FAQ

• Who are Replenish Refills?

Replenish Refills is a Leicestershire-based, family-run business, managed on a day-to-day basis by Raichel Phipps. It is a mobile, plastic-free shop, enabling you to buy food, household liquids and sustainable products without plastic packaging. You can shop with us at one of our regular locations, or arrange for a Doorstep Refill.

• I like the idea of reducing the amount of single-use plastic in my home. How do I start?

Firstly — that's great news! Generally, the best way to start is to look at where you use the most amount of single-use plastics (usually it's the kitchen or the bathroom) and look at what products you are due to run out of next. Then just start looking for an appropriate plastic-free swap for that product (looking at What We Stock is a good place to start!) or look at whether you can refill with a similar product if it is a liquid (again, look at What We Stock). Small steps are generally the best way to get going. It's how we started and we've still got a long way to go!

If you’re not sure how much plastic you are currently using, try doing a bin audit for your recycling and normal rubbish. You’ll soon start to see what your regular offenders are!

• How do I know how much to order?

Good question! I would advise that you consider what quantity the supermarket usually sells that item in, then decide whether you want the same as that, less than that or more than that! For example: sugar typically comes in 500g bags or 1 kg bags; whole almonds typically start at 150g bags, pasta in 500g bags.

• I've heard about Zero Waste shops. What are they?

Zero Waste shops are shops that sell products that are packaging-free and whose goal is to help everyone on the path to living with ‘zero waste’, that's what Replenish Refills is too. As zero waste isn't necessarily a phrase that everyone is familiar with, we chose to make it clear that we're plastic-free. We also ensure that we have as much traceability on our products as possible — which is why we use ethical wholesalers for the majority of our products. Most of the wholesalers we work with also try to deliver without unnecessary packaging or offer a service for us to return our packaging to them to be reused.

• I am allergic to some foodstuffs, can I shop with you?

Please see our allergens notice here. It is also displayed on the van doors. In a nutshell, we have done all that we can to reduce cross-contamination of products, but the decision is ultimately down to you as to whether 'refill' is a good idea in your circumstances.

• Is your food all organic?

As much as we would love to stock 100% organic, this would make plastic-free shopping financially less accessible to all. As a business, our priority is the reduction of single-use plastic in the environment.

• Why do you have some plastic things if you are plastic-free?

The aim of Replenish Refills is to reduce the amount of single-use plastic within our homes and environment. Where we have some plastic within the shop, an explanation is given as to why — for example, PET bottles for bathroom liquids are provided for safety purposes. These are reusable plastic bottles, rather than single-use plastic.

• Why do you use some plastic containers in your van?

Safety and weight limits! As we're driving around the Leicestershire countryside, the more glass containers we have, the greater the risk of breakages — which could then contaminate the food. Vans also have a weight limit, so in order to provide a wide range of products, we need to keep the weight down in any way we can.

• How do your prices compare to the supermarkets?

As a small, local business, we don't have the buying power of the large supermarkets. Also, remember that as well as being plastic-free, our products are also ethically sourced, which means that we aren't really able to compete with the supermarkets on price as we are giving the consumers something different. However, although you may find that some products are more expensive, you'll also find that others are cheaper or about the same price.

Here are some comparisons as an example (prices correct as of 24/01/24). The quality of the food we sell is very high, so it’s not appropriate for me to compare with budget ranges: