We’re very aware of the need to avoid single-use plastic wherever we can, but packing a mixed box with vegetables and dry goods requires that some things get water-proof wrapping, and at the moment, that often means plastic – although we are using some HOME COMPOSTABLE bags where we can find ones that actually can be home composted – and we’ll share our stock with producers where that’s possible.
We re-use as much as possible. That means you need to return boxes, cold bags and cold blocks to us – we use second hand plastic bottles to make cold blocks, and second-hand plastic bags to separate (say) meat & dairy in your cold bag. Some of our egg producers can re-use egg boxes.
However, that said, we’re finding that our packing shed is filling up with second-hand packaging, and some of it is useful… but some of it isn’t. So here’s a quick guide to the items we want at the moment, and the ones where we’d say “Thanks but no thanks!”:
| Delivery box (unless it is damaged) or similar sized boxes (stackable) | Yes |
| Other cardboard boxes | No |
| Cold bag or box (unless it is damaged) | Yes |
| Cold block (please remove from cold bag) | Yes |
| Glass juice bottles, no lids | Yes |
| Kombucha bottles | Yes |
| Preserve and honey jars from local suppliers, no lids | Yes |
| Jars from bulk buy or other suppliers (eg mustard, sauerkraut) | No |
| Forest Hog plastic bottles, with lids | Yes |
| Other plastic bottles (we’ve got plenty for cold blocks at the moment) | No |
| Clean plastic bags big enough to double pack raw meat to keep our cold bags clean | Yes |
| Small plastic bags | No |
| Clean paper bags | Yes |
| Clean cardboard punnets | Yes |
| Plastic punnets or round lidded containers | No |
| Green and Mighty plastic containers | Yes |
| Egg boxes from Tanhouse Farm or Cooks of Country Markets | Yes |
| Egg boxes from other suppliers | No |