A new store will open in Falmouth at the end of May, called Un-rap and will join those already making changes to reduce plastic waste. The shop will be completely plastic-free and will be situated on Webber Street, just off the Moor, a prime location for students living in the town.

 

Interest in reducing plastic waste has gone up hugely in the past few months. A collaborative event called Sustainafal, taking place on the 11th of April, will help educate and inform the local community about how they can minimise the amount of plastic they waste. Beach cleans are also being organised regularly in the local area such as Gylly and Swanpool. Interest in these events is very high, indicating that there is potential for a shop like Un_rap to be successful.

 

The Un-rap store is one of the many businesses in the area taking steps to reduce waste produced by single-use plastic. The Natural Store has also started to make changes, aiming to make waste-free shopping easier. We spoke to Stephen who works at The Natural Store to see how the rise in interest for plastic-free goods are changing how they do things. He said, “I’m busy writing a strategy at the moment, which kind of encompasses the whole store because we’re going plastic free. We’ve been looking at all the items that use single-use disposables and trying to find alternatives for them”

 

While Un_rap may cause competition for shops like The Natural Store, it will only help to further push businesses in the community to do as much as they can to reduce their waste and decrease the amount of single-use plastics they provide. Stephen adds that “There’s suddenly been this massive uptake in people going plastic-free and asking the shop to do various plastic-free things”