The interior of low waste store Refill & Renew where customers can find jugs, buckets and tanks of liquid products “on tap.” Image provided by Mandy Drumheller
by Katrina L. Spencer
Happy New Year! We’re back! As you sort through your New Year’s resolutions, deciding what to keep and what to release, consider your shopping habits and whether you’re buying quality products in the measures and amounts that you need. Central Virginia’s Refill & Renew store and other low waste and no waste stores can help you zero in on another more sustainable consumption habit.
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Storeowner Mandy Drumheller said people were aghast when the city of Staunton decided to stop part of its recycling program in 2019. She grew up on a farm in New Market, Virginia, and being so close to interdependent cycles of resources may have sensitized her to sustainability issues at an early age. So when she saw an opportunity to help others practice low waste living, she seized it by opening Refill & Renew, a store with a bit of a “do-it-yourself” attitude.
Her store has two sites, one in Staunton and one in Charlottesville, where cleaning and personal care products are sold in liquids, powders and pods. Among the items found in-store are soaps, deodorants, candles, shampoos, makeup, kitchen goods and even reusable, silicone-based cling wrap. What’s unique is that customers buy the amount of a product they need and tote it home in a receptacle of their choosing.
The concepts of “bring your own container” and “pay by weight” may feel retro and unfamiliar to tech savvy generations of consumers who are accustomed to two-day, doorstep delivery of goods. But back when we were a country of pilgrims, settlers, pioneers and more, asking for a measure of flour, lard, sugar or meat was more of the norm. While big box grocery stores have been deciding on behalf of consumers what units and quantities of products are to be sold and purchased for quite some time via predetermined packaging, this wasn’t always the case.
“We’re growing. It’s a whole new way of shopping,” Drumheller said of the resurgent trend.
No waste and low waste stores interrupt habits of waste that require materials like paper, plastic, metal, cardboard, styrofoam and more by avoiding packaging as much as possible. They also can help to hinder overconsumption by allowing buyers to purchase only what they need.
While big box grocery stores like Whole Foods often have aisles dedicated to self-serve dry goods like nuts, oats, granola and coffee, zero waste and low waste stores dedicate a grander portion of their goods to this model, not just edible items. Drumheller’s best-selling product, for example, is free and clear laundry detergent, manufactured without dyes, colors, sulfates and parabens. She buys the product by the tank, 275 gallons each, and the liquid is dispensed from 30-gallon barrels on-site.
Kim, a cashier on-site, swears by Refill & Renew’s “salon quality shampoo,” which she says has helped to have a volumizing effect on her hair.
“Once you go down this road,” she said, “you tend to never look back.”
For more low waste and no waste stores, visit the Refillery Collective’s Directory at www.refillerycollective.com. You can also follow Chicago’s The Unwaste Shop on Instagram or visit vendors who embrace the ideology but on a smaller scale like Austin, Texas’s Parker + Scott.