Earthian Zero Waste Shop has helped to prevent over 26,000 pieces of plastic from being needed and recycled 40kg of waste in its first year of trading.

The store, in Winchester's Parchment Street, opened its doors in September 2020, providing everyday essentials, including food, cleaning, home and beauty products, but without the harmful plastic packaging or waste.

The shop stocks bulk organic food and natural cleaning products which customers can buy by weight using their own containers.

To mark their first year trading, the shop became a Climate Positive Workforce, planting trees and supporting environmental campaigns that offset the carbon footprint of the whole team.

READ MORE: The Hampshire home of all things holistic and healing

Katie Campling told the Daily Echo: "We are really passionate about our supply chain and how it helps to prevent waste beyond the shop and what we provide for our customers.

"We have a number of closed loop supply chains, which means the packaging that products come in are sent back to the manufacturers for refill and reuse.

"We also stock a number of local suppliers, including Oat Mylk which comes from Rushmere Farm, and is supplied directly to us in closed loop packaging.

"We’re proud of how much waste we have managed to reduce in our community. In our first year of trading we helped to prevent over 26,000 pieces of plastic from being needed.

"We also provide recycling programs through the shop, all five types of recycling that we accept raise money for charitable organisations. It’s a big job to collect, sort by hand and parcel up all the recycling that we take. In the last year we’ve sorted and recycled around 40kg of waste.

"I believe our customers return because they’re as passionate about the environment as we are.

"We are a small business with a small team behind it, we have a strong relationship with our customers who we know well, they have become friends and allies in our mission to protect our planet.

"It’s important to us that we have a supportive and encouraging environment that people can shop in. We don’t want anyone to feel that they’re not doing enough, because they can only do a little.

"A sustainable lifestyle is a change in habits that takes time. We understand that and want to provide an inclusive environment for everyone to do what they can.

"We pride ourselves on being affordable. One of the biggest challenges for us is to break down the myths around zero waste shopping. It has unfortunately gained a reputation for being expensive and unattainable.

"We are trying to tackle that by being as competitive as we can be with supermarkets. In fact, our most recent price comparison showed that a £10 basket from us was on average £1.57 cheaper than the big four supermarkets closest to us."

• Earthian Zero Waste Shop is our trader of the week. If you'd like us to feature your small business, click on the link below, visit dailyecho.co.uk/trader or email lorelei.reddin@dailyecho.co.uk

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