Emily Dye is on a mission to make shopping for plastic free and zero waste products easy and affordable for people living in her town. Here she talks of why she thinks her timely home delivery and collection service is proving to be a success
My career hasn’t quite turned out like I envisaged it as a child – I thought by now that I would be a famous palaeontologist! But instead, I work a 9 to 5 in an office and that is OK!
2020 was a tough year, but I have to say, I know I have had it easy compared to most. My husband and I were fortunate enough to still have our full-time jobs and my family support bubble were a huge help in looking after our daughter Genie, who turned two in the summer. My mental health took a dip in the first few weeks of lockdown and I suffered a lot with anxiety but, overall, I can say that I survived and I think that is all that lots of people can say for 2020!
I have been using zero waste products for a few years but found, on the whole, that the movement, especially in Gorleston, was largely inaccessible. The products are more expensive anyway, then once you have added in postage from an online retailer, you can quickly be paying £7 for a toothbrush. Plus, some websites make you order £50 worth of goods as a minimum, so simply trying new things and experimenting is difficult. The whole online model for zero waste is great, but just a bit difficult. My friends here felt the same, so I decided that I would try and solve the problem by selling some zero waste starter kits and delivering them for free in my local area. I didn’t really know what the take up and interest would be, but I think Basicc Zero Waste has been a success so far.
I drew on my own experiences, my own adjustments in my consumer habits as a result of Covid and the environmental issues across the world at large and just assumed I wasn’t the only one feeling frustrated from the lack of accessibility to zero waste solutions. Assumption isn’t probably the best basis on which to start a business, but it has turned out quite well so far! I think that in the last few years, we have seen a real shift in action when it comes to environmental issues and we have reached a crisis point. Before then, it was just the select few making changes. Now, sustainability is slowly going mainstream and that is really exciting.
Lockdown 3 has been the least stressful. We have got into a rhythm and a routine now which seems to suit us as a family. Lockdown has just become kind of normal now!
I hope that we can stop the spread and be reunited with our families. Secondly, I hope that out of this pandemic, we learn to slow down and to live more consciously. We have been forced to only shop for essentials, only leave the house when it is absolutely necessary and, in the process, we have had time to re-evaluate what it is that we really need. I hope that this continues after Covid is gone and allows more people to consume more consciously.
Visit basicczerowaste.co.uk. Free delivery to NR29, NR30 and NR31.
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