{"id":215,"date":"2021-03-25T20:01:00","date_gmt":"2021-03-25T20:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev.seethechange.ca\/?post_type=spotlight&p=215"},"modified":"2022-03-17T16:04:32","modified_gmt":"2022-03-17T16:04:32","slug":"the-nickel-refillery","status":"publish","type":"spotlight","link":"https:\/\/seethechange.ca\/fr\/spotlight\/the-nickel-refillery\/","title":{"rendered":"The Nickel Refillery"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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The Nickel Refillery is a zero-waste community hub and retail store in Sudbury offering package-free foods, ingredients, and DIY products. It hosts regular workshops, offers dish rentals and has an Energy Exchange program that is fueled by passionate and committed zero-wasters. It places value on all zero waste efforts, including innovation, teamwork, humility, and community level impact.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Interview with Liz Anawati, Owner\/Founder of The Nickel Refillery
By Diamyn Lauzon, NORDIK Institute<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. What inspired you to start your work and create The Nickel Refillery?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve spent over a decade working in the local emergency department as a registered nurse, and that\u2019s where all of this really started. As you can imagine, medical waste is significant. I was in a position where I wanted to recycle as many bottles as I could, however, I started finding out we didn\u2019t really recycle things and began wondering where it was going when it left the department. The breaking point was when we had ordered lunch and received packs of forks and knives and wet naps\u2026I wondered why send all this waste\u2026what a waste of resources and money. This waste highlights a gap between what actions can and need to be taken to maintain a healthy community and what people\u2019s expectations are in terms of convenience. I started paying more attention to this, asking myself, what happens to all this stuff? What can we do about it? What are we doing about it? We decided to fill this gap and give the community the tools they needed to reduce waste by opening The Nickel Refillery on October 5th, 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. What is the motivation behind your social enterprise?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think a big part of the motivation is that there\u2019s been very little in our world that has been untouched by single-use plastic. It\u2019s not just in our oceans, it\u2019s in our fresh water, in our creeks \u2013 it\u2019s in Junction Creek. I think if anyone takes a close look at the shores around Sudbury they\u2019re going to see all the microplastics building up there. Now that I have two children, I have a reason to pay attention to what their future is going to look like, and I have a responsibility to do something about it. We all do. We all need to create a better future for those who are about to inhabit it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another part is that I really enjoy bringing the community together. I think Sudbury needs these community spaces, these hubs, that inspire hope and humanity and growth in a safe way. Even though what we do can sometimes be seen as radical, it\u2019s done in a very safe, soft, kind way. I think anybody, from any walk of life, can relate to it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. Who do you hope to reach and impact?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think the target audience is everyone. It really is. I really hope The Nickel Refillery can grow to be that one-stop-shop for people to come to get everything they need while being mindful of waste.  I tell people you really don\u2019t need to aim for perfection when it comes to zero-waste. There\u2019s no point. No one can be perfect in the system we have, we\u2019re a product of the tools we have. What we can do though, is provide some of those tools to help you (as us) eliminate some of the waste. I hope that we can touch everyone in some way \u2013 whether it\u2019s dish soap, or an ingredient to make hand cream, or whatever it is \u2013 I just hope everyone can find a place there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Overall, we\u2019re trying to rethink the norms. We\u2019ve all been taught Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, but it\u2019s also about refusing to accept new things or things that we don\u2019t have use for, and paying more attention to our intentions throughout the day. It\u2019s not about being mindful all the time, we are all human \u2013 it\u2019s not about perfection. It really comes down to being a little more mindful of what we\u2019re using, where it goes, what we\u2019re doing with it, and asking, do we need it and why do we need it? I hope that we can help people become a little more aware of the day-to-day choices and make some kind of difference in the community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4. Would you consider yourself a social entrepreneur?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes. This work is a passion and worth doing to improve and support the community I live in. I try to remind myself daily, \u201cwhat can I do better? How can we improve?\u201d This work is something that\u2019s going to make an impact locally, and not just in terms of waste but in terms of community. I\u2019ve always encouraged those intentions with all my employees, right down to the volunteers we have. They all carry those same intentions. We are a social enterprise, and so, I am a social entrepreneur.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5. Does this term, social entrepreneur, resonate with you? Why or Why not? What words or phrases might you connect with more?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Social Enterprise\u2019 sounds so stuffy. I\u2019ve always used the term \u2018community space\u2019 for The Nickel Refillery because it feels more inviting. I use \u2018social enterprise\u2019 to convey that we are responsible to do something and to give back. I use it to help communicate accountability. Community space communicates that everyone is welcome and invited into the space \u2212and yes, that\u2019s true, but as a social entrepreneur and a social enterprise, we take our responsibility and accountability as a business for the community seriously.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beyond being an education space, we offer Teracycle boxes. We invest in these boxes so people can have a place to put the waste they can\u2019t get rid of through normal channels. We take accountability for our own waste and what we put on our customers. For example, we brought in Bentgo boxes for kids and they are wonderful boxes but you cannot get them without a plastic wrap on top, inside of a cardboard box. I fought over it for a long time, trying to decide whether or not to bring them in because people were requesting something for kids. We decided to bite the bullet and brought them in, however, we warned every customer about the packaging. We told them to take off the plastic while in the store and we\u2019ll take responsibility for it. We will put it in the TerraCycle box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The term social enterprise and social entrepreneur keeps me focused on that goal. I think we could use a softer term to communicate it, but it helps me stay focused.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

6. What barriers or challenges have you encountered when advancing your work, or during your social entrepreneurship journey?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think the biggest challenge has been the learning curve. In my Master\u2019s I never had any intention to start a business. I was a skilled emergency nurse for nearly a decade and that\u2019s where my focus was. Opening a business was never on my radar. So, the biggest learning curve and challenge was the unknown, and not putting the effort into getting a business mentor. We didn\u2019t really go in with the mindset that we would be successful, not having the foresight to realize that what we were doing could and would be great for the community and that it would be successful. We should have had that mindset from the beginning, instead, it created a lot of challenges for ourselves because we didn\u2019t necessarily prepare ourselves the way we should have.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second challenge is bulk. Bulk is messy, and there\u2019s a lot of \u2018behind the scenes\u2019 work involved to make the store function and looking good. Keeping jars cleaned, working with twenty litre containers all day every day, refilling them, tapping them, cleaning spills, lifting them\u2212it\u2019s a lot of work. We have some really, really great team members that put up with some really messy disasters. Knowing what kind of infrastructure we needed to house this stuff was another big challenge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not having a template, is probably my final one. The zero-waste store is not something that\u2019s been done for a long period of time anywhere. Most of them have opened within the last two years, and not many are more than two years old. There\u2019s not a lot of capital knowledge or human capital to tap into to learn more, so you are sort of re-inventing the wheel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

7. How did you confront those challenges and barriers, and what resources are needed as you move forward?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ultimately everyone wanted it to succeed, and that\u2019s how we overcame those barriers. Everyone had the motivation to figure it out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I definitely would have reached out to a female business entrepreneur, someone who does retail. I know PARO exists, and there\u2019s a number of other options. The Sudbury Regional Business Centre gave us some good resources but I should probably have done some more in-depth searching. Getting some kind of one-on-one business mentor, I think would have been really beneficial. Someone who wouldn\u2019t have been a competitor to me but would have been able to help guide me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moving forward, we are definitely looking to move into a larger space, one that can better accommodate all the things we have and lay it out in a way that makes sense to the customers. I think we would probably want to invest in better equipment and technology. With times the way they are it makes it hard to want to invest in anything right now. Hopefully, we\u2019re heading towards a bigger space and better technology to make it easier for customers and our staff to function.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

8. What would have made this process easier for you?      <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wish I would have taken more time to anticipate the challenges and the possibility of growth. You don\u2019t know what you don\u2019t know until after the fact. I think it would have been nice to have some kind of practice run or mentorship ahead of time to really see what kind of space we needed. In truth, we never imagined surviving long term. We didn\u2019t envision the future enough, we didn\u2019t use our vision as a template, we used \u2018what do we need right now\u2019 as our template so it didn\u2019t give us much room to grow. Anticipating the vision versus living in the now would have made things a bit easier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

9. Has COVID-19 impacted your SE or organization? If so, how have you adapted?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

COVID-19 impacted us the most at the start because right away it was no reusables. Everything that Plastic-Free Sudbury worked towards, everything the Nickel Refillery represented, was suddenly told \u201cno\u201d. I talked to public health. All of our people are certified through public health and have their Food Handler Certification, so I knew we were equipped internally, and willing to deal with whatever came up. I can never thank our manager enough for sticking it out. I spent five days straight creating a website that didn\u2019t really make a whole lot of sense, but we stuck through it, we got jars, we got labels, we did our best to figure it out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the end, it was the zero-waste community that kept it going. We made a lot of mistakes, and things were done kind of weird, the product weights aren\u2019t right but that\u2019s ok.  People knew we were doing our best and the community did everything they could to keep us going.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The best way we adapted, really, was pivoting quickly and not allowing ourselves to succumb to the barriers that were put in place. Reusables may not be accepted in a restaurant or takeout drive-through, but we can do it. We did our pivot. We can equip ourselves to safely clean reusables. We closed the store, but we were open every day for people to drop off and pick up jars. We lasted that way with the online store for over two months Fortunately, we are still open and the online orders are still available.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

10. How important is local a face-to-face community of support?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s what got us through COVID. I think it\u2019s very important. The Nickel Refillery is more than a store, it\u2019s a community and a way of living. People understand that the bottom dollar is not our goal, and never has been. They know they can trust us, and that we\u2019re doing our best and when we do make mistakes I think they feel that, and they understand that. I think we\u2019re very lucky we had six months plus of face-to-face community of support before COVID hit to gain that loyalty and develop that customer service that the customers (and we) came to know and love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

11. What do you hope to see your social enterprise become in the future?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I can draw it out in my head, ideally. The Nickel Refillery is large and roomy, it has a garden where we can grow and sell food and herbs, and teach people how to grow their own, it has an education area, it has a workshop space for DIY and gatherings\u2026.it sells food and household goods. It\u2019s a one stop shop for a healthy community. We want to be a platform to normalize this\u2212to show that waste reduction and community health are interlinked and not radical\u2026we should all wonder where waste goes. I want to make space to share knowledge. We have a lot of wonderful minds in Sudbury that are doing amazing things and we need this knowledge out there. As much as we want to be a popular shopping destination and bulk retail store we also want to make it cool to learn. I feel there\u2019s a lot of groups across the city doing amazing things but their work is disconnected from one another and news is just not getting out there the way that it should be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And so in the future, I see The Nickel Refillery becoming a one-stop-shop and hub. To be a hub of knowledge, growth, sharing, community, and a place to buy your staples. A place to connect all those wonderful groups across the city, and share their knowledge with everyone. No one can sustain themselves on their own. If everything is disjointed, it\u2019s not convenient enough, and people won\u2019t do it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why do we think single-use plastics became so popular? It\u2019s convenience. We\u2019ve become accustomed to convenience and we need to shift that, but we also need to meet people where they\u2019re at. We need to meet that need of convenience, instead of radically trying to shift and change people, why not become that convenient place and make it easy for people to live sustainably and reduce waste?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

12. Are you involved with any other community initiatives?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the moment, I\u2019m going to say no, because I\u2019m at home full time with my two young children \u2013 I had a baby in December and a two-year-old. Since COVID hit in March the only energy I\u2019ve had has been for my kids, and to keep The Nickel Refillery up and running.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In terms of community initiatives, I am still active with Plastic-Free Greater Sudbury, I help brainstorm action and participate in the odd cleanup around the community with Junction Creek Stewardship Committee. Since the Nickel Refillery is more than just retail, it ties into a lot of other healthy community initiatives, for example, paying attention to the work of Coalition for a Liveable Sudbury, and reaching out to existing community groups to see what they\u2019re doing. Over the summer we donated bulk shampoo containers to Myths and Mirrors who spent time out in the community distributing food and goods to those who needed it during COVID. We\u2019re always trying to see who is out there that can use our help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

13. Are you aware of other social entrepreneurs or those with innovative ideas that need support or resources, or might be interested in being featured in a Spotlight?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I guess I know a lot of grassroots, to be honest, I don\u2019t know of many social entrepreneurs, but there are likely many. There is Sudbury Shared Harvest. It\u2019s a great one. It is a charitable organization with a mission to cultivate community health. They connect people to food and the land it comes from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We also have the Junction Creek Stewardship Committee. They\u2019ve been around for twenty years and they focus on restoring our local Junction Creek, which run all through Sudbury. They\u2019ve partnered with Plastic-Free Greater Sudbury and they do large cleanups every month with different groups and offer education in schools. They\u2019d be really great to reach out to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s also Coalition for a Liveable Sudbury. They\u2019re pretty spectacular. I originally heard of them because we had a company that wanted to build condos on this little lake. I went to them because I heard they help bridge knowledge. It\u2019s all volunteer too, that\u2019s the crazy part, they basically sat down and gave me a list of things to tackle. \u2018Here\u2019s how you reach city council, here\u2019s how you do this and here\u2019s how you do that\u2026\u2019 and they bridged the gap with all the knowledge so that I could accomplish a goal I was after to help improve the city. Their mission is environmental largely, to build a healthier Sudbury. They\u2019re pretty well known throughout the city. They do amazing work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thank you very much.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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