Designing London’s Recovery

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2695 Londoners have responded | 08/09/2022 - 16/10/2022

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Refill shops in schools

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City Hall is supporting innovators to develop solutions to some of the challenges in London.  

One of the innovators is testing refill shops based in schools.  Refill shops are shops where customers can bring in their own containers to refill items rather than buying pre-packaged items. 

The shops will be staffed by children, and will sell hand wash, body wash, laundry liquid, and washing up liquid.  Shops will be open to parents and carers of the pupils, and potentially to local residents.  

The innovators hope that refill shops in a convenient location will encourage parents and carers to reduce plastic waste by shopping there.   

Tell us what you think in the discussion below: 

  • What do you think of this approach?  
  • Would you use a refill shop based in a school near you?  Why or why not? 
  • What would encourage you to shop there? 
  • How else could we encourage refill shopping within the local community?    

The discussion ran from 05 September 2022 - 17 October 2022

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Comments (171)

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I think that it is a very good idea to refill commonly used products, I have refilled my shampoo and body wash containers hundreds of times, the "throwaway single use pumps" are still working perfectly after about six years! The problem for...

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I think that it is a very good idea to refill commonly used products, I have refilled my shampoo and body wash containers hundreds of times, the "throwaway single use pumps" are still working perfectly after about six years! The problem for me is that it is hard to save empty containers and remember them when I go shopping.

I think there are some interesting comments from other people about recycling Glass and aluminium foil. I find it hard to get to know what is actually recycled in Wandsworth.

A much bigger financial incentive would encourage me to remember to take my containers with me, the 5p and 10p carrier bag incentive worked, I think containers ought to have a considerably larger incentive in shops of somewhere between 50p and £1 to make it worthwhile.

In schools I can see the point as it encourages children to understand the value of recycling and reusing, our society really does need to do much more reusing and matchless throwing away after a single use, throwing away when worn out or repairing is much sounder environmentally.

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Avatar for - Colombian spotted frog

Schools is a good idea to teach kids about closed loop systems, so they bring that knowledge home. However, that only hits families with kids, and is restricted to those whose parents are picking 5hem up, due to opening hours
May I suggest...

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Schools is a good idea to teach kids about closed loop systems, so they bring that knowledge home. However, that only hits families with kids, and is restricted to those whose parents are picking 5hem up, due to opening hours
May I suggest town Hall stalls and libraries also? Please do everything you can to keep libraries needed as a going concern. This could really help BUT, and it's a big but: it's got to be cheap. I have my subscriptions etc very carefully chosen online because the of the cost. I am not a middle class person, and cannot (and should not have to) pay a price premium because something is in a recycled brown card box! I also do not have a car, so can't use existing refill shops regularly, since they aren't near where non-middle class people live! This stuff has got to be normalised in to *everyone*s lifestyle.

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It states 'potentially open to local residents'. As a single person with no children it might not be available to me. The idea in itself sounds fine. Also depends on there location in relation to your standard shopping routine. The product...

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It states 'potentially open to local residents'. As a single person with no children it might not be available to me. The idea in itself sounds fine. Also depends on there location in relation to your standard shopping routine. The product would need to be priced so that shoppers can compare , e.g. by weight or by volume or it will become hard to judge how much better or worse value you are getting by shopping this way.

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Avatar for - Monarch butterfly

At a time of economic crisis what is city hall doing wasting money on such projects instead of helping those fighting to keep their heads above water

Avatar for - Tiger

As much as we’d all like to see waste recycled as most of us are aware of the problem I don’t think we help businesses to grow in the recycling world. We shouldn’t be sending our waste abroad for recycling we should be helping businesses to...

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As much as we’d all like to see waste recycled as most of us are aware of the problem I don’t think we help businesses to grow in the recycling world. We shouldn’t be sending our waste abroad for recycling we should be helping businesses to deal with our own waste with tax breaks and planning. Designing it in to the system would be better as we’d be facing up to the problem rather than sending it somewhere else to do it.

Whilst I like the idea of refill shops the ones I have used make it a limited shopping experience, a small range of products that don’t actually suit everyone. I have done it on occasions with food stuff, like olive oil which was a messy experience but acceptable now and again.

Using schools as a location might work but the time used in setting up and putting away will be a large commitment to the school staff and even if a business was to come in and set up etc it still means someone doing more than their full time job.

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Not keen, as I feel like this is limited to parents with kids.

Avatar for - Gorilla

I regularly use our local refill shop. It really isn’t much more expensive and is cheaper for some products. It has helped us cut down our plastic waste and also the glass we send for recycling (which is energy intensive to recycle). The...

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I regularly use our local refill shop. It really isn’t much more expensive and is cheaper for some products. It has helped us cut down our plastic waste and also the glass we send for recycling (which is energy intensive to recycle). The refill shop also has cool products I would never buy in a supermarket eg nuts and dried fruits, which I use to make my own trail mix. For me, a hugely important factor is having good bike parking nearby. Also think more supermarkets having refill stations would be helpful.

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Avatar for - Adelie penguin

In our primary school, space is tight anyway. In addition, parents have to drop at the gate and go (with only occasional exceptions). And, don’t get me started on safeguarding issues!!

For a secondary school. How many parents ever go there...

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In our primary school, space is tight anyway. In addition, parents have to drop at the gate and go (with only occasional exceptions). And, don’t get me started on safeguarding issues!!

For a secondary school. How many parents ever go there!! Kids at that age make their own way. I wouldn’t ask my child to buy stuff for me as they already have a full backpack to drag home (as well as a PE bag).

It’s a completely stupid idea!! No one without kids is going to go into a school.

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Avatar for - Koala

What deters me from buying from ethnic food shops or similar is the fact that they often have all-male staff. That can be intimidating, especially late at night, when most off-licenses are the only shops that remain open.
For instance, I...

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What deters me from buying from ethnic food shops or similar is the fact that they often have all-male staff. That can be intimidating, especially late at night, when most off-licenses are the only shops that remain open.
For instance, I only get kebabs from women-led or family-owned shops. A kebab shop staffed entirely by male staff (and attended entirely by male buyers) puts me off.

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Avatar for - Tiger

I think it’s worth trying. Good way for parents and caregivers to try out concept of refill shopping. Good way for students to understand process of running a ‘business’. Good way for communities to road test the power of group buying to...

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I think it’s worth trying. Good way for parents and caregivers to try out concept of refill shopping. Good way for students to understand process of running a ‘business’. Good way for communities to road test the power of group buying to lower costs and increase convenience. I doubt many people without kids in that school will be attracted in without some real outreach effort into local community though.

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Avatar for - Vaquita

there are no refill shops nearby SE London and using schools will stop those with no children entering, school staff are overworked so can not take this on

Avatar for - Staghorn coral

Refilling definitely seems like a good way to mimimise waste of containers. If some companies could also pay for return of unwanted bottles etc. , that would be an extra motivation for people to collect empty containers.

Avatar for - Amur leopard

It would be fantastic to have refill shops in high streets alongside or better instead of fried chicken or high sugar fast food options. There are many vacant shop locations across London that would offer a refill shop much greater...

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It would be fantastic to have refill shops in high streets alongside or better instead of fried chicken or high sugar fast food options. There are many vacant shop locations across London that would offer a refill shop much greater visibility than being hidden in a school. It would make them hard to find or use by people who don’t have children or children in schools.

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Wouldn't already overstretched school staff have to look at safeguarding issues with random people entering their sites? I suppose if it's out of hours and at weekends it would be fine.

Avatar for -

I love the idea of using a refill shop. Unfortunately the ones i have seen sell their bulk products at a much higher price (even double or more) that the packaged equavalents cost in a supermarket. I would VERY HAPPILY switch to refills if...

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I love the idea of using a refill shop. Unfortunately the ones i have seen sell their bulk products at a much higher price (even double or more) that the packaged equavalents cost in a supermarket. I would VERY HAPPILY switch to refills if the prices were more competitive. I'd potentially even pay slightly more, although it does seem like eliminating the packing and associated manufacturing and transport costs, should also reduce the price of the product.

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Avatar for - Amur leopard

As a retired bachelor with a carer, I can't speak much to recent personal experience, but I have used ethnic shops in the past, and found them fine. The only refill shop I have used in the past is a petrol filling station, and when I had a...

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As a retired bachelor with a carer, I can't speak much to recent personal experience, but I have used ethnic shops in the past, and found them fine. The only refill shop I have used in the past is a petrol filling station, and when I had a diesel car, I also had cans that I would fill from the pump. I don't drive far enough these days to justify the latter.
At home I did fill smaller containers from large purchases, which is on the same principle as refill shops.

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Avatar for - Gorilla

Very good idea! Children can educate parents

Avatar for - Adelie penguin

I have a kid in both primary and secondary, we’re not even supposed to enter the gates!!

Avatar for -

My local refill shop is a small business and visibly struggling and forced to price check against the local big supermarkets despite not buying in bulk and going the extra mile to change behaviour. In recognition of this, I go out of my way...

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My local refill shop is a small business and visibly struggling and forced to price check against the local big supermarkets despite not buying in bulk and going the extra mile to change behaviour. In recognition of this, I go out of my way to redirect my shopping to them whenever I can. But I would like to see local government (Councils and Mayors) supporting businesses like this more given they are leading the way on behaviour change and sustainable alternatives.

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The survey is badly designed - I would like to see more than the 3 items we are allowed to choose in bulk stores. There is no mention of ecological reasons for using them - there were other badly designed questions in there but I can't...

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The survey is badly designed - I would like to see more than the 3 items we are allowed to choose in bulk stores. There is no mention of ecological reasons for using them - there were other badly designed questions in there but I can't remember them, and there was no question at the end to rate or comment on the survey

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Why is the Mayor of London wasting energy on this issue?

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Why is the Mayor of London wasting energy on this issue?

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