The idea of today’s humanity producing zero waste is the optimum ideal outcome, to say the least. It’d be nice not to have polluted our oceans with bottle tops and carrier bags, but unfortunately, a fair amount of the damage is already done, that’s not to say we can’t still protect our earth and learn new ways to improve, though!
The thought of ‘cutting down’ on the amount of plastic and toxic waste we produce sounds so simple, yet the task itself is arguably difficult. There’s one big factor that almost each and every household can relate too, ‘The weekly shop’. Nearly 1 million tonnes of supermarket packaging is produced and taken to landfill each year, despite many companies campaigning to use less. But this brand new and brilliant idea in Leicester, opened by Lauren Welch isn’t producing any waste at all, and it’s only in the second week of business.
NADA, located at St Martins Square, Leicester, LE1 5DG, is the brand new convenience store, home to plenty of fresh and dry produce with not one piece of bad-for-the-environment-materials in sight! The front of the store is elegant and beautiful, it fits in superbly with the architecture of Leicester city and the vibrantly carved designs made it hard to miss as I walked through the busy St Martins Square.
Looking around I noticed hundreds of organic products including handmade soap (made right there in Leicester!), fabric conditioner, toothbrushes and household cleaner. Recycled materials are put to good use as wrapping for most of their pleasantly smelling products.
Welch encourages customers to use glass jars as carriers, only using them again to come back and refill, by doing this, customers won’t have to use carrier bags at all and won’t have as much food waste. If you can’t get enough of the products on their simply wonderful minimalistic shelves, there are woven bags to stock up on even more jars of nuts, dried fruits, seeds and more…
Lauren Welch’s inspiration for this refreshing burst of environmental friendliness came from the BBC documentary Blue Planet, where it discusses the dangers of plastic being constantly thrown into the oceans. It’s not all about the packaging though, the idea behind the jars and the ‘bring your own container’ idea, is that you don’t need to waste ingredients either! If, for instance, you only need 75g of coconut flakes, that’s all you have to buy! It’s cheaper for that odd recipe and customers found it “new, exciting and such a great idea”.
I bought half a jar of pistachio nuts and cracked them open and nibbled on them whilst having a look around the rest of the shop, they were tasty, fresh and I didn’t feel like I was in a rush of a supermarket as you usually feel when you’re out shopping for groceries and other foods…
To see more of what they’re offering, why don’t you check out their Facebook page for a brilliant introductory video by Lauren herself along with the BBC.
All images Via [https://zerowasteleicester.co.uk/]