Eighth Day and the Environment

Our Environmental policy

We, the members of On the Eighth Day Co-operative Limited, run an ethically based, worker owned business that provides the services of a vegetarian shop and café within the City of Manchester.

As part of our continuing concern for our planet and its life, including the survival of our species, and to ensure that all aspects of our business are carried out with due regard for environmental protection we have introduced an environmental management system.

This will assist us to comply with all relevant environmental legislation.

We are taking the necessary steps to prevent the risk of pollution and have introduced a series of environmental improvement programmes with the prime objectives of continually improving our efficiencies in the use of water and energy and reducing the amount of waste generated.

We are committed to recycling the majority of our waste, and to selling products that we believe to be sustainable.

All members and staff of the co-operative are fully informed of their individual roles and responsibilities in protecting the environment and training has been undertaken to help us in implementing this policy.

All suppliers and customers are asked for their co-operation to help us to comply with this policy.

The policy will be reviewed annually by the co-operative to ensure it remains suitable.

Recycling Your Tetrapaks
We sell a lot of soya milk and other non-dairy milks so we were delighted to find Tetra Pak Sustainability detailing where to take your used cartons for recycling as well as what happens to them when they are recycled. If you want to do something more creative with them yourself, check out Tetra Pak Craft Recycling for some whacky ideas.

10p for a carrier bag!
In the year since we started charging 10p for plastic carrier bags at the beginning of December 2005, we have sold 1,242 (a bit more than 1 box) of the darn things. Although this sounds a fairly large amount, Ian says we used to buy approximately one box of carriers every month, which amounts to 12,000 carrier bags. The 10p charge has generated approximately £100 which we're going to donate to EMERGE, Manchester's recycling social enterprise.

We are hoping to sell even less next year but we can't do it without you, our customers. Our aim is to sell a maximum of just 500 plastic carriers next year - this is only possible if everyone brings in their unwanted bags. In the meantime, a big thank you to all our customers who've really got behind this initiative and helped to take a whopping 11,000 plastic bags out of circulation.

Don’t let rubbish ‘crate’ on you
Can anyone compete with the little house Ian has made out of old wooden crates for his cat Harry? We will give a £5 gift voucher for any amusing or innovative ideas and print the photos in the next newsletter.

Here's Harry, relaxing in his lovely crate house. What a life eh?

Take-away coffee and tea are no more in the shop
We will no longer be selling tea or coffee in the shop. The boiler and the coffee machine sit for 9 hours a day 6 days a week guzzling energy and since we sell very few hot drinks, they have become environmental albatrosses around our necks. The café sells a wide range of teas and fairtrade coffees to sit in or takeaway.

Contact Us
		For all enquiries about the shop and cafe or other business issues please visit the contact page.