Thornes

Name: Malcolm Hendy, Owner

Action to Date:

• Swapped to paper bags
• Encourage shoppers to use re-useable cloth or jute bags
• Significantly reduced plastic wrapped produce
• Refill milk machine
• Cans and glass bottles of drink

Proposed Action:

• Paper wrapped meat products
• Phase out plastic water bottles
• Looking at refill cleaning products
• Continually trial and source plastic free options

“We’ve done it to try and cut down on all the waste out there. There’s just so much, it’s everywhere. So we’re trying to do our bit to help.

“The feedback from customers is really good. Really good. I think they’ve all had enough of it, it’s come to a cusp and they’ve all bought into it. We’ve definitely seen an increase in customers through the doors. Purely because people are looking for a plastic free alternative and up until now they haven’t had it. Now they’ve got it and, although the majority of our fruit and veg was never in plastic, we’ve now gone the extra mile to find more lines which are plastic free.

“It’s cost more … but at the end of the day if we get more customers from it one will outweigh the other and it will be viable. If not, we are happy to swallow the cost. At the moment we’re sourcing stuff to get it rolled out and as time goes on we’ll find better suppliers and get better deals. We’ve just got to take it on board now.”

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