Sustainable alternatives for your ice cream shop
The main reasons why artisan and vegan ice cream shops are replacing their products with more sustainable ones are the following:
– Legislation: since 3 July 2021, single-use plastic products may no longer be placed on the Spanish market. For ice cream shops, this means replacing certain items: single-use plastic cutlery (spoons, forks, knives and chopsticks) and straws.
– Increasingly sustainable consumer preferences. There is a growing trend towards more responsible consumption that takes environmental impact into account. Consumers choose more sustainable alternatives and prefer brands and ice cream shops that offer them.
For these reasons, artisan, vegan, Italian and even traditional ice cream shops need to switch to more sustainable products if they want to win over the next generations.
In this post, ice cream shops can discover the best products and actions to become more sustainable:
– Make ice cream with local raw materials: use environmentally friendly, locally sourced ingredients. On the one hand, this reduces the environmental impact of transporting products from distant regions; on the other, it helps preserve native food species at risk of disappearing.
– Replace plastic spoons: there are more and more alternatives to plastic spoons: compostable plastic spoons, wooden spoons, edible spoons… Avoid “compostable plastic” spoons, because they are very hard to recycle and end up in landfill, which still contributes to pollution. Wooden spoons worsen the customer experience, so they are probably not an attractive option for you either. Edible spoons generate no waste and improve the customer experience at the same time, which is why they are becoming the best option.
– Use sustainable packaging: replace your shop’s plastic containers with reusable ones. Encourage packaging that customers can use again, rather than packaging that ends up in the bin or on the street.
Every ice cream shop needs to embrace more sustainable consumption. Whether you run an artisan, vegan, Italian or traditional ice cream shop, it is important to make forward-looking decisions, and that means taking environmental impact into account.
If you need advice or are looking for more sustainable suppliers, Gloop can be your best ally! Write to us and we will help you make your ice cream shop sustainable.