Plastic-free fish
Posted by Kake on 25 July 2014I’m a big fan of fish, and we have a very good fishmonger in Croydon — Fresh Fish of Croydon and Surrey, at 25 Church Street (near the junction with Surrey Street). Would they sell me fish in my own compostable bag? Yes, no problem!
I got the idea of using compostable bags for meat and fish from Polythene Pam, who’s been using them for years. I usually also take a lock-and-lock container to put the bagged fish in, since these bags are not 100% watertight. I did wonder if I could just take the container, but it’s turned out simpler to take a bag, rather than asking the fishmonger to clutter up their limited preparation space with a rigid box. It also means I don’t have to pay for the weight of the box when I’m buying loose items such as prawns.
Compostable bags are usually made from materials such as corn starch or potato starch. After use, they can be reused to line your food waste collection bin — in fact, the ones I use are sold by the council specifically for lining these bins. Or, if they’re a bit too smelly for you to want to do that, you can just pop them in the food waste itself.
Make sure you’re using bags with the EN 13432 certification. This is the most stringent European standard for compostability, and bags without this certification are not permitted in Croydon’s food waste collection. There’s a handy list of stockists on the Council website.[1]
