BAMBOO toothbrushes and shampoo bars can now be found at a new environmentally-friendly outlet in Carlisle Market.

Ed Pendrous has set up ecoTree, a zero-waste shop - selling bring-your-own-container foods, re-usable straws, and coconut-husk scourers - which aims to help people do their bit to care for the planet.

It will be officially tomorrow by the Mayor of Carlisle Jessica Riddle at 11am.

Ed, 48, of Brampton, is a professional musician but needed something else to bring in an income, particularly to help fund his 23-year-old daughter Rosie’s PHD in psychology.

After following environmental issues on social media he started selling bamboo toothbrushes online to make them more available in the UK. As sales improved he created pop-up shops and started selling other eco-friendly products, realising there was the demand for it.

He’s thrilled to have something more permanent for his growing business. “I’m really excited,” he said .”I started two weeks before Christmas. It wasn’t quite as busy as I wanted but it’s been busier since. I think people have made new year’s resolutions and eco-friendly things have been more popular.

“You can’t get rid of plastic. The only long-term solution is compostable plastic. Until that is more widespread we need to be careful about buying stuff in packaging.”