Our Story

Hello !

Thanks for reading this far – we hope that this means you are looking for a way to have less single use plastic in your life.

The Refillable Van is an independent family business with a vision to make environmentally friendly, zero waste shopping easy and accessible to everyone.

We took on The Refillable Van in September 2021. Having become overwhelmed by the sheer volume of plastic that was forced upon us with each weekly shop, we were compelled to try and do something to make it easier to shop without plastic and to use more environmentally friendly products.

We only stock products from individuals and brands who share our vision to reduce waste and create a positive environmental impact.

We also strongly believe in supporting small, local producers. This also helps to ensure our (and subsequently your) environmental impact stays as low as possible so we only work with UK based producers and suppliers and have a growing list of Kent based suppliers.

We really want to make a lifestyle with less single use plastic in it, as convenient and accessible as possible, and being mobile means you can find us at various locations including farmers markets and Village pop up refill stations across south east Kent – from Dover/Deal & Sandwich to Ashford to Canterbury to the Isle of Thanet…… we are sure to be near you at some point during the month.

….Or, if none of our current locations are convenient, we will come to your door – when we say convenient we mean convenient! You can book a home shopping slot by contacting us either via the Book Home Shop page, social media or messaging direct.

With the World producing twice as much plastic waste as it did 20 years ago, and only 9% of that global plastic being recycled, we believe that every refilled bottle and plastic free swap makes a difference. Everyone that makes a change to zero waste, no matter how small, makes a positive impact on our environment. No change is too small - every change counts.

We hope to meet you soon.

Sue and Ian