Roots

An organic food shop eager to go round in circles.

Silence means consumption. After two years spent managing industrial waste, Aurélien Amaz decided to change his game, helped by his associate Hannah Wilsher.

How? By creating a place without waste and without intermediaries that, alone, would form the missing link between the producer and the consumer: ROOTS Store.

The best way to close the loop

Deposits of food waste, bulk containers, transportation of products… In order to complete the virtuous circle of his business, Aurélien was assured of the help and advice of several regional operators, including Village Partenaire and hub.brussels.
The Agency worked with the young Frenchman to bring his idea to life, before helping him look for a place where he could plant his cabbages.

A zero waste food shop, 100% circular

On a scale of 1 to 10, the first local, organic and 100% circular food shop in Brussels proudly scores a zero: zero waste (or nearly, it is in any case the ultimate aim) and zero obsolescence. Moreover, a single intermediary between the field and the plate: ROOTS.

The consumers/partners are encouraged to bring their own containers and to dispose of their organic waste. It is expected that these will then be returned to the sender in the form of fertilizer: the 35 local producers have the noble task of assuring ROOTS of maximum freshness.

In the shop, the solid-wood shelves (that have not been treated) are bulging with appetising and colourful foods. Foods loose on a shelf, a natural candy shop – it’s so tempting to dive in! Is it just a trick of the imagination? The potatoes seem more firm, the radishes more crunchy, the Chinese cabbage more pointed. Even the air inside the shop seems more pure.

The roots are there, in all their glory. They invite you, in full consciousness, to take a bite.

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