If you’re looking to begin living a more sustainable lifestyle in the new year, the Refillism staff is here to help! Refillism provides so many products that allow our customers to live eco-friendly lives, but for someone new to the idea of refilling, it can be hard to know where to start! Don’t try to change everything in your life at once; instead, pick one area of your home to make more sustainable. Here are a few starting points our staff recommend for 2024!
Annabelle Weekend Lead
Annabelle recommends you start your sustainable journey by trying Refillism’s dish or laundry products. Refillism provides a variety of different options to replace the large plastic bottles of detergents sold in the grocery store, and in doing this we hope to reduce the 630 million detergent bottles entering our landfills annually.
Recent research has shown many common laundry detergents have ingredients causing infertility, neurological disorders, and cancer. Refillism takes pride in providing truly non-toxic and all-natural options for laundry detergents, without any artificial fragrances. We have laundry detergent powder, sheets, and nuggets, as well as liquid laundry detergent. Each can be filled using the very same containers you buy from the grocery store – just bring them over to Refillism once they’re empty!
We have some additional laundry products that some people are surprised to find in our shop. This includes our stain removal sticks made from all-organic ingredients, oxy-brightener powder to make the color on your clothes pop, and our laundry softener.
For the kitchen, we have dishwasher powder and dish ‘nuggets’ that can be used in the dishwasher, as well as solid castile soap and liquid dish soap for handwashing dishes.
Elizabeth Founder & Owner
Elizabeth suggests switching to ‘paperless’ paper towels in this new year. Paper products in general contribute to 10% of deforestation worldwide! Though using less paper towels can be intimidating, it's a worthwhile change to make in your home! Simply purchase some cloth paper towels to place near your store-bought goods so you and your family will remember to use them. Watch this video to see how Elizabeth uses paper towels in her own home!
Meg Communications Manager
Meg recommends trying Refillism’s shampoos, conditioners, and body washes. Simply bring in your empty shampoo containers and refill it with one of our shampoo options! We have multiple different shampoos including sweet pea, citrus, lavender, peppermint, and unscented. Our conditioners are similar, but we also carry a curl enhancing conditioner and mango scented deep conditioner. These swaps are small, but impactful, and are a good place to start for someone wanting to reduce, reuse, and recycle more in their home.
If you’d rather avoid packaging all together, Refillism also carries shampoo and conditioner bars. To use them, you can rub the soap bar directly on your hair, put it in a soap saver bag, or lather it in your hands before cleaning your hair.
Caitlyn Refill Team
Caitlyn would point to our toothpaste tablets as a great low-waste product to try in 2024. Our toothpaste tablets are a great sustainable option because they can be refilled in a jar or tin instead of coming in a single-use plastic tube. You simply chew up the tablet, wet your toothbrush, and brush your teeth! We also carry toothpaste powder if you’d rather have that than the tablets. For those wanting to stick to regular toothpaste, Refillism actually carries toothpaste in a metal tube that can be recycled!
As Kori Williams from Green Matters points out, “Many people will replace about 300 toothbrushes in their lifetime. Considering the billions of people on earth, that’s a lot of plastic in landfills.” If you’d like to curb these numbers, Refillism carries bamboo toothbrushes, low-waste toothbrush holders, as well as biodegradable and refillable floss that comes in glass or metal containers.
We hope these different ideas will help you fulfill your “eco” New Year’s resolutions! Remember, never feel like you need to upheave your life to become eco-friendly. Every little step helps!
References:
K, Constantine. Toxicities of Laundry Products. ResearchGate. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/351494142_Toxicities_of_Laundry_Products_-_Review_of_the_Evidence
Plastic Laundry Jugs: There's Nothing Clean About Them. Net Zero Company. https://www.netzerocompany.com/blogs/news/laundry-jug-secrets
M, Daniel. Sustainability Challenges in the Paper Industry. ChEnected. https://www.aiche.org/chenected/2016/10/sustainability-challenges-paper-industry#:~:text=The%20Union%20of%20Concerned%20Scientists,about%2010%25%20of%20total%20deforestation.
W, Kori. Toothbrushes Cause More Waste Than You Might Think - Here's How to Recycle Them. Green Matters. https://www.greenmatters.com/p/are-toothbrushes-recyclable