As with almost every aspect of all of our lives, the Covid-19 pandemic has unfortunately affected the way we have had to roll this business out, particularly with the liquid refill service.
Our initial plan was to be able to refill liquids on our delivery ‘loop’, which would have been the most convenient to way for you access this service. However, given that this involves us handling containers from different homes and with no reasonably practical way for us to efficiently wash our hands in between, the idea has had to be shelved (for now).
So, in the interim all refill activity will take place at Local Loop Clowne HQ (i.e. Kim & Mark’s house) and we just wanted to offer some reassurance around the extra safety precautions that we are taking.
Kim has recently attended a webinar specifically covering the measures that Zerowaste and Refill businesses are advised to take in order to operate safely and within government guidance.
- Social distancing: The contactless drop off box for empty containers will ensure that you can safely get your containers to us. If you choose the click & collect option, we have outlined a few rules to keep both parties safe when you call to collect. If you are having your containers delivered to your house, they will be left on the doorstep for you, rather than handed over in person.
- Staff hand hygiene: Working from home will allow us to wash our hands thoroughly in between handling containers from different households.
And that’s the current advice met! According to the World Health Organisation, transmission from surface contact is virtually nil, in fact, as yet there are no recorded cases.
However… we’re taking some extra precautions for added peace of mind. (Kim formerly worked in the Bassetlaw hospital aseptic manufacturing suite, so knowing how to prevent cross-contamination is somewhat ingrained!)
So, refills will strictly be processed one household at a time and surfaces/bulk containers will be cleaned in between with professional grade sanitiser spray. After your containers have been filled and labelled, they will be sprayed with the same sanitiser and left for a couple of minutes before being dried with a clean cloth. With freshly washed hands, they will be placed back into your own bag and the bag handles will be wiped down too.
So, as long as you stick to your side of the hand washing deal once you’ve unpacked your containers at home, that’s both of us safe!
One last point to make on the subject… There have been endless cases of over-cautious switches back to single-use packaging during the pandemic; despite the fact that government regulations don’t advise against re-usable options. So, true our low-waste values our deliveries will be made in re-used cardboard boxes. These will have been in ‘quarantine’ for 7 days for extra precaution and you can choose to either take the box from us to re-use yourself or you can simply remove your items and we will use it again the following week 🙂