Eardisland’s community run village shop has attained ‘Plastic Free Champion’ status as part of the village’s drive to become a Plastic Free Community.
The Community Shop has been working with Eardisland Parish Council’s Environment and Sustainability group to reduce the sale of single-use plastic, much of which ends up in landfill or littering the beautiful village lanes.
To become a Plastic Free Champion the shop identified all the single-use plastic it used and removed or replaced these three items:
· Plastic drinks bottles are no longer sold.
· Plastic soap packaging was replaced with plastic free soap bars.
· Some plastic food packaging was replaced with glass and card alternatives.
The shop is now looking at how to reduce the use of other single-use plastic items, including contacting suppliers to see if they can offer alternatives.
In June of this year, it turned on its new refill tap for use by visitors, walkers, and cyclists. The free to use tap is situated right outside the shop so is available 24 hours a day March to October.
Sitting beside the scenic millstream the 300-year-old dovecote houses a volunteer run Community Shop, with thirty volunteers signing up for hourly shifts to keep the shop open Monday to Saturday 9.00 am to 1.00pm (Wednesday until 10:30am) and Sunday 9.00am to 12 noon.
Plastic Free Communities is a community network across the UK that’s tackling single-use plastic from the beach, all the way back to the brands and businesses who create it. It does not expect communities to be totally plastic free. It aims to tackle single-use plastic items like plastic drinks bottles, disposable coffee cups, sachets, bathroom plastics, excessive food packaging and takeaway containers.
Ben Woodcock, chair of the Eardisland Environment and Sustainability Group says:
“The community shop has long been a supporter of the annual parish litter pick, and it just made sense to try and reduce some of the plastic litter by stopping it at the source. The small changes the shop have made in choosing to sell plastic free products will hopefully have a wider impact on reducing the amount of plastic ending up in our beautiful countryside.”
