Every business produces waste. Having worked in a multitude of different businesses around the world it is very interesting to see how waste is managed. The waste management area of a shopping centre or an airport is a most depressing sight. At Marcia’s we are determined to be responsible in the way we produce and dispose of our waste.

While we can’t control how products come delivered to us and working with hundreds of different suppliers we do our best to recycle any packing materials. We pay for independent recycling of cardboard and any of the milk containers that we use in our café.

We get a lot of fresh produce delivered in polystyrene boxes. The ones with lids get returned to the supplier for reuse however the open topped ones, however, do not get taken back and we have no choice but to send them to landfill.

While we’re talking about fresh produce we will mention that any produce that is too terrible to sell or even discount will get composted or fed to Marcia’s ultra-free range chickens.

Another source of waste for us is the 20 litre containers that our bulk body and cleaning products come in. These get reused, either by the supplier, or they are sent to local business Reverse Garbage to be reused by locals. They make great storage and I even have sweet potatoes growing in mine at home as they are the perfect self-watering planter!

There is also a fair amount of soft plastics that our products and even vegetables come wrapped in, but we pay a private company to ensure that this is recycled.

At the end of the week we are pretty proud to say that we only put out one black council bin that is half to three quarters full on bin day depending on the time of year. We are working towards eventually producing zero landfill.

End note: If you are moving house or need boxes, please don’t hesitate to come and grab some off us!