Do you enjoy Food Festivals?
Do any of you go to Food Festivals? I love them! They are a great opportunity to support local small businesses, sample some amazing new taste sensations and buy something a bit different to enhance your weekly menu.
On that note, let me introduce you to a lovely local business called Dorset Ginger Co. Run by Nick and Timi, a husband and wife team, they create delicious Ginger drinks. (If you haven’t tried them you’re missing out!) But apart from their amazing creations, they also try hard to reduce the impact on the environment. Our environment!
I met this lovely couple a few years back at a local food festival. At the time I was making mini lampshades to decorate my daughter’s camper-van and creating new products for my small craft business. Having noticed they were using small plastic shot glasses for customers to taste their products, I tentatively asked them if I could have any used ones they were discarding. They were happy to oblige and when I went back to them at the end of the day, I was handed a rubbish bag full of them. Happy days!
Fast forward to 2019 and not only does Dorset Ginger recycle their taster cups, they have also developed a procedure to reuse their glass bottles and they reuse their packaging too. So if you see them at an event or notice their products at a local shop, please take a moment to congratulate them on their efforts and perhaps buy a bottle or two.
Now, on Monday I spent 5 hours in the garden. (It was a nice day and I needed some free Vit D.) I had a trug filled with hot soapy water, and was individually hand washing the hundreds of taster cups from Dorset Ginger Co’s latest food festival, and laying them in the sun to dry. And I got to thinking... (Contrary to belief, I can be a deep thinker) If this was the waste from just one distributor, how much waste must there have been from all the stall holders? Do they reuse their waste or do they add it to the growing landfill? Try to picture it if you can. Here are a few photos to help you...
So...the future...
Are we all going to carry on and let this single use plastic build up into a mountain of waste slowly poisoning our earth? Or shall we do something about it?
Most of us now carry a reusable bottle around with us these days. So, maybe, when we next go to a food festival, we could reuse the plastic taster cups when we visit the stalls? It certainly would lessen the impact on landfill and save the small businesses money too.
Maybe the suggestion could be made to the customers at the festival entrance. Or maybe the festival organisers could supply a 'glass' taster cup as a memento for each customer to take home.
Thoughts on a postcard...
