Hello Soleau, Goodbye Plastics: Creativity, Curiosity and a Day at Soleau

At Soleau, we believe that small choices can make a big difference — and that some of the best ideas for a more sustainable future can come from the youngest among us.

That was the thinking behind Hello Soleau, Goodbye Plastics, an educational project we ran in June with pupils from Usk CIW Primary School and Ysgol Nantgaredig.

The project was designed to get children thinking about packaging, sustainability and the journey a product takes before it reaches the person who enjoys it. But, naturally, we also wanted to make it creative.

So, we handed the design work over to them.

A Soleau can of their own

Pupils from both schools were invited to create their very own Soleau can designs, putting their ideas onto one of the most familiar parts of our product: the can itself.

We loved seeing what came back.

The entries were full of colour, imagination and personality, making the job of choosing our winners far from easy. After plenty of consideration, Angharad Worsley, Development Coordinator at Soleau, and Amelia Worsley, Production Assistant, selected eight winning designs.

But we didn't want the winning designs to simply live on paper.

We decided to can them.

From the classroom to the canning line

The eight winning designs were transformed into real Soleau cans and produced while the young designers visited our site — giving them the chance to see their ideas go from artwork to something they could actually hold in their hands.

Their visit was also an opportunity to discover a little more about what happens behind every can of Soleau.

The children were introduced to our production system and shown how the different stages work together to turn an idea and a set of ingredients into a finished product ready to leave our site.

And the learning didn't stop at the production line.

We were joined for the visit by Chris Dennis, Director at Castell Howell, who helped us introduce the pupils to the world of wholesale and explain what happens after a product is made — from working with suppliers and wholesalers to getting products into the places where customers eventually discover them.

It meant the children could follow the journey beyond the canning line and begin to see the bigger picture behind the products they encounter every day.

More than a competition

Hello Soleau, Goodbye Plastics was a design competition, but for us, it was about much more than choosing eight winners.

It was an opportunity to make conversations around sustainability tangible, creative and fun.

Rather than simply telling children about alternatives to plastic packaging, we wanted them to engage with the idea themselves. By designing a can, visiting the production line and learning how products move through the supply chain, they could see how decisions around design, packaging, production and distribution all connect.

Most importantly, they got to ask questions, get curious and bring their own ideas to the conversation.

A huge thank you goes to the pupils and staff at Usk CIW Primary School and Ysgol Nantgaredig for throwing themselves into the project, to Chris Dennis and Castell Howell for helping us bring the wholesale side of the story to life, and to everyone at Soleau who helped turn eight brilliant pieces of artwork into eight very special cans.

And, of course, congratulations to our eight winning designers.

Hello Soleau. Goodbye plastics. And hello to the next generation of big ideas.