Following the success of the first wave of School Eco Refill Shops over the last 12 months, there are now a further 15 schools running their own small business, selling a range of environmentally friendly refill products across Greater Manchester.
During September and October last year, education establishments across Greater Manchester were invited by their Local Authority network to apply for funding to run their own School Eco Refill Shop, joining the 10 schools who were part of the pilot programme last year. The shops are run with Pupils Profit, an ethical enterprise, helping schools across the UK to creatively reduce single-use plastic.
GMCA and colleagues from Greater Manchester local authorities, evaluated all the applications received and with additional funding from Salford City Council and Suez recycling and recovery UK, enabled 15 schools to come on-board and host their own shop for the next 12 months.
Benefits to running a school eco refill shop
In addition to promoting the reuse and refill of 500ml bottles and reducing unnecessary plastic waste, running an Eco Refill Shop in schools has shown many additional benefits. These include skills used to run a small business, using their maths and to calculate stock and English and artistic talent to advertise and promote their shops. Teaching staff have also noticed a boost to their pupils’ confidence and social skills as they navigate having to be part of an Enterprise Team and learning how to speak confidently with other people, especially in the wider school community.
By encouraging more people to reuse and refill containers on a daily basis, together we can all have an impact on reducing the amount of waste we produce. By introducing Eco Refill Shops in schools, young people are trained to run a small business where they apply for employment roles, learn about finances and how to take money and how to market and promote their product range.
Fifteen new school shops now opening!
All of the schools have completed their ‘pre-launch’ training modules and have worked hard to promote their first shop opening for the end of January and the beginning of February.
Brookburn Primary School Eco and Rights Respecting Councillors are taking part in the Eco Refill project with huge enthusiasm and launched their shop on 31st January with some excellent marketing.
Marland Primary School, Rochdale, reported their children using their mathematical knowledge to work-out profit margins and costings as a whole, ensuring their pricing is in line with what other shops are charging. Their team have worked on creating a purposeful marketing campaign including parent letters for their launch on 28th January. Their first shop opening went very well and was attended by Councillor Tricia Ayrton (deputy leader and cabinet member for climate change, and environment) and Councillor Rachel Massey who brought along some of their own plastic containers for refilling with products from the Marland ECO Mart. The children will be applying for their Green Blue Peter Badges.
Mellor Primary School, Stockport reported how enthusiastic the children are and that some have been looking into website design once they’ve decided on a name. They launched on 30th January and reported that it was great and stressful in equal measures and have certainly learnt a lot for their next opening.
Pear Tree High School, Stockport reported their students being really excited to open at the end of February and that their shop is called “Spicy Pears – The Eco Refill Shop”.
Milton St John Primary School, Tameside reported that all of the children were very excited and loved smelling the samples given and have tried hard to work well as a team to earn profit points. They launched ‘ECO Earth Refill Shop’ on 29th January and were keen to ensure that they included working parents in their sales, so allowed advance ordering and payment via the school payment system. The children were great – one child who is normally very quiet shone with customers.
Gilnow Primary Schools, Bolton, launched “Gilnow ECO Refill” on 29th January and sold about £50 worth of refills with support from by parents and staff.
St Peters CE Primary School, Salford, launched ‘St Refillables’ on 30th January, they reported that it went “amazingly!”. The children involved absolutely loved it with a nice steady stream of parent customers, but not too busy, which was good, as it allowed them to get the hang of it, but the children were brilliant and the customers very happy.
St Wilfrids CE Primary in Wigan launched ‘St Wilfrid’s Sustainable Station’ on 30th January, and reported that it was amazing and that they’d “practically sold out so need to do a stock order!”
St Augustines Primary School in Salford launch ‘St As Incredible Refill’ on 31st January. They took about £150 in sales and reported that it went very well.
St Peter’s RC Primary School in Rochdale, launched ‘Warriors against Waste’ on Monday 3rd February. They reported “an amazing launch! The children were wonderful, they oozed confidence and were proud to speak about the different modules they had been completing since December”.
Sale Grammer School reported that 25 x Year 12 students have attended training and that they were all really well-engaged and have some great ideas as to how to take the business forward. They launched ‘SGS Replenish’ on 29th January. The students worked well as a team to sell their products and hope to trade again very soon. They made about £85 of sales in 30mins so a good start!
The Divine Mercy RC Primary School, Manchester, launched ‘Jurassic Plastic’ on Wednesday 5th February. They reported a brilliant start, with the children absolutely loving the launch of their shop and felt really empowered. They were a bit worried about the filling of bottles but it happened so naturally and every time the children reached 500ml exactly (which happened most of the time actually) they let out a big cheer.
Welcome to our new schools
We are very pleased to announce and be supporting the following 15 new schools and their business names joining our rollcall of 25 Greater Manchester School Eco Refill Shops:
- Gilnow Primary School, Bolton – “Gilnow ECO Refill”
- Walmsley C.E. Primary School, Bolton
- Brookburn Primary School, Manchester – “ECO Encouragement for Brookburn”
- The Divine Mercy Primary School, Manchester – “Jurassic Plastic – We’ll make Plastic History!”
- Marland Hill Community Primary School, Rochdale – “Marland Ecomart”
- St Peter’s Primary School, Middleton, Rochdale –“St Refillables”
- Dukesgate Academy (Primary School), Salford – “D.A.R.E. Dukesgate Academy Refill Emporium”
- St Augustine’s CE Primary School, Salford – “St A’s Incredible Refill”
- St Paul’s CE Primary School, Salford
- St Peter’s Primary School, Salford – “St Peter’s Eco-Refill Station”
- Mellor Primary School, Stockport
- Pear Tree High School, Stockport – “Spicy Pears – The Eco Refill Shop”.
- Milton St Johns C of E Primary School, Tameside – “ECO Earth Refill Shop”
- Sale Grammar School, Trafford – “SGS Replenish”
- St Wilfrid’s CE Primary Academy, Wigan – “‘St Wilfrid’s Sustainable Station
The Eco Refill Shop pilot has demonstrated the importance and success of refilling and reuse in schools and their wider community, in recognition of this, Salford City Council and waste and resources company SUEZ recycling and recovery UK have made a financial donation to the programme, helping to ensure more schools in Greater Manchester can also get started with their shops this November. SUEZ operate the GMCA waste contracts in Greater Manchester.
Further information on Refill in Greater Manchester
There is so much more going on in the region to help people reuse and refill every day. Visit the Green City Refill page for inspiration and information: Refill Greater Manchester | GMGreenCity
For additional information on the School Eco Refill Shops: Greater Manchester School Eco Refill Pilot (gmgreencity.com)
