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The industry has a language problem.
Words like "refillable," "recyclable," and "sustainable" get used a lot in beauty. They mean less than you think.
"Recyclable" doesn't mean it gets recycled. Most beauty packaging labeled "recyclable" requires specialized processing that isn't available through your curbside pickup. The brand slaps a recycling symbol on the bottle, you toss it in the bin feeling good, and it ends up in a landfill anyway. Very few brands take back their empties to handle processing themselves.
Post-consumer recycled plastic has limits. Some brands use PCR plastic, which is a better starting point than virgin plastic. But plastic degrades every time it's recycled. It can only go through the process so many times before it loses structural integrity and ends up right back in a landfill. PCR plastic delays the landfill. It doesn't prevent it.
Most "refills" are just... more plastic packaging. A new plastic bottle with a "refill" label on it isn't a refill. It's a second purchase in different packaging. A plastic pouch in a cardboard sleeve isn't a refill. It's a different shape of the same problem. A true refill reduces waste, especially plastic waste. Ideally, it means your original container stays in use and new product goes into it. That's it.
We didn't invent a complicated system. We just stuck with the original meaning of the word.
Shop Refills
For your 1st purchase of an item, order full size packaging.
For your 2nd purchase, order a refill bottle (packaged with a cap).
Put your original pump into your new bottle.
Wash out your original bottle and put in your recycling bin.
For your 1st purchase of an item, order full size packaging.
For your 2nd purchase, order a refill pouch.
Empty your pouch into your (clean + dry) original packaging. Keep your empties.
When you have 3+ empties, let us know at checkout—we'll send a prepaid mailer. Send us your mailer of empties!
We process your empties with our specialized Terracycle recycling box.
In 2004, BP hired a PR firm to popularize a new concept: the "carbon footprint."
The idea was to make individuals feel personally responsible for climate change instead of the fossil fuel companies actually causing it.It worked.
20+ later, we still talk about "our" carbon footprint as if the problem is that you forgot your reusable bag - not that 100 companies are responsible for 71% of global greenhouse gas emissions.
The personal care industry runs a version of the same playbook. Brands sell you products in plastic, then ask you to recycle responsibly.
They launch "sustainability initiatives" that amount to a recycling symbol and a press release. They make you feel like the solution is buying a different product instead of them making a better one.
We're not pretending a small business in Richmond, Virginia is going to single-handedly fix this.
The biggest levers for change are regulatory change, corporate accountability, and systemic overhaul.
But that doesn't make our personal habits irrelevant. We are the consumers these corporations depend on.
If enough of us change what we're willing to buy, they notice. The almighty dollar is the one language every corporation speaks fluently.
We can't change the system overnight. But we can refuse to participate in the parts of it that don't hold up to scrutiny. Aluminum instead of plastic.
True refills instead of repackaged waste. Honest language instead of greenwashed marketing. That's what we can control, and we take it seriously.
