Wrap stars’ big hit idea

Cat & Paul Moffat - plastic free!

Last week, I ended my column praising Tesco for ditching some Best Before dates to help cut down on food waste. 

I also suggested that working on reducing packaging was something to strive for.

The supermarket giant might not have responded, but I’m heartened by the news that a couple from Ulverston will soon be opening a zero-waste store, called Cut The Wrap.

Last year, Cat and Paul Moffat made a valiant effort to cut down on their packaging use, and tried to stop using single use plastics – the stuff that you can’t recycle. They soon discovered how hard this can be when you’ve a family to feed and an average level of income.

Their simple realisation, that many other people feel the same way, spurred them to pursue their idea of a shop where there is no packaging that you need to get rid of. Bring your own container, and buy by weight. Apart from the packaging reduction, the ability to buy just what you need, rather than the pre-set quantity the supermarkets want to sell you, should help reduce food waste too.

They’ve got the premises, and could be open as soon as next month. There’s a lot of work to do to turn the empty shop into their plastic-free paradise, and private donations have provided much of the £10,000 needed to do the work, buy the fixtures and fitting and purchase the initial stock. A crowdfunding campaign is less than £1000 away from making up the shortfall.

From as little as a fiver, those donating to support the shop will have their name immortalised on the new grocery store’s “wall of heroes”.

What a brilliant idea. I wish them every success. If, like me, you’re frustrated daily by the volume of plastic that you wind up binning, then a local store like this is an absolute joy.

Whilst we’ve a long way to go to remove the plastic problem and rid ourselves of our dependency on packaging, every store like Cut The Wrap that opens up makes it easier for us to do the right thing.

That Cat and Paul have offers of help to get their store ready, and a stream of donations coming in, shows there’s an appetite for schemes like this.

Perhaps Tesco, and the other supermarket giants, should be paying close attention to what happens in Ulverston over the coming months.

This post first appeared as my 'A wry look at the week' column, in The Mail, on Friday 1st June 2018.

Cat and Paul are currently less that £500 away from their crowdfunding target. I really do hope they make a success of this - inspiring stuff! Since my recent house move, I'm even more aware of how much plastic gets binned. Our local council only take plastic bottles for recycling, where previously we'd been able to put all kinds containers in to be recycled at our old house.

Of course, it wold be far better not to have the plastics in the first place, but it is difficult to avoid the plastic peril nowadays.

(CD A-Z: "Mmmmm..." a Q magazine cover CD from July '96!)