I first learnt about this shop after reading a book called ‘Zero Waste home’ by US-based sustainability and zero-waste enthusiast Bea Johnson. The book - and original blog - offers tips on how to live less wastefully, and includes particularly useful suggestions on reducing packaging by taking your own reusable containers when shopping, and refusing packaging when it’s not truly needed.
After absorbing her wise words, I did a lot of googling to see if I could apply her advice on shopping packaging-free here in London. Then I found Unpackaged:
The neat rows of sealed produce bins, shelves of oils, jars of sugar, tea, seasonings and sweets, and tables of organic produce are an inspiring example of how elegant and modern sustainable shopping can be. Customers bring their own reusable containers, have them weighed (‘tared') at the counter when empty, fill them up, then have them weighed again with the container weight deducted. If you don’t have a container handy, recycled paper bags are available for free, or you can buy glass bottles and tupperware.
Whilst I found that fresh produce was generally out of my everyday price range, and also not altogether that sustainable (dried pineapple from the tropics for instance), basic, locally-sourced dried food items and household things were no more expensive than regular supermarket versions. In fact, they are often cheaper!
Example: Empty fairy liquid bottle, refilled with ecover washing liquid = £0.93p approx.
So that’s where I get my household cleaners and selected store cupboard items. It works out cheaper than buying them in the supermarkets near me, and any occasional extra expenditure is balanced out by the huge reduction in packaging I’m putting into landfill. If anyone lives in north east or east London, I highly recommend a visit.
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