This is the Story A shop in London has gone plastic free 🙂 I love this. That a whole shop could be like this, it shows how things and ideas are possible. This is in huge contrast to PM Theresa May saying that we should have plastic free aisles in stores. This is a good idea on the surface but actually all it does is keep plastic free living marginalised, separated physically and ideologically from the rest of the shop which is, phew whee, allowed to carry on with its ‘normal’ plastic packaging ways. It is totally ignoring the whole point! The point is that as a planet we cannot keep on using and throwing away plastic packaging. We need to avoid it or find alternatives with a long term view. And by ‘we’ I mean business really. An aisle is a start… but I worry that it is an Establishment tick-box exercise to keep us quiet for a bit while letting industry carry on as it is. Because at the end of the day the plastic isn’t necessary. As I say time and again, the tech and alternatives are out there – systems of international industry and diplomatic relations with suppliers (oil, anyone?!) need to change.
Systemic change will not come from a separate aisle, Theresa. But a whole shop?! Vive la revolution!
EcoTykki 