By Neil Vaughan
It’s a sign of the times! The kids are marching en masse, trying to get our leaders off their hands. Educated youth are forfeiting lucrative corporate careers and opting for environmental activism. Not the kind of armchair activism that sees miles of comments on social media posts, but the kind with a more direct response to the need to for a zero waste world.
Two sisters, Claudine and Raphaelle Lagier from Roving Refills, have set up their own version of a food truck. But they don’t sell sweets or treats. These waste-conscious ladies sell refills of natural cleaning products to the community, including toxin-free soaps, detergents, shampoo, borax and vinegar.
Zero waste fans line-up and fill-up their good ol’ BYO containers, just like our grandparents, and all the generations before the cheap plastic boom. Roving Refills are helping to negate the mountains of waste our councils are trying to palm off to developing nations.
Claudine Lagier, 34, said the Roving Refills idea came to her during a sustainable-entrepreneur unit for her Masters in environmental management. Reusing doesn’t produce any emissions, whereas collecting plastic recyclables from homes and melting them down still emits plenty of carbon emissions; not really a long term solution.
The Roving Refill sisters are making a splash and getting the attention of the likes of The Age, Planet Ark, Zero Waste Victoria and now the House of Wellness Show on Channel 7, who caught up with the sisters at the Slow Food Melbourne Farmers’ Market last Saturday to document their efforts.
Find out where they’ll be via their socials @rovingrefills or visit rovingrefills.com.au
