Waste Prevention in Non Food Products - Blog 1

As the legislation around non food is very different to food, we shall be separating our supply chain blogs by Food and Non-Food products.

Our first step in conducting this research was to audit our suppliers to see about the waste prevention practices already in place, highlight areas of improvement and see if there was any interventions we could make to make our supply chain less wasteful.

Here is a list, supplier by supplier and their associated waste prevention info. For some suppliers we have a producer spotlights. These have more detailed information on them : )

Anae, France
Washable sanitary pads made of organic cotton which uses less water than standard cotton. They can be reused for many years. You can wash them in a machine with normal washing so no extra water used. On average, a menstruating person throws away 115 – 135kg of pads, tampons and applicators in their lifetime. Menstrual products that are properly disposed of (put in the bin and not flushed!) create *200,000 tonnes of landfilled waste every year in the UK. They are sent to us with other items in reused cardboard boxes from our co-op wholesaler Infinity foods.

Bio D, Hull UK 
20 litre containers are returned to Bio-D for cleaning, refill and returned to suppliers / customers : ) Bish bash bosh!

Eco Living
These peeps supply us with organic & Fairtrade cotton buds - They spent over two years inventing and testing a new type of packing machine that would allow them to package their cotton buds in Europe WITHOUT the ever-prevalent plastic window in the packaging. Also they supply us with wooden dish brushes - with replaceable heads, so customers don’t change the handle. These have the added benefit of being compostable!

Ecoleaf - Supplier of dishwasher tablets. The tablet cover dissolves in dishwasher and box is cardboard. It arrives in a cardboard box with a larger delivery.

Earth Conscious, Isle of Wight UK - These are long lasting products without plastic packaging. They come in an easily recyclable tin or cardboard. Again this arrives in a cardboard box with a larger delivery.

Faith in nature, Manchester, UK - Supplier of body wash, shampoo and conditioner. They encourage customers to refill their 400ml bottles at refill stations like ours! Those bottles are also made of recycled plastic. It arrives within a larger delivery. We are awaiting confirmation to know if like Bio D and Fill they wash and refill their 20 litre containers. We do return them to our wholesaler for collection so we are presuming so!

Fill, Northamptonshire, UK - An amazing company to work with. The 20 litre containers are returned to the producer to be cleaned and refilled. The 5ltr ones on the shelves are refilled by us from 20ltr containers. This is so we have more space on the shelves for slower selling items. All products delivered by electric vehicle with other products.

Friendly Soaps - The packaging is made of recycled materials. There is No bi-products in the making process so no wastage. Arrives in a cardboard box with a larger delivery : )

Georganics, Sussex, UK - Supplier of dental products. Toothbrush heads can be returned for specialist recycling as not possible in household waste streams. Get Loose can take customer toothbrush heads and return them to Geo Organics, once we have enough to make the postage worthwhile. We sell refill packs for mouthwash tablets so only need to buy one jar. Geo Organics continues researching and changing product lines to be the most ethical. Items come from wholesalers with other products reducing postage packaging.

Gin58 Hand Sanitiser, London . Made with 80% alcohol, which as a Gin company they had a lot of! The first Gin company to start making sanitiser once COVID hit. The organic waste they make from the gin making process goes to the farm that they also buy produce from. Its delivered to us by electric van, alongside other stocked products, saving individual journeys. The containers returned to the company for refill.

LoofCo. Scrubbers for dishes, vegetables and humans! Made out of the luffa plant, and parts of the coconut. They show how many different purposes can be given to the same material. Made in Sri Lanka and Egypt. Delivered to us in cardboard boxes via larger delivery with other items.

Moon Cup, UK. Sanitary Product : ) Made in the UK. An awesome example of a profitable company selling a forever product. The packaging is plastic free and in recyclable packaging. The cotton bags that come with the Moon Cup are made in a carbon neutral factory. They have fabulous content on their webpage supporting the transition to their products meaning their mission is more successful and they save more waste. Check it out! Again they are delivered in cardboard boxes via delivery with other items.

UpCircle, Dorset, UK - Supplier of beauty products. These darls commitment to waste prevention is amazing! For example they have transformed over 450 tonnes of used coffee grounds into sustainable skincare products. The Moisturiser made from discarded argan shells can be bought ‘loose’ in store in customers' own containers. The bulk container is returned to UpCircle when empty for cleaning and refilling. Postage packaging is all cardboard coming directly from Upcircle.

Who Gives a Crap, China - Rolls are twice the size of normal rolls with a smaller inner tube to save space. This saves of transport space and space in your storage spaces at home! WGAC have researched the packaging of the rolls, determining that thin grade, individually paper wrapped rolls, were better than thicker plastic wrappings.

…………………………………………..……….So now comes the Areas for Improvement/Research………………………………………………

Faith In Nature - Hygiene Products
Do they clean and refill their 20 ltr containers?

Friendly soaps
We think there may be an option to have these bars loose (without the cardboard packet). This is on our research list to see if our suppliers can make this happen.

LoofCo
Is it possible for them to use UK based materials?

UpCircle
Recently they have more products in bulk. We are looking in to making more space in store to accommodate this. Once we manage to get the shelf space we shall provide more refill options of UpCircle beauty products.

Cardboard 
Can we give away our big boxes to no dig gardeners / people moving house? This would give them a second or third life before they are recycled. 
Better yet could we work with Hackney City Farm to find space on site so packaging can be saved, stored and sent back to suppliers in big enough batches that make the returning transport carbon neutral?

We found out that the carbon saving of using 100% recycled cardboard vs virgin cardboard is 28.1%. One research project we want to do is to audit our suppliers to see which type of cardboard is used. If we find any of them to be using virgin cardboard we shall try to persuade them to use recycled cardboard, otherwise we might have to find another supplier that uses recycled cardboard!

Linking independent suppliers to our current lovely wholesalers.
Upcircle, SoSeas, GeoOrganics and Eco Living all send deliveries via separate couriers. This means more vehicles on the road. We want to find out what the barriers are for them trading via infinity infinity or fill? This could reduce a lot of cardboard waste, including boxes and packing.

Life Cycle Analysis
We want to research the CO2 emissions for all the different types of packaging from our suppliers along with the disposal/resuse impacts.

Next Stage : )
Our next blog post will detail how we get on with investigating and implementing the above areas for improvements.

https://www.citytosea.org.uk/campaign/plastic-free-periods/periods-and-the-environment/
https://biod.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Bio-D-Sustainability-Report-2021.pdf

Waste Prevention in Food Products - Blog 1

Off the bat, one point to mention in terms of Get Loose interventions in our supply chain is our part in working with Clean Bean Tofu to use home compostable packaging instead of plastic. This change accounts for 14.6kg of waste savings per year!

As with the Non-Food Blog above this is a list of our suppliers current waste prevention practices.

(to find out more about some of these suppliers, click on their name to be taken to the Producer Spotlight)

Aeithalis Olive Oil Greece

The oil arrives in the UK in a tanker lorry. This is then transferred to 20 litre drums. These 20 litre drums are delivered and the empty ones collected in a electric vehicle : )

Carley’s Cornwall
This lovely supplier uses recycled glass for their spreads and condiments. They have been researching making it easier to remove labels from jars an important step in the enabling of glassware reuse.

They reduced the thickness of their plastic covers used to transport jars This means less plastic used throughout their many stockist UK wide. They have also researched labels and recycling plastic consequently they do not glue labels to packaging. This makes it easier to separate and recycle individually. We have approached Carley’s about returning used jars to them for cleaning and refilling but they didn’t have the capacity to do so at the time and where particularly concerned with the safety around glass chipping.

Clean Bean Tofu Brick Lane- London
The charming Neil drives over to the shop from Brick Lane. Tofu comes in home compostable ‘no frills’ packaging. This is 10g lighter than their normal plastic packaging. Swapped to home compostable wrapping to fulfill Get Loose values.

In one years sales we have saved 14.6kg of waste with this swap. This is potentially more as this does not account for those customers who have been able to home compost.

Karma Drinks UK made
These bottles can be returned for use in the shop Bottle Bank. They are very popular for those in need of some emergency vinegar or oil! They arrive with other items from main wholesaler Infinity Foods (workers Cooperative)

Local Honey Man Hackney- London
Jars can be returned to the shop by customers. These are collected and returned to the producer for cleaning and refill.

Mango Burkina Faso, then Brighton for packaging at Infinity
Drying mango helps preserve the glut of mangos at harvest time. Dried mango keeps longer and is easier to transport to other countries. Vacuum packed to keep fresh and safe during transport.

Minor Figures - East London.
These peeps have a Bag In Box (BIB) system reduces the need for single use packaging. BIB bags are returned to producers (10 at a time) for recycling in specialist facilities. Delivery is by our main supplier Infinity Foods Cooperative

Mont58 - South London
Bags are delivered by individual courier, saved and returned for reuse. The bags arrive in cardboard boxes.

Niko B Organic Chocolates - Newington Green
The lovely Anthony delivers us his awesome chocs and biscuits in returnable / reusable containers via taxi. He collects the empties as he delivers the fresh batches.

Palace Culture - South London
Jars can be donated to the shop Jar Bank. Palace Culture deliver to us via a courier. There is cardboard and plastic cool packs which unfortunately are thrown away in the landfill bin

Rookery Farm Eggs West Sussex(
Egg boxes can be returned to the shop. The farm uses them to sell their own eggs. However the farm hens only lay a couple of boxes a day. Many returned egg boxes are put on the compost heap or recycled. The big carboard boxes that the 30 x 6 eggs boxes are delivered in are returned to Rookery Farm for reuse.

Sunflower Family -Germany
This product is a bi-product of the sunflower oil industry. They use the husks of sunflowers to power local house close to their factory in Germany.

Zantye Cashew Nuts - Goa, India
This awesome company is a please to work with. They sell broken nuts at a reduced price. They also cite that cashews grown in Goa are the least wasteful in terms of land use as the ground is the most fertile there compared to other cashew growing regions in the world. It arrives in vacuum packed bags (needed to keep nuts fresh and safe on journey) inside cardboard boxes.

Areas for improvement/Research

Palace Culture
Can the plastic/cardboard waste be reduced on these peeps deliveries? Is saving and sending their packaging back to them for reuse carbon neutral and cost neutral?

Furthermore does it make sense for Palace culture to team up with Clean Bean for their wholesale deliveries on a cargo bike? Would there be extra cost involved in this logistical amendment.

Niko B
Could NikoB sell broken chocolates, or chocolate chips? 

Sunflower Mince
Could we link up the Sunflower Family with a UK wholesaler such as the Infinity Foods Cooperative. This could save on the outer cardboard packaging and individual transport trips

Eggs
Egg boxes could be offered to gardeners as seed trays / compost material.

Mango
Currently vacuum packed in 1kg bags. This we believe is with the intention to keep it as fresh as possible. We also believe that due to high volume sales this product could come in 2kg-5kg bags and still keep fresh. Increasing bag size could have a huge waste saving. We shall investigate.

Pasta
Likewise with mango above pasta comes in a 6kg or 3kg bag. Could we persuade suppliers to increase case sizes?

General 
Understand the CO2 emissions and life cycle analysis of different types of packaging in production, transportation and recycling.

Next stage

Our next supply chain blog post on food items will detail how we get on with investigating and implementing the above areas for improvements.

Welcome to the Supply Chain Research Blog!

Welcome to the Supply Chain Research Blog!

At Get Loose, we are excited about a less wasteful future. We want to extend the waste prevention work we do in the shop. We have been trialling projects such as the information screen (that can be seen in the entrance to Hackney City Farm) for some time now, with great success. According to our focus groups and surveys, people have learnt tips and are amazed at what fantastic events lie just on their doorstep. 

In this blog, we aim to document our supply chain work. We want to see where waste prevention is working well in our supply chains, see where these solutions could be replicated and look into trialling and expanding ideas that create a less wasteful world.

All this administration work will be funded by the revenue of the shop, and we need an increase in our profits to be able to finance the labour. In order to do this we are currently running a marketing campaign to increase our sales and expanding our product range so customers can get more of what they need in our little shop. 

A trialled example of the work we want to do:

Problem: Glass recycling is CO2 intensive, we wanted to see where glass could be reused rather than recycled

Obstacles: The removal of labels and the washing necessary to make glassware safe to be reused

Steps we took: 

• We found out that Carley’s (our nut butter supplier) is trialling a new label that easily peels off. This was a good lead for the label problem

• Hook and Son (our milk supplier) already have proof way of washing and reusing their milk bottles. 

• Biona (our apple and orange juice supplier) were using the same bottles that Hook and Son were using.

• We enquired with Biona to see if they would be interested in using the easy to peel label

• We enquired with Hook and Son to see if they would be up for using these Biona bottles.

Unfortunately Biona changed the size of their bottles so they were no longer the same as Hook and Son’s bottle so this stunted this particular reuse project.

When we raise the sales needed to pay for this administration work we shall continue where we left off and see what can be achieved in reducing waste within our supply chain.

If all goes to plan expect a Supply Chain Waste Prevention Blog in early 2022 : )