Three Businesses Going Plastic Free
We’ve all spoken about cow flatulence (although if you want to be technical their burps produce more methane than their farts), but did you know that plastic bags release methane too? Scientists are just now researching how many of the most common plastics used in packaging degrade and release greenhouse gases. Not to mention their poisoning fish and other animals they may come across on the path from supermarket to decomposition.
In the UK we incinerated 43.8% of local authority waste in the year 2018/19, this figure an increase on previous years. Waste incineration has been found to produce 2.4% of the UK's electricity and yet is responsible for 13% of the greenhouse gas emissions associated with energy production. So here are three lovely businesses that have ‘refound’, let us say, ways of reducing waste and selling their food without plastics.
Yorkshire Pasta Company
Does Pasta grow on trees in Yorkshire? Well.. not exactly, but it does come in paper bags made from locally milled flour that is kneaded, shaped and dried by solar power. The Yorkshire pasta company has 5 different shapes to choose from and their pasta is truly delicious. I had the mezze maniche rigate which is Italian for striped half sleeves, describing the pasta’s short round shape and grooves, with a simple tomato sauce and grated cheddar cheese. And on sunny days, when enough pasta is made, any excess energy generated by their solar panels is fed back into the national grid. What a lovely thought.
Re:Store
The Re:Store in Hackney Downs studio space just celebrated its second birthday, so I went down with my tupperware container and filled it with vegan sweets and a vegan version of a Snickers bar. They were without a doubt the best vegan alternatives I have ever tried, the texture of the sweets good and chewy without totally sticking your mouth together. The shop also had a large range of grains, herbs, bathroom and cleaning products, and nice things like flasks, soap and candles that would make great gifts. They have a box full of containers where you can donate your old (clean) tupperware and jars, or pick one up for use in the shop if you have forgotten to bring one (or simply are more tempted than you expected).
Stamford Cheese
Historians are unsure when the first cheese was made, however it was certainly a few thousand years before plastic was. The Shorrock family run dairy was started in 1923, incidentally 16 years after the first fully synthetic plastic (Bakelite) was made. Grandson of the founder Andrew Shorrock, created the Lancashire Bomb cheese as a gift for a friend moving to the US and since then it has been sold by his dairy across the country. It is matured for at least two years and has a strong but creamy flavour. It is wrapped in wax, preserving it beautifully even after opening, and giving it the distinctive bomb shape. You can find the cheese bomb for every occasion, it's now available in a range of flavours.