R3Fill will be closing at the end of October 2023.About
About me and why I set up R3-Fill
I'm Cathryn and am the business owner of R3-Fill. I'm married to Paul, a very supportive and patient man, Mum to three wonderful kids, 1 gorgeous dog and am not me without daily gulps of fresh air, dog walks, exercise, food and travel and immersing myself in the countryside. I was brought up to love and respect animals and nature and am increasingly passionate about animal welfare and green issues. They say life comes full circle, and I kind of find myself walking in the shoes of my Grandparents, Mum and Uncle John, who ran a dairy farm in south Wales, delivering milk to their local community.
I started buying from a Zero waste store at the end of 2018 and have been refilling my shampoos, conditioners and bodywashes for the family and a variety of household products since then. Once I started visiting the store, the realisation of what we can all do to help the planet, if we are prepared to change some of our lifestyle and shopping habits, became all too clear. I don't confess to being a 'green goddess,' but I am making a conscious effort to reduce my household's single use plastic waste and I feel much happier knowing that I am using products that have been developed in a sustainable and environmentally friendly way, while being animal friendly too.
The pace of life these days makes a trip to the supermarket a feat in itself. While I know that many people would like to visit a zero waste store, it simply isn't an option because there isn't enough time in the week and there aren't that many about either. This is when I came up with the idea of bringing refilling to people's doorsteps, along the lines of a milk van, and R3-Fill was born. Now people will have greater access to products that are kind to themselves, to animals and the environment. The products have all been tried and tested and shown to be as efficient as their lesser eco-friendly counterparts. All liquid products will be delivered in glass milk bottles and empty bottles collected, keeping the bottles in circulation to be used over and over again and reducing plastic waste in the process.
Recycling is incredibly important and I make every effort to recycle what I can. Since looking in to the statistics of recycling rates, you may also be interested, surprised and possibly alarmed to learn, that despite the United Kingdom being a recycling nation, we recycle just 45% of plastics. That means that 55% of all our plastic waste ends up in landfills, or indeed, the ocean. That includes 15 million 'single use' plastic bottles per day. It takes one tonne of plastic to make 20,000 plastic bottles. And they include anything from a bottle of water, through to your shampoo, washing up liquid and bathroom spray.
We are fed daily reports of climate change, its devastating effects and how we need to act now. We have reached a tipping point and if we fail to act now, it will be a tipping point of no return. An online refill delivery service is a new concept and one that is going to evolve as the business grows. We don't expect to get everything right first time, but I hope many people in the Derby community will join us on our journey to help make it a success. Together, we can make a difference within the UK and our impact, in its own way, will play its own important role globally.
Some quotes by Sir David Attenborough's:
“Right now we are facing a man-made disaster of global scale. Our greatest threat in thousands of years. Climate change.”
“Surely we have a responsibility to leave for generations a planet that is healthy and habitable by all species.”
“If we don't take climate action, the collapse of our civilizations and the extinction of much of the natural world is on the horizon.”
“What we're going to do about 1.5 degrees rise in the temperature of the ocean over the next 10 years, I don't know, but we could actually do something about plastic right now.”
“If you give nature a chance, it recovers... If the world can get together and stop doing it, it will recover. And I am optimistic.”
“Many individuals are doing what they can. But real success can only come if there is a change in our societies and in our economics and in our politics.”