M20 Refills
Despite the fact that there are now a wide range of eco-friendly cleaning and personal care products on the market, the majority of them still come in single-use plastic packaging.
This is something that Aaron and Fanni wanted to tackle, and so 8 months ago Aaron found himself posting on the local M20 facebook group to see if there was an appetite for a milkman style reusable bottle delivery service for household products.
The response was really positive, and just 2 weeks later, the couple were making their first deliveries.
“I guess it was a bit of madness”, says Aaron. “We had always wanted to run our own business, and we’d talked about lots of different ideas. We’d spoken before about the fact that a zero-waste shop in South Manchester would go down really well, but business unit rents and set up costs would be really expensive, so we wanted something a bit more manageable”. Add to that the fact that Aaron and his wife both have full time jobs, not to mention a baby on the way!
Every Saturday morning, Aaron sets out to deliver over 200 reusable bottles that have been refilled for customers, and collects the bottles they have emptied. “I think we’ve currently got around 1,200 bottles in circulation, and we deliver about 200 bottles out every week”.
When customers place a first order, they pay a deposit for the first set of bottles they receive, and from there it’s just like the old-style milkman system. You place your next order, and pop your used bottles on the doorstep on the day of the delivery for Aaron to collect when he drops off the new delivery. Aaron and Fanni wash and sterilise every used bottle, refill, and they go out to other customers.
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