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Ella Shone,
Founder, Top Up Truck
Having worked for the sustainable jam company, Rubies in the Rubble, that collects surplus fruit, Ella Shone was already embedded in the sustainable food community. As the company’s sales manager, she had been fielding requests about how to use refillables, and it made her think more about how to design packaging waste out of the supply chain.

It was while she was volunteering for a local charity as a cycle courier, delivering emergency meals during the lockdown, that Ella, 31 came up with an idea. ‘For me it was a wonderful experience, going around while everyone was in isolation and having these snippets of interaction with people in my community. It made me realise that I wanted to lead a more locally embedded life, and at the same time I realised that I could start something that dealt with plastic waste.’

She bought an old electric milk float, stocked it up with refillable goodies from laundry liquid to seeds and dried fruits, all in giant containers, and drove around her local area in Hackney, east London. She invited people to book her van to their street or estate, then tell their neighbours about it. Now, despite only working three days a week, she has four to five bookings a day with up to 15 customers at a time and, such is the demand, is about to launch a Crowdfunder appeal to build a lockable unit to increase her capacity.

She is not, she admits, entirely plastic free herself; but that was part of the inspiration. ‘I am relatively eco-conscious; I’ve been a vegetarian since I was six and I’ve been thinking about packaging waste for a while. But still, I found that I’d come home from a day at work and just want convenience.’

The point of her truck isn’t really for the die-hard eco warriors out there: it’s for people who like the concept of reducing their waste but have not yet embedded the principles in their lifestyles. ‘What I’m hoping to do is to help people implement small behavioural changes and help them make plastic-free shopping more sustainable within their lifestyles.’

But it’s not the only problem we’ve got. To be honest, I think global warming and climate change is much more urgent,’ she says. ‘But I think the plastic-free movement is a more tangible way to get people involved in the conversation.'

Ella even thinks that the plastic-free story isn’t the complete picture. ‘Plastic waste is an enormous problem and it’s having a hugely detrimental effect on our marine life. 

It’s also about educating her customers – gently. Which is why her next plan is to take her truck to primary schools and nurseries, park up at kicking out time, and ‘enable time-poor parents to shop while they’re collecting their kids. It also means that kids start thinking about their impact on the planet – they’ll see an electric vehicle, they’ll be buying things without plastic and as we will stock fruit and vegetables, they might go for those instead of sweets on the way home.’ JS

Follow Ella on Instagram and find the link to donate to
the Crowdfunder appeal @topuptruck
WORDS JESSICA SALTER | PHOTOGRAPH EDD HORDER