Hampshire woman's online eco-shop starting to gather steam

That is the message from Emsworth businesswoman and environmental campaigner Sally Brown, who runs an online plastic-free shop called Eco Sal.

Her site is a one-stop-shop for ethical, plastic-free products, ranging from kitchen utensils to shampoo, make-up and even dog poo bags.

The 25-year-old says helping the environment has been a life-long passion.

She said: ‘Ever since I was a little girl I've been a bit of an eco-warrior.

‘I trained as an accountant and once I qualified, I found myself with a lot more free time.

‘I wanted to help the environment and encourage more people to go plastic-free, so set up my online shop.’

Initially, the Eco Sal project just involved people messaging Sally with shopping requests.

But as demand surged, she was able to evolve her website into a fully-functioning online shop.

With more than 250 followers on Instagram and plenty of engagement on her Facebook store,

‘It started out quite small, but things have really grown since then,’ said Sally.

‘Now, my garage has become my stock room, so that's where I keep everything.’

Sally says that in the wake of the coronavirus crisis, we all need to be careful about the amount of plastic we throw away.

With disposable masks being thrown away once they’re used, scientists at University College London say they could create around 200 tonnes of plastic waste in Portsmouth alone.

Sally said: ‘It feels like we’ve undone most of the work we did at the start of the coronavirus lockdown.

‘More so than ever, looking after the environment is really important.

‘We are on the verge of a climate crisis, and it’s our own fault because we’ve completely screwed up the world.

‘Because of coronavirus there will be a lot more disposable stuff being thrown away – we absolutely have to offset that by using more plastic-free things around our homes.’

To take a look around Sally’s plastic-free shop, people can go to eco-sal.co.uk.

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