Buying loose goods is one of the best ways to make serious inroads into the single use plastic coming into your home, and it’s brilliant to see that zero waste/plastic free shops – where you can do just that – are springing up all over the UK. Using your local zero waste shop for the first time might seem daunting, but we’ve got lots of tips for the first time user.
We’re lucky to have many zero waste shops in Gloucestershire, as recently reported by Gloucestershire Live. Some of our favourites include:
http://looseplasticfree.co.uk/ – Stroud
https://www.fillyourbootsshop.co.uk/ – Quedgeley
https://thehealthbox.co.uk/ – Lechlade
https://www.greenshop.co.uk/ – Bisley
https://foodloose.co.uk – Cheltenham
A good way to do local grocery shopping online is through the Open Food Network, of which Stroudco is the local online grocer for Stroud. The model is simple: you buy your items through their online shop and have them delivered (within a 10-mile radius) to your door or collect from their hub at the Trinity Rooms in Stroud. Stroudco have some 30 suppliers in all, the vast majority of whom have little or no single-use packaging. The zero waste shop ‘Loose’ in Stroud is their largest supplier week-in week-out by quantity of items and soon, liquid refills for olive oil and cleaning products will also be introduced.
If you’ve not been to a zero waste shop before, you might be unsure about using your local zero waste shop and buying goods in this different way, but these shops are easy to use, and in our experience staff are always keen to help explain how their system works. In this video, Chloe has a few tips for anyone using a zero waste shop for the first time.
For more tips on plastic free living, have a look at How to Take Action.