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Andy Swinscoe
Cheese Correspondent
@CourtyardDairy
10:25 PM 16th November 2019
lifestyle

Cheese Shop Makes A Donation If You Bring Your Own Bag

 
Kathy Swinscoe in Courtyard Dairy
Kathy Swinscoe in Courtyard Dairy
In an effort to reduce environmental impact, award winning cheese shop The Courtyard Dairy in Settle has decided that instead of charging those who require a carrier bag, they will make a donation to The Marine Conservation Society each time a customer re-uses their own bag.

Using paper carrier bags
Using paper carrier bags
“We switched to paper bags quite a few years ago,” said owner, Kathy Swinscoe, “But we found that offering paper bags instead of plastic actually increased bag usage. Whereas some customers would manage without rather than take a plastic bag, that doesn’t apply so much to paper bags. So the number of bags we are using has actually increased!

“But just because the bags are made of paper doesn’t mean that they don’t have an environmental impact. In fact research has shown that a paper bag has a four-times greater carbon footprint than a plastic one! So we wanted to come up with a better scheme to encourage people not to take a bag at all, but instead to bring their own re-usable bag.”

a paper bag has a four-times greater carbon footprint than a plastic one!

The Courtyard Dairy decided the best way was not to charge for bags, but rather to offer an incentive to those who don’t require one. Starting from this month The Courtyard Dairy will donate 5p (the cost of a bag) to The Marine Conservation Society every time a customer uses their own bag.

“We get through about 15,000 bags a year,” says Kathy, “With this scheme, I hope we can reduce that number, and in the process donate to help the oceans affected by plastic pollution”.