There is so much plastic waste from food packaging – whether it’s the plastic bag inside cereal boxes or plastic milk bottles, berry containers or yogurt cups – it begs the question, can we avoid all this plastic?
While the big scale supermarket chains are slowly catching on, a brand-new breed of shops has come to life: zero-waste supermarkets.
In this Episode of Sustainability Matters Today, I interview Catherine Conway, founder and CEO of Unpackaged, and a Champion of promoting a zero-waste lifestyle. Unpackaged sets up refill stations in stores around the UK, including Planet Organic and Waitrose, and customers bring their own refillable containers to fill them with products from the dispensers. This allows people to only buy the amount they need, limiting food waste while avoiding single-use plastics. Catherine also offers consulting services to help spread the idea of zero-waste stores as far as possible.
We discuss the challenges Catherine encountered when inventing the refill system, her history of advocating the zero-waste movement since 2006, and how mainstream supermarkets are slowly joining their cause and much more!
I hope you enjoy the episode!