Support Refillabell, Watford’s first REFILL store

Aim

We aim to open a zerowaste REFILL store, sourcing sustainable products + non plastic packaging, making it easier to live a plastic free life

Who are the Refillabell Team?

We are a dedicated team of three who are passionate about reducing the amount of plastic in our lives, on our planet and in our oceans.

We are...Sameer Kassam - pharmacy manager at Abell Chemist, whose brilliant idea literally ‘lit’ the fire in the first place. Vishal Jain - a ‘Bushey Dad to be’ who has had first hand experience of running a zero waste business. Jane Hopkins - an Oxhey gardener and allotment holder who has, 'seen the light’. It’s not about recycling, it’s about not using plastic in the first place!

What is the problem?

Plastic is the problem-with only 9% of all plastic EVER produced being recycled(UN Environment),our lives, oceans and landfills are full of  plastic. Most consumer products are wrapped, packaged or contained in single use plastic, and this is not a sustainable situation. 

What do we want to do?

Our vision is to provide a friendly and local shopping experience that is fun, at the same time as helping out the planet. You will be able to bring your own containers into the shop, and fill them up with as much or as little as you need, bypassing the plastic packaging dilemma!

We aim to sell produce that is high quality, ethically produced and from sustainable sources, including organic and British produce. We also aim to ensure a sustainable supply chain throughout the process. Products include pasta, grains, seeds, baking  ingredients, dried fruits, nuts, savoury snacks and some sweets! We also intend to sell oils and vinegars. Our household cleaning products will be in large plastic drums, but by using a ‘loop system ’, the manufacturers will collect the old containers and refill them, returning them to us for you to use.

How we would like to spend any money that you donate...

Product Containers

We want to display and dispense our products using gravity bins (fixed to the wall), and scoop bins, (on a shelf). They keep food fresh and hygienic. However they retail at £50-£80 per container. We will need at least 60 of various sizes. If you do the maths, we are looking at nearly £5000 for bins.

Peanut Butter Machine 

We would love to make our own nut butters - especially peanut butter. Imagine being able to make your own jar of fresh peanut butter to take home and spread on toast for breakfast. Fantastic! But here’s the rub - peanut butter machines are very expensive! We are looking at almost £3000 for the model that we would like to purchase, made in Australia but supplied from France!

Coffee Grinder 

Continuing on the breakfast theme, we would also like to grind fresh coffee from beans, and we need to purchase a good quality coffee grinder for this purpose.

Oven for Baking

We would love to be able to do some baking in our shop - after all we would have all of the dry ingredients at hand. Imagine walking into Refillabell as a batch of cookies or scones are cooling on the rack. Yummy!

Fridge for keeping perishable items.

Having a fridge would allow us to store milk for a cup of tea, but also in the future to have the flexibility to stock perishable items, such as tofu or hummus.

So you can see, we have an endless number of items that we would like to buy, in order to bring you the unique shopping experience, that is REFILLABELL!  

Our overall aim is to make it easier for you to do your everyday shopping - without the plastic! 

With 79% of all plastic ever made ending up in the natural environment, it's time to act. (Source: UN Environment)

               Help us to help you!         Support Refillabell

This project successfully funded on 31st October 2020