114 Vendors in London’s Largest Food Market Are Ditching Plastic Bottles!

Borough Market, one of the largest and oldest food markets in London, is about to do something that will, ideally, inspire countless people and businesses to make a huge move for the planet. The historic market aims to become the UK’s “greenest place to shop” – and to achieve that, it is going to phase out plastic bottle sales and install eco-friendly, free water fountains.

As reported by The Guardian, Borough Market aims to put an end to sales of single-use plastic bottles over the next six months. Water in plastic bottles will be no longer sold at the market or in the cafes and chains on its fringes.

But the market’s green goals do not end at that – it is also aiming to be zero landfill and will use only biodegradable packaging and compost all leftovers. The new rules will have to be observed by the market’s all 114 vendors.

As an alternative to bottled water, the customers will have access to free drinking water from newly installed fountains.

“It’s great that people are increasingly aware of the health benefits of keeping hydrated, but we’ve been troubled to see increasing numbers of plastic bottles used every day, which damage the environment and add to litter,” Darren Henaghan, managing director of Borough Market, told The Guardian.

Without a doubt, the slogan to “stay hydrated” should come with a caveat about said hydration not coming from dozens of single-use plastic bottles a week. In the U.S. alone, around 1,500 plastic water bottles are consumed every second. Drinking large amounts of water every day is hugely important to our health and should be encouraged – but so should using reusable water bottles and cups. Borough Market’s latest innovation is an example of how we can introduce this idea to customers.

The market’s new policies are a big commitment and a great step in the right direction – we also hope that, once the changes are introduced, others will follow suit.

To learn how to use less plastic in your everyday life, check out One Green Planet’s #CrushPlastic campaign!

Image source: Yana Yushkevich/Shutterstock