Article
Sustainable Shopping
Chapter 81
As more and more of us become aware of the drastic environmental impact of plastic, shops have popped up to cater to a more future-friendly and eco-conscious buying market.
Leeds is lucky to have some great eco-options to choose from. Whether it’s avoiding single use plastics, prioritising local and high-quality provenance or considering recycled or reinvigorated, you can find some great options around Leeds.
Millie’s Organic
Millie’s Organic has a great cafe and sells great organic skincare as well as your groceries. Prioritising the fresh and organic, Millie’s sells locally sourced meats as well as plenty of veggie and vegan friendly alternatives. As well as the toiletries there is an onsite therapy room with a resident therapist, as well as a yoga and pilates studio.
Out of this World
This organic and ethical supermarket on Central Road offers up everything from pantry staples (flours, nuts, beans etc) to fresh fruit and veg, via toiletries and stocks Leeds Bread Co-Op bread. They also have a counter of fresh goods, selling ethical and vegan-friendly versions of cakes, brownies, sausage rolls and other such scrumptious takeaways.
North Star
North Star is a coffee shop and roastery who operate an ethical policy towards coffee - an infamously unfair market traded on the stocks and shares market, based on supply and demand. Instead, North Star choose the best growers in several coffee-growing nations across the world and cultivate individual relationships with each of them, offering a fair price for a fair product, which doesn’t fluctuate based on the market. Their beans are delivered in fully recycled plastic with a paper sleeve, so they also won’t add to your general waste bin if you’re buying beans for coffee at home.
Belgrave Music Hall & Canteen
The Belgrave are a fun venue for drinking, eating and listening to music, as well as hosting monthly Feast weekenders and other fun events. Eco-conscious, the venue are big on sustainability, rigidly using different bins for their waste, eco-compostable plastics where necessary and charitably support Leeds initiatives like St George’s Crypt.
EcoTopia
Central Arcade’s ecoTopia is another eco-friendly and zero waste shopping option in the city centre. Run by two full-time mums, EcoTopia was founded to counter the devastating impact humanity has had on our environment by making those small day-to-day switches to avoid filling our oceans with plastic. They’re an enjoyable browse for gifts as well as for your daily shop for necessities.
The Refilling Station
With zero waste shops in both Leeds and Harrogate, this Harrogate Road branch offers plastic-free shopping as well as refilling stations for bath, body and household cleaning. They also try to source products locally and ethically; they try to make their buying processes as ethical as possible to make the journey towards more sustainable shopping easier for all of us.
Seagulls Refills
Seagulls are an environmental social enterprise who help us think beyond the usual eco-friendly purchasing choices - namely bath and body, cleaning and eating - and think about our household choices. They sell paint - they have reused a staggering 1,400 tonnes of paint to date! Winners of the Social Enterprise of the Year Award for Yorkshire and Humber 2017, Kate and Cat, the owners, have become experts in the field of third sector paint reuse. They collect, reprocess and distribute unwanted household paint into new tins of recycled paint sold at a fraction of the price of the original tins. What’s more, all of the income generated at Seagulls goes back into the social enterprise itself, keeping training up, staff in jobs, volunteers engaged and lots of paint being put to good use.