In London, grocery store on wheels for junk-free shopping

(AFP) – Apparently, Ella Sean is driving an old milk delivery van through the streets of London.

It actually carries food and household products sold without packaging and without plastic.

Developed last year following the first anti-Govt control, its “top-up truck” or van reloading has not dropped to first orders. He offers his customers legumes, nuts and vinegar or laundry detergent.

On a rainy day in May, the 32-year-old entrepreneur had eight deliveries in the northeast of the British capital. The roaring vehicle is easily mastered and its electric motor struggles to do more than 30 kilometers per hour.

“Driving is so much easier,” he says. “It’s like a co-cart ride, but the steering is hard and it gets very bumpy.”

In front of a building in Hockney County, three customers follow each other to buy dried mango, pasta, grapes and shampoo.

“It’s important to me to make these zero waste mobile stores more accessible and visible and to encourage people to use them,” Ella Sean explains.

In April 2020, during his first imprisonment, he admits, “When the idea came to me, I went crazy after becoming technically unemployed.”

But she soon decided to invest her savings in buying a truck found online in an effort to create a “more social shopping experience”.

The project was launched last August. Its customers can book the tour online for delivery and refill their containers directly from the boxes or liquid distributors located at the back of the track.

According to the “Nostalgia” show of “milkmen” who are new milk providers well known to the English since the late 19th century, the vehicle is pollution free and doorless.

Ella Sean believes that “there is a lot to do openly at the corporate and government level, but also at the consumer level” to reduce plastic use.

– “Awareness” –

According to Greenpeace, the British are the second largest plastic consumer in the world after Americans.

According to a January study by Greenpeace and another NGO, the EIA (Environmental Intelligence Agency), the ten largest supermarket chains in the UK cut their plastic footprint by 1.6% in 2019 despite promises.

Every show is optimistic.

“During epidemics, we tried a little too much for a single application, for fear of reusing anything that could lead to the spread of the virus,” he notes. “But against the grain, awareness of environmental responsibility is also growing, and a lot of people have noticed the amount of single-use masks in parks.”

In April, he was able to raise ,000 15,000 (, 17,300) through a crowded campaign that would allow him to add shelves to his truck.

Aside from the importance of initiatives like hers, Ella Shawn is in favor of a general ban on single-use plastics.

“There are many areas where plastic is completely unnecessary and the government does not impose rules on what companies are allowed to do,” he said. “Recycling infrastructure is not enough.”