Milton Keynes mum starts business to make a better world
A mother who is concerned about the kind of world her children will grow up in has launched a new business to do something about it.
Mum of three Karen Jouet, 37, of Milton Keynes, has launched My Refill Market with the aim of doing her bit to reduce the amount of plastic waste.
The idea behind My Refill Market is simple: a market stall that has no plastic packaging. It is where customers bring their own container and fill them up with basic foods such as pasta, rice, beans, sugar, flour, spices, etc.
But it is not only about selling plastic free goods; Karen is also passing on hints and tips for people on how to reduce plastic in their daily routine and be more conscious how much impact we are making on the planet.
“I use the motto ‘Refuse, Reuse, Reduce, Recycle, Rot’,” said Karen. “To make a difference on this critical issue we have to refuse to buy what we don’t really need, reuse what we already have or by buying second hand, reduce our consumption, recycle as much as we can and rot everything else.”
Karen, who is a native of France, said: “Doing things differently is now a necessity when we know that by 2050 we will have more plastic than fish in our oceans. I believe that if you are not a part of the solution, you are part of the problem and that is something I didn’t want to live with.
“My concern started eight years ago when I was about to give birth of our first baby son and soon realised that I wasn’t ready to cope with such an amount of waste we were about to produce when having a baby. I then bought my first set of cloth nappies.”
“We are not living a zero waste life yet but we are reducing step by step the amount of waste our family is producing by doing some very easy swaps in our daily life. Now I want to help others do their bit.”
You can find Karen’s My Refill Market at Olney Market every Thursday; Newport Pagnell Farmers’ Market on every third Friday of the month; Stony Stratford Farmers Market every last Friday of the month; Wolverton Community Farmers market, every first and third Saturday of the month; and Stony Stratford Timor Court weekly market, every 2nd, 4th and 5th Saturday of the month
Make contact on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/myrefillmarket/