Packaging

I do not often shop in Lidl but this morning we needed a few things so went in the one at Balsall Heath.
As I was coming out I noticed a lady who had past through the checkout and was packing her purchases into her bags. However before she put them in her bag she removed much of the packaging. For instance she took the bag of cornflakes out of its box and discarded the box.
I had heard of and seen this happening in Germany but never seen it in the UK.
Many of us moan about excess packaging but not many of us do something about it. I take my hat off to the Balsall Heath lady.
Incidentally Lidl do now stock some Fairtrade goods. I saw chocolate, tea, and coffee and there could have been more.

We are Changing

We don’t always notice when things change for the better. A few years ago those who suggested that reducing our need for plastic shopping bags were thought of as cranks.
I have just come back from staying in a small Cumbrian town where the use of plastic bags was obviously disapproved. Each shop we went in asked us if we really needed a bag and this included the chip shop. In most shop windows hessian/ jute bags were available as the alternative. Looking at the locals doing there shopping it was quite noticeable how many had these alternative bags. In the same town they had also taken to Fairtrade in a big way with many of the local shops displaying a Fairtrade logo. Driving into the town I noticed that the town sign had written on it “A Fairtrade Town”.
This only goes to show that things are changing if we only look. If the population of this one town can be so progressive then there is hope for all the others who are hesitating.