"And on the way back, we can visit the Ecover Pop-Up shop and get a free coffee" said Liz, as we pushed the buggy through Borough Market. There's a car/van hire place, which usually looks pretty seedy, on the site of an old petrol station, which had been transformed for a couple of days. As we approached we saw old car tyres painted in pastel hues, filled with plants- and people at picnic tables drinking coffee and chatting.
"Welcome to the Refillution" said the sign. A team of cheerful people were explaining all about the benefits of using refillable containers - not just for takeaway coffees, but also for household products like shampoo, washing up liquid, etc.
Did we know about ecover products already? Yes we did. Do we use them? Sometimes.
Since writing yesterday's post, I found the Big Issue which I bought to read on the bus and left in my shopping bag. It has a whole section on B Corp. The co-founder of BI was Gordon Roddick [of The Body Shop] and he was an early adopter of B Corp recognition. The magazine has a helpful list of B Corp companies. Some of these you may recognise- Tea Pigs
- Oddbox [veg boxes using surplus/wonky priduyce]
- Divine Chocolate
- Charlie Bigham's Pies
- Charity Bank
- WOB - aka World of Books - buy/sell 2nd hand books
- Little Soap
- Cheeky Panda [bamboo products]
- Big Issue
- Ella's Kitchen [recycle their babyfood pouches]
- Danone
- Ben&Jerry's
- Gousto [now working with anti hunger charity Foodshare]
Refill, re-use, recycle... and be good, be thoughtful be aware
What kind of world am I leaving for my grandchildren? How can I help cause less damage and make good some of the problems we have caused?
Sounds like a good endeavour they are doing tyi create awareness. The only thing with Ecover is, since they were taken over by one of the big conglomerates (can't remember when and which), their credentials aren't as good and I just read an article on IG on how they are one of the worst palm oil sourcers which us sad as they've been a refill company for a good while which has been a great side of them. When I go to Northumberland, I fill up on Washing up liquid as the 2 shops there have Sesi and Minimal which are reasonable refill brands.
ReplyDeleteYou've always been very careful with resources. Setting an example got decades!
Ecover claims to use sustainable palm oil - but yes, both Ecover and Method are now owned by multinational SCJohnson - so you're right, they are linked to an outfit which has some 'dubious' eco credentials.
DeleteI, too, buy various products like my dish washing soap and laundry detergent in large containers and then, decant to smaller containers for daily use. The larger containers get recycled, eventually.
ReplyDeleteBut we can only do this if we have space to store the big containers. People in tiny flats/apartments do not have the choice.
DeleteIt's a pity that more products can't be regularly supplied from filling stations in the supermarket instead of only at specialist locales. We had an Eco-shop open during the pandemic and I haven't been in there yet. During the pandemic we had various lockdowns so I never got round to it. I'm cautious about using different detergents for laundry. I used to make my own but over a long period it seemed that my whites became a lot less than white and using a dingy towel is rather depressing as it doesn't seem clean.
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