The North East has its first zero waste shop which was opened in the metro station of Tynemouth.
An artist and plastic activist Jackie Sewell, 54, decided to open Buy the Kilo after she made an exhibition in 2017 called ‘642’ where she took a picture of every single plastic that she used in 7 weeks.
‘ I thought that I was a quite good environmentalist, recycling and didn’t really buy a lot of plastic because I’d been working with plastic for few years but I was absolutely shocked that I collected 642 pieces of plastic in 7 weeks.’
After that, she started buying from local butchers, bakers, milk banks and her waste was rapidly cut off. On February 23, 2019, she opened the first zero waste shop between York and Edinburgh which she runs with her daughter Rachel Brien, 31.
‘A great thing about this shop is that customers who are coming are sharing their own recipes, DIY tutorials and advice on how to reduce plastic or made some essentials by themselves,’ added Jackie Sewell.
Watch the short video to find out more