Products without packaging: How refill 商店 can help solve the plastics crisis

This article is part of a series looking at the increasing availability of alternatives to plastic packaging. To find out about the growing number of startups developing new takes on the concept of returnable packaging, 点击这里. 要读到创新者重新构想产品本身的故事， 点击这里.

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Disposable plastic products are so ubiquitous in our daily lives – from coffee cup lids and grocery bags to the clamshell packaging that encases the fruit and vegetables we buy at the grocery store – that it’s hard to imagine a future without them.

But a world without all this plastic might not actually be as far away as it seems. A glimpse of that world can be seen in the small but growing number of 商店 whose business models are built entirely around the concept of zero waste.

“Refilleries” are a variant of the bulk store concept of “weigh-and-pay” shopping, whereby customers can pick up what they need without any packaging whatsoever. Generally stocking foods and/or household and 个人护理产品 (laundry detergent, 洗发水, 护肤品, 肥皂, 牙膏, 等.), refilleries allow customers to fill their own containers with as much or as little of a product as they need, 按重量付款. 将它们与大多数其他形式的低影响零售区分开来, refilleries also often return their empty bulk containers themselves to be refilled by the product manufacturers, 因此创造了一个“闭环包装系统.”

What’s interesting about the refillery concept is not so much its newness (it’s not 真的 a new idea – variations of it have existed since before plastics even became a thing) but rather the pace at which these kinds of 商店 are now emerging across the world as more and more people look for ways to reduce their plastics use.

在我长滩的办公桌上搜索“我附近的再填充店”, 加州, brings up a whole range of these kinds of 商店 in the local area. 一家“再填充和低废物精品店”， BYO长滩 [BYO =自带物品] 有 三个 商店 在整个城市出售各种各样的产品, 包括清洁产品, 个人护理产品, 茶, 草本植物, 香料和其他家庭必需品. 就在洛杉矶西部的路上， 洛杉矶火药厂 ——一家“补水吧和零废物商店”——出售洗衣液, 个人护理和其他散装产品, 按盎司计算, and operates a refill van bringing the refillery to customers’ homes. 索诺拉Refillery 在欧申赛德出售 身体，沐浴和家居产品补充，也一样。 我的零废物商店 在帕萨迪纳和 Eco-Now – “Orange County’s first zero waste shop and refill station” – which 有 商店 in Costa Mesa and Anaheim, 还有一家即将在拉古纳海滩开业.

不可否认, Southern 加州 is not exactly representative of the country as a whole, but a variety of similar takes on the refill store concept can now be found all across North America, 欧洲和其他地区. 零废物资源中心无垃圾提供了一个 每个州，每个城市的名单 of these kinds of 商店 in the US, now numbering in the hundreds across the country. 让我们走向零浪费 有一个遍布美国的商店目录.S. 和加拿大，可持续发展组织提供了 世界各地商店的地图.

在美国.K., Unpckd is one of numerous emerging examples of refill 商店 that bring the refillery to customers’ homes via a home delivery service “for families wanting to shop more consciously but still conveniently.“广告”网上购物的便利没有浪费,Unpckd提供无包装干粮, 洗漱用品和清洁用品可回收, 可重复使用的容器:“你在网上订购, 我们送货上门, and you decant refills to use from your storage containers – no packaging, 没有浪费. When you need more refills, we swap full for empties, milkman-style.”

Another variation on the “weigh and pay” concept is found in 康涅狄格-based company BD规定该公司在康涅狄格州纽敦(Newtown)设有门店.康涅狄格州的新米尔福德. 这项业务背后的想法是, 它的创始人说, to “take the concept of bulk food but elevate it to more of a foodie paradise, 价格实惠，包装环保.结果是合并了一个“美食家”, 拥有环保零废物商店的特色市场,” offering “a carefully curated collection of bulk foods sold by the pound in sustainable containers.”

One key difference between BD规定 and most other zero waste 商店 is that, in addition to its two 康涅狄格 locations – plus another about to open in 马里兰 – its founders have also developed a 特许经营系统 whereby they provide training and support for franchisees seeking to set up similar shops. This support takes the form of help with real estate and site selection, 商店建设/建设, 培训系统, 运营支持, 配方开发, 营销与品牌建设, 供应商和设备选择, 销售点系统, 开业前/盛大开业支持及业务咨询. Arrangements like this could play an important part in helping the zero waste store concept achieve the scale necessary to make a significant dent in the plastics crisis.

这种零售的环保理由是显而易见的. 使用可重新填充的容器和重新填充的袋子创建 大幅减少塑料的使用. Refills also require less storage space and thus reduce both the financial and environmental costs associated with their transportation. 它们也为消费者节省了开支. 补给店的管理费用通常较低, and the fact that manufacturers don’t have to pay for production of packaging creates savings that can be passed on to the consumer. 减少垃圾意味着减少纳税人的钱花在 垃圾处理和环境清理服务.

今天的全球舆论是 压倒性支持 停止使用一次性塑料制品. As long as the perception persists that there is no realistic alternative, 然而, 大规模地这样做将是一场巨大的斗争. 但已经有其他选择了. Refilleries are just one of many new ideas for reducing single-use plastic packaging, 在鼓励无包装零售的明智政策的帮助下, more Americans will have the chance to a see what a future without single-use plastics might look like.