Here on Berry Head we are passionate about preserving the beautiful environment we live and work in. The risks of climate change and plastic polluting the oceans are real concerns to us. We are trying to doing our bit to help make a change!
We have always taken this responsibility seriously, and for example we’ve always used biodegradable takeaway packaging. But earlier this year we started on a series of steps to reduce our environmental impact further.
- We have introduced an optional 25p charge for takeaway cups, which we are giving to environmental charities. So far this has raised over £200 which we have given to Surfers Against Sewage and Torbay Cleaner Coasts.
- We started selling reusable bamboo takeaway cups, for just £7.50. We also incentivise people to use a reusable cup with a 10% discount for takeaway drinks.
- We have got rid of various single-use plastics: for example, chupa chups, straws, mustard sachets.
- We’ve moved supplies of several ingredients and cleaning products to companies who use minimal packaging. In particular well done to Fairalls grocers who are leading the way in Brixham!
It’s amazing when you start to really focus on single-use plastics and packaging just how much we use, and how unnecessary a lot of it is. A great example is the soap we use in our toilets. We have always done the same as pretty much every public toilet… a plastic cartridge of soap, sitting inside a plastic container on the wall. Every week we threw away a few empty soap cartridges and replaced them with full ones without really thinking about it – this is just the way it works… But then we met Dennis. Dennis is a local man, he used to be a chef, and now runs a small cleaning products business called Westcountry Hygeine. He has some novel ways to reduce waste and one of them is his soap dispenser. He has made a reservoir for liquid soap in the wall unit, and we just fill this up from a 5L bottle. And when the bottle is empty, he refills it from his large soap container. Along with other changes he’s helped us with, we think we’ve avoided the use of 6 wheelie bins of plastic in the last 4 months. Just think what could be possible if everyone was like Dennis…
We won’t let up in our quest to keep reducing our environmental footprint, please contact us with your great ideas!
