On Saturday June 6th we celebrated 4 years of refilling from our shop in Faringdon with cake and our community. As well as sharing our joy in-store we also headed over to Faringdon’s Great Big Green Day to share the news of the impact our Faringdon tribe has made in those 4 years. So, if you didn’t catch us at either event here’s how we’re doing.
The impact
Based on sales data from April 2022 to May 2026, Tribe Zero-Waste customers have helped achieve:
- 1.769 tonnes of plastic avoided across refills, dry goods and dairy — equivalent to the weight of 22 adults
- 37,000+ plastic bottles and containers saved through liquid refills
- 59,600+ bags and boxes avoided through loose goods sales
- 19,133kg of loose goods (nuts, oats, pasta, dried fruit and more) sold without single-use packaging
- 1,179 recycling bags full of plastic — never filled
- 5+ recycling bags full of plastic avoided every single week
The figure includes 425kg of plastic saved by selling milk, cream and yoghurt in returnable glass containers produced at Berkeley Farm organic dairy at Wroughton near Swindon.
Source: Loyverse POS sales data, April 2022–May 2026. Plastic weights based on typical UK supermarket HDPE/PET packaging equivalents. Full methodology available on request.
A word from our founder Katie :
“We really couldn’t have achieved this without the support of our local community and online customers all of whom enable us to keep offering more sustainable ways to shop.
When I started this as a once a month pop-up shop in Wantage I never dreamed that one day I would be doing it full time and we’d have made the impact we have in our local area. It’s such a joy that we have been able to build our tribe in a way that enables us to offer more refill and plastic-free alternatives. The more you refill and shop with us the more able we are to keep our space on the high street and make more of an impact. It really is a ripple effect.
I’m truly grateful to every person who has filled a bottle or bought their shopping loose here – it just shows how much more we can achieve together. It’s a tough time for high street retail but the fact we are still here four years on shows the passion of our community to shop in a way that helps our planet.”
Our Background
Katie was inspired to set up Tribe Zero-Waste back in 2018 after being introduced to the founders of Oxford’s SESI organisation which sells refills of household cleaning products such as washing detergent. Learning from them that every piece of plastic ever made still exists she knew she had to do something.
As there were no places to shop for refills in her local area she decided to start a once-a-month pop-up with just a table and 20 products at The Mix, Wantage’s community space. The first event had queues out the door and she was soon being asked to pop-up all over the county.
After four years of pop-ups, local deliveries and weekly markets across Oxfordshire — and through Covid, when the team offered a local delivery service packed in compostable and recyclable materials — Katie was able to open Tribe Zero-Waste’s first permanent retail space in Faringdon in June 2022 thanks to Oxford City Council and Makespace Oxford’s Meanwhile in Oxfordshire scheme.
With the continued support of the local community our range and the team began to grow and within two years we outgrew our first premises and moved across town to our current home at 7a Marketplace.
We’re so excited to see what the next four years brings and what difference we can make. If you want to start your refill journey and join the tribe you can visit our Faringdon Refill shop at 7a Marketplace Faringdon, order online for local or national delivery or visit us once a month at the Wolvercote Community Market.