A Lincolnshire mum who became "frustrated" by the amount of plastic used in supermarkets took matters into her own hands and decided to set up her own shop to tackle the problem.

Jenny Salvidge, 41, was a stay-at-home mum looking after her four children in Market Rasen when she and the family began to get "upset" at the state of the environment.

She told Lincolnshire Live: "We'd always been a family that went outside, went on nature walks and that had generally always been in touch with the environment.

"We'd also been on beach cleans and so on to try and help out where we could and then it was when the Blue Planet documentary came out that the kids were getting really upset watching some of the images on there.

"So we were making sure that we recycled our plastic, but then Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's 'War on Plastic' programme came out which said that all this stuff was just being shipped around the world and dumped on other countries so that it then became their problem.

"So the answer is to try and cut out plastic altogether, but it's pretty much impossible to do that in supermarkets.

"I totally understand that you're never going to eliminate plastic altogether from the food chain, because there are legitimate food hygiene reasons behind some packaging methods.

"But if you walk down the hardware aisles of most places you'll see plugs and wires covered in plastic, and to me that seems totally unnecessary.

"So we've been given this problem by governments and major corporations, and yet the onus seems to be on the little people to do something about it - you just despair."

Jenny was eventually inspired to do something about the issue herself, and in November 2019 she opened The Green Life Pantry in Market Rasen.

Stocking a range of food from dried fruit to pasta and rice, The Green Life Pantry tries to operate a plastic-free and waste-free environment.

Jenny said: "We opened in time for the Christmas trade in 2019 but then obviously we went into lockdown and we've spent more time in those than out of them so far as a business.

"It started off really busy and everyone seemed to be really behind us in terms of the anti-plastic message.

"When Covid hit I think it actually helped to promote us a bit because we stayed open given that we're stocking food and household cleaning products.

"Because we're buying all of our pasta and rice and so on in bulk, we weren't having the supply issues that some were having.

"When people were going round supermarkets seeing empty shelves because people were stockpiling, we were able to say that we were open and able to help them."

Jenny explained the way in which her business works doesn't entirely eliminate plastic, but that only around 15 per cent of the products in her store were packaged in it.

She said: "Some of the products like the Italian pasta does come in plastic, but in the future it's looking quite positive in terms of being able to reduce the amount of plastic packaging we stock even further.

"We buy our products from manufacturers in bulk and so we encourage people to bring in their own containers and to weigh out their items.

"We do also provide paper bags and whilst I don't 100 per cent support chopping down trees to make them, at least they're bio-degradable and can be recycled.

"We have definitely got our regulars now and I'm pleased with how it's going, but I do also think it's helped in terms of making other local businesses think about the amount of plastic that they use.

"We try to reduce waste in all forms as well, so the food either comes in hessian or paper sacks which I always keep when they're empty and tell customers to take home for free, because the paper ones are really good for compost and things.

"Even if I've got some good quality boxes left over I will put those on Facebook as well because people who are moving house or whatever could use them."

Tracey Coulson, Chairman of the Environment and Sustainability Working Group at West Lindsey District Council, said: "We are fortunate that we have businesses and people living in our district who take the environment seriously.

"Jenny Salvidge is just one of many people who are working hard to make a difference and it is great that the council was able to support her with grant funding.

"Being mindful of the small ways that we can help the environment, such as using less single-use plastic, will help move us as a district towards living ‘greener’ lives.

"This is just one of many ways that we can help to combat climate change and we wish Jenny the best of luck with her business venture.

"We hope more businesses will share their news with us to let us learn from businesses who are environmentally friendly."

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