Recycling, Reusing, Reinventing ~ Thrifty Shop Bags

We’re hoping to move house this summer in order to move to a high street, where we can set up our shop.

So we are on a de-cluttering mission, to recycle, reinvent or give to charity all the things we do not need. So we have been going through heaps of old magazines, gift wrapping, maps, newspapers and wallpapers ~ it is amazing how many piles accumulate over the years by stealth, even if you clean and tidy the house every week!

It is human nature to hoard, to keep, to collect and to stow away. “I might need it for a rainy day” I tell myself, knowing full well I will probably never use-read-touch that item again.

We are generally trying to live a sustainable life at Foodie Bugle Towers and, consequentially, we generally try to run our business on sustainable lines. Hence we try to find “Made In Britain” goods, sourcing our food locally and not making unnecessary journeys or wasting resources.

So we’ve used old papers to make paper bags for the new high street shop. It takes seconds to cut and paste them with glue, and the result is not bad at all. We also have some really old ledger papers, which have just the right sort of heavy texture for an old fashioned grocery-provisions-supplies shop.

We aim never to use plastic bags in our shop ~ just recycled brown paper, gift wrap or cloth bags. We are also hoping to have canvas bags made and stamped with our logo too. Fingers crossed that our customers “get it” and don’t think we are just a bunch of hilarious hemp hippies! {Nothing wrong with hemp}.