What does Zero Waste mean to us and our journey

Zero waste has become a hot topic over the last decade and since that impactful final episode of Blue Planet 2, reducing waste (particularly plastic) has been on everyone’s mind. Our zero waste journey started in 2013 while we were travelling. In a small café in Luang Prabang we were lucky enough to come across a viewing of Colin Beavan’s No Impact Man, originally released in 2009, based on his book released in the same year. The documentary followed Colin on his year long experiment with his family in New York to have zero impact on the environment. The documentary was honest and real, not polished or heavily edited and Colin’s passion and determination was an inspiration. We had both started to see the impact of plastic waste first hand, particularly when we were travelling to remote, seemingly ‘unspoilt’ islands in Indonesia. The combination of this experience and seeing this movie made the issue of waste and our impact on the planet real and tangible for us.

For Colin, the idea of zero waste for his experiment was ‘to go as far as possible and try to maintain as close to no net environmental impact.’ ‘Zero carbon - yes- but also zero waste in the ground, zero pollution in the air, zero resources sucked from the earth, zero toxins in the water…no environmental impact.’

He asked some difficult questions of the choices we all make that were hard to ignore:

‘How truly necessary are many of the conveniences we take for granted but that, in their manufacture and use, hurt our habitat? How much of our consumption of the planet's resources actually makes us happier and how much just keeps us chained up as wage slaves?’

And by analysing his waste, uncovered the issue of single-use packaging, which made us look at our own waste and packaging:

‘It was not trash per se that got me. It was the throwing away of things used for less than five minutes without so much as a thought before reaching for the exact same product to use for another five minutes before throwing that away, too.’

Following the documentary, we went on to read the book and from there more research followed. We came across Lauren Singer, found on Instagram as her famous handle Trash is for Tossers. Having a visual guide through Instagram was great and acted as an awesome reminder whenever scrolling through! Lauren defines zero waste as ‘No sending anything to landfill, no throwing anything in a trash can, nothing.’ Lauren also came to zero-waste living by becoming conscious of waste, seeing a fellow Environmental Studies classmate come to lunch with disposable water bottle, takeout containers and single-use bag, unintentionally harming the planet they were there to study and protect.

A further resource and inspiration came through Lauren as she sites Bea Johnson as an inspiration and resource on her own zero-waste journey and we’re sure if you’re interested in zero waste you would’ve heard of Bea and her famous 5 Rs: Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Rot; that helped her and her family reduce their waste year on year. In her first blog post on the 24th Dec 2009 she writes  ‘I am inspired to share my experience and open ground for discussion, after all we all play a part on this (endangered) earth. I have put my family on a waste diet for the past 12 months, analysing whatever comes in contact with the bottom of our one home trash can and slowly trying to get it as close to zero waste as possible. In this past year, I have learned to shop, refuse (what is given to me), reduce, reuse, and recycle as little possible (for only such a small percentage of our trash is actually recycled).’

So it was these 3 that became our founding mentors of what it means to be zero waste and how we came to implement changes in our personal lives, starting where they all started – becoming aware of our waste and looking for ways to reduce it. Unknowingly, travelling had already helped us make small changes towards becoming zero waste, such as getting used to living with less (thanks backpack!), using soap bars and toothpaste tablets as they were the best options for backpacking and once we came home we continued to use them. Once home we started to make small changes one at a time. Shopping locally at greengrocers and health food shops allowed us to avoid some single use packaging. Investing in reusables, doing take out less or making sure we had our reusables on us when looking for food and drink on the go. And it was this journey and our increased awareness and interest in zero waste that lead us to Incredible Bulk.

We created Incredible Bulk to give people an easier option to reduce the amount of waste they create, just like we had managed to do thanks to the resources around us. An din creating hte business we continue on our zero waste journey, always looking to see what we can do more of, how we can improve, both as individuals and as a business. We are very aware of how we manage the waste that the business creates (when we buy our products from our suppliers for example) and make sure that where possible nothing gets discarded or goes to landfill.  It often takes more time, more money and is definitely not as easy or convenient – many people on a zero waste journey will be able to relate to this, but as Colin says in No Impact Man - ‘whether it’s human nature or industrial systems that need to change, when it comes to saving the world, the real question is not whether I can make a difference. The real question is whether I am willing to try.’

So we will continue to keep trying and hope to inspire others to do the same!

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Kitting out the Bulkmobile

Once we had brought the Bulkmobile home it was time to turn her into our zero waste shop. We wanted to kit out the van in the most responsible way, taking environmental and business concerns into consideration.

We started by looking into shelving and opted for a custom made shelving system in hardwood plywood. Although a new resource that requires industrial processing, plywood is considered a greener, sustainable hardwood option. Making plywood means being able to utilise more from felled logs as it's mostly made with thin sheets of wood sliced from logs that wouldn’t make very good solid lumber, therefore utilising something that may otherwise be wasted. The shelves were CNC machined and designed in a way to limit waste from a single plywood sheet. Additional shelves needed were made by us (Gemma's dad to be more accurate!) from available off-cuts. 

Earthborn paint was our paint of choice for our shelving as they offer a range of environmentally friendly paint; free from acrylics, oils and vinyl. We went for a grey called Kissing Gate in their Eggshell that's washable (good for food hygiene), virtually VOC free and carries the EU Ecolabel. 

Choosing secondhand where available we found shop baskets to use to display our lifestyle products and our weighing station at the back of the van is made from an Ikea shelf bought from a friend of Gemma's who relocated abroad. We then topped it with a worktop made from recycled yogurt pots, this came with an added bonus of also being a leftover off-cut! We also used this to create our serving shelf. 

We needed to have a sink on-board for hygiene and went for one made from plastic, we chose this over a stainless steel option due to its space-saving design and we are happy that we can utilise a used plastic bottle to hold the waste drainage.

For the containers holding our products we had to opt for plastic. Glass was just too heavy and also a health and safety risk due to potential breakages while driving along. We decided to partner with Addis as their container range is made from food-safe, BPA free, polypropylene which is easy to recycle come the end of the products life-cycle. They are a reputable UK based company, with sound Environmental and Packaging Policies in place. Their products are designed and manufactured to last, with a 10 year guarantee so we hope we'll be using them for many years.   

Outside branding was our final decision for the van. We researched to find the greenest vinyl available and came across 3M Envision wrap. This vinyl film is non-PVC being made from a bio-based material. Its phthalate-free, contains no added chlorine or halogens and uses 58% less solvents than conventional films, eliminating potential hazards to the environment at the end of use. 

So there you have it, a little tour inside our van, if you haven't seen it for yourself yet check out our locations and come and see our little mobile zero waste shop! 

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Why package free?

As you may have seen in the news, TV and social media, levels of plastic waste polluting both land and sea has now become a critical environmental issue. The National Geographic has recently published its June 2018 Plastics issue with some startling facts and figures on plastics which highlight exactly why we want to start offering everyday products package free to the people of Cornwall.

Below are our highlights (or lowlights really) from the issue: 

Single-use, disposable packaging, accounted for over a third of the 448 million tons of plastic produced in 2015, making it the largest market for plastic production. 

Plastic packaging now accounts for nearly half of all plastic waste generated globally with most of it not getting recycled or incinerated. 

Scientists writing in Nature magazine back in 2013 declared that disposable plastic should be classified as a hazardous material.

The growth of plastic production has outgrown our current waste management abilities, which is why our environment is overflowing with plastic pollution.

Globally roughly 8.8 million tons of plastic waste ends up in our oceans annually.

Microplastics have been found everywhere in the ocean that people have looked, from sediments on the deepest seafloor to ice floating in the Arctic. With nearly 700 species, including endangered ones, affected by ocean plastics. 

We don't know how long it takes for plastics to biodegrade: estimates range from 450 years to never. 

There's no denying that these are some scary statistics and its hard to get your head around how we let it get this bad, but the good news is that this is something we can affect. As consumers we have great power; if we all spend wisely and think about what we are buying and avoid single-use plastic packaging where we can then we can make a difference to plastic waste. We don't think plastic is the enemy but our disposable attitude to it is not sustainable, which is why we are looking to offer an alternative way to shop, one that will help reduce the amount of disposable plastic packaging needed.

*Statistics and facts from National Geographic June 2018, Plastic by Laura Parker p40-69

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Fuelling the Incredible Bulk

After deciding that we would be making our zero waste shop mobile, our discussions quickly turned to the topic of fuel. As an environmentally conscious business we knew that our fuel choice would be an important one and so we took the time to research all the options available.

Of course, our initial thoughts were of a zero-emission, electrically-powered van (that or a cool old-school Citroen!). However, the electric vans available at the time of our research either did not have the capacity to hold all of the bulk products we planned to provide, or were unavailable to us due to the costs involved (even when considering the Government grants). We also had concerns around the battery ranges when considering the distances that we would be travelling across Cornwall, the weight of product going into the van, and also available charging points. Bearing all this in mind it became apparent that a zero emissions van would sadly not be a viable option for us.

Our attention then moved to alternative fuels such as CNG (compressed natural gas) and hydrogen, both offering environmental benefits when compared to diesel. However, availability was proving to be an issue. We struggled to find a supply of bio-methane CNG or hydrogen available in Cornwall. We also considered LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) where availability was less of an issue but our research told us that while it offers a CO2 saving when compared to petrol, the CO2 per km emissions are similar to diesel.

These findings finally lead us to consider petrol vs diesel. In spite of the recent negative publicity around diesel, our research showed that whilst petrol vans have come along way, they are more suited to city-based businesses with lower mileage, with diesel vans being more fuel efficient than petrol when covering larger distances and with heavier loads.  We ruled out older, emission-heavy diesel vans (no cool old-school Citroen for us) and instead looked into newer vans that had the Euro 6 engine, with Euro 6 legislation helping to reduce harmful gases in the air and combat climate change.

Having considered all of the fuel options in detail whilst also factoring in the requirements to run a reliable mobile shop we finally decided on a Peugeot Boxer 2.0 BlueHDi. Peugeot's latest generation of fuel and environmentally efficient Diesel engines include a three stage cleansing process specifically targeting the pollutants of diesel combustion, removing hydrocarbons and carbon monoxide, reducing nitrogen oxides by up to 90% and eliminating 99.95% of particulates.  

Although a zero-emission vehicle proved not to be a viable option for our business, we believe our final choice continues to reflect our commitment to the environment. Our engine emits 163g CO2 per km driven currently but we are looking into a Bio-diesel that will help reduce this by 28% (tailpipe emissions are unaffected but as a renewable fuel made from used cooking oil the saving comes from looking at the fuel life cycle). At present there is not a supply in Cornwall but we are continuing to look into this and will keep you posted.

And finally...we are following up with local Cornwall initiatives to plant native trees to help off-set our CO2 output - lookout for updates and more information in future Incredible Blog posts!      

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