The Future of Refill Stations for Cleaning Products

Oct 24

For most of us, single use plastics have played a role in our every day life since childhood. From the lid on our coffee cup when we pick up our morning beverage to the styrafoam and plastic straws in our to go containers. Single use plastics are not great for the environment. Single use plastics increase carbon emissions in a variety of ways. They don’t biodegrade in landfills right away. When they do, they end up as micro plastics. Other plastics that haven’t biodegraded yet, ends up in the sea, impacting wildlife.

For those of us that live in the US, it seems that we are quite a few years behind the UK and other countries when it comes to many sustainability practices. Europe even has a plastic-free supermarket aisle in Amsterdam. One concept that’s swept our nation, is refilleries. You may have noticed a handful of local refilleries pop up (also called: zero waste shops) in your town or neighboring big city.

Change typically happens on a micro level before it starts happening on a macro level. These refilleries are proving that there’s a better way to approach the environmental impact of single use plastics and packaging going into landfills by giving the power back to consumers with unpackaged goods.

If you’re new to the concept, how it works is you either bring your own containers or buy containers at the refillery. Depending on what your local refillery has in stock, you can fill anything in your containers from pantry staples such as flour and rice to cleaning products such as dish soap, all purpose spray, dishwasher tablets, and so on. Goods are typically stocked in large clear containers (in bins or in bottles with big pumps). Your purchase price typically will depend on weight or quantity. For weight, you weigh the container first to “tare” the scale to zero and then add the product.

Personally, it feels so satisfying to scoop and pump my goods into containers. Shopping becomes an experience where it feels less consumer-y and more close to the ingredients and goods that I’m putting in my home and in my body. That’s the perk about refill stations is that there’s usually better transparency around ingredient lists. With ingredients being front and center and there being less packaging to sort through the noise, it makes it easier to focus on what I’m actually consuming.

While there have been many incentives by lawmakers that have pushed us in the right direction by banning single use plastics in certain areas such as cups, straws, bags, etc. there have been a number of innovations that have been taking place that will help further this shift.

To make further and lasting change, we need the refillable concept to integrate with big box stores such as Target, Walmart, Costco, Sam’s Club, Ralphs, Natural Grocers, etc.

I was speaking with a colleague who is in the CPG industry (consumer packaged goods) and I hear that retailers have approached the idea of a refillable product aisle, but they haven’t been able to make it work logistically as of yet. There have been a number of studies and initiatives. In order to make it work, it needs to be systematic and scalable. I think however, with some fine tuning, retailers will be able to make this happen.

Here’s my take on some of the progress that needs to occur in order for retailers to make the shift to adopting a refillable aisle for cleaning and beauty products:

Bulk Sections with Clear Branding

As the founder of a brand and someone with a background in graphic design, I understand the importance of branding. To build awareness around a brand and brand loyalty, there needs to be some sort of imagery and identifying factors on why someone would want to choose your product. I think this is the bigger issue that large retailers are coming in contact with. The question is, how do brands not get lost in a sea of other products? I really like this concept that Unilever came up with, with a refill station that clearly shows logo and brand messaging. Perhaps if retailers were to adopt a system in which refills could be delivered in bioplastic bags (think soda machine syrups), this could be a possibility.

Pre-Filled and Refillable Containers

There’s a store in the UK called Tesco that launched a program called “Loop” where customers can shop an aisle with pre-filled/refillable products that have branded labels on them. When you’re done with the product, there’s a bottle return center where you can drop off the container and if you choose to buy that product again, you can just pick up another pre-filled product. This requires a deposit that gets refunded on return, just as we see with glass and aluminum bottles. This still creates a convenience option for those of us that don’t want to go through the hassle of bringing containers for every grocery store visit.

We’re seeing some of this at refilleries with branded pre-filled products in minimal packaging. On a larger scale retail level, we see the option of refillable products that are pre-filled as well. My prediction is that we’ll also start seeing refillable bottle return programs in the next decade or so in the US.

Full Transparency and Zero Greenwashing Policy

If big box retailers are going to adopt an aisle with bulk refills on beauty and cleaning products, there needs to be a level of transparency with the brands that they do carry in these sections.

Ingredients: There are currently up to 3,059 ingredients that can be listed under just the umbrella term ‘fragrance’ alone, some of which are highly toxic carcinogens or hormone disrupting ingredients. While the toxicity of ingredients in products doesn’t necessarily directly correlate to the impact of single use plastics, it’s part of the bigger picture. If we’re looking at a healthy environment overall, we would be remiss to forget about policies around ingredients. Looking at some of the top ones such as phthalates and parabens might be a starting place.

Refill Container Materials: It’s important to not only think about the refill aspect of reducing or eliminating single use plastics, but also the quality of the refill containers themselves. We need to think about the end of life of a bottle and the reality that it will end up in a landfill at some point. BEST options would be: glass, bioplastics, post recycled plastic (PET). Can we have some standard practices and accountability on this on a government level or at the very least, a corporate policy level?

Options for Beautifully Designed Refillable Containers

Lastly, I think big box retailers are going to go in the direction of what consumers are in demand for. Already, Target and other stores have an entire aisle in the bathroom section that’s dedicated to bathroom soap dispensers. They also have aisles with mason jars and pantry staple containers. Rethinking how we see refillables and organizing stores in way that better highlights refillable options will also help inform and educate consumers. Refills in bulk already exist and some even come in refill pouches or bags.

Having further options to design a home with refillable containers will help increase the likelihood of consumers adopting this lifestyle.