Cluttercut: Ditch the disposables: The Hummus Strikes Back!

Over the last couple of weeks, I've been tackling the issue of sustainable hummus.

After a fair bit of thought, I wrote the following letter back to Lisa's Hummus, explaining my decision about their product to them.

Thankyou for your quick email response to my concerns about the plastic packaging of Lisa's Hummus.

I have read what you had to say on the matter, and talked the issue over with a large number of friends, and after a fair bit of thought and discussion have reached a conclusion.

I thought you might be interested to know what I have decided.

In your email, you said,

"In my opinion consumers need to make a sea change in their purchasing patterns so that manufacturers of plastic and products like ours are forced to change."

I think you are right.

Therefore, I will no longer be buying your product.

From now on, I will be making my own hummus from scratch, buying the ingredients in bulk, and freezing portions. I'm no great chef, but I think it is worth a bit of effort to avoid trashing our world, don't you?

So I guess you could say that I'm one of the first "waves" of the "sea change" you talked about!

I think that manufacturers have claimed that everything is the responsibility of the consumer for far too long. As a result, we consumers feel guilty and are blamed, yet such small changes from large companies could make massive differences in the health of our world.

In many cases, consumers do not have a choice about whether to buy a sustainable option or not - there are simply no sustainable options around, and you give us no choice at all but to refuse to buy, and effectively "boycott" your product. As in this instance.

I think Lisa's Hummus is missing a great opportunity to be the vanguard of sustainability.

By offering glass packaging that is 100% recyclable - and perhaps even returnable packaging with a deposit option! - you could gain a whole group of new customers, keen to do the right thing and buy sustainable products from ethical producers. If you were wary about taking this step, you could trial it on a percentage of your products, and see how it goes. Do a "green line" of products on a trial basis.

Instead, by leaving us no option but to not buy, you lose customers and, I feel, credibility.

I have no complaint with your product - it is a great one - but I think you need to reconsider your packaging. I am sorry to reach this decision.

When you finally switch to 100% sustainable packaging, I'll be very happy to return once again to purchasing and recommending your product.

Sincerely,

Leanne Veitch

Boycotting a product

In effect, I'm boycotting Lisa's Hummus. This wasn't what I wanted to do, but I feel it is appropriate action.

However, when we decide to stop using a product, I do feel that the company in question has the right to know why. Especially when we stop buying a product for environmental reasons.

Otherwise our action is just a tiny, tiny part of the huge up-and-down of regular sales fluctuations.

Where next?

From now on, I'll be making my own hummus. Just as I should have from the start. Yummy!

I'll post Pyrrha's faaaaaabulous homemade hummus recipe in a separate post, for ease of searching.

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