Putting the ‘green’ in greengrocer
A Palmerston North family is opening a plastic-free, environmentally friendly store.
Bronwyn Green and her husband Dave Phillips share a passion for the environment – it’s what brought them together.
They met in Malaysian Borneo, while volunteering for conservation group Orangutan Project over the past five years.
When they returned to New Zealand this year, they were inspired to carry on their work by starting the plastic-free Be Free Grocer in Square Edge, along with Green’s mother, Heather Browning.
Be Free Grocer had a soft launch, showcasing its zero-waste household and personal care items, at Square Edge’s annual Christmas Market on Friday.
Green said, unfortunately, the necessary permits to sell food won’t come through before Christmas. But the family wanted to introduce themselves and what the store offered before it opens properly in the new year.
Green said not only would there be no plastic bags, nothing sold at the grocers would be packaged in plastic.
‘‘Ditching one-use plastic shopping bags isn’t going to have a big enough impact if everything in our canvas bags is wrapped in plastic.’’
Packaging was one of the biggest uses of plastic and reducing or eliminating plastic packaging would significantly reduce the amount that ends up polluting the oceans and environment, she said.
It was scary to think how quickly plastic pollution became a serious problem, Green said. ‘‘I’m turning 30 this year and it’s within my lifetime that the situation has exploded in our faces.’’
Research published by the National Academy of Science in the United States in mid 2015 estimated up to 90 per cent of seabirds ate plastic.
Green wanted to try to fix that because she was tired of news reports and videos of fish, turtles and birds choking on plastic.
‘‘Almost everything in our oceans are ingesting plastics. Even krill are filling up on plastic micro-fibres.
‘‘And what really didn’t sit right with me was, as a family, we were aware of all this. And as much as we tried, we found it hard to go plastic-free.’’
That’s why she founded Be Free Grocer. It will sell a mix of organic and non-organic foods to keep prices affordable for anyone, Green said.