Little Green Refills Abergavenny's Zero Waste Shop

Aim

Please support us in bringing zero waste shopping to Abergavenny , cutting down on the amount of plastic pollution entering our ecosystem.

We live in one of the most beautiful places in the world and we are passionate about preserving our local area and the planet as a whole.  At Little Green Refills we have been trading for 10 months, so far we have seen huge growth expanding from one market a week to up to ten a week with our delivery service going from strength to strength. Within a few months of trading we won the Monmouthshire Business Awards' "Green" Category. This confirms for us that there are lots of people out there who really want to make a difference and value our little business.  

The time has come for us to grow further in order to be able to provide our customers with more choice and more options. We want to reach more customers and ultimately limit the amount of plastic that ends up in the ocean and our ecosystem, waste which threatens marine life and ultimately human health. Our aim has always been to make zero waste shopping as accessible as possible and  by opening a zero waste shop in Abergavenny where all products come without packaging we can offer more options to more people. Customers can dispense any amount into reusable containers which they can bring from home or pick up in the shop. Let's also think more than a shop - a place to meet and talk over ideas and suggestions (maybe a monthly Zero Waste Club), a place for workshops, a place for "Not a Tupperware Party" parties!, a place to pick up and share new recipes, maybe to try new recipes and maybe sample a tea or coffee in your reusable cup ! We want to work with other local businesses to make this a real hub of activity. 

As humans we thrive on convenience; the pre-made sandwich from the supermarket, individually wrapped snacks or bottled water. We’ve lived with this convenience since plastic became a mainstream commodity, but now it’s taking its toll on the planet. In fact many of the things that exist to make our lives more convenient, or to save us money, are having a negative effect on the planet. Every year between 4.8 and 12.7 million tonnes of plastic enters our oceans - that's the equivalent of two bin lorries full every minute! (Ellen MacArthur Foundation and Jambeck et al.)  However this is just an estimate, and is likely to be much, much higher. Very recent research has also shown that plastic is found in sea creatures in some of the furthest reaches of the oceans (Jamieson et al.) nearly 11 km below the surface. Thinking much closer to home, micro-plastics have just been found on the top of Snowdon thought to have been deposited there by rainfall.

Even though some plastic can be recycled only  9% globally actually makes it to this end, either because of mismanagement or because the technology isn't available. So even if you can claim that you recycle and therefore don’t need to do anything else, there is a high probability that the waste you recycled gets sent to landfill. Furthermore, the energy required to clean, separate and melt it (to form a lower quality product - downcycling) is unsustainable and so it makes sense to just cut it out from the beginning.   Do we really need our bananas like this?

There is currently no viable scientific solution to remove plastic from the ocean, there is only one realistic solution: TO SLOW DOWN FURTHER PRODUCTION OF UNNECESSARY SINGLE-USE PLASTIC. This doesn't just mean plastic cutlery or coffee cups, but also the plastic surrounding almost every product you buy from a supermarket.

Our mission at Little Green Refills is to raise awareness of the alternative methods to reduce our plastic footprint by starting with buying as many products as possible without packaging.  We therefore want to open a zero waste shop where customers can buy all of our existing products plus a wide range of popular dried foods all without waste or packaging.  All products will be dispensed into containers that you bring from home. There will also be an option to buy reusable containers from us, use supplied paper bags or take containers from our 'free to a good home' section.

How will shopping with Little Green Refills be an advantage?

By helping to fund us and using our shop you will be:

• Putting less plastic waste in your bin - and limiting it entering the environment.
• Saving money because you won't be paying for packaging (almost a fifth of your shopping bill goes towards packaging!).
• Not wasting food because you can buy as much or as little as you need meaning you can try new ingredients without having to buy big bags full (another money saver!).
• Customers will be able to come in and buy the exact amount of ingredients that they need, meaning those who struggle to put food on the table every night will be able to buy single portion amounts, allowing them to afford all the ingredients needed for that meal.
• Getting super fresh ingredients like peanut butter and coffee ground by yourself in store, along with fruit juices from our juicer! (if we find enough funding).
• Helping save the planet and marine wildlife.
• Helping to keep toxic chemicals out of your home and off your dinner plate.
• Join a community of like-minded people all wanting to make a difference.  We intend to hold events bringing people together, learning new skills and joining forces with other local businesses to strengthen our community.
• Reinventing your kitchen storage space without being relentlessly targeted with marketing every time we enter our kitchen (see image below)
• Supporting your town, a local business (run by two local Mums) and other local makers and producers.
• Reducing your own carbon footprint

How it will work?

Whichever container you decide to use (cotton produce bags, jars, bottles, paper bags or tupperware) just follow the simple process below:

Our new shop will not only benefit customers that visit us in Abergavenny, but also all of our market and home delivery customers.  Having a shop and storage space (that isn't a shed in Ellen's Garden) means that we can stock so many more products (in particular an additional range of dried foods) and means that we will be able to offer these products to you if you choose a delivery option.  So now your £5 delivery fee will also allow us to deliver food products adding extra value to your shop.

Why we need your help?

Little Green refills is a small, local, independent business which we set up using our own funding, without any external support. Even though the business has been going from strength to strength, we have been reinvesting and growing to offer more and more to our customers, however there still is not quite enough to make a shop become a reality.  We passionately believe that shopping this way needs to be accessible and affordable and in order to achieve this we need some help funding it.

We want to make the shopping experience as convenient as possible by having a user-friendly scale system and a wide range of products. As such we will need to invest in:

• A scale and till system which ensures the best customer experience  - approx, £4500
• Shop fitting to provide a practical and pleasant shopping environment- approx. £1500
• Gravity Dispensers and scoop bins which provide the most hygienic and convenient way of dispensing bulk products - approx, £3600.00
• Initial Bulk Food Order - approx, £2000
• Painting, Decorating and Signage - approx, £1000
• Legal Fees - approx, £1400

This is a total of £14,000

Risks & Challenges

 Although the amount we are trying to raise seems like a lot, please don't forget that we will have to pay a fee to the crowdfunding host, VAT on any pledges that are made and the cost of the rewards themselves. 

One of our major challenges has been actually finding the perfect retail space in the perfect location, but we have done that and will announce the location very soon (once some boring legal bits have been finalised!!).

The main reason regular supermarkets are able to attract many customers is through their extremely wide variety of products under one roof. In order to increase our positive impact further, we must also provide an extensive product range so that shoppers come to our zero waste shop over their regular supermarket. We need to ensure that we invest in a wide variety of products and as many dispensers as possible. Furthermore we would love to add higher ticket price equipment such as nut butter grinders, orange juicer and coffee grinder.   All of the above however, requires a large amount of investment, which is why we need your help.

This project successfully funded on 4th April 2020