Time to go Full Circle: Why being zero waste in Cambridge is easier than ever

As the voices of Extinction Rebellion sound loudly in the streets of Cambridge, their drums banging in solidarity with the UCU strikers, I wander into the haven of the market square to talk to Johanna, one of the owners of Full Circle.

Full Circle is a waste-free stall selling household goods, beauty products, and store cupboard essentials without any single-use plastic packaging. Their products either come loose or – in the case of shampoo bars, for example – in a metal reusable tin.

I discovered their stall this year on my mission to reduce my waste as much as possible. Loose fruit and vegetables can be found from a number of stalls in the market, from more expensive organic sellers at the weekends to the slightly cheaper weekday regulars. From them you can get your hands on large leaf spinach, seasonal goodies and even baby cucumbers, all plastic free. Fruit and Vegetables can only get you so far, so I have come to rely on Full Circle for oats, bran flakes, penne and all sort of lentils and pulses.

Johanna by the Full Circle stall

Their stock is 100% vegan, often organic, and includes the basic dry ingredients (flour, nuts, rice) as well as some rather more special items like their handmade trail mix. The concept is much like the smaller scale student initiative, Scoop’s. Aiming to ditch the plastic packaging involved in your food, toiletries and household supply shop, you must bring along your own containers, re-using or re-purposing them and filling them with whatever you need.

Johanna began Full Circle about a year and a half ago after meeting Emma, another of the three owners, through environmental activism. Emma was an ecologist, Johanna working in a startup. Together with Emma’s partner Paul, an engineer, they noticed the need for a zero-waste store in Cambridge and Full Circle was born. Johanna said that “None of us had any retail experience” but they were pleasantly surprised to discover how well they worked together. She told me: “We started doing events at weekends and only had lifestyle items” and “started with the market because it’s local”.

I asked her to describe the average customer who came to the stall, and she said it was “mostly women”, “students” and “eco-conscious people” and they were attracted to all aspects of the store, often buying gifts for friends and coming back again for items, especially lifestyle-related objects.

A criticism of zero-waste living is that it is too expensive, many saying it’s a privileged lifestyle. On this Johanna, said: “At the moment zero waste shops are quite small […] we do compare with other zero waste products you can find in Cambridge but there is also the quality”.

“We try to have organic products, grown in the UK when possible, to reduce the carbon impact”, she adds. But Johanna says they try to reduce the cost as much as possible. (For reference, a whole kilo of oats might set you back £2.70, a bag of penne £1.95 and a refilled bottle of washing up liquid £2.)

The Full Circle stall in Market Square

I asked her if she thought supermarkets could adopt a similar model to Full Circle or whether there was no place for them in a plastic free future. She says: “I think the big thing that most people don’t want to hear […] is there has to be a change in how you think, buying less”.

We have to recognise that staying local and shopping seasonally may mean you have to make do without some things or wait until they come back in stock. Put simply, we must stop demanding convenience.

For example, Joanna recalled the popularity of the reusable cotton pads and facial rounds she sold over summer and the pressure it put on their supplier, a local woman in Cambridge who simply couldn’t keep up, forcing people to “just wait a little bit”.

I was curious as to what Joanna’s favourite zero waste meal was (perhaps a starting point to zero waste eating for those of you keen to dabble). She recommended a comforting dinner of vegan mac n’ cheese made with the stall’s wholewheat penne and a creamy sauce from the cashews, their nutritional yeast, and some crushed garlic and salt.

I asked her what she had struggled with in adopting a zero-waste lifestyle. She seemed to have found it relatively easy but admitted: “You have to cook a bit more, like hummus for instance… it requires a bit more time and prep”. She found the easiest swaps were lifestyle products, like using shampoo bars and metal razors.

Given their presence in Cambridge over the past week, I couldn’t help but bring up the infamous Extinction Rebellion (XR). Johanna was in full support, saying “It’s great”. The stall closed down for the last climate strike and they provided discounts for everyone who went to the rebellion.

Full Circle is part of this environmental movement, but their voice is a little quieter. “Different activism works for different people, some people would rather have something more subtle”, said Johanna. We agreed that the different facets of the movement allow us all to find something we can get involved with and support and it’s about meeting people on their level.

In the mission to reduce waste, particularly plastic, it is crucial to remember any change is good change, whether that be swapping to a reusable cup or never buying pasta in plastic bags again, everyone can do their bit.

In order to make impactful, environmentally beneficial changes and retire from a life of convenience wrapped in plastic, we must learn to be patient, considerate, and slow down a little, to relieve some of the pressure our precious planet is under.

It seems going zero waste will teach you a lot more than to always carry your keep cup.

The opening of the Full Circle Shop in early March 2020 will stock a larger range. It will also feature a Vegan Deli selling hummus, vegan cheese and herbs and spices. You’ll find it on Norfolk Street, just near Mill Road.