The Little Green Grocery

Current actions:

• Brown paper bags for loose fruit and veg
• Any leftover veg is made into soup to reduce food waste and served in compostable takeaway containers with wooden cutlery
• Provides oil refills – money off if people bring their own container
• Rice stored in hessian sacks and sold by weight
• When fruit and veg is delivered in plastic will try to give back to the supplier
• Coffee sold in compostable packaging
• Uses local suppliers as much as possible and stocks Cornish honey, peanut butter, jams

Proposed Action:

• Looking into getting wall dispensers for dry goods
• Speaking to milk supplier to see about possibility of getting glass bottles
• Working with fishermen to design and create bags made from old fishing nets

“I’ve definitely noticed that people are becoming more conscious of how much plastic packaging their food comes in. Usually, this time of year would be our quietest but there’s actually been an increase in sales, which is even more of an incentive to go plastic-free.

“It’s interesting because many of the changes we’ve made, like switching to refillable bottles for olive oil and using paper bags, are things that were quite normal decades ago. So for a lot of our older customers, it’s things they are already used to.

“I would love to get some wall dispensers so the dry goods don’t have to be sold in packets, but at the moment space is a big challenge here. Also, I’ve spoken with my suppliers and they’ve said they are actually working on changing their packaging to a more sustainable alternative. So, in a way, it might be better to stick with what we’ve got and support them.”

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