Produce
undressed
ABOUT
Naked Larder came about because of the real need for us to change our shopping habits. We seek to find more sustainable ways to shop. Practices that reduce the huge volumes of packaging, in particular plastic, created throughout the world today. We feel that reducing the use of packaging, rather than recycling, is the key element. Recycling is energy-intensive and much does still end up in landfill, the oceans or polluting our environment in other harmful and damaging ways. Substituting plastic for other forms of packaging will just create other environmental problems and does nothing to reduce our reliance on using the earth's precious and dwindling resources to make items that are then only used once.
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My name is Phili Denning and I started Naked Larder in January 2018. I was (and still am!) fed up with packaging waste. Even though our family reduced and recycled as much as possible, our bin was still frustratingly full of packaging. Some items, like fruit and vegetables, I could source fairly easily without packaging by using local shops and markets, but it was the basic groceries and dry goods such as pasta, rice, cereal, nuts and so on, which were still hard to source packaging free.​
Supermarkets and other shops often offer very few options to minimise packaging, and where there are other options these can cost considerably more. I noticed my shopping bill increase significantly as I tried to buy the packaging free items. We also need to be very careful to consider that the issue is not only around plastic packaging. Simply switching to items packaged in other ways: paper, cardboard, metal, glass and so on, is not the solution. It will just shift our problems elsewhere. Single use packaging of any type is a drain on the precious resources of our planet and it is essential we aim to remove all forms of unnecessary packaging. We must focus on refusing, reducing and reusing packaging wherever possible.
So the concept of Naked Larder was born. Our aim is to provide a place where people can come to source these items with minimal packaging. We choose ethical and sustainable suppliers so our concern around environmental issues is supported throughout the supply chain.
We do our best to provide these services in such a way that costs remain as low as possible. Naked Larder strives to connect like minded people who wish to do their part to minimise the impact humans are having on the environment. Spread the word and the message.
From small beginnings, our Naked Larder in Herne Hill has grown faster than I ever could have imagined. It's been fantastic to see the community grow, raise awareness and enable people to change their shopping habits for a better future. We're so excited to now be working on spreading our model to more communities, helping others to set up their own Naked Larders.
Let’s make our shopping packaging free!
Phili
Founder and owner of Naked Larder