A new shop has joined Dorchester's high street, helping residents and visitors reduce their use of single use plastic and reduce food waste.

The Healthy Weigh opened by Tim Stevens on South Street this month, an idea that grew from his love of food and the environment.

He said: "I hate single use plastic and food wastage, people should be able to buy what they want when they want it, not going round the supermarket and buying things in plastic, it weighing 500g and you only needing 100g, the rest going to sit in the cupboard because you don't need to use it. But the ingredients, buy it fresh and in the quantity you want.

"I'm trying to give people a service so they can have fresh things."

Tim grew up in Dorchester and lived here until he was 18, and thought it was a great place to open the shop.

"Dorchester has got a nice vibe to it, the expansion of Poundbury helps," he added.

"I think it's a good spot here in Dorchester South Street.

"People are coming in on quite a regular basis, they might not be buying on their first visit, but I'm recognising people coming in and they say, 'we came in last time and now we know what we want to buy', which is great."

The shop provides a whole range of herbs, spices, pastas, oats, coffee, fruit, nuts and much, much more.

As well as food and ingredients, the shop also provides cleaning products from a company called Mack, which is based in Poole.

Tim said: "I'm here to help, I'm not a chef but I've basically cooked everything I sell.

"We've got local suppliers like Weymouth 51, Olives Et Al, Curious Kombucha, I'm trying to encourage that. I want to keep things as local as possible."

He also wants to address the misconception that people think they need to take their own bottles and bags, as some think they cannot buy anything as they don't have their own containers.

"I supply bags and sell recycled plastic bottles," added Tim.

"You don't have to bring your own containers, I can give you the means to take any products away and the bags are provided free of charge."

The Healthy Weigh is open from 9.30am to 4.30pm Monday to Saturday.