Designing London’s Recovery

Schools have enough to do without worrying about without selling consumer products as well. Supermarkets are better placed, location, skills, storage, deliveries etc, in selling products. Schools are for educating not competing against the supermarkets. If supermarkets thought the public really wanted Refill products they would sell them.

Please don't burden our already over-burdened and under-paid teachers with this. Promoting refill shops is a great idea but not in schools. For people like me who don't have children, this is useless, and for safety reasons I don't see how you could make this a service available to the general public. Why not find a way to subsidize/promote/provide tax advantages to shops specialising in affordable refill options, instead of getting children to work for free?

This sounds like a good idea, with plenty of potential positives, but in practice, I'm worried it would struggle to work: safeguarding would be a problem; time (it couldn't happen during school hours; teachers and all staff are under enough pressure as it is, without additional that this would involve); cost of products to the buyer/consumer - this will only work during a cost of living crisis if products are the same price or cheaper.
I am sad to be negative, but I think this will be a real struggle and strain on resources and people to make this work.

I like the idea but school collection and drop off for me is usually very quick as i need to get back to work and so it probably wouldn't be that convenient in my case. Even on days where i dont have to rush, it can be quite an intense time with parents and childrne everywhere and i find it hard enough just finding my son and egtting out!

If it was outside those times i wouldnt be able to do it because of work commitments

As an old, disabled, single man I find groups of noisy kids intimidating and disturbing. I avoid schools as much as possible. Then there is the suspicion, judgement and hostility from adults directed at single men around children. Siting this scheme in schools is a very bad idea, libraries, churches or council sites would be much better

I would welcome shops selling loose products whih we could use to refill existing containers - as we had during the dreadful years of Thatcherism when so many people lost their jobs and were desperately short of money. Because the products were unbranded and unpackaged and un adverised the prices were more than competitive
Add to this the urgent need to address climate change in any way such stores would be enormously beneficial to all communities
The current refill stores - although admirable - are only for the super rich and the prices reflect this

I would give a cautious thumbs up to this, mainly because it would be such a good way of tapping in to the enthusiasm - and concern for the planet - of school children. I share the reservations that other commenters have about security, forcing teachers to stay late, and so on, but I think we should be giving it a try.

I buy very little from big supermarkets as it is, can't see how there would be anything in this that my family would utilize.
There would have to be organic and eco products that are from small producers rather than big brands who pay their staff poorly, damage the environment and exploit customers for profits.

This is a good concept to try and reduce plastic waste, involving children and a local community facility. The current description suggests it would exclude non-parents or people who work full time / cannot access during school hours. This limitation means it would have limited impact and exclude key communities (including me!). I think it’s important to open to local residents, not just people linked to the school.

I think this is an excellent idea since it will educate children about the need to reduce plastic use to a great a degree as possible as well as getting the message over to their parents.

What the GLA and Mayor should be doing is ensuring that government, local, London and national, efforts to recover the economy are sustainable, in the full sense of the word so including human health protection and improvements. It is clear that the UK government route to economic recovery is based on allowing business development and running to damage human health, as well as curtailing local democracy. Already they have set up very large areas that are business development zone, like free ports but reaching far inland for miles - where for eg environmental and planning protections and rights for community involvement in planning etc decisions are removed to allow commercial interests full rein. The question is what is the GLA going to do to protect London and Londoners from any such attempts by central government. Economic recovery does not have to mean sacrificing human health or environmental protections. The Liz Truss free market approach is a dinosaur with very high costs. How will the Mayor push the right kind of economic recovery?

No, I would not support taking strangers into a school, especially primary/junior. If I had children at a school, yes. We need refill stores WITH LOCAL DELIVERIES, environmentally friendly, as only people with cars can carry the stuff home. Decades ago I used to be able to buy loose flour, grains, dried beans etc locally (centre of London) but the store was taken over by a chain 'health food' store, loose products went, vitamin products arrived. Rents and rates had gone up too much.

Grave concerns around safeguarding. Unclear what the opening hours would be. Most local schools nearby are private schools - Unclear if they would participate. I don't understand the rationale for using schools- why not local community centres with the help of volunteers- this would overcome safeguarding issues

If it is only open during school hours and term times then that would not work for a large number of households, then factor in all the road / parking restrictions around schools these refill shops won’t be viable.