BYO food packaging
Maryellen Clare
16 January 2013
Since joining Friends of the Earth I've become more conscious of my recycling habits. So, after a recent roast dinner, I diligently separated the varied food packaging rubbish into its respective bins.
The foil, paper and plastics the council don't take started to stack up. And untangling packaging from leftover food scraps was a messy affair. It left me wondering why nobody has come up with a one-size-fits-all food packaging concept that's convenient, cheap and doesn't harm the planet.
So I was pleased to find out this week about a London company near my home that offers an alternative to packaging - by almost completely removing it from the loop.
Unpackaged is an organic refill shop which invites customers to bring in their own containers to stock up on essentials like rice, pasta and bread and reuse them each time they visit the store.
But how easy is it in practice? And what if you forget your container?
Containers can be anything from glass jars to Tupperware or old packaging and if you forget to bring yours then you can buy one in the store to reuse next time. Containers are weighed before filling so it can be deducted from the overall weight saving money and reducing the amount of packaging waste to be disposed of. Simple!
It's the kind of innovative concept being encouraged by Friends of the Earth's new Make It Better campaign. We're calling for businesses to rethink how they make and sell us stuff to reduce its environmental impact.
Unpackaged is a great example of how this can work in practice. And begs the question, why aren't more shops and supermarkets coming up with ways of reducing waste across the supply chain?
Maryellen Clare, intern in Media & Communications team
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