Be Free Grocer: shopping without plastic waste

Myself, my husband Dave and my mum Heather want to open a zero waste grocer in Palmerston North selling bulk dried foods and cleaning products as well as zero waste household and personal care items.

Dave and I met in Malaysian Borneo where we have spent the last 5 years volunteering for animal welfare and wildlife conservation organisation Orangutan Project. We have returned to New Zealand and teamed up with my mum to start a business which will have environmental, animal welfare and community benefit.

It's so great that NZ supermarkets are finally ditching the plastic bag. However, we believe that in order to save our planet we must all do more than that. Now is the time to find ways to reduce all the plastic that's inside our grocery bags as well.

We are passionate about the environment and conservation, animal welfare and social justice. We believe that choosing zero waste should be an option that is accessible to everyone regardless of means. This is why we want to offer store discounts to those who have a community services card or are tertiary students.

Our goal is to establish a business which engages, educates and benefits the local community. Once established we will be donating a significant percentage of our profit to environmental and animal welfare causes.

This project will be self funded and any donations we receive will help us to cover the business set up costs. Naturally we are very motivated to break even as soon as possible because as soon as we have covered our startup costs we can start donating our profit to environmental and animal welfare causes.