If you want to end plastic pollution, recycling alone won’t do. You have to use much less plastic. For many products, you can replace plastic altogether by choosing glass jars or cardboard boxes. But for those products you still buy in plastic bottles or jugs, wouldn’t it be nice if you only needed to buy the container once and then could refill it again and again?
This is the idea behind #WeWantRefill, An important new petition campaign Retailers are being asked to install plastic container refilling stations in their stores to make it easier for us consumers to use and throw away less plastic.
WeWantRefill is sponsoring this post. We are working with them because we 100% support the idea of refilling and reusing plastic containers.
Why refill?
Less than 40% of plastic bottles are recycled. Instead, they are thrown away, where they can break down into fragments and smaller pieces called #microplastics and easily end up in our streams, rivers, lakes and oceans.
It is estimated that there are 46,000 pieces of plastic floating in every square mile of the ocean. And no matter what we do, we’ll never get that plastic out of the ocean.
But we do not need to escalate the problem. The main thing is to prevent plastic waste in the first place. Of course, the most important step you can take is to go plastic-free and use non-plastic packaging as much as possible. But when you use plastic bottles and jugs, shouldn’t they be refillable?
That’s where We Want Refill comes in. #WeWantRefill is leading a global petition campaign to pressure retailers like grocery stores to install refill stations, to make it easier for you and me to refill bottles instead of throwing away our plastic jugs.
How does a refill station work?
If you buy food in bulk, you already get the idea. You simply go to the bulk bin and refill either your container or a bag that you can find in the bin. Many traditional grocery stores, food co-ops, and Whole Foods-type shops devote aisles to cans of cereals, teas, nuts, dried pasta, cereals, flour, sugar, dried herbs, candy, and more. You simply fill your container and note the SKU number on a tie or container so the cashier can charge you the correct price when you check out.
Some retailers have even set up in-store stations where you can squeeze your own orange juice into a bottle, grind your own peanut butter, add your own olive oil and honey, And can package your own feta cheese and tofu.
Why not fill shampoo, conditioner, body lotion, laundry detergent and liquid soap the same way? Here’s how easy it is:
There are already some retailers offering refill stations. There is one here in France. It’s called “Day by Day” and is committed to zero waste.
There’s one here in Brooklyn, NY called The Fillery.
Why do we need a petition?
Organizers of the effort say, “The whole purpose of the #WeWantRefill campaign is to show retailers and manufacturers that we, the consumers, want change and we are ready for this technology. The stores themselves would never do this; When we contacted them, their response was that consumers will not buy this way.
By Signing the WeWantRefill petitionAnd Liking the campaign’s Facebook pageBy being able to refill plastic containers when we shop we can show retailers that there is grassroots support for eliminating plastic.
Wouldn’t that cause a mess?
WeWantRefill reports, “The types of technology available make refills obsolete.” “The refill machine recognizes the size of your container and refills it appropriately.” It is not a hand-pump system, which can be messy, but rather an automated system that makes refilling clean and efficient.
