Shop Local, Shop Smart
Over the winter of 2006/07 Greener Leith distributed 2600 reusable cotton bags in Leith, with the help of local businesses. Why? Greener Leith wanted to encourage everyone who loves Leith to shop local and to shop smart.
Shop Local
Why all the fuss about local shopping? Well one of the reasons Leith has such a great character is that it still has a huge range of small, independent shops. Leith hasn’t turned into a ‘Clone town’ yet – but if we’re not careful it might. Do we really want Leith walk to be a monotonous line of chain stores that sells the same stuff as everywhere else? Greener Leith members don’t. However, it's not just the fantastic diversity and quality of the goods that we like about our local shops, there are other reasons to favour local, independent shops.
Did you know that every pound you spend in a local shop is worth about 400% more to Leith than a pound spent outside the area? This is because local independent shops tend to use local suppliers - keeping your money, and more jobs, in Leith. Research by the New Economics Foundation in Northumberland showed that £1 spent with a local supplier is worth £1.76 to the local economy, and only 36 pence if it is spent out of the area. What does that really mean? Well, everytime a new large supermarket opens, 276 jobs are lost in the local economy.
From an environmental point of view of course it is better to try not to buy new things at all. Re-using someone else’s unwanted stuff is great way to cut down on the amount of rubbish we produce. That’s why we're also keen to encourage people to support our local charity shops. Donate stuff you don’t need to them, instead of throwing it away. Shop in them – you could help fund a cure for cancer. You might even consider volunteering in one of them. You can download a map of charity shops in Leith here. The map shows you what you can donate and buy, where. Magic.
Shop Smart
Did you know that globally, we use a million plastic bags a minute? That’s pretty amazing for something that was invented only 30 years ago. Now I don’t think anyone has worked out how many carrier bags we use in Leith every minute – but our Greener Leith cotton shopping bags aim to make it easy for everyone to cut down on our addiction.
But plastic carrier bags give us an easy way to get our shopping home, and we need all that other plastic packaging for hygiene reasons. Or do we?
It’s true plastic bags can be convenient – but for who? You or the retailer? Retailers provide free plastic bags just to encourage you to buy extra stuff that you don’t need. Perhaps if we were all to use Greener Leith cotton bags then it would help us to buy only the things we went shopping for in the first place!
And most people would agree – lots of things are over-packaged. Food packaging provides lots of crazy examples. What is the point of shrink wrapping unwashed Cauliflowers? I’ve even seen individual bananas in plastic packaging – despite the fact that bananas come in their own, much more attractive biodegradable packaging – their skins.
Greener Leith would like to encourage you to fight this packaging lunacy. Even if you don’t care about 'the whales,' and you think this is stuff is only for treehuggers - you might start to snub shopkeepers 'free' bags when you find out that it is estimated we pay about £470 per household each year for the privilege of having over-packaged goods. Of course you don’t see this cost – it’s hidden in the price you pay at the till. And who pays to dispose of all this rubbish? We do – in our council tax. That's why the Women's Institute has been encouraging it's members to take back food packaging waste to supermarkets so that they can deal with the rubbish instead of us.
Excess packaging does have an environmental cost too. Discarded plastic bags don’t just blow about Leith links for a bit until someone tidies them up. Plastic gets everywhere. In 2002, a whale that was washed up in France was found to have more than 800kg’s of packaging waste in it’s digestive system. Suddenly I feel more sympathy for the whales.
Last but not least, when you think about it - plastic bags are rubbish. They’re uncomfortable to carry, you can’t cycle with them, they’re noisy, they don’t look cool and they rip really easily. At 50p, a Greener Leith cotton re-usable bag suddenly seems like a bargain.
The first batch of Greener Leith shopping bags has now sold out - some of the the organisations below may still have some left. You can buy a Greener Leith "Mark 2" shopping bag from our on-line shop. These bags are much more robust than the first batch and they even have a zip closure too. "Mark 2" bags are more expensive than the first batch, but we think they're worth it.
Businesses interested in selling the Mark 2 bags can purchase them direct from our on-line shop, and you'll even get a discount if you buy in bulk. Please do contact us to let us know if you plan to sell large quantities.
Who helped us to sell Greener Leith Smart Shopping Bags?
Barnardos, 144-148, Leith Walk, Edinburgh.
Better Bites, 280 Bonnington Rd, ,Edinburgh
Bishops Newsagents, 30, Constitution Street.
Boda Bar, 229, Leith Walk, Edinburgh
Cartridge World, 31, Elm Row, Edinburgh
Changeworks, 36 Newhaven Rd, Edinburgh
City Fruit Supply, 249-251 Leith Walk, Edinburgh
Cornelius Beer & Wine Company, 18/20 Easter Road, Edinburgh
Deli Polonia, 237, Leith Walk, Edinburgh
Doggone Purrfect, 268, Leith Walk, Edinburgh
Flux, 55, Bernard Street, Leith, Edinburgh, EH6 6SL
Friends of Dalmeny Street Park
George G Lang & Sons (Butchers), 138, Easter Road, Edinburgh
Harburn Hobbies, 67, Elm Row, Edinburgh
Leith Army Stores, 9 & 10, Brunswick Place, Edinburgh
Leith Central Community Council
Leith Academy
Mad Jacks Trading Company, 36, Elm Row, Leith Walk.
Paradigm Shift, 267b, Leith Walk, Edinburgh
Pepper, 15, Bernard Street, Leith, Edinburgh
Port O'Leith Bar, 58 Constitution Street, Edinburgh
Relish, 6, Commercial Street, Leith, Edinburgh
Richard Bee, Fishmonger, 230, Leith Walk, Edinburgh
Snail Mail, 238, Leith Walk, Edinburgh
Sofi's, 65, Henderson Street, Edinburgh
Stop and Shop, 264 Bonnington Road, Edinburgh
Tattie Shaw, 35, Elm Row, Edinburgh.
The Leith Cycle Co, 276, Leith Walk, Edinburgh
The Manna House, 22-24 Easter Road, Edinburgh
The Pipe Shop, 92, Leith Walk, Edinburgh.
The Wholefood Connection, 49, Bernard Street, Edinburgh.
Thompson's Intersport, 53, Elm Row, Edinburgh
Twist Clothing, 40, Easter Road, Edinburgh
Victoria's, 265, Leith Walk, Edinburgh
If you've already bought a bag and want to do more to support Greener Leith you can join us by clicking here.