A RICHMOND shop is leading the way in helping to reduce unnecessary packaging – particularly plastic.

Out of the Box has been opened in King Street by Roger and Janet Nutting and the town’s MP Rishi Sunak has backed the Swaledale couple’s initiative.

The shop sells a huge range of dried goods – cereals, pulses, fruits, nuts, flours, rice, pasta, oats, herbs, spices, grains and sugars.

It also carries a range of ethically-sourced toiletries and personal hygiene products in fully bio-degradable wrapping.

Almost everything is sold from gravity dispensers, scoop bins and glass jars. Customers bring their own containers to be filled with an easy-to-use weigh and pay system.

The shop offers a bulk refill station for laundry and household cleaning essentials, hand sanitizers, shampoos and conditioners.

Mr Nutting said: "We are very pleased at the way townsfolk have responded to the shop’s opening. We are trying to make it easy and attractive for people to cut out as much of the unnecessary packaging, particularly plastics, from their lives."

Mrs Nutting said since opening they had introduced a special display of Yorkshire products in order to support small local producers.

Mr Sunak, who brought his own containers to purchase biscuits and nuts, said: "The Nuttings have created a high quality shopping environment with a great range of products and, really importantly, it’s very simple to buy exactly what you need.

"I wish them the best of luck with the shop which has opened at a time when the public’s desire to cut waste in all its forms has never been higher."