Small Sustainable Swaps – Plastic Packaging

Did you make any sustainable new years resolutions?

Resolutions are a nice idea but often it’s impossible to stick to a big, drastic change. So we suggest making a series of small sustainable swaps, they all add up. Here’s how we can help with one area – plastic packaging. Choosing to buy products without petrochemical based plastics sends a clear message to big companies and producers, there is a better way!

Our fruits and vegetables are delivered plastic free, nationwide to every address in Ireland and Northern Ireland, and we use compostable bags for things like salad and spinach leaves that need that extra protection. If you are on one of our local routes (in green on the map below) then we collect and re-use the cardboard boxes too! Some of our deliveries are with a courier company (in orange on the map below) so we can’t collect those boxes yet unfortunately, but they are compostable or recyclable so please dispose of them responsibly.

As well as our fresh produce, we deliver organic groceries and we are always looking at the most sustainable options. We have a growing plastic free aisle and here are a few of our favourites from the plastic free swaps we’ve been making recently.

Herbs and Spices – Plastic Free Refills

Sonnentor are our new herb and spice supplier. We love the organic contents of course, they are high quality and full of amazing flavour to make our dishes sing. But we are also really impressed with the packaging. The contents are protected in clever, compostable bags and then packaged in lovely sustainably sourced cardboard boxes. Read more about Sonnentor here. Add some of our selection to your next order here.

Grains, Pulses, Dried Fruit, Nuts and Seeds – Refills (in compostable bags)

We now have a really useful range of nuts, seeds, dried fruit and grains in compostable bags. Perfect for refilling jars in your kitchen. We love having big jars of ingredients like these visible in our kitchen, they remind us to cook from scratch and have healthy snack bowls. The clear visibility makes writing a shopping list of what we are running low on easy! Check out our range here and here.

Plastic Free Teas

Did you know that most tea bags contain plastic? Not good for us and certainly not good for our compost bins! We stock a lovely selection of plastic free, organic teas here.

Chocolate!

Chocolate is a bit of a sustainability minefield. Cocoa production is linked to child labour, slavery, deforestation, and low wages. So how can concerned chocolate lovers make the most sustainable and ethical purchases? As well as researching different brands on their cocoa sourcing, choose bars with biodegradable packaging. For example, our Vivani bars are wrapped in a protective, compostable film which performs like regular plastic. It is made from sustainably sourced wood fibres. The paper and cardboard packaging is also FSC® certified and printed using mineral oil-free inks. Check out our sustainable chocolates here.

Eco Toiletries

Switching to bamboo toothbrushes and shampoo bars is an easy way to massively cut down your plastic consumption in the bathroom. We are really impressed with our shampoo bars, they smell incredible and really work! Check out our eco toiletries here.