A Rocking Refill Eco-Shop

Buttsbury Primary School is the home of our second RotaKids club and also a Corporate member of the Rotary Club of Billericay.  So we were delighted when the headteacher contacted us to tell us about a new environmental initiative at the school.

Rocking Refills

Buttsbury Primary School’s Rocking Refill Eco-Shop returned on Thursday May 7.  A one-stop shop where one is able to purchase environmentally friendly household products such as bubble bath, shower gel, shampoo and washing up liquid.

Customers come along with their own refillable bottles rather than purchasing pre-packaged products available to us all everywhere in the shops, and fill them up from the large containers in the shop, manned by the schoolchildren.

Saving Landfill

The main objective of the shop is to support the school community in reducing the amount of plastic waste generated and sent to landfill. This is the third time the shop has opened and each time the number of sales has increased with over forty taking place on this occasion. As a result of these sales, it is estimated that the school has saved the equivalent of sixty 500 ml. bottles from going to landfill.

Once the shop is closed, the eco and entrepreneurial awareness isn’t finished. The children have to take responsibility for conducting a stocktake, uploading sales data and ordering new stock to ensure that the shop will have the products the customers require for the next sale.  In addition to this, they also need to package and return the five litre dispensing bottles so that they are able to be reused rather than disposed of as garbage.

Generating a Profit

Like any business, the children are determined to generate a profit from their shop and they have the intention of reinvesting this to create more natural habitats throughout the school to increase bio-diversity.
After the successes seen on the Junior site with the shop, the Eco-Team are looking forward to introducing it to their younger friends at the infant site soon.