FUL L CI RCL E
hamstrung by the legislation, not being able to have as much influence as I wanted to. So I started thinking about what’s causing all the problems that we’re trying to fight, and the answer is consumerism: the pressure, collectively, caused by all of us. So we just went for it: full circle,” she explains, smiling. Johanna’s own career switch coincided with what she describes as a ‘quarter-life crisis’. “I thought I’d rather work for myself and do something that’s really meaningful and that aligns with my ideals. In a workplace you can’t always be yourself,” she says. The trio hadn’t known each other that long before deciding to go into business together, but the road has been smoothly paved so far. “When we started, we’d not known each other for long,” Johanna laughs, “but we just went for it. We work together really well, the three of us.” Emma continues: “All of us are from a science background, so we don’t jealously hang onto ideas: the ideas we have don’t define us. If one of us says ‘No, that’s a really bad idea’, we let it go. It wasn’t until eight or nine months in that we were like…. ‘Oh. That really could have gone wrong!’” Full Circle started life a little over a year ago, trading lifestyle items: the first event took place in Ipswich. “None of us had any experience in retail – it’s been a real learning curve,” Joanna laughs. “We only did events at the weekend, because Emma was still working full time: we collected second-hand items to help build the stall.” Emma shows me a picture of a neat but small stall from their first day trading, with a photo of their current, expansive set-up next to it (you can see this shot for yourself on Full Circle’s Instagram). “That’s an old duvet cover,” says Emma, pointing at the first stall. “The only thing that was new was the table!” The Full Circle offering expanded to include food products and household cleaning solutions, all refillable from the stall on the market. Customers now bring their own containers to refill (though there’s always a small stash of recycled containers available for impromptu purchases), which are weighed before being topped up with lentils, cornflakes,
IMAGES Full Circle’s stall on Cambridge Market offers a range of eco-conscious, sustainable products, from refillable cleaning products and bamboo cutlery to loose pulses, cereals and even sweets
people are really loving the nutritional yeast, plus our oats, pasta, nuts… we also have a lot of UK-grown crops, like quinoa – and we just brought on the first crop of UK-grown chickpeas, from Hodmedod. People who are into sustainability really want to support that innovation and UK growers. We also got some Unsponges that just arrived – they’re fabric, made from recycled materials. We’ve had people asking, but it’s been difficult to find products that tick all our boxes. So that’s been another surprise: suddenly I’m getting excited about sponges…” she laughs. That box ticking is not just ‘box ticking’ per se: Full Circle is extremely scrupulous about the suppliers it works with and the products it stocks. “We can be quite strict,” Emma says. “So – water bottles, for example – because we don’t yet have a bricks-and-mortar shop, some companies won’t supply to us. We want to know about working conditions, we want to make sure it’s not packaged in plastics, or those biodegradable alternatives that still go to landfills. We thought we’d found the perfect water bottle but when it arrived, it was wrapped in biodegradable plastics, so for us that was a no – and we’ve not been able to find an alternative because worker conditions have been a hurdle.”
washing liquid – the list of available products is extensive and ever-growing. “Our initial order was based on a questionnaire, where we asked people what they’d like to get – we had more than 200 responses, and then people kept on asking for different things: chia seeds, linseeds…” Johanna explains. “That’s how we grow. The lifestyle range has expanded in the same way, with people asking for sponges, moisturisers and so on.” Emma adds: “We have a great range of soap bars, shampoo bars, deodorants and balms from Zero Waste Path, or ZWP. They’re our neighbours at the industrial unit where we store our bulk orders, so we have a super-low carbon transfer on ZWP products. We had hot chocolate with them last night! On the food side,
“Full Circle is scrupulous about the suppliers it works with and the products it stocks”
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