As keen walkers, we were saddened by the amount of single-use plastic that we came across on our walks through the countryside. Plastic bags, coffee cups, and water bottles being thrown out of car windows, cigarette stubs discarded with little thought, dog poo bags left in the undergrowth or dangling from branches, rogue traders fly-tipping, all a constant blot on our beautiful landscape.   So in my mind, if you cannot educate then the obvious answer is to eliminate.

So last year we decided to significantly reduce the amount of single-use plastic we use day to day. Living in a semi-rural area, our nearest zero waste shop was over 20 minutes away. Feeling frustrated by the lack of access to eco-friendly products, we set up Shop NO Plastic with the intention of making products accessible to the local community at affordable prices. 

The website was launched on 1st March and it is our intention to support local events\markets once the Corona Virus is no longer a threat.

So initially we said NO to the big four:

• drinking straws
• takeaway coffee cups
• plastic water bottles
• plastic shopping bags

Why should we reduce our use of single-use plastic?

• A report released by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) earlier this year, revealed that British households create over 26m tonnes of waste each year, the weight of around 260 large cruise ships.
  
  
• This means that the average person in the UK throws away around 400kg of waste each year.

• Of the 26m tonnes of waste produced in the UK, only 12m tonnes are recycled, and 14m tonnes are sent to landfill sites, an average recycling rate of 45%.
  
  
• While we recycle around 44% of our waste in England, some of our neighbours are doing better, with Wales recycling 57% of its waste and Northern Ireland recycling 46%. Scotland falls slightly behind England, recycling 43% of household waste.
  
  
• Germany, Austria, and South Korea remain world-leaders when it comes to recycling household waste, recycling 60 – 70%.
  
  
• In the UK, we are only recycling 3% more waste than we did in 2010.  The UK government set a target for us to recycle 50% of all household waste by 2020!

Stats from www.recyclingbins.co.uk/

So why not join us today on a journey to reduce single-use plastic! 
https://shopnoplastic.co.uk/