Eco-friendly supermarket shuns plastic as new branch opens
A SECOND branch of Birmingham’s plastic-free supermarket has opened its doors.
Clean Kilo has set up shop in Bournville following the striking success of its debut store in Digbeth, which has seen thousands of green-minded shoppers flock there since 2018.
The supermarket is and also “zero waste”.
All the goods are in dispensers
plastic
free and shoppers turn up with their own bags or buy receptacles in the store to put produce in.
Staff help them weigh the goods which are then taken to the tills. Much of the stock comes from local suppliers, including fruit and vegetables from farms across the Midlands.
It is the brainchild of Jeanette Wong and her Birmingham scientist partner, Tom Pell.
After the huge success of their branch in Gibb Street, Digbeth, the pair put out an appeal on social media asking people where they should open their second branch.
Numerous suggestions were put forward, including Stirchley, Bearwood and Kings Heath. But the couple chose the historic Quaker village of Bournville, with a shop in Mary Vale Road.
It is being funded
by
a
Fedex small business grant and their lifetime savings and a team of volunteers offered goods, skills and services to get the store up and running in time for last week’s opening.
Mr Pell said: “We operate as a social enterprise and so we need as much help as possible to get us open.” In line with its zero waste ethos, the Bournville shop is 90 per cent upcycled, using secondhand materials, including old floorboards, doors, scaffold boards and fridges.
Mr Pell added: “There’s nothing like this in Birmingham, there’s no way to buy food without any packaging. You go to the supermarket and it’s almost impossible, whereas in other cities there are similar places like this already.
“I’m from Birmingham and I felt it was necessary.”