Closed Loop At The Source Bulk Foods
For Plastic Free July 2021, we wanted to open our doors to you, our amazing Irish customers, and to show the steps that we as a business are taking to work towards a future that's sustainable for the long term. We have been actively working towards moving our supply chain to an increasingly closed loop system where we reuse our containers as much as possible! We have started integrating more suppliers that take back our containers and reuse them over and over again. We are on our journey to ‘Saving The Waste You Don’t See’!
Crisps
Great Britain is a nation of crisp lovers. Around 6 billion packets of crisps are consumed annually in the UK alone! (that’s a lot of snacking). This works out at around 16 million plastic packets being thrown in the bin every single day. Due to the lack of recycling infrastructure in place for crisp packets, the majority of the 6 billion end up in our landfills and can even make their way to our waterways where they can persist in the environment for up to thirty years. Here at The Source we wanted to actively help to decrease this number but still provide the nations favourite snack – CRISPS!
A customer favourite, our salted crisps are delivered in white buckets that keep the crisps crunchy and fresh. Once empty, we clean these containers and post them back to the supplier in reused cardboard boxes where they refill and reuse, infinitely. Each bucket holds 1.5kg of crisps, which means that each tub that we sellsaves 60 plastic crisp packets from landfill!
In April alone, our Battersea branch saved 480 packets of crisps from entering the waste system.
How epic is that? …Not to mention, crisp packets are actually 75% air!
When walking down a supermarket cleaning products aisle, it is almost impossible to find laundry detergent, softener and washing up liquid that is not only safe for ourselves and the environment but is also free of plastic packaging! That’s why at The Source Bulk Foods we want to provide high quality, affordable, refillable washing up liquid, laundry detergent, fabric softener and more.
Our cleaning products are delivered to us in containers made from 100% post-consumer recycled plastic, that (you guessed it!) get picked up whenever we get a delivery and are transported back to the supplier where they get cleaned and refilled!
All our products are also highly concentrated which means that they are super planet friendly! We recommend that you use 20ml per wash (versus 40ml recommended by well-known eco-friendly brands at your local supermarket) – that’s quite a saving! By choosing our super-concentrated products less miles are traveled per wash from factory to store – a win for the planet and a win for your washing machine!
Our fantastically fizzy, fermented kombucha is the perfect way to integrate beneficial live cultures into your gut biome. Fermented foods and drinks contain high levels ofprobiotics, and by integrating these foods and drinks into your diet, you may see improvements in digestion, weight loss and a boosted immune system (it’s also a healthy alternative to sugar rich fizzy drinks and alcohol).
At The Source Bulk Foods, we are very happy to be able to provide this amazing beverage package free! Our kombucha is available on tap instore, so you can bring your own plastic or glass bottle and refill whenever you run out! Not only can you do this with your bottles, we are able to do the same with the 19 litre kegs that the kombucha is stored in. Our amazing kombucha supplier collects our empty kegs and tops them up with freshly brewed flavours every month, making this product completely closed-loop!
Olive Oil
Our Duvichus extra virgin olive oil, certainly is extra special too. Grown, harvested and processed at a farm in the Kalamata region of Greece, the farmers ensure that the whole process is as sustainable and environmentally friendly as possible. The olives are hand-picked or harvested using traditional rakes which is far less intensive and damaging to the environment when compared to modern techniques. The farmers also treat the olive grove as a space for rewilding, so the grove looks much more like a natural forest than a typical crop, which in turn benefits the entire ecosystem!
And the excellence doesn’t stop at the olive grove! Delivered to us in 20l plastic containers, we are able to return these once empty to be washed and refilled for us time and time again. Knowing that we are supporting a business that has sustainability at its core is what The Source strives to do. In just one month alone we sell over 150 litres of our Duvichus Olive Oil. This amounts to a staggering 2,400 plastic or glass bottles being saved from landfill across our 7 stores, and that is all thanks to you!
Coffee
On average, 95 million cups of coffee are consumed every single day in the UK. How crazy is that? At The Source, we love coffee and that’s why we strive to bring you delicious beans and filter coffee without the waste.
To ensure that we only provide the freshest coffee, we store our coffee in glass jars that we replenish with fresh bags or buckets multiple times a week. This means our coffee is never exposed to oxygen for long periods of time, which ensures that you are always buying delicious fresh coffee, and in turn much less waste is created!
Our Rathmines and Brighton branches work with local suppliers to offer closed loop beans and filter coffee, with the Brighton store only a stone’s throw away from the roastery they can walk to the roasters with a reusable bucket and get the freshest coffee on demand! While Rathmines have their coffee delivered in containers which are emptied, cleaned out and returned to the supplier to reuse over and over again! At The Source, we really think that package free coffee tastes so much better, we hope you do too.
