Local, Ethical, Sustainable
At Duck Pond we really love our planet—we love the animals and humans living on it too and we are really very keen on helping to make it last for our and our childrens’ lifetimes and way way way beyond. This is why, since we launched in 2008, we have made certain that only products that are ethically, locally or sustainably made, sourced or produced, are being sold at our markets. You can be sure that everything you buy at Duck Pond Market comes from 'a good place'.
In 22/23 we partnered with Just One Tree and offered each stallholder a chance to plant a tree alongside their booking - we planted 356 trees.
We hope you can help—every single tree helps with reforestation projects in poverty-stricken areas. In addition to the benefits to the Earth, our help provides training and sustainable incomes for people in local communities.
Join us and together let's combat Global Warming. Collectively, we can make an impact.
It’s important for us to pay above the London Living Wage
Locally Made
The majority of our stallholders sell locally made products. Many of these products cross over into ethical or sustainable too—but it basically means that they've been small batch produced, by hand, by a single person or small business, locally. No air miles, no transport costs—other than getting the stock to market, and most importantly supporting the local economy, giving back to your community and keeping your pound in the hands of small independents, and out of the tills of the large companies, who already get a lot from us!
Ethical
To us, an ethical product is a product that has been made with social responsibility at its heart. We have a few stallholders who sell bought-in products at Duck Pond Market: each one has been carefully vetted to ensure that the workers that made it are paid well, kindly treated and supported fairly in their business. We accept Fair Trade products or products that support a charity. We expect our traders to source ethically reared meat and eggs. We certainly do not support any factory or intensively farmed meat or non-free-range eggs used as any part of the products sold.
Sustainable
To us, a sustainable product means that in its making, there is nothing included that might use up finite resources on our planet or harm the life living on it. We love organic, reusable, up-cycled, compostable and second-hand. There is enough already existing, so why not reduce, reuse, recycle. We don't allow single-use plastic at our markets—we ask for compostable packaging (see “no single use plastic” below)—and in 2018 we banned the sale of bottled water at Duck Pond Market. In 2017 we banned the use of palm oil. We endeavour to keep ourselves educated on current global issues relating to products such as this to help us act as responsibly as possible.
We believe that we all have the opportunity to vote for the world we want to live in through the way we choose to spend our money. By identifying the causes that are close to our hearts we can make buying decisions, choosing companies whose values are aligned to our own. Additionally, by choosing alternatives, we can all send a powerful message to the corporations that we don’t support.
Traders arriving on public transport will be given coverage or priority indoor pitches where possible.
We encourage the use of solar powered or rechargeable power where possible.
We aim to encourage conservation of raw materials and energy
We continuously monitor the environmental impact of the market and its traders—we try to leave no trace!
We are committed to working in a responsible manner and to protect our environment
We are a fur-free market
No single-use plastics!
We are endeavouring to be a plastic free market - it’s always a work in progress - it’s everywhere!
All carrier bags, plastic wrapping, tableware, packaging and straws are biodegradable or compostable.
Why not recycled or recyclable? Currently the UK recycles about 45% of the generated packaging waste! The remaining 55% will either be sent to landfill at home or sent abroad for incineration or landfill. Whilst there is definitely a movement among most humans to act more responsibly when dealing with our own waste, we are still burying it in the ground or setting it on fire!
And so, we only allow recyclable packaging when there is absolutely no other business choice. In our experience, there are nearly always more environmentally friendly options available.
We pledge to keep our staff and traders aware of their environmental responsibility.