SUSTAINABILITY

A SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS

With a location right on the beach we are passionate about ensuring our commitment to sustainability, in particular the fight against single-use plastic. Our hot drinks are provided as standard in our recycled plastic mugs which are then returned to special bins outside the shop and washed thoroughly before reuse.
We do have takeaway cups available but as the vast majority of our customers drink their drinks on or around the beach, we have taken the bold step to charge 25p per disposable cup. Customers are welcome to bring their own cups. 
This charge is a very deliberate move on our part to consciously reduce the use of disposable single use cups.
We are sceptical about the 'greenwashing' language commonly heard around biodegradable and compostable alternatives and strongly feel that the most sustainable and eco-friendly option is a reusable cup. Our reusable cups are actually made of 100% recycled plastic and they are thoroughly washed and sanitised between use. The vast majority of our customers will be drinking their hot drinks on and around the beach anyway and therefore returning the cups to our designated contact-free drop off buckets on the wall outside is no hassle at all. In fact many of our customers comment how much nicer it is to drink out of a 'proper mug' with a handle! They are much easier to carry too.
We fully accept that a single use cup and a lid does not actually cost as much as 25p but we took the bold move to charge as a deterrent. We keep a record through our till system of the amount of cups we charge for and this money is then donated to local charities. Our most recent donation was to Cornwall Hospice Care.

 

We do not sell water in plastic bottles. We do sell water in cans and we also have a free to use water tap at the entrance to the shop which is part of the Refill scheme.

 

We no longer sell bodyboards. Instead we offer a value for money hire scheme on our range of unbreakable bodyboards sourced from the fabulous Zuma Jay surf shop in Bude. Although we do still sell plastic buckets and spades, we are continuously adding to our range of sustainable options as these become available through our suppliers and I'm delighted that for the 2023 season we haven't ordered any buckets & spades which are made of virgin plastic, recycled all the way. In 2020 we started selling metal buckets and tool sets which are completely plastic free (other than a tiny annoying tie holding the tools to the cardboard backing!) and bucket sets made from recycled plastic.

 

We no longer act as donation stations for  the Walkers Crisps Terracycle scheme for crisp packets or the Wyatt & Jack inflatables amnesty. There is more detail below about each scheme,

 

INFLATABLES AMNESTY

 Wyatt & Jack created a very clever business model: they took broken and discarded inflatables and made them into fantastic bags and pouches, saving them from landfill and we were delighted to act as one of their drop off points. Unfortunately, all this did was create a new end destination for inflatables, it didn't stop people buying them and Georgia & Steve ended up with huge warehouses full of discarded inflatables. Such a shame that the public consciousness couldn't be shifted. They are still selling their bags here as they continue to work through the backlog.

CRISP PACKETS

The Walkers Terracycle crisp packet scheme ceased on 25th April 2022. We are therefore no longer accepting donations of crisp packets, these can usually instead be taken to your local supermarket for recycling.  £80.10 was been donated to Cornwall Wildlife Trust as a result of the 12,268 crisp packets dropped into us over the years. That's a LOT of crisp packets, trust me, I packed every single one into a box to post off!

Cornwall Sustainability Awards 2020

We were delighted to be a nominated business in the 2020 awards. Although we did not win any awards at the virtual award ceremony in December, we were delighted that our efforts and achievements were recognised sufficiently to warrant a nomination amongst some very illustrious company. Find out more about the awards here.