beds made from 100% recycled ocean bound plastic

Make your own:

Sweatshirt dog bed

Accessories

And again we bought a few bits via ebay, we found a training lead and harness, stainless steel bowls for food and water and a grooming brush (that also happened to be made from bamboo with metal bristles- winning!).

Benuvo : Certified home compostable dog poop bags (now available from the van!).

Dicky Bag : A bag that takes the smell out of carrying your used dog poo bags on walks, designed and made in Cornwall!

The Cornish Seaweed Bath Co : Dog shampoo bar (now available from the van!)

Goldrick : Wooden dog brush

Only Dogs Allowed : Dog grooming products in tins

Project Blu : Collars and leads made from 100% recycled ocean bound plastic

Beco : Bamboo and silicone dog bowls

Wormery : Dog poo wormery for home composting!

or make your own dog poo work farm

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Carbon Offsetting Year Two

As we turned two recently we started to think about how we would offset the carbon of our travels in the bulkmobile over the past year and have opted for two different approaches. Last year we focused on local tree planting but this year we have decided to take it global with GoClimate and to also support UK trees and woodlands via The Woodland Trust.

We came across GoClimate via a recommendation from climate justice & antiracism activist Mikaela Loach on Instagram. GoClimate is a social company who is looking to make it easier for people to offset their carbon. They believe that ‘in order to stop climate change we all need to live climate neutral lives now. The best way to do that is to reduce our footprint as much as possible and at the same time start to offset for the things we can't reduce.’ At the moment we can’t reduce or improve our fuel use so we see offsetting as the best solution out there at present. The usual way that GoClimate works is for you to find out your carbon footprint using their easy questionnaire and they will then recommend a monthly subscription for you, but as we wanted to offset our previous year we bought their giftcard for one year carbon offsetting that more than covered our carbon footprint created by the miles driven in the bulkmobile. Our money will be used to support climate projects through carbon offsetting. They support various projects around the globe including projects that produce renewable energy, such as supporting projects that produce wind energy in India or biomass in Bulgaria. There are also projects that aim to improve methods of cooking, such as helping communities move away from wood burning for fuel and instead move to solar. And then they also support tree projects, such as reforestation of areas that have been deforested, the planting of trees on areas that have not had a forest before, or protection of existing forests. All great work to move towards a carbon neutral future.

As well as our yearly offset we also decided to donate £15 to The Woodland Trust. This was recommended by Cornwall Council as one of the ways to get involved with their Forest For Cornwall Campaign. All money donated to The Woodland Trust goes towards protecting trees and woods, vital for addressing climate change. As written in The Future We Choose '“few actions are as critical, as urgent, or as simple as planting trees. This ancient technology needs no high technology, is completely safe and is very cheap.’

Offsetting your carbon is of course a privilege that not everyone can afford to do but for those that can it is a way to share and use your privilege for good. It is also not the solution, but rather a stepping stone to get us to a better future while technology and world leaders work on the bigger picture. Future planning is essential, as written in The Future We Choose, “we have 10 years to cut our global emissions in half and another 20 years after that, at maximum, to get them to net-zero.” Our future plan is to keep an eye on developments with electric vans and to continue to look into alternative bio-fuels to replace our diesel use. Until then we will continue to off-set our carbon and of course, plant trees where we can!

As well as offsetting we can also petition for a move away from the carbon-intensive economy, with many seeing the Covid-19 pandemic an opportunity to build back better:

Global Justice Now Petition: Stop funding fossil fuels overseas

Stop Ecocide

Face The Climate Emergency

Greenpeace Petition: Tesco, your industrial meat is destroying our forests

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Individual action for systemic change

We’re big believers in making individual change in an effort to spark both collective community change and also as a way to bring about larger changes amongst businesses and governments. But unfortunately our consumer changes in using less plastic and resources can only spark so much change, we need governments, industry and corporations to get involved and put in as much effort as we are to create real systemic change.

Lets take he plastics industry as an example. The plastic pollution crisis obviously starts at the source and we need the plastics industry (read Fossil Fuel Industry) to start taking responsibility for the plastic its producing. Its been reported that ‘the plastics industry has produced 98 tons of plastic waste since 1950 and its not slowing down, in 2050 there’s going to be 12 billion tons of plastic waste in landfills.’ ‘Around half of all plastic products produced are for single-use items’ and ‘right now, the amount of plastic waste ending up in the ocean every year is equivalent to five grocery bags per every foot of coastline around the globe. If we continue business-as-usual, global plastic waste is predicted to triple.’

The industry continues to put the onus on us to deal with their waste. This has been highlighted recently by Surfers Against Sewage and the findings from their 2020 #ReturntoOffender campaign where they found a ‘small number of brands highlighted the actions they were taking to reduce their plastic production but the majority of responses simply blamed the general public’. We desperately need businesses to recognise and take responsibility for the part they play in plastic pollution and we also need legislation forcing producers to take responsibility for both their production plans and for the life cycle of their plastic products.

If you have started on your plastic free journey with individual changes now is the time to start using your voice to get policymakers and businesses to listen and start making their own changes to further the plastic free and zero waste movements. Here are a few of our favourite ways to get involved:

• Signing petitions: As Vicki Chillcott writes in an article for Surfers Against Sewage, ‘petitions are a way to provide a platform to indicate the electorate’s concerns’ and to get your voice heard. Keep a look out for shared petitions and take the time to sign, it doesn’t take long and could help bigger systemic change.

• Directly contacting brands / corporations if you have been unhappy with any of their products or services. We recently invested in some new eco based cookware and were disappointed in the packaging used so contacted them directly to let them know. Calling out brands and businesses online can be another way to get them to listen, similar to the Surfers Against Sewage #ReturnToOffender campaign, taking a picture and calling out the brand on a social platform can get them to listen and also lead to community online action.

• Community action is a really positive thing to join in with. Joining a community action group can help with feelings of helplessness by coming together with like minded individuals and amplifying each others voices. They can also help with the above actions, offering help and support with wording for emails/letters and starting petitions. You can look out for groups in your area, start your own or join in and support charities that are also fighting against the causes of plastic pollution, a few of our favourites are listed below:

Surfers Against Sewage

City To Sea

Break Free From Plastic

Friends of the Earth

Greenpeace

Extinction Rebellion

• Engaging in further study is a great way to increase knowledge, widen your reach and also a great way to meet people looking to do the same. Some options for further study are listed below:

Future Learn

Eden Project

Centre for Alternative Technology

How will you take your #plasticfree and #zerowaste actions further to fight for systemic change?

Sources used:

Gizmodo: The Lie Behind Plastic Pollution Is That We’re Responsible

Surfers Against Sewage: What Influences Government Policy Change On Plastic Pollution

Surfers Against Sewage: Thousands Take in Part in #ReturnToOffender Exposing The Digital Dirty Dozen

Josephine Becker: Single-Use Plastic Depends on Capitalism Depends on Single-Use Plastic

Earthjustice: How Big Oil is Using Toxic Chemicals as a Lifeline – and How We Can Stop It

Taylor Bratton: Changing the Scope of Zero Waste: My Journey from Indifference to Action

Yikes Podcast: EPISODE 2: Can lifestyle change save the planet?

The Story of Plastic Film

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