NEWS EXTRA
single-use plastic carrier bags by 2020 – instead, only offering paper bags, bags for life, paper boot liners and cardboard boxes. “We have water butts on site to collect rainwater, which we use for watering our plants. Each of the plants we sell get two chances to be sold; first in store and secondly at our Thrifty Thursday plant sale, before they are ploughed back into our fields.
“Our plants have an immensely positive benefit to our local area, and our many hives of bees agree with us on this one. At last count, 11% of these are home- grown by us, with a further 82% being British-grown, so keeping their carbon footprint low. We promote plants that are good for pollinators, to help with the issues our bees are facing. “We have a wide range of locally-sourced products and our Christchurch store is a member of the New Forest Marque. We even sell our own honey made by bees kept on site at our Christchurch centre. This all helps reduce the miles products travel in order to reach us. With furniture deliveries especially, there can be a lot of packaging in order to protect the product. We remove all packaging from customers’ homes to ensure it is appropriately recycled back at our garden centres. “We have already switched from plastic to paper straws in our coffee shops, and are removing single- use cups from our staff rooms. The Coffee Shops will follow shortly, and we will be introducing more ranges of reusable travel mugs to cater for that market, with discounts being offered to customers bringing their own mugs to take drinks away in. “Moving forward, we will be switching to glass bottles where possible in our coffee shops, for example our locally supplied New Forest Spring Water, wherever possible in order to reduce our plastic footprint. We have already made contact with several local environmental groups about possible collaborations in the upcoming months and for advice on what more we can do to reduce our impact. We will be further working with suppliers to reduce unnecessary packaging, especially of the plastic variety. We are actively looking for alternatives for items that are unable to be recycled, for example laminated paper POS.
As for business initiatives, Mr Head commented on the space in the market for eco-friendly
www.diyweek.net 9 FEBRUARY 2018 DIY WEEK 9
products, he said: “Our buyers are always on the lookout for more environmentally-friendly products. There is a growing market for products with a conscience and, as a garden centre, we feel we should be championing these. We love plants, so the idea that bamboo can be used to produce not just screening and plant supports but cups and clothes too is fantastic news.
impact and are working with suppliers and partners to take steps to reduce plastic waste in all areas of our business.” A
Kingfisher spokesperson also commented on the future plans within the company: “We are embedding sustainability across our business and helping our customers to create good, sustainable homes. As part of that, we are thinking carefully about the
“We need one or all of our industry associations to get behind this to raise awareness within the industry”
“As an independent business
there’s only so much we can do in requesting our suppliers cut down on unnecessary packing. We need one or all of our industry associations to get behind this to raise awareness within the industry.” In the DIY sector, Bunnings says
its Warehouse stores are free of plastic bags, with tote bags and box bays offered instead, the latter of which has also been introduced across the Homebase estate. A Homebase spokesperson commented: “We are committed to reducing our environmental
materials that go into our products and packaging.
“The vast majority of our packaging is made from paper and card, and we are working towards sourcing all our own brand packaging from sustainable sources. Only around 10% of our packaging is plastic but we are, nonetheless, taking steps to limit the composition of this to the three base polymers, which the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) defines as being widely recycled: PP, PE, PET. “More broadly, we are developing a sustainable plastics
strategy to drive the use of recycled and recyclable plastics across our product ranges. We already have a strong track record of driving similar change in areas like timber where we can really make a difference.”
Friends of Earth, an
environmental organisation dedicated to a safer climate, had success with campaigning for banning the use of neonicotinoid pesticides, and recently managed to sway Homebase into urging suppliers to stop distributing the bee-harming pesticides from its stores after delivering over 18,000 signatures in a petition, and now its attention has turned to the waste of plastic packaging. Friends of the Earth campaigner Julian Kirby said: “Garden centres and DIY retailers have a key role to play in protecting our environment and it has been great to see so many stores taking action on bee- harming neonicotinoid pesticides. But there are other issues that need attention, such as reducing waste and packaging – especially plastic – and replacing peat with good quality alternatives,” he said. Mr Kirby concluded: “The public and government have made it clear that more must be done to protect our precious planet – so it’d be great to see stores showing real leadership on this issue.”
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