THE GOLD BUSINESS CHAMPION INSPIRING WHOLE COMMUNITY ACTION ON PLASTIC POLLUTION

The ongoing battle to reduce single-use plastic is fought on many fronts. It comes from large-scale national campaigning and governmental policy change. It also comes from grass-roots community action, and individual behaviour change. May Lau and her local business, May’s Home Shopping, is one example of how an individual with drive and creative thinking can spark a flame of change within a community, that is both sustainable and circular.

May’s plastic free story began when she started her own self-employed business due to illness. She joined a door-to-door catalogue sales business, selling cleaning products, bedding, home essentials, and help aid products to her community in Kenilworth, Warwickshire. Over time May realized that many of the products being ordered by her clients were either transported or packaged in single-use plastic.

May set to work and began developing her own house cleaning & homeware product catalogue, that offered a carefully selected range of plastic free products. By buying in bulk she could offer her local clients products at the same price as their cost to order in. This would keep them at the same cost as cheaper plastic alternatives. The perfect opportunity for people to trial out new things.

She focused on liquid-free products, such as shampoo soap bars, to avoid the plastic bottles needed. If she didn’t sell all the bulk products, she knew she would use them herself anyway, and there would be no leftover stock.

May decided to run this business as a non-profit, as a way to share her product research, knowledge, and to make trying out alternatives more accessible for her community. May’s Home Shopping has now expanded to an online catalogue service, as well as the paper catalogue she delivers door-to-door.

May, from May’s Home Shopping, said:
“My customers are not just customers anymore, they’ve become friends, and they’ve become part of a community.”

May lives in a Plastic Free Community, Kenilworth. And in 2022 she started the volunteer group ‘Recycle for Kenilworth’. She collaborated with Community Ally, The Kenilworth Centre, to use their venue space and hold fun, social, monthly ‘sorting parties.’ Any money generated by her group was then donated back to their ally.

Through her volunteer work May was linked to Plastic Free Kenilworth by a local councillor. From there she connected with their community lead Alison, and so started her journey to becoming a Plastic Free Champion.

May’s Home Shopping is now a Gold awarded business, having worked to remove all single-use plastic, and supporting local initiatives and national SAS campaigns. Plastic Free Kenilworth achieved Plastic Free Status in 2024, with twelve of their local independent businesses becoming plastic free champions thanks to enthusiastic engagement with new members of their group.

May’s local action also includes holding presentations and playing plastic free games with the school pupils in Kenilworth. This has made them Community Allies for Plastic Free Kenilworth and linked them to the Plastic Free Schools campaign. Her group have worked with Plastic Free Kenilworth and their town council, passing a Plastic Free Motion in 2024, and have linked with Warwick District Council’s plastic free initiatives.

May, from May’s Home Shopping, said:
“Getting into schools is a very good investment in terms of changing peoples’ behaviour, because there is a long-term effect if you can put it in the minds of young children, then they grow up with that idea.”

May is now creating a Tote bag to deliver her sustainable message across the community. She is helping to organize a Kenilworth Big Green Week event and calling on local schools to hold their own community cleans to provide data for the Surfers Against Sewage Brand Audit research.

May, from May’s Home Shopping, said:
“You have to be able to influence the decision makers in the area you are working… The more we work together the more ideas we generate at the end of the day.”

May’s story is proof that a thriving plastic free community relies on the sum of its parts with everyone bringing their own individual skills, ideas and support to create a sustainable, circular system. It’s a brilliant example of how a Plastic Free Community can act as an example to the rest of the UK. Yes, government and industry need to take action…but we can also all take action to create a plastic free future.

Sign up your business – and become a Plastic Free Champion

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Sign up your community – and become a community leader, or join an existing community.

Encourage your local school to join Plastic Free Schools