Plastic Free Statement

How plastic free can a 'plastic free' store be?

We don’t want to be throwing around the words plastic free without being upfront about where you can find traces of plastic. We have calculated and outlined everything you need to know below:

Out of all our products we are 97.6% Plastic free

For each product we worked out the percentages of plastic (or plastic derived materials), then we divided each percentage by all of our products and added up the total. This total was 2.4% (or 2.38% to be really precise).

Packaging we send:

We never send any plastic packaging out with our orders. We use paper, cardboard and paper tape.It is always recyclable and most of the time re-used. You may also receive corn starch nuggets which can be dissolved in water and are totally safe and home compostable as we sometimes re-use the ones we are sent.

Packaging we receive:

We do sometimes receive bubble wrap from suppliers. In these cases we contact the supplier to see if they can change and in most of the cases they have. Any left over bubble wrap is donated to companies who can put it to good use. We also supply our spare cardboard boxes to local farms who use it for no dig gardening.

Products that contain plastic of any kind:

Bamboo toothbrushes – our toothbrushes have nylon fibres (some with only 40% but it is still plastic based). We are always on the look out for a vegan and plastic free toothbrush but currently we haven’t been able to source one.

Cosmetic product tins and glass jars often have a plastic liner under the lid in order to create a seal when tightened. It is also a legal requirement for cosmetic product freshness and integrity by preventing contamination. It is likely as more options come available we will have fewer products with the LDPE seal. 

Cosmetic products with pump lids. Currently there is no affordable plastic free pump lid option. The reason for using them is product freshness and hygiene, though it can be avoided, we really love the organic certification and ethics of the benecos range we stock and are in discussions with them about alternatives.

Toure organic shea butter use a small plastic tape to seal the aluminum lid before opening, this is to prevent leakages during transport as during hot weather the shea butter melts. It isn't ideal, but we do love the small scale, organic and fairtrade practices of this brand.

Bower collective refill pouches. We tried to do biodegradable bottles for cleaning products but sadly ended up with lots of wasted product as the bottles biodegraded too fast in storage (they only had a 3 month shelf life!). Bower collective use a refill scheme where you can send the pouches back within the UK for free, and they get used an average of 7 times before being recycled and repurposed in the UK into stormboard, a building material.