Tom: My plastic free journey

Meeting our customers is one of the best parts of our jobs! We are always inspired by their efforts to go plastic free and love hearing their journeys of how they came to start shopping plastic free and we thought you might do too! It is always inspiring to hear from others and in this brave new world of zero waste and plastic free its great to pick up hints and tips from each other and feel part of a wider community that together will make great change!

Tom has been a super loyal customer of ours. He used to refill at the van when we visited his office at Falmouth Business Park but as we haven’t returned since the pandemic he now orders a plastic free delivery.

Here’s his story:

When I first started refill shopping it took a bit of time getting organised but before long I'd be coming into work every Tuesday afternoon armed with a big rucksack full of empty containers ready to get refilled by Gemma and Jack, along with a bunch of toilet rolls if there was any room left in my rucksack!

When the pandemic hit and the big blue van (for some reason I still picture it as green in my mind, must be something to do with the name!) had to stop operating, Jack started delivering straight to the door which continues to this day. I have to say getting a hold of some second-hand 2 litre plastic containers to refill for washing-up liquid, laundry liquid, fabric softener, shower gel, toilet cleaner etc. early on really helped, I now get them refilled every month or so.

Whenever I'm in the bathroom looking at my old shower gel dispenser (which I refill) I'm horrified to think of how many would have gone to be "recycled" had I continued to buy them rather than getting refills. And this goes for all the other cleaning/bathroom products.

I'd probably say the Bombay mix is my favourite as a treat (although I did sneak a few of the chocolate covered Brazils back in the early days which were delicious). And their olive oil is great!

I will continue to shop with these guys as long as they can deliver, and if they can't, I'll definitely make an effort to track down the big blue van!