WALES’ FIRST “ZERO WASTE” SHOP TO OPEN IN FORMER CRICKHOWELL PUB
Wales’ first “Zero Waste” shop – selling food without plastic packaging – is to open in a former Crickhowell High Street pub which was once under threat of being turned into a conventional supermarket.
The new proprietors say the new shop will be called “Natural Weigh” and will sell organic, additive-free products by weight, with customers serving themselves from hoppers. Consumers can bring their own re-usable containers, weigh them, then select from a range of mainly dried foods before weighing the full containers again to see how much they are buying. Customers who haven’t brought their own containers will be offered compostable or reusable alternatives to purchase.
Chloe Masefield – who will be running the shop with her husband, Robin – said: “The throw-away consumer culture means that a growing number of unwanted plastic items are discarded into our seas every year, posing a threat to people and wildlife. Despite growing demand for a reduction in plastic packaging, consumers do not often have the opportunity to reduce their plastic packaging consumption. Our shop will offer customers the chance to exercise their rights and allow them to choose an alternative. We will offer food free from packaging waste, enabling customers to re-use containers again and again to collect their consumables.”
The couple are hoping that other High Street traders – many of whom already offer paper or compostable bags as an alternative to plastic – will join them and further reduce plastic waste in the town. Robin Masefield said: “We aim to give residents of Crickhowell and beyond the chance to do almost their entire household shopping without the need for disposable packaging and eventually reduce the amount of household refuse by over 50% for our customers.”
The former Corn Exchange pub in Crickhowell was under threat of being turned into a conventional supermarket in 2015 but local residents protested and the application was withdrawn. Since then, 250 mainly local shareholders have clubbed together to buy the building and convert it into three flats and three shops – one of which will be occupied by Natural Weigh.
Corn Exchange Crickhowell Ltd Managing Director, Dean Christy, said:” We are thrilled that Rob and Chloe want to open up Wales’ first Zero Waste store in The Corn Exchange. We stopped a conventional supermarket because it would have threatened our town. Now, The Corn Exchange will help to protect not just our unique High Street and the independent shops within it but also the countryside around it and the world in which we live”.
Zero waste shopping is popular in EU countries and the United States but has only recently caught on in the UK. Totnes in Devon, a similarly independent town, has one.
Gill Bell, the Marine Conservation Society’s Head of Conservation Wales, said: “We’re really excited that Wales is to get its first zero waste shop in Crickhowell. The overuse of plastic packaging and single use plastics generally is spiralling out of control. But we know that people are happy to use less plastic – the success of the 5p carrier bag charge in Wales is testament to that. We would urge people to try and shop ‘zero waste’ and take those good habits to their local supermarkets and refuse to buy items that are over packaged. Having supported the MCS Plastic Challenge for four years and trying to live plastic free for a whole month, I know how hard it is to source plastic free stuff so I’m thrilled to see what Chloe and Robin are doing. Let us hope that it inspires more shops to go down this route.”
Natural Weigh will now be fitted out with new dispensing hoppers and it is hoped it will be fully open in March 2018.