The Star Rock Shop in Kirriemuir is a great example of how circular economy was embedded in what we did in the past and how useful it is to keep these practices alive. Owner Liz says the following:
- Loose produce in jars has always been the way sales are done in the shop – served in paper bags as much as possible.
- Sweets such as the rock handmade here and Scottish made wholesaler rock can be sticky and have to be served in a form of plastic. Therefore we have now introduced resealable and recyclable bags – we do not therefore need to use tape to seal the bags and we can encourage customers to reuse the bags.
- In addition to the bags we have introduced reuseable and recyclable plastic jars and again we encourage the customer to reuse them.
- For both the reuseable bags and jars we encourage repeat usage by offering a refill discount service where the customer brings back their jar/bag and we will refill it at a discounted price per 100gms, and the weight of the jar is not included.
- We also offer the discount for any other container (including those not sold by us) that the customer wishes us to fill.
- The labels used on bags and jars are attached with a low density adhesive so that they can easily be removed for reuse and recycling.
- Many of our sweets are purchased in plastic 3kg jars – we often have a washed stock of these that are available for free to anyone who wants/needs them for recycling for storage of any loose bought goods, craft stocks etc. This is often taken up by schools and nurseries looking for storage and by people looking for long term canisters for loose purchased goods.
- We have recently also bought in some resealable and reuseable, sturdy attractive jar bags, again to encourage a reduction in single use packaging.
- We are also trying to switch our chocolate and gift boxes to cardboard as much as possible, moving away from the plastic lids previously used by past owners, this is a gradual process as we use up stocks held.
From the example of this shop it is clear that circularity is not an end goal but a process. Anything anyone can do to improve the re-use of materials and packaging will bring economic as well as environmental benefits. Check out their shop here
