Stop Plastic Before it Starts

zero waste blog
For ten years, The Source Bulk Foods has been committed to stopping plastic before it even starts. Customers have always been able to come in and buy our healthy and delicious products and take them home without the need for any soft plastics. This has been our promise to our customers since we began. Whilst other retailers are just coming to the party now, we’ve continued to build on our commitment to sustainable retailing. We are proof that you can buy what you need to feed your family without being left with a pile of soft plastics heading to landfill.

  • You might have heard in the media that REDcycle, Australia’s largest plastic bag recycling program, has suspended its operations permanently. This was the program where you could return your soft plastics to a supermarket thinking it was being repurposed into street furniture, roads and bollards.  It seems that the companies that recycled the soft plastics haven’t been able to keep up with the massive oversupply and this has resulted in warehouses being stockpiled with enormous amounts of soft plastics because there’s nothing that can be done with it.

    Whilst we’re not into soft plastics, we knew this program was important because it dealt with what was already in circulation and so we are really sorry to see that this has happened and we’re concerned about what will happen to the massive amounts that have been stockpiled.  But, we’re also worried because most households across Australia now don’t have anywhere to send their soft plastics that are even remotely sustainable.

    When you shop with us, you automatically stop harmful household plastics circulating in your local community.

  • At home, unless you’re nearby to a local waste transfer facility that manages soft plastic, your only option for disposing of it is to put it in the rubbish bin and send it to landfill.  Whatever you do, don’t put it in the recycling bin.  Soft plastics can’t be recycled in the same way that hard plastics can and combining the two in the recycling bin will only cause problems down the line. Just about the only place where soft plastics can go now is into your household rubbish bin and then into landfill where it will almost never break down.

    Or, you can stop plastic before it even starts!

    Think about the easy things that you can do to stop soft plastics even entering your home.  If you make small changes to your every day routine, soft plastics won’t even be needed.  This means that less will get manufactured and it won’t end up stockpiled or in landfill.

  • Next time you go shopping, ask yourself, “How would my great grandparents have bought this?”  There was never plastic around in their day and yet they managed to get their pantry staples, fruit and veg, meat and other ingredients home.  Perhaps that’s why they were called ‘the good ol’ days’.

    Will our great grandkids be able to look back at us and think that we lived in the good ol’ days?  We hope so.  We can still make that happen.

Fill Your Pantry Without Filling Landfill. Here’s How.

  1. Bring your own jars and containers into your locally owned The Source Bulk Foods to fill with pantry staples, snacks for lunchboxes, laundry detergents, body wash, honey, sauces and oil.
  2. Use our paper bags and then put them straight into the compost.
  3. Shop at your local butchers, bakers, fishmongers and delicatessens.  They will be happy to fill your containers with their produce and that’s far better than wrapped in unnecessary layers of soft plastic. Besides, when you shop local, you support your community.
  4. Buy loose fruit and veg that’s not pre-packed in plastic bags or trays.  You don’t need the plastic and neither does the planet.
  5. Don’t use cling wrap.  Use beeswax wraps, reusable snack bags and containers.  One of our favourite tricks in the kitchen is to use a plate as a lid on top of a bowl, and a bowl as a lid to cover food on a plate.  No plastic needed at all!
  6. Take your own carry bags when you shop. Our jute bags are sturdy and a decent size but any carry bag is better than a plastic one.
  7. Bake the world better!  Instead of buying ready-made biscuits in plastic packaging or meal kits wrapped in plastic, have a go at making your own from scratch.  Cooking and enjoying your own creations is one of life’s great pleasures which you might be missing out on if you’re relying on pre-made and fast food.  When you cook from scratch, you not only taste the difference but you can buy all of the ingredients without plastic – the planet will thank you for it.

Don’t wait for recycling companies to clean up your plastic.
Stop plastic before it starts.

 

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