Refill Shops
How they work, why you should try them
I’m lucky enough to have had a refill shop open within a few minutes walk of where I live. If you haven’t heard the term, it’s basically a shop that sells a whole load of items which can be put into refillable containers. So they buy produce in bulk (in packaging which I'm hoping will also itself be reusable) and then decant the products into containers you bring with you. These can be containers you’ve bought, or a container that you got from them. (For things like shower gel, you first buy a shower gel in an already-filled standard shower gel type container and then, when it’s empty, bring that back to get it refilled from a large container… and repeat).
These are the items that I’m currently getting from them:
In containers that I bought myself (Kilner jars from the Range) we have:
Porridge oats
Macaroni
Pasta
In containers that I originally bought pre-filled from the refill shop but will reuse when they run out (and in many cases, I already have) we have:
Kitchen-cleaner
Washing up liquid
Hair conditioner (for my daughter)
Shampoo (also for my daughter)
Bodywash
Laundry liquid
Fabric conditioner
Bathroom cleaner
I also have a Kilner jar full of rice. When it runs out I’ll fill it from them, but since I don’t much rice, I haven’t got any rice from them, so I didn’t think it was right to put in it.
The good thing with these is that once you get going, you just get into a nice repeat cycle. (There are also lots of tinned items, and things like soap, that I sometimes buy, but these obviously aren’t refills).
I’m lucky that it’s near me, and I can pop down if / when I run out of an individual item. Obviously, a bit more planning will be required if you’re not so lucky. But refill shops are popping up all over the place so it might be worth checking out if there’s one near you. They’re not necessarily cheap, so you probably won’t be saving any money, and I do get that when it comes to the global environmental crisis, slightly reducing the amount of packaging you consume is rather pissing into the face of a roaring storm, but you know, it makes me feel a little better. And I figure it’s at least pointing the way to a more sustainable society.
The Nexus Files is free to read. But if you subscribe you'll get new posts emailed to your inbox automatically, and I won't feel like I'm pointlessly screaming into the void.