ARE YOU LOCAL?
The UK TV series League of Gentlemen is the epitome of inward looking small town life. The town of Royston Vasey fosters the extremity of attitude that big businesses often encounter when trying to set up in new locations: "you're only here to suck the life from our town."

I've posted about this before (here and here) - with emphasis on the impact of shopping malls. It turns out that in Gipsy Hill, London, the opening of a new Sainsbury's supermarket could offer a lifeline to a fading business community. From the perspective of many local small shop owners, Sainsbury's will bring in punters. But the shop owners will have to sell the "special stuff" - they'll have to differentiate.

Last week Sainsbury's announced an industry leading initiative. They're to pack a whole bunch of their self-branded foods in compostable packaging. Sainsbury's? Local economy friendly? Environmentally conscious? Maybe!

When will this hit New Zealand? Will the Waste Minimisation Bill facilitate it? It's a must. Compostable packaging of food will make the job of separating domestic organic waste even easier. If your lettuce rots in a plastic bag, both the goo and the bag invariably get trashed. If it's in a compostable bag the whole lot can be composted instead.

So rather than spout Royston Vasey-esque xenophobia, it looks like little stores can love the big outsider. And although the "plastic" bag has a questionable past, the homely carrot may soon feel at ease in the fridge.

More about: food - waste - compost - supermarket - local economy