“The less I have to use plastic, the happier I am!”
That’s the voice of your local butcher, Brian Fields, co-owner of The Butcher Shop at The Park Centre.
Brian is a big fan of customers who bring their own container to get their meat, and his staff is more than friendly when someone asks for no plastic.
Pictured: Co-Owner David
Other butchers are not so accommodative, which puzzles Brian. “I don’t see what the big deal is in using the customer’s containers. At the end of the day, I have to pay for the plastic, so it’s a win-win”.
The first time he came across a demand from a customer was around 5 years ago. “This old couple would come in and bring their own plastic bags, which they used over and over, after washing and sterilizing them”.
Over the years the stream of customers bringing their own containers increased and, according to Brian, really picked up a month ago.
“The War on Waste was a big game changer”, he reckons, referring to the series on waste shown on ABC in June.
What Brian would really love to see would be a return to the good old days of the butcher paper. But he knows it’s almost impossible due to health regulations, financial and environmental costs.
So make sure to bring your container to The Butcher Shop and get good quality meat from small producers.
“We are purely WA, we want to support local”, says Brian.