Katie Herring unwraps the problems of plastic

VACUUM-packed cucumbers: fiddly to unwrap and, as they have their own natural skin, the plastic is completely unnecessary.

It's these sort of item that make me realise what a low-plastic environment Cultivate is.

Nearly all our produce is sold loose, we have potato starch carrier bags for those that need them, and many of our customers bring their own bags from cotton totes to re-used plastics.

According to the Plastic Oceans Foundation, we use more than 300 million tonnes of new plastic every year and half of this, we use just once and for less than 12 minutes.

As plastic takes hundreds of years to break down, most of these plastics (except those that have been burned) still exist somewhere as functional items, in landfills or as litter in the natural environment.

It's easy to see how we'll be drowning in plastic in my lifetime.

A report from the Ellen Macarthur Foundation has warned there will be more waste plastic than fish in the sea by 2050.

This information alone makes the idea of single-use plastics utter nonsense and if you start looking further into the damaging use of plastics you’ll fine many more reasons to kick the habit.

Luckily, there are lots of easy ways to do this: grabbing a re-usable coffee cup is a great first step and, as many Oxford coffee shops offer a discount for those using their own cup, you’ll save a few pennies as well as the environment.

Oxford social enterprise SESI sells refills of household detergents and staple foods like nuts, oats, grains and lentils to reduce the amount of plastic packaging we get through.

Bring your own container and fill up on whatever you need.

They have been stalwarts of the East Oxford Farmers Market for several years now and are growing in popularity.

Their detergent refill stations have started popping up at places around the county and I'm now super pleased to have them at the Cultivate VegVan every Thursday making it even easier for myself and our customers to fight the war on plastic.