The BIG Green Ethos

Our BIG Green Ethos

Our organisation has been established to bring products to market that specifically reduce the amount of single use plastics created in society today – our products use natural materials that are recyclable, compostable and biodegradable wherever possible to substitute materials commonly made from plastics.

We hope you like our products – but more than this we hope the impact they have on our oceans, rivers and wildlife is a positive one. If you have something you need to buy and are struggling to find an Eco-friendly option… please drop us a line and we will see what we can find.

Lastly just to say thank you for your interest in our organisation, our ethos and our products. 

Biodegradable - What Does This Mean?

If something is biodegradable, it will eventually break down into smaller and smaller pieces by natural processes. Depending on what the item is, it could take anything from 6 months to 1000 years to break down. 



This means that, technically, almost any product could be labelled ‘biodegradable’ because most things will break down at some point in the future whether they’re derived from nature, like a banana skin, or made from chemicals – even some conventional plastics will eventually break down in to smaller, sometimes toxic, components for example. So the term biodegradable can be misleading and biodegradable materials are not necessarily compostable.



All of The Big Green Trading Company’s products are biodegradable on a short term basis and are made from natural materials.

Single use plastics and the world’s oceans

350 million tonnes of plastic are being produced each year with 8 million tonnes of plastic enter the oceans every year.

Plastics make up to around 75% of marine litter.

Plastic in the ocean breaks up into smaller fragments called microplastics, which have been identified in commercial fish consumed by humans.



Half of all plastics are single-use applications, used just once and then thrown away. We don't know how long it takes for some plastic to break down. It's estimated it could take up to thousands of years to degrade.



Birds are highly susceptible to plastic ingestion. It is estimated that over 90% of all seabirds have ingested plastic.

Plastic acts as a sink for chemicals already in the environment. The material is able to attract these chemicals and transport them long distances



Studies show plastic chemicals can act as endocrine disruptors. Endocrine disruption is linked to health effects like cancer, birth defects, and developmental problems in children.



Now lets look at compostable products…

Compostable materials are materials that have been certified to break down completely into non-toxic components (water, carbon dioxide, and biomass) that will not harm the environment, given the right conditions. The time it takes for something to break down depends largely on the product itself and the composting conditions.

Many of The Big Green Trading Company’s products are compostable – especially our natural wheat straws which break down very quickly in compost conditions.

Our Products