
Much of our food comes packaged in plastic but it is possible to avoid a lot of this by using our local shops.
Fruit and veg – loose, packaging free fruit and veg is available from Good Food on the Edge or Wotton Farm Shop. The Keepers often have any surplus of locally grown food available on their ‘crop share’ table.
Dried and frozen food – Wotton Farm Shop has a good selection of dried food and frozen food available by weight – all packaging free. Take your own container and start filling! They even have fresh orange juice and milk refilling points.Bread and cakes – Walkers the Bakers have plastic free bread. It’s worth remembering that if you ask them to slice your loaf it will then be put in a plastic bag, but you can bring your own bag to avoid using the plastic bags on offer.
Bulk Buying / Buying Groups – If you can buy your staples in bulk then this can greatly reduce the amount of packaging used. Companies like Suma and Essential supply many dried goods in larger volumes (e.g. muesli in 10kg paper sacks). Why not set up a buying group with friends? Cotswold Natural Food Store offer many products in compostable packaging and you can also order bulk quantities of food and toiletries directly from them.
Milk deliveries – there are several companies that offer doorstep milk deliveries in our area like Severnfresh or Milk & More.. Buying milk and fruit juice in returnable glass bottles is a great way to dramatically decrease the plastic in your recycling bin.