SmartPlanet bags an invite to Unpackaged

Do you remember that old Tetra Pak ad with juice and milk flowing here, there and everywhere with a voice saying: "Imagine life without Tetra Pak"? Well, today Catharine Conway opened the doors to her new grocery shop, Unpackaged, and thereby made life without Tetra Pak, tins, plastic boxes and polystyrene completely plausible.

Conway founded Unpackaged in 2006 with the belief that there's a better way to sell food, and until now has sold her organic, unpackaged groceries at Exmouth and Broadway Markets in London to environmentally aware shoppers who didn't mind bringing their own containers.

As explained on the door to the shop, which looks and feels like an old-fashioned grocery store with some modern design-twists, the idea is that you fill your container, they weigh and you pay. If you bring your own containers you get a 50p discount per item. Unpackaged also have plastic bags that can be refilled about 20 times in case you've forgotten your own.

Although it's only been open since 9.30 this morning, the store has already attracted quite a following. MP for the Green Party and candidate for London Mayor, Siân Berry, cut the carrier-bag-ribbon to open the shop and told SmartPlanet: "It's a great idea and I'm really impressed seeing it open. I particularly like the 50p discount for bringing your own containers. It's a real incentive. I'm getting fed up with taking my plastic containers to recycling and will definitely be shopping here."

London Mayor Ken Livingstone, Liam Black (Director of Jamie Oliver's Fifteen), MP Joan Ruddock, and President of the Soil Association Jonathan Dimbleby all give their full support to Unpackaged. Dimbleby said: "If others follow Unpackaged's lead we can make a really important difference demonstrating that individuals can actively help to save the planet."

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