British households could save nearly £500 a year through environmentally-friendly shopping

As the Cost of Living crisis takes hold in the UK, charity CLEAR Community finds that ‘going green’ could save people money, as well as cutting down on plastic waste.

CLEAR Community found that changing some of our shopping habits to more environmentally-friendly ways could save households nearly £500 a year.

As well as saving money, if every UK household made these changes it would save an unbelievable 278million kgs of plastic waste*. Much of this waste is classed as soft plastic (e.g. rice/pasta bags) which can’t be easily recycled causing huge environmental issues felt around the world, including Indonesia where the charity carries out their work.

Top 6 shopping tips that could cut shopping bills as well as reducing waste:

1. Refilling household essentials like herbs, rice and flour at your local zero waste store could save you over £100** a year
2. Buying loose fruit and vegetables from a fruit and veg shop/stall instead of the supermarket could also save you over £80** a year
3. Stopping buying water in plastic bottles and just refilling a reusable bottle with tap water could save you £50** a year
4. Cutting back on your weekly takeaway coffee and making it home to carry in a reusable coffee cup could save around £128** per year
5. When you can afford it, and if you don’t have a zero waste store nearby, bulk buying items at a supermarket can work out cheaper saving you nearly £50** per year
6. If you switch to refilling items like bicarbonate of soda and white vinegar, these can be used as great, natural cleaning alternatives - saving at least £30** on plastic bottles of cleaning sprays

Quote from CLEAR Community founder, Chani Leahong:

‘These are tough times, many of us are really feeling the pinch. Every penny counts, so we’d urge people, who don’t already, to compare costs on a like-by-like basis between zero waste/refill stores and fruit and veg stores/stalls versus supermarkets. If you’re someone who uses a lot of herbs and spices, you could save a small fortune getting them refilled!

‘Shopping in this way saves a huge amount of waste being created - much of which can’t easily be recycled and gets shipped around the world until it eventually often gets dumped or burnt.

It might take some time to do their research, but hopefully they find that what’s good for their pocket is good for the planet too’

—-----------Ends—----------------------

Notes to Editors:

Press enquiries: For more information and/or to arrange an interview with our founder Chani (who’s recently appeared on live radio - you can listen here: https://www.clearcommunity.org/clear-community-in-the-news/) please contact Heledd Jones: heledd1@gmail.com or 07740 354 096

* Substantiation

There are 27 million households in the UK: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/families#

On average households have 20kg of plastic waste every year. https://www.statista.com/topics/4918/plastic-waste-in-the-united-kingdom-uk/

This totals 540 million kg of waste - if every household reduced their waste to 10kg that would halve to 270 million kg of plastic waste.

**

1 - Zero waste stores vs supermarkets. Costs were compared on April 5th, comparing Siop Sero in Cardiff with its nearest supermarket, Morrisons. Some supermarket items were own brand, others were mid-range brands.

2 - in Cardiff market on April 6th, bags of strawberries, blueberries, raspberries and grapes £1 each. On the same day these are all £1.99 each in Morrisons. If you bought 20 of each over a year, the saving would be £79.20 (£159.20 Morrisons; £80 market). Realistically the savings could be larger if you added other fruit and veg too.

3 - If someone buys one bottle of water a week, at an average cost of £1 per bottle, that would be £52. A reusable water bottle could be bought for £2.

4 - If someone buys one take-away coffee a week, at an average cost of £2.50 that would be £130. A reusable coffee cup/flask could be bought for £2

5 - here’s a sample of 6 supermarket bulk buy options, with savings of nearly £10. Easily adding another 20 items to the list could bring the annual savings to £43. (An average saving per item of £1.66 x 26 items = £43.16). Prices found on Morrisons website 6th April 2022.

6 - On the Morrisons website (6th April 2022) prices are: Flash cleaning spray £2, Morrisons oven cleaning spray £2, Flash floor cleaning liquid £2. Buying 8 of these a year would total £42. Buying a decent supply of bicarb, white vinegar and lemons would cost around £10.

About CLEAR Community

CLEAR Community offers a community-led approach to tackling the challenges of waste pollution and environmental degradation in Indonesia. In 2021 CLEAR Community processed 5,255kg of waste through their programme of waste banks and education - the equivalent of an African elephant or nearly 12,000 footballs! https://www.clearcommunity.org/hello-2022-our-plans-for-waste-banks-in-indonesia/

CLEAR Community was founded by a female, British engineer, Chani Leahong, who now splits her time between Indonesia and the UK. CLEAR Community is run on a volunteer basis in the UK, based in Ottery St Mary in Devon, with all donations being used directly on their local operations in Indonesia.

For more information visit our website www.clearcommunity.org where you’ll find social media links, contact information and further details.

CLEAR Community is a UK Registered Charity no. 1172023