Plastic Free Tips?

Plastic Free Tips
My better half is helping us go plastic free during Lent, and I went with her to the Monday Market this morning.
Plastic Free Tips
There is a long queue round the large fruit and veg. stall and people fill up their baskets as they go and get it all weighed and paid for at the end. I have no idea how much plastic and fuel is used to get things to the stall in the first place. So doing this won’t save the planet.
Plastic Free Tips
We got all of this for £10.50 with no plastic bags. Another things she has found is that you can take your own container to the cheese counter at Added Ingredients or Waitrose, or bottles for detergent at Added Ingredients. Milk in glass bottles is 81p a pint when delivered.

Others may have other tips to help. It seems a shame that all the health food at Holland and Barratt is in plastic bags. Frugal Food did much better but that closed many years ago. The time may have come for another Frugal Food that serves food loose.

7 thoughts on “Plastic Free Tips?

  1. Horsesmouth

    Now there’s a very interesting subject ( and questions too)
    Looking at your purchases backstreeter the only items “home grown” at this time of year are the apples and the mushrooms ( the carrots are young ones – much too early to be from here ) the tomatoes and peppers are probably Spanish and grown under almost slave conditions by illegal immigrants, the avocado from Mexico, the new carrots from Morocco or Kenya, Sadler gone is the time when we only ate produce that was in season here!
    As for the packaging? Well it’s obscene the amount we are forced to have while buying produce. More lobbying needed I guess?

    Reply
  2. Hester

    Andrew Matthews at Sutton Courtenay does a veg van run to Abingdon on a Thursday. No plastic bags. Obviously the sort of fruit and veg Steve highlights are imported, but the things which can be UK-grown are mainly local – his main suppliers are in Harwell and Longworth. For those who are out at work I think he has a facility for email ordering and he will leave the stuff in a nominated safe place.

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  3. Janet

    What amuses me is that we are not allowed to use recycled paper bags instead. This would prove a good use of all the surplus paper we get. I get loads of junk mail through the letter box every week and it goes straight into the recycling. In America they have their groceries in paper bags. It is not feasable to have things like potatoes fruit etc without a bag. Can you imagine having to carry these home without a container?

    Reply
  4. hester

    Janet – places like Lakeland (and I am sure others) sell reusable mesh bags in a range of sizes – the only problem is remembering to take them with you when you go shopping.

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  5. Horsesmouth

    Meanwhile we’re at Abingdon’s best kept secret as far as produce and tea rooms are concerned? peachcroft farm just along the peripheral road is brilliant, fresh produce, mostly uk grown and loose,not pre packed- then in Wells stores deli they have a fab selection of cheeses, wines, meats and bread, tea rooms etc etc, it really is worth a visit

    Reply
  6. Horsesmouth

    Stop Press!!! Doing the rounds on Facebook (and in particular that of a well known resident ) is the rumour that at last the Upper Reaches Hotel has been sold ? However it’s not clear whether it’s only the hotel that’s been sold to be re-opened and or the car park gas been sold (by the Vale) for housing ? Here we go again I fear!

    Reply
  7. Jenny Smith

    I purchase an organic vegetable box once a fortnight from a UK company, mostly just one cardboard box that they take back the next week. Some produce also in a paper bag in the box. Mostly local seasonal produce, some from farms in France but also organic. One of the many reasons I do this is to add variety to my diet – I get veg I never would have bought, like fresh beetroot, celeriac, all sorts of green leaves. It’s great!

    Reply

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