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Are Refillable Products The Future?

Are Refillable Products The Future?

Is the future refillable?

When we look at the history of plastics, it’s disheartening to realize that only 9% of all plastics ever created have been recycled. Another 12% has been incinerated; a whopping  79%, then, has accumulated in landfills and nature.

That’s right: your Bonnie Bell Lip Smacker tube circa 1995 is quite likely still somewhere on this planet.

Refillable products (like ice cream in stainless steel jars and shampoo bottles refilled in-store) aren’t new. But while most people say they want eco-friendly product options, their purchasing behaviors sing a different tune. Consumers tend to prioritize convenience over eco-friendliness, time and time again.

Today I speak with Izzy Zero Waste Beauty founder Shannon Goldberg about closed loop consumption. Is packaging the problem, or does the problem lie within our consumption?

Here’s a preview:

[6:00] 2 major barriers to mainstream refillables

[11:00] Do refillable products *actually* make a dent in our trash production? What about our oversized environmental woes?

[15:00] Refillable products and next-level greenwashing: Why we must expand our collective definition of waste to account for excess carbo emissions from sending back our products

[20:00] Are refillable options sanitary in a post-COVID world?

 

Resources mentioned:

 

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Refillable products (like ice cream in stainless steel jars and shampoo bottles refilled in-store) aren't new, but they're gaining traction as *the* solution to plastic waste. On this episode of the Sustainable Minimalists podcast: Is packaging the problem, or does the problem lie within our consumption?

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The Shopping Conspiracy

Women have been targeted for decades with the message that shopping is recreation. It’s a way to relax and unwind, sure, but recreational shopping also contributes to the climate crisis, supports the worst of shareholder capitalism, and creates an awful lot of unnecessary waste.

Enter Buy Now: The Shopping Conspiracy, a hard-hitting new Netflix documentary that forces viewers to look at our waste-related woes. On today’s show producer Flora Bagenal offers a behind-the-scenes look at the documentary’s creation; she also answers your pressing, post-viewing questions.

A note from Stephanie: This episode was recorded before the Los Angeles wildfires. If you're able, please consider donating to one of these organizations. 

 

Here’s a preview:

[7:00] People find it hard to look at waste, and yet the film makes us look. A behind-the-scenes examination all those hard-hitting images

[16:30] Adidas, Amazon, Unilever, and Apple: Here's why the film featured former employees-turned-whistleblowers

[26:00] Corporate execs must show growth, and corporations are on a treadmill of extracting more and more $$ by pushing unnecessary and redundant products. Is not buying an effective act of resistance?

[30:00] Mindset shifts! Quality is a climate issue, and once you press ‘Buy Now’ you become responsible for the item’s end of life

[36:00] Exactly how to Use. Your. Rage!

 

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Hello there, I’m Stephanie. I live a crazy, beautiful life as a full-time wife, blogger + mother to two spirited daughters. I’m on a mission to simplify eco-friendly living so as to greater enjoy life’s sweeter moments.

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