The incredible bulk: the world’s best plastic-free stores
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Launched in Australia nearly 10 years ago, The Source Bulk Foods (thesourcebulkfoods.co.uk) has set an international standard for refill shopping. Branches in the UK, Singapore, New Zealand and Ireland sell locally sourced organic food, oils and snacks. And in the UK, where 660m kgs of plastic end up in the ocean and countryside every year, The Source has also helped save 200,000 pieces of plastic packaging from being produced, and donated £30,000 to support the ocean conservation non-profit Sea Shepherd.
During lockdown, such was the demand for ethical shopping at home that Berlin institution Original Unverpackt (original-unverpackt.de) introduced a home-delivery cargo bike service. Started by friends Milena Glimbovski and Sara Wolf in 2014 through an online crowdfunding scheme, the store sells food, soaps, domestic cleaning products and storage items from two sleek industrial spaces. Glimbovski also gives talks on environmentalism and the impact of food waste on climate change.
In Los Angeles, The Waste Less Shop (thewastelessshop.com) plants a tree for every purchase, with charity One Tree Planted. Customers can find tree-free toilet roll and bulk ranges including household cleaners, plus essential oils, beauty products and base ingredients for DIY creations. Its best sellers can be found at the Riviera Village Farmers’ Market every weekend.
Edinburgh’s largest plastic-free store, The Refillery (therefillery.co.uk), sits outside the city’s historic centre, and is celebrated for its freshly made nut butters and plant-based milks, which it sells alongside food, cleaning refill ranges, and “kind” reusable shopping bags to raise funds for breast-cancer research. The online shop’s philosophy is “Rethink, Reorganise, Refill”.
Meanwhile, at Lauren Wedderburn’s plastic-free shop Something Good (somethinggood.co.uk) – born in Newcastle in 2019, with a table at Tynemouth Market – the mission is to “make our everyday routine less wasteful”. Now a luminous white and natural-wood shop, it boasts a zero-waste pantry, refillery and ethical products such as beeswax food wraps, stainless steel lunch boxes, and Georganics toothpaste tablets.
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