Designing London’s Recovery

Its a nice idea! A few people have picked up the main snags. I work away from my local school during the day and if it was available to me near where I work I would have to cycle home with it all on my bike which wouldn't be ideal.... I would like to see a reduction in the amount of plastic that is used on the products we buy, or even better, the use of other biodegradable materials instead of plastic.

I would focus more on enagaging the local community than focusing on the schools, you're going to cut out a lot of the public. There are sadly plenty of empty shops on the High Street that could be utilised. Refill shops are brilliant, they are known as somewhere to reduce plastic but what people often don't realise is they're a lot cheaper than supermarkets and I far prefer to support a local business than a large corporate.

And a local plug, BYO is a refill shop in Tooting Market and it's brilliant. :)

Can't see this being viable. Also am disabled so would not be practical for me.

I think we need to tackle single use plastic first!! This has got to become a priority!! If the UK is not shipping if off ( Turkey has said No No No), then we are burning it or burying it! Refill shops are a natural by-product of not packaging products in plastic!

I think this is an excellent idea, as it would make children more aware of sustainability issues, provided that the safeguarding aspect were addressed in a way which made it possible for local non-parents to use the shop. I would use a refill shop in a school nearby if I were permitted to do so. Clear information about the availability of shop, what was on offer and the prices would encourage me to shop there. A central website listing refill shops by area would be helpful.

I would support asking supermarkets to change how food is packaged using their purchasing power to drive change and reduce "recycling / waste". Demonstrate a real volume reduction.

The proposals of these refill shops being based in schools and staffed by children brings some obvious safeguarding issues. Does this for example exclude people without children in the school? How would that be managed?

Has a COSHH assessment been performed on the products being sold? Children may be more sensitive to prolonged exposure to chemicals, laundry detergents in particular are an irritant.

Love the idea of refill shops, but close to other shops, not in schools.
Would not use them if it meant extra journeys to other places. It defeats the point of saving resources. Schools closed at weekends.
Put shops with other shops if you want them to succeed.

I would only buy the products if they were environmentally friendly (e.g. Bio-D) and were the same price or less than the wholefood/refill shops I shop in.
If I don't have children going to school would it feel strange to go into them?!
Otherwise I would fully support the idea

As someone with no connection to any local schools I wouldn't use this scheme, even if it were open to local residents. I'd be concerned about the impact of allowing general public into schools. While there are perhaps benefits to setting these schemes up within schools, our schools and teachers, and young people, already do so much and I think it is incorrect to place further burden on them.

I am in favour of refill stores, and of moving to lower waste systems but I think it would be better to encourage and support actual shops that provide this service rather than try and set up temporary stores in schools. Encouraging existing stores, and the introduction of refill/low waste facilities in more mainstream facilities will do more to encourage people to use them - in particular government support to reduce prices and inform the public about these facilities, and their benefit. I'd also be concerned that setting up schemes in schools will reduce the usage of existing services and could make these businesses less viable.

Recycling is not a solution to our existing crises, so it is important to encourage the use of refill services, but this can best be done by making it more accessible and mainstream. This also means engaging with big supermarkets and pushing them to reduce/remove packaging from their products, and doing so at the same (or lower) prices than packaged versions. It means enabling people to choose options that are better for the planet, such as those with low packaging, without this being at increased costs, especially considering the current rise in energy prices and subsequent hight inflation rates. We should also ensure that we are properly dealing with our waste, even as we aim to reduce the amount of it, improve recycling facilities and rates across the city and ensure that we are not burning any of our so-called recycling, nor shipping it abroad as if that solves the problem.

Schools are not close for everyone to visit and the tend to be very closely guarded these days - so unless they were - as the ones in Willesden and Queens Park are - open for other things such as farmer's markets, you can't visit.
But these markets are only open for a short time, once a week, and thus you need to be ready and free at these times, which are usually inconvenient for me. So how will they operate?
Better to ensure every high street has a refill shop or even 2 if they are long as well.

I think the focus should be on using less rather than refill shops. People waste too much, use too much and don't think. If people cut their usage of hand wash, body wash etc. I think this would have more of an impact than reducing plastic waste. In reality all you are doing is putting it in schools so kids essentially blackmail their parents into using it.

Personally, schools are fine as an idea, but (1) I don't have kids and (2) I have a job so unless they would be open after 6pm or on weekends it is pointless for me. The key point is opening hours. In reality I am not going to take boxes on the train to work, then bring them home again to go via a school on my way home. This would mean my only option was the weekend - location would then be the primary focus.

Even then, I don't see that I would use them. Of the items listed as examples I probably buy any of them at most twice a year.

I would much rather the focus was on other areas that would make a significant impact. This to me is more about engaging kids and thus forcing their parents to conform.

I don't have school age children but would love to use this service as a local resident if it was available. It would be great for me to have more refill options locally, and I think children are great ambassadors for ecological initiatives especially if they are involved in them early in life.

It's a great idea. We manage to take our own shopping bags with us now that we are charged for them so why not other containers? But we need to be able to buy basic stuff, not just fancy stuff.

Although I fully support the idea of refill shops, and can see that children could motivate families to use the shops if they were economically viable, I’m concerned about the safeguarding aspects and whether it would become an additional burden for overworked school staff.