Less plastic fantastic for stalwart local business

Thursday 17 January 2019

The long established Creasey's department store has made a number of changes towards becoming more eco-friendly.

Removing glitter on sale and providing paper bags free of charge are just two initiatives promoted by the company with an aim to 'live a life less plastic'.

The high street retailer has emphasised its commitment to environmentally aware alternatives highlighting a number of changes made in 2018 with that in mind. 

A post on Creasey's facebook page from last year outlining some products on offer. 

Managing Director Peter Creasey said it was this time last year the company recognised the need to reduce plastic in the business.

"We decided to re-introduce paper bags and these were designed and ordered during 2018.  We anticipated introducing them some time in the autumn, as stocks of plastic bags were exhausted.  The fantastic thing is that this has taken far longer to happen than we expected, as so many customers are happy to provide their own bag.  

"However we are now about to start deploying our range of paper bags to replace the vast majority of plastic bags currently used within our business and customers will increasingly see them around our different shops, including M&S clothing.  We have been using paper carriers for womenswear and beauty products for some time despite the fact that paper bags cost over twice as much as plastic bags.

"Reducing our impact on the environment is now a cornerstone of the business.  There will be no charge for any paper bag.  Single use plastic bags used in the M&S Food Halls have been phased out and replaced with a 10p multi use bag.  Every penny raised from bag sales goes to support local environmental initiatives, however it is important that this is not seen as a fundraiser, the best possible position is that our Plastic Bag Fund is empty, meaning no one is buying a plastic bag.  Creasey’s have also recently introduced a cotton bag-for-life “Live a life less plastic” available to buy for £1.50 from any Creasey’s department," he said. 

Pictured: The soon to be available free paper bag and cotton bag on sale now at Creasey's department store.

During 2018 Creasey’s and Marks and Spencer Guernsey also removed plastic drinking straws from use and sale, replaced plastic ‘Food to go’ cutlery with wooden cutlery and signed up to the 'Refill' water scheme in Creasey’s Coffee Shop, Roof Top Café and the new M&S Café, giving everyone the chance to refill their own water bottle for free. It has also introduced a hanger return service, where surplus plastic hangers are returned to the UK for re-use.  Less well-known environmental dangers such as the use of non-biodegradable plastic glitter in store has also been addressed with the shop removing glitter greetings cards from ranges stocked and no longer selling glitter in the craft department.

"Many of these are works in progress. It would be wasteful to dump existing stocks which we will continue to use up.  But this is not all about us, the retailer.  We all share a collective responsibility to reduce and eliminate single use plastics.  Bring your own bag with you whenever you shop, we are more than happy to put your purchases in your own bag.  Support local shops, whilst we still have plastic packaging in our supply chain, it is far more efficient for retailers to import in bulk than for individual products to be bought online and shipped in individual parcels, each requiring it’s own packaging.

"A favourite saying of mine, when faced with a seemingly impossible task is ‘How do you eat an elephant?’  The answer is ‘one mouthful at a time’!  We can’t instantly remove all plastics from our business, but we have made a start and we will continue to challenge ourselves to ‘live a life less plastic’," said Mr Creasey.