Bring Back the Milkman: Could Corona Virus give us a nudge towards a Circular Economy?

20 years ago, you’d walk down the street and see shop signs decorated with names of local people as opposed to corporations. ‘Heseltine’s Butchers’ rather than ‘Tesco Express’; ‘Daisy’s Tea Rooms’ over ‘Starbucks’. It was a time when community meant more. Local people shopped at local stores and supported them because they were convenient……Then larger corporations came along and offered convenience along with low prices. With global development of transport and technology, that eventually led to home deliveries and I’m sure you know the rest of the story. The bottom line is, people became obsessed with convenience. The easier the better. Why would we use local businesses who may not have had the financial clout to offer rapid delivery, when we could use Amazon and receive our package the next working day? Why would we continue to rely on the local milkman when we could buy cheaper milk in Aldi only a few minutes drive away, and pick other bits up at the same time?

I think it’s fairly safe to say that convenience and price lies at the top of our priorities. However, It’s also becoming super clear that ‘sustainability’ is right in the mix too. The guilt of throwing something into the trolley covered in plastic packaging is only becoming more difficult to bear; maybe not seeing Fair Trade certification…